[ale] tier2-3 support

[Chris Fowler]

On Fri, 2010-05-07 at 07:20 -0400, Mike Harrison wrote:
> As a 1099 or w-2 employee? Full time or part time?
> 
> Assuming nearly full time as a 1099:
> (Whatyouneedorwanttomakeayear / 2000) * 1.5

Correct because you will have to pay your on SS.  You'll have to pay
your own benefits.

I'm going to be frank about the definition of 'Avaya Techs'.

I've worked, and still do, with Nortel and Avaya vendors.  I am not sure
if I have yet meet and Avaya Technician that knew the PBX like I have a
Nortel Technician.  I believe the reason behind this is how each
manufacturer designed their channel structure.

In the Nortel world, the vendor has to not only provide installation
support but also ongoing maintenance and management.  I believe this is
the sole reason why many of the techs I deal with know their PBX.  And I
mean *really* know.

In the Avaya world, the vendors appear more to me as "installers".  They
sell a system and install that system.   Avaya maintenance does all the
ongoing maintenance and management of that system.  The techs don't need
to know the system.  This is a big portion of Avaya's revenue and
currently is is driving some angst in the Nortel community since Avaya
bought the Nortel Enterprise division.  The main revenue of these Nortel
dealers are maintenance and monitoring.  Luckily that is working its way
out and I think the Nortel dealers are going to be okay on this one. 

I will say there are some exceptions.  I'm currently working with a
group that does not give Avaya the maintenance contracts of their
customers and they do it their self.  

Back to the original question.  If you really know the Avaya systems
then I would be interested in us talking and I may have some consulting
work at our organization as well.   The interview is real easy.  I'll
ask one question on how the PBX behaves during a certain event.  This
would be very easy for someone that does Nortel but difficult for
someone that does Avaya.