Service Terminal Evaluation and Procurement Guide

Document current volume, physical path, access queue, transition timing, affected role, existing workstation dependency, and decision owner. State whether the requirement is reduced movement, reduced waiting, less relay, faster resumption, improved late-day progression, or another observable condition.

The product should be evaluated against the named problem without credit for delays caused by unrelated staffing, parts, authorization, scheduling, demand, or facility constraints.

Ask whether the product extends the user's existing workstation workflow or creates a parallel record. Confirm how the active user is identified, what local interface is available, how the session ends, and how physical placement affects safety and privacy.

Require role-based orientation and a process for reporting connection failure, target unavailability, certificate warnings, credential issues, and unexpected local behavior.

The current Service Terminal implementation launches outbound RDP sessions to approved targets. The password is entered locally, passed directly to the session process, and cleared from the interface; the application does not persist the password. Username history, logs, network profiles, inventory and discovery state, device-lock state, and optional device-service state may exist locally.

Ask what dealership data is stored locally, whether credentials are stored, how state is protected and removed, which traffic is required, and which controls depend on the deployed operating-system image.

Document required ports, DNS, DHCP, NTP, segmentation, proxy behavior, optional management endpoints, and any administrative exception. Core RDP normally uses an outbound connection to an approved target; an example optional support configuration can permit inbound SSH and should be treated as a separate dealership decision.

The primary command disables clipboard directions. A compatibility retry is built from a base argument list that does not include the same explicit clipboard-off option, so the dealership should validate and remediate that path before asserting that clipboard control is invariant.

Ask how updates are built, approved, delivered, logged, tested, rolled back, and supported. Confirm who owns patching for the operating system, client packages, certificates, optional device services, target workstations, and dealership applications.

Removal should cover the device, management identity, local state, logs, network exceptions, support access, inventory record, and physical disposition. The existing dealership workstation and applications should remain available independently.

Separate product defaults, installation controls, optional settings, and dealership-side controls. Service Terminal does not replace identity governance, target authorization, workstation hardening, network segmentation, certificate lifecycle, physical security, monitoring, retention, or employee policy.

Request current architecture and data-flow documentation, implementation-backed control descriptions, build and update evidence, a residual-risk record, incident contacts, and an explicit list of dealership configuration responsibilities.

Require a written charter, baseline, target and placement record, measurement definitions, issue log, success criteria, stop conditions, and post-pilot decision. Do not accept a projected financial output as evidence of operating effect.

Claims must be labeled measured, modeled, example, assumption, or customer-provided. Ask what was measured directly, what was calculated, what conditions changed, and whether the result can be reproduced from documented inputs.

Confirm whether quantities and locations can change, how additional devices are approved, what implementation and support are included, how service levels are defined, and what happens at termination. Align contract language with the accepted architecture and the dealership's actual deployment configuration.

Do not allow economic claims to bypass the evidence standard. Financial review should reproduce from named inputs, show break-even assumptions, and state that recovered time creates potential capacity rather than guaranteed sold labor.

A high score should reflect evidence, not presentation quality. Record gating failures separately; a weighted total should not override a failed security, legal, safety, or operational requirement.

Final decision: approve / conditional approval / pilot / revise / decline. Decision owner: ____________________ Date: __________