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    Understanding Subscription Dates for Services in ALMS

    Overview

    ALMS is the management system for AirLink routers and gateways and provides detailed information on the state of the services (such as AirLink Complete) that are associated with those devices. This page provides an overview on how to find and interpret the information that ALMS displays about the services on your devices.

    There are four dates that can have data and/or be displayed in ALMS, depending on the offers in your account and which gateway or router model(s) you have deployed:

    • Support Expiry Date: The date on which your eligibility for access to Sierra Wireless Customer Support ends. This date is valid for AirLink Complete and AirLink Premium offers.
    • Warranty Date: The date on which your hardware warranty expires for your router or gateway. The default is one year but can be extended up to 5 years through renewal on AirLink Complete or AirLink Premium.
    • Gateway End Date: The date on which your services expire for AirLink Basic offers for your routers and gateways.
    • Subscription End Date: The date on which your subscription expires for connectivity-related products (e.g. SIM cards). This date is not likely to be populated for Pre-paid offers.

    These dates are displayed in two locations: in the Monitor > Systems Grid and in the System Info widget on the Device Page.

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    Displaying in the Monitor > Systems Grid

    Within the Monitor > Systems Grid, there are four columns that display this information. For ALMS accounts, Support Expiry Date, Warranty Date and Gateway End Date are displayed by default. Subscription End Date is not enabled by default on ALMS accounts, but can be added by users at any time.

    The column manager with the relevant columns highlighted is shown here.

    All columns can be sorted and filtered as required.

    An ALMS account with AirLink Complete pre-paid offers enabled is shown below. For devices with AirLink Complete, the Support Date and Gateway End Date will display the same information, so only one needs to be shown.

    An ALMS account with AirLink Basic pre-paid offers enabled is shown below. As AirLink Basic does not provide customer Support, the “Support Date” column is not populated.

    Displaying in the System Info Widget

    ALMS displays the dates discussed in the System Info widget (which you can view by going to Monitor > Systems and then selecting a system).

    The dates applicable to a router on AirLink Complete are shown below.

    The dates applicable to a router on Airlink Basic are shown below.

    There are four fields that provide the information about the state of services on the device. After you register a new router, the Support Expiry Date and Warranty Date will be identical for the first year of service (both the warranty and Airlink Complete are valid for 1 year from registration). After renewing AirLink Complete, the Support Expiry Date and Warranty Date will update to reflect the renewal period. You can also renew the warranty up to a maximum of five years but access to Customer Support can be renewed indefinitely.

    • Offer: Displays the offer that is active on the device. See below for more information on Offers.
    • AirLink Complete: Displays the offer associated with the device and the state of the offer. It should be active but could indicate if the offer has expired.
    • Support Expiry Date: Displays the date that the support element of the service is set to expire. If expired, the device is not eligible for Customer Support. This field will be populated if the offer has a Customer Support component (e.g. AirLink Complete, AirLink Premium). It will display a “ – “ if there is no support element to the offer, as is the case for AirLink Basic.
    • Warranty Date: Displays the date that the hardware warranty will expire for the device. The hardware Warranty Date should typically align with the Support Expiry Date. Current hardware comes with 1-year of hardware warranty, but can be extended to a maximum of 5 years in total by extending AirLink Complete or AirLink Premium. As some older services may have had a 3-year warranty, in some cases the hardware Warranty Date may exceed the Support Expiry Date.

    Introduction to Offers

    Within the new ALMS accounts, you have two options to pay for your subscriptions: Pre-Paid (through your Sierra Wireless Partner) or Direct Billing (direct with Sierra Wireless). The majority of accounts, and the default account configuration is Pre-Paid with your Partner. All new ALMS accounts only support one type of offer.

    Offers define the services that are available on an AirLink device. This includes access to ALMS, the level of Customer Support, and can also include connectivity or other services. The Offer includes a service term (typically one, three or, five years) and are often tied to specific device types. For example, the AirLink Complete (XR80) offer can only be used with AirLink XR80 devices. It will never be displayed as a valid offer for any other device type.

    When a new ALMS account is created, there are a minimum of four default offers in the account. These offers are tied to different devices, and include:

    • AirLink Basic: Provides access to ALMS only. No Customer Support or warranty extension. Only available on AirLink LX, MP, and RV devices. AirLink Basic is not available for initial registration, only renewals.
    • AirLink Complete: Provides access to ALMS, Customer Support, and hardware warranty extension (maximum five years) for as long as the subscription is renewed. Only available on AirLink LX, MP, RV, and RX devices.
    • AirLink Complete (XR80): Provides access to ALMS, Customer Support, Out of Band Management (OOBM) connectivity, and hardware warranty extension (maximum five years) for as long as the subscription is renewed. Only available on the AirLink XR80.
    • AirLink Premium: Provides access to ALMS, Customer Support, OOBM connectivity, Advanced Mobility Reporting (AMR), and hardware warranty extension (maximum five years) for as long as the subscription is renewed. Only available for registration on the AirLink XR90; available for upgrade on the AirLink XR80.

    Accounts set-up with Direct Billing Offers will have additional default offers added to the account to support Sierra Wireless connectivity services. These offers vary depending on the location (EU versus NA) of the ALMS account. In addition, we can customize offers for customers that need a unique set of features.

    The primary difference in the display for accounts that have Direct Billing offers is that the Support Expiry Date will not display an actual value. As support is active on the device as long as payment is made each month, support will remain “active” and display this way in the System Info widget.

    The System Info widget for Direct Billing offers is shown below.

    How to Renew my Subscriptions

    Sierra Wireless will notify your account administrator(s) by email 90 days before the support and warranty dates expire for the first router in your account. Sierra Wireless recommends that you do a full fleet renewal. Please work with your Sierra Wireless Partner or the Sierra Wireless Renewals Team to renew your services and maintain access to your devices on ALMS.

    A sample of the email that is sent to all Adminstrators on an account is shown here.

    Customers can also review the state of their account within ALMS to understand when their account is set to renew. The Renewal tab in the Administration interface will display the expected renewal date for your account. This date is set based on the device(s) in the account with the closest expiration date.

    The Renewals tab will display the date when your account needs to be renewed.

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