Computer Solutions, Inc.

AIM Maintenance Support Service

Overview

AIM provides several different maintenance plans that our users can choose from to fit their business situation. Independent of the plan you select, your call will always provide access to an experienced Customer Support Representative to assist you. AIM does not use emails as a basis to support our AIM Vision suite of products. In certain circumstances, our customers require assistance on a preplanned, after-hours basis, for example, during emergency situations or special physical inventory efforts. AIM will work with you to arrange a best time and day for your special project, and provide assistance in creative and appropriate ways.

Because of our cooperative community orientation in managing support, our Maintenance Plans include much more than just support. Being on an AIM Maintenance Plan provides special entitlements and privileges bundled into our comprehensive support plan, including Zero SUM Warranty to support your customer’s changes on EDI and Barcode label transmissions, packet/logic processing and special printing - on a no charge basis.

Here are some General descriptions of AIM support, and extended support policies:

Handling Your Support Calls When a support call comes into AIM’s Customer Support, it is immediately assessed for its level of urgency. Because of the nature of AIM’s Automotive Supplier customer base, there are issues that are tied to intercommunications between our AIM customers and their customers and suppliers, which receive a high priority. Mandated changes for your customers’ program requirements are another example of a high priority support area. Whether a change deals with EDI, barcode labels, Kanban, In Line Vehicle Sequencing or other automotive logistics needs, our years of experience and focus on these automotive-specific issues provides the framework for fast and expert support action.

Support Life Cycle for our AIM Vision products is provided for the current release and one release prior to the current release. Customers are encouraged to move to the latest release in an upgrade visit that usually last less than 2½ hours average, and can be scheduled for your best “off” times. Unlike other ERP offerings, our focus on automotive-specific software makes our product common to our entire base… there are typically no “custom” programs required since all customers are automotive component part fabricators and have been prescreened as a prospect to make sure our AIM Vision or subsystem fits their needs OTB [out-of-the-box].

Response time is measured in minutes through immediate phone response, not email or extensive phone wait time. Typically a Customer Support Representative will answer the call on a first to third ring basis. Calls are immediately screened for the nature of the call directly with a Customer Support Representative. If the call requires follow up work, then arrangements are made to provide feedback to the customer as each stage of investigation is entered and completed.

Our Support Database written specifically for AIM support is called Customer Online Project Support or COPS. COPS functions as the backbone to gather information on customer calls, and index the root cause, symptoms, programming or training actions, and lessons learned. All information is then categorized by module, and is used for program and training revisions.

Maintenance Support Plans

AIM provides two types of maintenance support plans, Standard Support and Extended Duty Support. Both plans cover the AIM Vision suite of products. In addition to these formal plans, AIM provides first line support on our partner’s software, such as Microsoft Dynamics Great Plains and Cebos’ MQ-1 Quality Management applications. Whether your organization needs normal, Standard Support or Extended Duty Support AIM will work with you to select the right mix of Support Maintenance to fit your business needs.

Standard Support

Standard Maintenance meets the typical needs of the overwhelming number of customers that AIM services. This maintenance is offered from 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday through Thursday, and from 8:00am to 5:00pm on Fridays. In addition, special maintenance or support events can cover extended needs such as physical inventory, special plant relocation or other unusual events on a planned and scheduled basis.

Extended Duty Support

Occasionally our customers need support on an after-hours basis. Depending on the normal plant schedule of our customers, this after-hours support can be provided on an as needed basis or can be constructed for special 7 x 24 support needs. Extended Duty Support Plans are provided and priced on a case by case basis, and consider your plant’s location(s), yearly calendar, shift schedules, volume of transactions, the number of resources with access to and input into the AIM Vision software, and other variables that produce a “best fit” for the Extended Duty Support plan for your organization.

Additional Benefits of the AIM Maintenance Plans

Additional benefits of the AIM Maintenance Plans are provided in the listing below. Note that there are no “upcharges” for user meetings, special events or changes to EDI and barcode label formats based on the Zero Sum Warranty on these automotive specific requirements. In fact, being under a maintenance plan entitles our customers to a lower hourly billing rate, and an option to pay for training and implementation under a reduced rate for prepaid hours.

Other unique benefits include the free classified resource listing, no charge site health-checks, special pricing for Business Training Library services and other exclusive AIM Maintenance Membership pricing. Please take a moment to review these additional benefits of our Maintenance Plans on the following page.

Special Maintenance Services and Benefits

· Software revisions which include user requests as well as new features and functionality

· Barcode and EDI changes based on Trading Partner mandates and deadlines included at no charge… the Zero SUM program

· Special “grandfathered” pricing on new Modules, Partner offerings

· Priority support response.

· Reduced Hourly billing rates: $250 Senior rate offered at $150 per hour

· Documentation updates to support software revisions / enhancements

· Hotline phone support

· Project Manager assigned by AIM as your focal point for your technical support, training and implementation

· Periodic, no charge, Site Status Meetings and Health-checks

· Invitation and Admission to participate in User Group Meetings

· AIM User Newsletters and Technical Bulletins - distributed to an unlimited number of resources at your company

· Access to “Customer Only: Support Web” pages on internet web site – login required

· Extensive Online access to Technical Bulletins, special communications, and other timely news items.

· Access to Classified Resource … who’s available?

· Microsoft, Progress and other Microsoft VAR Partner news

· Invitation and Admission to participate in User Advisory Committee Meetings for software revisions

· Free admission to AIM sponsored Special Events with Guest Presenters

· Reduced pricing for Business Training Library services

· Prepaid support hour blocks at discounted rate

· Quick Question Support*

Where to enter data
How to use an option
Where to delete/purge data
Where to find an option
End of period processing steps
Quick navigation tips
Barcode format questions
First order troubleshooting help
Emergency, temporary help

*Quick Question Support footnote… (calls will not be billed, but call frequency and the nature of the call will be monitored to see if technical support/ training is necessary)

What’s not covered under Maintenance?

·         Training on and Implementation of AIM Vision products

·         Operator Errors [due to lack of training, changes to system settings]

·         Blindsiding issues [changes to your environment that we don’t know of]… new printers, servers, administration level changes, etc.

·         Bad information or data coming FROM your customers or suppliers

For additional questions on our support offerings, dial (586) 439-0300 and press ‘1’ for AIM’s Customer Support Department or email support@aimcom.com.