The following guidelines should be taken into account when deciding the appropriate warranty or guarantee terms and conditions to include in IT solicitations and the final negotiated contract:
Many IT suppliers will agree to provide greater than 90-day warranty periods during negotiation, or even a 12- month for solution/development type contracts. Computer-off- the-shelf manufacturers generally offer 30 or 60- day warranty periods. Larger IT companies often provide 90-day warranty periods. Agencies should not have to reimburse a supplier for errors corrected or fixes made during a warranty period. The warranty period should start after final acceptance by the agency, while any procured annual maintenance or support would begin once the warranty period is over. For a more in- depth discussion of warranties refer to Chapter 25 of this manual, IT Contract Formation: