What Is an Alert?
- The Alert Process is the mechanism used within Symyx Software Customer Support to escalate and manage critical customer support issues. Through the use of the Alert Process, we are able to focus our resources on these Critical Business Issues to ensure a rapid and appropriate response in as short a timeframe as possible.
- The Alert Process is used when the normal process of submitting problems to Symyx Software Customer Support does not result in a suitable solution for a Critical Business Issue for the Customer.
What are examples of Critical Business Issues?
- A production system which is no longer operational.
- A high impact bug or product limitation has been encountered that requires an immediate workaround or fix because a Customer’s key business need is no longer being met.
- Information is urgently needed to proceed with the implementation or upgrade of an Symyx software product.
How does a Customer Initiate an Alert?
- Contact your regional Symyx Software Customer Support team and open a Service Request for the Critical Business Issue.
- The Support Engineer responsible for your Service Request will work with the product development team to try to find a resolution for the Critical Business Issue.
- If the Support Engineer and the Product Team are unable to reach an adequate response for the Critical Business Issue, an Alert is initiated by the regional Customer Support manager.
- Once an issue is assigned Alert status, the Customer will be asked to appoint one person to liaise with Symyx Software Customer Support to resolve the issue.
- In the event that the Customer feels a Service Request or Critical Business Issue is not being appropriately addressed, the local Customer Support Manager or the Account Manager should be contacted through any of the regional Symyx Software Customer Support centers. The following link identifies local support centers.
http://www.symyx.com/support/contact/worldwide.jsp.mdl.com/support/contact/worldwide.jsp
What happens when an Alert is initiated?
- Symyx senior management is notified about the customer’s Critical Business Issue. The senior management team includes:
- Vice President Global Customer Support
- Regional Sales Management
- Vice President, Product Development
What happens when an Alert is initiated? (Continued)
- Within Symyx, a team is immediately identified specifically with the purpose of managing the Alert. This team meets ASAP after the alert initiation, with the primary goal of identifying a plan of action which addresses the Customer problem. Alert team members typically include:
- The Support Engineer managing your Service Request
- The Regional Customer Support Manager
- The Product Manager (Marketing)
- The Account Manager
- The Project Manager (Product Development)
- Consultants from Symyx Services when appropriate.
- The Customer is informed about the details of the proposed plan of action and asked to confirm their agreement to the plan.
- If the proposed plan of action is accepted, Symyx works with the Customer to implement the plan.
- In the event that the proposed plan of action is not accepted or the alert team is unable to address the problem, the Alert is then escalated to the Symyx executive management team.
- The escalated Alert is reviewed by Symyx executive management in conjunction with the Alert team and a plan of action or response is then formulated. The executive management team reviewing the escalated alert details will include:
- President Symyx Software
- Vice President Sales
- After the plan of action has been implemented, the Customer will be asked to verify that the Alert may be closed.
Customer Communication
All communication between the Customer and the Symyx alert team is coordinated by a Customer Support Engineer assigned to the Customer for that issue.
| Type of Communication |
Time Frame |
| Notification that an Alert has been initiated within Symyx. |
Immediately upon Initiation of the Alert |
| Notification of the proposed
response to the problem by Symyx |
Within 1.5 business days of the Alert initiation** |
| Ongoing updates |
As new information becomes
available or if the Alert is further escalated. At a minimum, the
Customer will receive updates on a weekly basis. |
| Alert Closure |
After the plan of action has been implemented, the Customer will be contacted to verify that the objectives of the agreed action plan have been met. |
| Note: |
** In some cases, more than 1.5 days may be required to reach a plan of action. Typically this will happen when the problem is of such complexity that more than 1.5 days of effort are required to identify the source of the problem. In these cases, the
Customer will receive an update on the second business day after the Alert initiation and every day thereafter until a plan of action is established. The person responsible for communicating to the Customer is the Customer Support Engineer.
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Alert Outcomes
The following are examples of possible outcomes to the Alert Process:
- Workaround: Workarounds are alternate workflows which allow the same task to be accomplished in the product with minimal customer inconvenience but may require special skills at the customer level.
- Documentation: In order to clarify product installation, administration, or functionality,, additional documentation beyond that beyond that normally accompanied with the product may be provided to the Customer.
- On-site assistance: On-site assistance may be provided by Symyx Customer Support or Services groups. If there is a fee for this service, the Customer will be notified in advance.
- A code deliverable (bug fix, special release, patch, etc): To address a critical product bug, a new release or patch may be provided for the product.
- In some cases, it may not be possible to address a problem: While Symyx makes every effort to find solutions which may be implemented in the short term, if extensive changes are required in a product’s architecture or functionality, the problem may be considered out of scope for that particular product or we may decide it will not be fixed until a later release of the product. In such cases, we will employ reasonable efforts to investigate alternate solutions, and where commercially practicable, try to provide a resolution or workaround.
What might a Customer do to expedite the resolution of an Alert?
Communication is the most important factor in successfully resolving Critical Business issues as quickly as possible.
In order to isolate the root cause of the system problem you are experiencing, the TSS who is assisting you will ask a number of questions about your system. Common questions may include questions about the system’s configuration and security, installed programs, detailed steps to cause the problem or recent system maintenance that has been performed.
As the details of the alert are documented, the Customer should be prepared to answer questions about the impact of the problem on Customer business needs by identifying details such as how many users are impacted by the problem and how often the specific operation causing the problem is performed.
If you have any questions, please contact Symyx Software Customer Support at
support@symyx.com or
jsupp@symyx.com (for our customers in
Japan). A complete list of regional Symyx Software Customer Support offices is available at:
http://www.symyx.com/support/contact/worldwide.jsp.
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