MainBoss Newswire

Spring 2008

Topics:

Service Contracts and Preferred Maintenance Providers
Frequently Asked Questions
Upcoming Tradeshows

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1. Service Contracts and Preferred Service Providers

Both MainBoss Basic and MainBoss Advanced let you associate service contract records with your units. Obviously, you can use such records to describe actual service contracts...but you can also use them for what we call preferred maintenance providers.

This idea was inspired by a large company whose head office controls maintenance at all branch outlets. Since the outlets are widely dispersed, the head office needs a good way to keep track of outside contractors like plumbers, electricians, and so on. For example, if a branch in city X has a plumbing problem, head office needs a quick and easy way to find out what plumber to call in that city.

This problem can be solved using service contract records. In this case, the records don’t document actual service contracts but preferred service providers: people you prefer to call when something goes wrong with a unit. For the branch in city X, a plumbing unit could have an associated service contract record giving the name of a plumber in the same city.

You can use the same approach in your organization. Even if you don’t have actual service contracts on particular units, you can use service contract records to specify which service provider you prefer to call if something goes wrong on a particular unit. If something goes wrong with unit X, go to the associated service contract record and call that service provider.

Since MainBoss lets you have multiple service contracts on the same unit, you can have multiple preferred service providers. This means, for example, that if your preferred plumber is unavailable, you can quickly go to your second choice.

Service Contracts and Warranties: We might point out that service contract records can also be used to record equipment warranties. After all, a warranty is basically a promise that the vendor will supply service for the equipment while the warranty remains in effect. This is one reason why MainBoss Advanced doesn’t have separate records for service contracts and warranties—the two are essentially the same thing, so there’s no need to have two different record types.

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2. Frequently Asked Questions

Recently, we opened the “Frequently Asked Questions” section of our web site to the general public. (Previously, it was only available to MainBoss customers.) The information on MainBoss Basic covers all aspects of the program, based on questions we’ve received over many years. There’s less information on MainBoss Advanced, since the software has only been available for a few months; nevertheless, we’ve begun assembling tips based on questions from users, and we’re sure the information will grow as time goes on.

Why not check out our FAQs and see if they help you use MainBoss more productively?

MainBoss Basic: http://www.mainboss.com/english/support/faq/mb28.shtml

MainBoss Advanced: http://www.mainboss.com/english/support/faq/mb30.shtml

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