MiSeq Service Contract (Bronze VS Silver)

[cement_head]

With the "advent" of Illumina's new precious metals tiered service contracts (SCs), the bronze level seems like it doesn't cover much, not equivalent to the old "Basic" level (repairs, remote trouble-shooting, reagent replacement). The new Silver level includes what the Basic had AND a yearly PM.

My question: Is the yearly PM worth doing on a MiSeq? Does it improve/maintain data acquisition/quality, or is there much to do at all with a MiSeq in terms of PM. Our experience, is that the MiSeq is a pretty solid little unit and unless there's an explicit problem, there's not much to go wrong.

But, we've never had a SC that included a PM, so I might be completely wrong.

[GenoMax]

If you use your MiSeq consistently (at least once a week) investing in the higher level contract with PM may be useful. Consider it cost of doing business and roll that into your operating costs.

[pmiguel]

Seems like this recent change is more of a reversion to the original Illumina plan types. With a very low level coverage for people who pretty much do their own repairs (bronze) and the more standard level (silver) that includes reagent replacement, all repairs as well as a yearly PM.

To my way of thinking the "Basic" level Illumina previously offered was nuts--you are waiting for an instrument to go down unexpectedly, which will require you to scramble an engineer out to the site within a certain number of days and replace all the reagents that the issue caused.
Why offer that?

With a PM you bundle all the parts to replace that are causing you the most pain out in the field and pro-actively replace them. Pretty much at your leisure. Lowered numbers of emergency repairs is my preference as a customer--although I couldn't justify the cost of going beyond "Basic".

That said, were any of you around when they first started installing MiSeqs? Word at that time was that repairs to them were straight-forward enough to allow most to be done by Field Application Specialist, rather than Field Engineers! That never happened...

--
Phillip

[cement_head]

YES! I remember that when we were pitched. I've NEVER had anything break in three years - ever, except a hard drive, which I could have easily fixed myself.

Think I might do the Bronze and just pay for a one-off PM visit.

/A

[cement_head]

We average about 50 a year...

[qpanda]

Bronze Plan
Bronze is our most affordable repair-only service plan that protects against unpredictable costly failures. It is designed to maintain instrument performance on a limited budget.
Key coverage includes:

Repair parts, labor, and travel
3 business day on-site response time target
Hardware and software updates
5 × 8 phone and email access to Technical Support (8 hours per day, Monday to Friday)

Silver Plan
Silver is our most popular full-service plan. It is designed to maximize performance while minimizing downtime and assisting regulatory compliance with routine documented preventive maintenance. It is a premium full-service plan, balancing performance, productivity, and cost. This plan is best suited for a wide range of research, translation, and applied genomics customers with medium to high sample volume, small to medium fleet size, and requiring high instrument availability with redundant back-up capacity.
Key coverage includes:

Repair parts, labor, and travel
1 Annual Preventive Maintenance
Reagent replacement due to instrument failures
2 business day on-site response time target
On-site FAS application support
Hardware and software updates
5 × 18 phone and email access to Technical Support (18 hours per day, Monday through Friday)
Discount on Advanced Application Training