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Support Staff Response Commitments
Our dedicated support team is committed to responding
quickly to customer support requests. Emperex has a support
policy which is based on differing severity classifications
of support requests. These severity definitions are described
in the table below.
Our support
staff is available for all types of support calls between the regular
business hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern Time. After-hours support
is available, but for emergency calls only.
Our support staff uses WonderDesk, our web-based help desk system
to record and track support requests. Potential software defects
and product enhancement requests are recorded and tracked in
TestTrack, our internal product development management tool.
Process
Acknowledgement
Progress Updates
Current Versions and Support Schedule
Support Process
Emperex offers support
on all of its current products via its Support Desk based in Toronto.
Support services for all of our customers with the exception of Australia and South East
Asia are provided
through our Head Office (see Contact Us-Technical
Support).
Emperex receives support
requests from its customers and via its distributors in one of three
ways: phone, e-mail, or our web-based help desk system, WonderDesk.
We refer to all support requests as 'calls'. This is what happens
when we get your call:
- We
receive your call, e-mail, or WonderDesk entry.
-
If you phone in your request or send an e-mail, we enter your
call details into WonderDesk to create a record of the call.
- WonderDesk
generates an automatic acknowledgement to let you know your request
has been logged.
- After
an initial assessment of the call, our support staff will respond
to you with one of the following:
- An answer
to your question or a resolution or workaround to your problem,
or
- Confirmation that they were able to build a test case to reproduce
the reported problem, or
- An indication of the next steps they will take to further investigate
the problem, or
- A request for more information or sample files to allow them
to better understand the nature of the call
- Upon
receipt of any additional information requested, our support staff
will continue to diagnose the problem, recommend a solution, inform
you of a workaround or provide an answer to your support question.
- The
call will be closed in WonderDesk when you confirm you are satisfied
with our response or after several days elapse without any response
from you to our follow up queries.
- In
the event that our support staff determines the support request
is a potential software defect, they will reproduce the conditions
in a test case. The test case and all submitted information are
passed to our Product Development Team who will investigate further.
The 'call' is now designated as a 'problem' and the support staff
will enter it into our software defect tracking system, TestTrack.
- Other
calls we receive are for enhancements to our products. For these
requests, our support staff will enter them into WonderDesk then
confirm the requested enhancement does not already exist in the
product or is not already planned to be added to the product in
the future. If it does exist, you will be informed and the call
will be closed. For an already planned enhancement, you will be
informed of what we plan to do and if known, when it is likely
to be available. If this is a new enhancement which the support
staff believes will be a strong addition to the product, it will
be entered into TestTrack.
-
When this occurs, we place the WonderDesk call 'on hold'. The
support staff is kept informed about the investigative work being
done by the developers on the TestTrack problem or request.
- The development team
will assess the TestTrack information. If it is found to be a
software defect, development will provide an estimate of how long
it will take to fix and an indication of when it is likely to
be made available. The development team will work closely with
support to provide you with a possible workaround.. If the TestTrack
is for an enhancement, it will be reviewed during our product
planning cycle
- We will only close
a WonderDesk call corresponding to a software defect after the
problem is resolved by Product Development or after a tested software
remedy is available.
- Our support group
is your main point of contact throughout the support call/problem
lifecycle.
Support Request Acknowledgement
If you leave a voice message on our support line requesting
assistance or submit a support request via e-mail or WonderDesk,
support staff will provide an initial response to acknowledge
receipt of your request and/or provide initial feedback to your
request within the following response times:
| Initial
Response To: |
| Support Voice Mail |
Within 1 hour of our receipt of your message. |
Support will return your call within 1 hour of
our receipt of your message. Support voice mail
is checked at least once each half hour. |
| Support
Cell Phone |
Immediate
response to the call or a call back as soon as we are
aware a voice mail has been received. |
We
provide this level of service after-hours for emergency
calls only. |
| Support
e-mail |
A maximum of 1 business day from the receipt of
your e-mail. |
Support e-mail is checked a minimum of twice per
day and you will receive a response as soon as the e-mail
is read. For urgent support issues please phone
Emperex directly (or in Europe, CrossPAC). |
| Support's Web-Help Desk - WonderDesk |
A maximum of 1 business day from the logging of
a WonderDesk call. |
The WonderDesk system notifies staff via e-mail,
which is checked a minimum of twice per day. Staff also
monitors WonderDesk throughout Emperex's business day
to respond to any newly-entered calls. WonderDesk automatically
acknowledges any request it receives. You will also receive
a response from our support staff as soon as the e-mail
is read.
