A Unique Approach To Service Entitlement

Traditionally, software applications for service delivery have focused on the transaction and have built the entitlement (the terms and conditions of the contract/warranty) based on the transaction. The issue with this method is that the resulting data model is not very flexible and requires hard coding to make changes to those terms and conditions of the contract. A better alternative is to build software from an entitlement perspective so that transactions can be developed using the foundation of the terms and conditions of the contract or warranty. This allows maximum flexibility, and implementation of the terms and conditions of a contract much is easier and quicker.

This method gives the ability to attach the entitlement levels to RMAs, depot repair, product sales orders, training classes, and virtually any other type of service transaction. For example, within a defined timeframe on a particular day, the response time obligations can be different. A site may have a unique product that has a normal response time of 2 hours for a severity 1 problem, but if that call comes in after 5:00 pm, the response time is 4 hours. If the service request comes in on a holiday, the response time is the next business day. This concept also applies to coverage hours, arrival times, fix times, depot turnaround days, part order shipments, as well as the customer's obligation to have a person on site with the keys 10 minutes before the contractual arrival time. Virtually any scenario that can be required by a client can be implemented when the service entitlement is used as the foundation.