equipment manuals, technical description of units, multimedia library and electronic documentation. The operator is responsible for managing the use of online services within its organisation and hence has dedicated personnel taking care of the communication related to online services. All information provided on the online services is confidential and based on a mutual understanding that the contents of the online service are not covered under any kind of warranty for the accuracy, reliability or content of the online documentation. Information provided by the online services is not to be relied on as professional advice acting as a substitute for detailed technical advice provided by the vendor's technical experts, who still need to be contacted for technical advice. Online services are extended to four types of subservices: Problem management Preventive management Component management Training and coaching support Problem Management Routine helpdesk requests are submitted via the online services. The operator fills in a standard form and submits the request electronically to the vendor, who then ensures the receipt and recording of this request in an effective manner in the database. The vendor utilises the helpdesk follow-up mechanism to track the handling of their helpdesk requests, prepare relevant statistics and management reports. Preventive Maintenance During the course of R&D (research and development) and field testing, bugs and fault situations are often discovered by the vendor. Special instructions or technical notes are delivered to the operator through the online services in order to tackle these faulty situations. Adequate technical guidance is provided in the form of supplements of feature activation documents through the online services when special features are developed and are to be launched in the testbed or network. Generic failure reports are delivered, setting out failures in the vendor's equipment or any particular product line, for those products already ordered or employed by the oper