Hardware-Service-Support

A company s support reputation may change with time and owners. Support is expensive and only the best companies believe in it over the long haul. Find out what a company s reputation for customer support is today from current users. 

Your best support will probably come from your local sales and service representatives. If they are good they can help you interface with the company and make sure problems get solved. Remember that service representatives solve electrical and mechanical, not chemical and column problems. If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. 

You must be able to distinguish between these two types of problems. With luck, the sales representative will have the proper background and training to be of some assistance in separating these problems. If that training consists of selling used cars, it may not be of much assistance when your column pressure 

With many laboratory instruments, equipment specifications alone control the decision of which instrument you should buy. However, HPLC systems are so flexible, can run so many types of columns, and have enough control variables, that hardware decisions alone are insufficient in helping you decide which system you need to solve your application problems. I finally designed a diagram to aid in explaining how to buy an HPLC system (Fig. 2.1). 

The HPLC should be a tool to help you solve your research problems, not a new research problem of its own. Think how much your time is worth. (If you do not know, ask you boss, who knows well ) Selecting a company that can provide excellent hardware, responsive and knowledgeable service, and 

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The data reduction hardware is based on a Hewlett-Packard 9825A desk top computer. It is supported by one megabyte of flexible disk storage, a printer/plotter and the necessary interface equipment for on-line LSC data collection. Reliability was a prime factor when the hardware was chosen. The LSC(s) and data system run virtually unattended, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Samples are typically counted for two minutes each plus one minute for the external standard. Therefore, data from the four counters are received by the HP9825A at an average interval of 45 seconds. With such a demand on the system, computers require good service support, more so than other instruments. Since installation in May, 1977, there have been less than two work days of cumulative downtime. 

The WBS displays and defines the product to be developed or produced by hardware, software, support, and/or service element, and relates the work scope elements to each other and to the end product. The framework of the WBS defines all contractual authorized work it defines the work scope and assignments to the functional organizations responsible for performing the work. The WBS includes the levels at which required reporting information is summarized for submittal to the customer. An initial WBS is developed during the system acquisition proposal it is expanded and finalized after contract award. 

Robotics The introduction of robotics has given a new dimension to packaging in that it is now possible to do repetitive tasks with speed and accuracy at notably lower cost than if done by people. The manufacture of robots is well established with corporations of substantial resources providing a quality product with continuity of service, supply, and software support. There is also a specialty industry which is available to supply both accessory hardware and software which are custom designed to handle specific user situations. Economic analysis needs to be done before making the decision as to whether to automate using robots, fixed automation, or the labor of people aided by work aids. 

LIMS as rented service— The application service provision provider (ASP) is a means of obtaining access to software applications without the need to acquire expensive licenses and hardware or employ high-cost support resources [7]. The application is hosted on a third-party site with system maintenance, backup, and recovery provided by a third party. Products and services can be rented for a contract period on a fixed cost per user/per month basis. The advantages of obtaining LIMS in this fashion include reduced cost in initial investment and reduced requirement of resources for maintaining the LIMS. The continued security and integrity of the data transferred over the Internet is a major concern for this type of LIMS. 

Company name) has determined, established, and maintained the infrastructure needed to achieve conformity to product requirements. Infrastructure includes, but is not limited to, buildings, workspace, and associated utilities. Process equipment, both hardware and software, and supporting services such as transport or communication are reviewed and established on a continuous basis. 

In the case of outsourcing the support for the hardware platforms and network that run the chromatography data system software to the internal IT Department, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) has to be written. This SLA should cover procedures such as ... 

IT infrastructure typically evolves over a period of time iu response to demand for application support, services, and storage. As such, IT infrastructure development does not follow a traditional life cycle development approach rather, it is subject to management controls. Such management controls ensure that the iutroduction, modihcation, and disposal of software and hardware components is evaluated, managed, and verified iu order to ensure that performance and the iutegrity of critical apphcations and data are maintained. 

Tools and methods described in Chap. 3 implicitly rely on infrastructure components at a lower level of abstraction. These are hardware, networks, operating systems, and distribution platforms as opposed to the higher-level logic of direct support for developers [264]. This section deals with a service management platform that offers common interfaces for communication and cooperation to other tools and internally maps physical resources to logical ones (see Subsect. 4.2.3). This frees the other projects from the need to consider technical details of platforms, tools, services, and documents [443]. 

The two major enterprise development platforms Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Microsoft .Net are supporting this kind of software architecture. They can be seen as a stack of common services, like relational database access, messaging, enterprise components, or support for web services, that each platform provides to their applications. With this knowledge in the back of one s mind, the question which platform to use can be answered based on the expertise of the team members, their preferences, and based on the existing hardware and software infrastructure. 

Recommendation 14. The Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) should devise and implement a life-cycle replacement program for all PCs. Consideration should be given to setting a maximum life span for PCs (e.g., three years) and replacing older machines with current hardware according to a predetermined service cycle. The CMA should specify that when a PC has been retained beyond a reasonable life-cycle expectation because it was required to support dated peripheral devices, software, or other features that are themselves substantially dated, alternatives to those peripheral items, should be identified and if possible acquired so that the overall system can be updated to current standards. (Tier 3)... 

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