Support Process

Uniface Support Resolution Process

Uniface Technical Support services were established to help you maximize your use of Uniface technology. Teams of experienced professionals located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Detroit, Michigan provide a wide range of technical services and act as the single point of contact for the resolution of technical issues.

• logging, tracking and resolution of technical problems and questions relating to Uniface products, training, and documentation
• routing functionality improvement suggestions to the Uniface Development Lab
• coordination with local offices for on-site or specialized support services
• Uniface Technical Support teams that are fully equipped for problem recreation and analysis. To expedite this process customers are urged to provide specific test sets.

All communication related to customer calls is logged in our Call Tracking system. The FrontLine Call Logging feature enables customers to report their issues via the Web. Issues can be submitted via telephone or over the internet (required to be logged in).

After reporting the issue you receive a unique reference number and the investigation process will commence according to the priority of the problem. Your unique reference number should be kept at hand and referred to in all communication.

Uniface Technical Support staff keep accurate records of our customers Uniface environments, and for validation purposes we ask that you confirm these details when logging a new call. Complete environment and issue details allow us to faster review and resolve your issue.

In addition there is a comprehensive update of your reported calls via the FrontLine Call Tracking facility.

Should you wish to escalate your issue please contact your local Technical Account Manager or the Technical Support Manager at your support center.

Uniface Support Priority Assignments

At Compuware, we work according to the priority assignment given to us by you, our customers. The response levels outlined below apply to the Technical Support Analysts’ commitment to advise you of the plan of action required to resolve your problem. This plan of action is put in place when the Technical Support Analysts require involvement from other support groups.

The following additional requests are serviced within one week:

• Product documentation
• Passwords and SEKs
• New versions or maintenance releases without changes in platforms or drivers

Priority Assignment	Problem Type	Response Level
1: Critical problem	A problem should be considered a priority 1 if it meets one of the following criteria and there is no known work-around or solution to the problem at the time of the call Causes the software or operating system to fail completely Requires constant restarting of the software or operating system Results in corruption or loss of data Prevents the installation of the software	When a deployed system is down, it is brought to the attention of a Technical Support Analyst for immediate resolution. If this is not possible, a response will be provided within one (1) business hour. The Technical Support Director will also be informed and will continuously reviewed progress with the Technical Support Analyst.
2 - Severe Problem	A problem should be considered a priority 2 if it meets one of the following criteria and there is no known work-around or solution to the problem at the time of the call Prevents the use of an explicitly documented major function of the software Causes a software or OS crash with a workaround Use of the software is seriously impacted (mission critical usability problems) Installation issues	Severe problems are bought to the attention of a Technical Support Analyst who will respond within four (4) business hours of the call being received.
3 - Major Problems	A problem should be considered a priority 3 when it meets the following criteria: It does not meet the criteria of a priority 1 or priority 2 Product does not work as explicitly documented Non-mission critical usability issues	Major problems are brought to the attention of a Technical Support Analyst who will respond within 8 business hours day of the call being received.
4 - Minor Problems	A problem should be considered a priority 4 if it meets the following criteria: It does not meet the criteria of previous priorities Low priority requests for information (e.g. what is the most current release?) Documentation errors	A Support representative will respond within two (2) business days of the call being received

What information do we require and why

Calls are serviced most effectively when the caller provides the requested information (see below). With the FrontLine Call Tracking User Preferences feature, customers can save the request information to save time for rekeying.

Company name Caller’s name Phone number Fax number Customer number E-mail address Uniface version Platform

Operating system and version Database type and version Uniface license number Concise problem description Error message Correct problem priority for the customer Test set

Why are we asking for more information?

Your call is assigned to one of our TSA (Technical Support Analysts), who has the task to find out if the reported issue is due to an error in Uniface or if there is another explanation for the behavior.
To determine the precise issue reported the TSA needs to have a clear picture of the situation.
The TSA then has to either reproduce it or find it as a known issue and communicate the status to the customer.

Specific test data and files significantly speed up the research process as support staff can quickly zoom in on the problem area. Customers who are not able to produce specific test sets face a longer resolution timeline.