When Time Is of the Essence for Tech Support

When Tech Support is Needed, Where Can You Get Answers? Fast?!

Milestone Systems is known as F5’s most experienced integrator, and an important component in achieving that status is offering services that surround and support the customer — such as Milestone’s 7x24x365 service desk, providing Level 1 and Level 2 support for F5 appliances installed across the country. Customers call Milestone first because Milestone provides personalized service and fast resolution results.

“Milestone has been customer-driven since the outset, and customers have appreciated our ‘high touch’ approach,” said Tom Marsnik, Operations Director, Milestone Systems. “Customers have always called us first for support because we know their environments intimately — we likely helped architect and install that environment — and understand their business requirements. After providing informal F5 support for some time, we asked F5 in June 2008 if we could formalize our service desk. It has become an integral part of our relationship with F5 and with our customers.”

By the Numbers

Milestone’s support desk is staffed by certified engineers who have extensive field experience with F5 solutions. F5 mandates that Milestone provide the same SLAs as F5’s own service desk — and Milestone beats those requirements. Milestone has received a perfect score on all of F5’s quarterly audits since 2008.

“When our customers call,” Marsnik said, “they immediately speak to a certified Network Support Engineer.”

F5 defines initial response times as the time from when the F5 case is created to when a Network Support Engineer first attempts to contact the customer for troubleshooting and updates. F5 endeavors to resolve Severity 1 and Severity 2 calls — issues impacting critical or high-level business activities — within one hour. Severity 3 calls, which involve degradation of normal business or commerce functions, have a four-business-hour response requirement. Severity 4 calls, which include non-critical issues, configuration requests and functionality questions, have a 24-hour response time.

“Milestone average response times on Severity 1 and Severity 2 calls are two to four minutes,” said Marsnik. “We respond to Severity 3 calls in about eight minutes, and Severity 4 calls in about 22 minutes.”

Results Matter

Of course, what matters to customers is problem resolution, and Milestone Systems delivers. Milestone has F5 units operating in a lab so the support team can duplicate customers’ problems to see how to solve them. Milestone delivers an onsite-support experience in a remote service desk.

“Our goal is customer satisfaction, and we have made the investments in equipment and expertise to help ensure rapid resolution of problems,” Marsnik said. “Customer satisfaction surveys are a big part of F5’s audit process. F5 requires that a minimum of 12 percent of surveys are returned, with a minimum average rating of 7.5 on a scale of 10. On average, more than 26 percent of Milestone’s customers return F5’s surveys, and give us a 9.76 rating. We are very proud of these results.”

If for some reason Milestone cannot resolve a problem, the Milestone support team will manage the escalation to F5. In essence, Milestone customers get support from both companies for the same price.

“The majority of our escalations are for Return Material Authorizations (RMAs). If we determine that a product needs to be replaced, we facilitate that as a convenience to the customer,” said Marsnik.

Milestone’s proven track record of support success and its strong relationship with F5 offer a compelling option when response and resolution time is of the essence. When you need tech support on F5 devices, who can you call?  Milestone Systems:  866-646-9211