An emergency call entered in WonderDesk immediately triggers
the system to send priority e-mails to support personnel
as well as Emperex's management and sales teams. You will
receive a response from the first person qualified to
help you after reading the WonderDesk entry. |
Support Request Progress Updates
Customers will receive regular progress update reports
for support issues at intervals commensurate with the severity
of the problem. This table outlines the definitions of the severity
issue levels and shows you our follow up commitments:
| Update
Schedule |
|
Severity 
|
1- Critical
|
2 - System Unusable
|
3 - Inconvenient
|
|
WonderDesk Convention
|
Emergency
|
High - Normal
|
Normal - Low
|
|
Definition
|
The
support issue impedes the customer's ability to conduct
business and there is no workaround available to avoid
the problem.
|
The
support issue impedes the customer’s ability to conduct
business, but there is a workaround available for the
problem.
|
The
support issue is a minor product failure causing incorrect,
incomplete, or inconsistent results. Generally a workaround
for the problem exists, but this is not necessarily
so.
|
|
First Status Update
After the initial response, support will update customers with
a progress report on resolving the issue.
|
Within 1 hour of the initial response. |
Within 1 business day of the initial response. |
Within 2 days of the initial response. |
|
Subsequent Updates
Regular progress reports at these intervals can be expected
until the issue has been resolved.
|
Every
4 hours until a proposed resolution has been provided
and accepted by the customer.
|
Every 3 business days until a resolution has been
determined. |
Customers
will be advised only if the bug-fix or enhancement schedule
changes.
|
After we complete our initial investigation of a call, we will
sometimes place the call "On Hold" in WonderDesk.
This is done for one of two reasons:
- The
support issue has been reproduced by Emperex and entered
as a problem in TestTrack. It will stay on hold until the
TestTrack record is closed. Problems recorded in TestTrack
are closed in one of several different ways: we develop
and satisfactorily test a solution for the problem; we provide
a workaround to the problem and decide no further work on
this problem is required; a request for an enhancement to
the product is declined.
- The
customer requires an extended period of time to provide
further information to Emperex or to try a solution or workaround
recommended by EmperexYou will be notified by our support
technician of a change in status for any call that has been
placed on hold. Our Update Schedule does not apply to calls
placed on hold, regardless of the call's original severity.
Coverage
Our support staff is available to respond to your requests
from 0900-1800 hours, North American Eastern Time. For
emergencies only, we provide after-hours support coverage.
If you need an urgent response to a critical issue, phone the
main Emperex number (+1.905.677.6666) and choose the after-hours
support option. You will be automatically connected to
the mobile phone of one of our support staff. We would
like to emphasize that this service is provided to help you
with emergency situations only.
Notice: D45 Operating System or higher is required. - February
2006.
The PrimeCode Core servers of version D20.12 contained
features, using system calls, that are not supported on NonStop
operating systems older than D45. If your operating system is
older than D45 you have the option of continuing to use any
earlier release of PrimeCode.
No versions older than D20.12 are still supported as far
as patch eligibility is concerned.
Upgrading to the latest version of the PrimeCode Core servers
is the only option for obtaining fixes to certain problems that
were discovered after D20.11. For any upgrade to the current
version (D20.14) the NonStop operating system must be D45 or
later.
Current
Product Release and Support Schedule
|
Software
Product
|
Current
Release
|
Eligible
Releases for Patches
|
Date
and Version for the End of Patch Eligibility
|
|
RMS
|
D20.15
|
D20.15,
D20.14, D20.13
|
With
the release of D20.15, D20.12 has been dropped from
the list of releases eligible for patch support.
|
|
PrimeCode
|
v3.5.8
|
|
|
|
CRW
|
v2.0.1
|
v2.0.1
|
|
RMS
Current releases supported and patched: D20.15 (October 2009),
D20.14 and D20.13.
D20.12 has became a 'support only' release and no further changes
to this version of the software will be made.
PrimeCode
Current releases supported and patched: PC 3.5.8 (October 2009).
CRW
Current release is V2.0.1. The prior release, V1.2.0,
for use with PrimeCode V3.4.2 or earlier and RMS C40.00 -
D00.xx has become a 'support only' release.
Policy
Regarding 'Support-Only' Releases
Emperex will make its best efforts to answer questions or provide
suggestions concerning any of its products which exist in the
'support-only' category. For any of these older products or
older product versions, Emperex will not provide any software
patches. Therefore, for any product problems customers encounter
while using a 'support-only' release, unless Emperex can provide
a workaround to overcome the problem, the customer will be urged
to immediately upgrade to the most current release as this is
the version the customer needs to be running in order to apply
any potential software fix from Emperex . Of course, if the
reported problem has already been resolved in a later release,
Emperex will advise the customer of this.
Emperex strongly encourages its customers to maintain product
usage at the most recent release levels. By so doing, customers
will be in a position to obtain the most effective product support
Emperex can offer.
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