Quick background: I run a relatively new core lab that has a brand new HiSeq 2000. This is our first Illumina product and we don't have any experience with reliability.
I'm trying to figure out if an Illumina service contract is a worthwhile investment compared with paying by the hour as needed. The contract costs are pretty high compared with my experience with other similarly priced equipment of other types, to the point where it seems that we'd have to have regular and rather catastrophic failures to justify the cost. I understand that failure during a run can be a rather expensive loss, but I don't see that a service contract necessarily helps avoid that problem (except for the PM, which isn't even included in the "Standard" contract).
I tried searching the archives here and couldn't find anything really on topic. In lieu of an opinion, I'd also be happy to have recommendations about labs that I might contact to ask the question.
Thanks.
I'm trying to figure out if an Illumina service contract is a worthwhile investment compared with paying by the hour as needed. The contract costs are pretty high compared with my experience with other similarly priced equipment of other types, to the point where it seems that we'd have to have regular and rather catastrophic failures to justify the cost. I understand that failure during a run can be a rather expensive loss, but I don't see that a service contract necessarily helps avoid that problem (except for the PM, which isn't even included in the "Standard" contract).
I tried searching the archives here and couldn't find anything really on topic. In lieu of an opinion, I'd also be happy to have recommendations about labs that I might contact to ask the question.
Thanks.
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