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Planned Engineering Works - FAQ
Due to the increasing pace of technological development carriers sometimes need to upgrade their networks to ensure they can meet the growing demands placed upon them. The existing infrastructure also requires pre-emptive maintenance to ensure future network stability.
Matrix Communications endeavor to manage all planned maintenance work in alignment with your business' needs. Please find below the process and procedures followed on receipt of a carrier planned maintenance notification. If the answers to your questions can not be found below please do not hesitate to contact us.
List of questions:
What is a planned maintenance?
What are the main types of planned maintenance?
How are customers notified of a planned maintenance?
What information will be included in the planned maintenance notification?
What action does the customer need to take once a planned maintenance notification has been received?
What can be done if the date and time of the planned maintenance is not acceptable by a customer?
Under what circumstances would a change of date or a resilience request be accepted by a Carrier?
What if there isn't an option to place resilience on the customer's circuit once a customer has stated they are not happy with the planned maintenance going ahead?
What should the customer do if they experience issues with their service after the planned maintenance has taken place?
1. What is a planned maintenance?
In order for carriers to maintain, upgrade and repair their networks, maintenance work needs to be conducted from time to time. Each carrier will assign planned maintenance activities for specific dates. This planned maintenance will generally take place within an allotted time window and typically there will be a loss of service for at least part of this allocated window.
Back to top2. What are the main types of planned maintenance?
Planned maintenance activities generally fall into three categories:
- Hardware upgrades e.g. cable/fibre renewal.
- Software upgrades e.g. Inter-network Operating System (IOS) upgrades.
- Emergency planned maintenance e.g. maintenance required to address a fault, which results in an impact on circuits not directly affected by the fault such as a fault on bearer circuit, with multiple sub-circuits.
3. How are customers notified of a planned maintenance?
The carrier will dispatch notification of impending planned maintenance to Matrix Communications. Once a notification has been received, our dedicated Planned Maintenance Coordinator (PMC) identifies the affected circuit and customer from within our records. Once the circuit has been identified, the PMC will send out a planned maintenance notification to the customer contact via e-mail.
Back to top4. What information will be included in the planned maintenance notification?
The planned maintenance notification email sent out by Matrix Communications will include the following information:
- The circuit reference and address of the service affected.
- The date and time window of the planned maintenance.
- The reason for the planned maintenance (if given by the carrier).
- Matrix Communications service request number.
- Contact details for Matrix Communications support department.
5. What action does the customer need to take once a planned maintenance notification has been received?
Once the customer has received the planned maintenance notification email, they are requested by Matrix Communications to reply to the email stating whether they agree to the work taking place within the time window given.
Matrix Communications always attempts to gain acceptance by all parties before progressing with the proposed planned maintenances; however a failure to reply to the notification email or refusal to engage in dialogue with the PMC will be taken as an acceptance of the proposed planned maintenance.
Back to top6. What can be done if the date and time of the planned maintenance is not acceptable by a customer?
If the planned maintenance window is not acceptable, there may be an opportunity to place resilience on the circuit. The ability to place resilience is dependant on the nature of the work to be carried out, and may not be feasible on every occasion. The following general rules apply as a guideline:
- Hardware upgrades - Resilience may be possible, dependant on the exact nature of the work.
- Software upgrades - Resilience generally not available.
- Emergency planned maintenance - Resilience very rarely available.
Should resilience be required, for a service affected by a planned maintenance, a request should be made to the PMC. Each carrier can take up to two days to process resilience requests; therefore it is essential that Matrix Communications receive resilience requests at the earliest possible opportunity. The PMC will liaise, with all parties, to process the resilience request and inform you of the progress and the ultimate outcome.
Back to top7. Under what circumstances would a change of date or a resilience request be accepted by a carrier?
Carriers will only accept resilience change requests based on business critical needs. The likelihood of a resilience or change request being acceptable is reduced as the number of requests from a customer increases. For this reason Matrix Communications recommends that the service user assess each planned maintenance activity for business criticality prior to submitting a resilience or date change request.
Back to top8. What if there isn't an option to place resilience on the customer's circuit and the customer has stated they are not happy with the planned maintenance going ahead?
If the window of an impending planned maintenance activity is seen as unacceptable, and there isn't an option for resilience to be applied, a reply to the Matrix Communications notification email must be sent stating:
- That the planned maintenance is unacceptable.
- The business critical reason why the planned maintenance is unacceptable.
- Suggested time, which would be acceptable to the customer.
Matrix Communications will then liaise with the carrier to see if a change to the original window of the planned maintenance is possible and keep the customer informed as to the progress of the change request.
All carriers endeavor to carry out planned maintenance activities at dates and times mutually agreeable between themselves and their customers. Should a planned maintenance proposed window be judged as unsuitable to the service user due to business critical needs, the carrier will endeavor to reschedule the planned maintenance for a more suitable time.
If no mutually acceptable time can be agreed, Matrix Communications will escalate this issue within the relevant carrier. Negotiations will then take place, between Matrix Communications, the carrier, and the service user in order to endeavor to agree a suitable window. The outcome of this negotiation is final. Although all efforts will be made to accommodate a date/time change request, there is no guarantee that a change request will be accepted.
Matrix Communications acknowledge that planned maintenance presents an inconvenience, to the service user; however it is the carriers intent to ensure an efficient, diverse and resilient telecommunications network. Matrix Communications endeavor to ensure that the planned maintenance process has the minimum impact on the service users.
Back to top9. What should the customer do if they experience issues with their service after the planned maintenance has taken place?
If any issues experienced are believed to have resulted from the planned maintenance, Matrix Communications Customer Support department must be contacted quoting the relevant SR number. The Customer Support team contact numbers and the relevant SR number are contained within the body of the initial planned maintenance notification email. The issue of fault will then be dealt in line with standard terms and conditions.
If there has not been a notification of an issue surrounding the planned maintenance activity, Matrix Communications will send a planned maintenance service request closure email, and close the service request.
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