Roos Instruments takes great pride in knowing we are providing the best possible support value to our customers. Maintaining an annual support contract is the best way to ensure minimal, unplanned down time while maintaining access to the very latest tools and performance enhancements. The RI Service and Support Plan includes eight components, and all components are offered for sale on the RI website as RIK kits. These components (see summary below) include annual coverage for various levels of hardware support and guaranteed response times that keep your production or R&D tester operating at full effectiveness. RI engineers have refined the RI Service and Support Plan offered to all RI customers over the past ten years.

Customers with annual support contracts receive priority service from every RI engineer. All support is delivered from our two US locations: Santa Clara, CA and Salem, NH. The US engineers providing this support have a combined total of over 350 years of RF measurement experience. RI performs ongoing review and evaluation of data from all customers using this support program to ensure it offers the best possible support to our customers. The popularity of this support package among RI customers allows it to be priced well below what the average customer utilizes in support hour dollars, creating tremendous value for our participating customers.

The RI Silver Support Package (RIK0108A) is designed as an insurance policy to guarantee our customers immediate support via e-mail and telephone, guaranteed inventory of all required replacement parts and quick shipment of all parts. It also provides Software Updates (SU - RIK0050A) for more efficient production bug fixes for customer related problems and for new features. The discounted cost and flexible payment plans are just some of the benefits of purchasing an annual Basic Support Package. The annual service contract provides additional customer benefits such as guaranteed quick response from a qualified service engineer and guaranteed inventory of all required service parts along with quick shipment. If a software patch is required, it will be delivered as soon as possible which is often by the next business day.

Software Updates are used by RI support engineers to provide new and/or improved measurement buttons, data viewers and worksheets, calibration, verification and diagnostic test plans, user interface functions and editing tools. As the RI 7100A is a software driven system, software updates provide a path to continuous product efficiency and functionality. RI software engineers generate over 400 software patches per year, and while not every customer needs every patch, the ones they do need are invaluable. Due to the contiguous nature of the patches, they must be loaded sequentially.

Guaranteed inventory of replacement parts is covered by the Module Exchange (ME - RIK0044A) component of the Basic Support Package while the cost of the parts is covered by the Factory Replacement Parts (FRP - RIK0045A) component of the support plan. FRP is not included in the Basic Support Package. Over a period of 2 years, the contract cost of Factory Replacement Parts has proven to be a better value for all of our customers than purchasing the replacement parts with an open purchase order.

For complete coverage, RI recommends Technical and Repair Support (TRS - RIK0041B) and additional Preventive Maintenance and Calibration (PMC - RIK0043A) visits be added to the Standard Support Package. Customers who calibrate their testers and have trained maintenance technicians, purchase PSR so they can obtain any required assistance from RI engineers for hardware repair and calibration issues. TRS expedites the time of the repair and/or the completion of the calibration. Without this component, RI charges per event for telephone support for repair and/or calibration issues.

The PMC component of the Support Plan enables the customer to purchase a Preventive Maintenance and Calibration Service from RI. The service is performed by an RI trained technician using an RI calibration kit (provided by RI). Travel to the customer location is included in the purchase price of this component.

Customers without a support contract will be asked to provide a purchase order prior to any service response and stock inventory for replacement parts may not be readily available. Replacement parts for obsolete systems are on an “as available” basis.

Support components are sold in annual contracts (1 year term) and are assigned to each individual system, non-transferrable.

Basic Support Package (SU, ME, FRP) - RIK0107A

Silver Support Package (SU, ME, FPR, TRS) * recommended - RIK0108A

Gold Support Package (SU, ME, FRP, TRS, ETS) * best value - RIK0109A

TRS - Technical and Repair Support: Phone and e-mail support for hardware repair and calibration issues.

ETS - Engineering Technical Support, 50 hrs: Phone in and e-mail support for test engineering and production issues.

SU - Software Updates: System software patches and feature updates.

PMC - Preventive Maintenance and Calibration: Includes travel and RI provides calibration kit.

ME - Module Exchange: Guarantees all repair parts or exchange modules are in stock at RI for immediate shipment. Cost of parts not included.

FRP - Factory Replacement Parts: Parts Only. Use in conjunction with Module Exchange and On Site Repair

OSM - On Site Maintenance: 5 X 8 Hr. Response. Includes Labor and Travel for Hardware Repairs. Parts Not Included, see FRP.