Managed Objects Customer Support was established to provide the highest quality support possible for Managed Objects products — 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It works closely with our customers and communicates their needs to different departments within Managed Objects, like Development and QA.

That way, information is properly gathered and shared. And your problems are resolved rapidly and accurately.

Customer Support is also your conduit for product-related feedback, such as a request for modification or enhancements.

One reason we provide such high-quality support is the caliber of our support staff. They have deep experience in applied information technology, from the integration of enterprise management products to Business Service Management itself. Their combined experience working for and with Fortune 500 companies makes them a valuable asset for our customers.

To sharpen their expertise, our engineers keep up to date on the latest hardware and software using the complete network environment we maintain. The environment was built to encompass the various technologies our customers use. Engineers also use it to test themselves on different real-world scenarios.

Opening, tracking and escalating support issues should be simple. That's why we offer three primary contact mechanisms — telephone/fax, e-mail and the Web — as well a central tracking mechanism, tTrack.

An entirely Web-based system, tTrack is accessible at http://support.managedobjects.com. Use it to open and/or track all your support issues, regardless of how the request was opened.

Once a call is opened, the Help Desk logs the incident into tTrack. The incident is then assigned a unique tracking number, which is retained throughout its duration. All calls are assigned a severity level upon initial contact. Three levels are available, ranging from one (most severe) to three (least severe). During the "life" of an incident, the severity may be altered as the result of mutual agreement between the customer and our staff.

For a new incident, help desk staff first searches the Customer Support Knowledge Base to determine if a resolution is available based on previous calls. If potential solutions are identified, they are communicated back to you via tTrack. In parallel, appropriate support and engineering teams are notified of the new incident via e-mail.

Whenever an incident that you've opened is updated or changed, you are notified via e-mail. The content of the change is available in the e-mail as well as online in tTrack.

If the incident cannot be rectified immediately using the Knowledge Base, the Help Desk begins a more detailed analysis of the issue. This involves consulting QA, Engineering and Development teams to identify areas for investigation and where more information and/or testing may be required. At this stage, the normal support-client interaction begins via e-mail, Web and/or phone.

If the problem is due to a flaw in the software, the issue is turned over to the QA Department for testing and verification. If QA cannot solve the issue, it's then escalated to Development. Customer Support communicates this internal Managed Objects process to you via tTrack. Customers are regularly updated on both progress and estimated resolution times.

Incidents are closed by mutual agreement between Customer Support and the customer. Closed incidents remain in the tTrack system for review and are incorporated into the Knowledge Base system. That way, future incidents may be resolved more rapidly.

Managed Objects employs a number of methods to ensure our support is the best possible. One important method is the Customer Care Organization, which is your advocate throughout our company providing you with a rapid escalation path to executive management.