Engaging with Support
Written by neilIt is important to us to try to resolve all problems in a timely manner. Some problems are easy five-minute fixes but others may take longer. Either way we need to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Part of how we do this is by tracking all requests through an online issue tracking system.
Contact with support is initiated by an email to the online issue tracking system. This email address is provided to your association administrator and is included in the schedule to your support agreement.
The online issue tracking system will log the call and generate an email confirmation containing the Support Issue Number. Once a Support Issue Number has been raised for a particular issue, this number should be referred to in all correspondence.
When replying to email, the Support Issue Number must be included in the email Subject in order for correspondence to be attached to the correct issue. Failure to ensure the correct email subject may result in miscommunication of requirements, duplicated effort, or delays in problem resolution.
Telephone support should not be engaged before a Support Issue has been raised in the Issue Tracking System.
Your issue will go through a number of phases while being resolved. You may receive email updates as these phases are completed. To help you understand how your issue will be resolved the issue tracking system currently uses the following phases:
1. Discovery: This is the first phase and includes collection and review of all the information at hand. It may also include the review of application log files and any other system information deemed necessary.
2. Requirements: This is a technical review of the issue to determine how the issue is to be resolved and what impacts the resolution may have on the rest of the system. It also includes consideration of scheduling the implementation.
3. Implementation: This is the development and packaging of the fix in a development environment. The fix is then applied to a stand-alone test environment prior to deployment to a live environment.
4. Evaluation and Testing: When applied to the test environment the fix is evaluated for effectiveness, deployment (packaging), and impact on the functionality of other parts of the system. Once the fix has passed this phase it is ready for delivery to a live environment.
5. Release: This is where the packaged fix is applied to a live environment. The originator of the request may be asked to become involved in verifying that the fix is working correctly.
6. Killed: There may be rare cases where, for some reason the support request will be killed and not delivered as a fix. Such a situation may arise if new functionality is due to be delivered which addresses the issue. In this case it may not be worthwhile developing a stand-alone fix.
Once the fix is released or killed the issue will be closed and a final email will be generated by the issue tracking system detailing the reason for closure and final status of the issue.