What happens when I raise a support ticket?

This article is aimed at both new and existing users of the Support Helpdesk.

Introduction

Contact the Support Team through our ticketing system at support.talis.com. Whether you have quick queries, need to report an issue, or are interested in learning about our training and consultancy services, we're here to help.

24/7 monitoring

Talis has a full 24/7 service monitoring and alerts in place, so if there were to be an issue that affected the service, the wider Talis team are in place to respond and resolve this issue as quickly as possible limiting any impact to service. This monitoring is in place for Talis Aspire and Talis Elevate. This is always in place even when the Services Team are not available due to bank/public holidays.

If you have an issue with either Talis Aspire or Talis Elevate, then first head to https://status.technologyfromsage.com/ to see if it is already a known issue and what the latest advice is. If you don't see it there then please do raise a support ticket.

Ticket response time

Our standard SLA for support tickets raised is a review of the ticket within four hours of being raised. The priority of the support ticket will then determine the response time.

Ticket Received - 1st Line (Support)

1st Line (Support) will assess the information in the ticket and possibly ask for more information. We aim to be able to view the issue first hand or to recreate the issue. If you are requesting changes to your tenancy configuration, we may ask for further clarification or detail prior to making the change. We will let you know when we have completed the change at the agreed time.

To speed up our investigation and get us closer to resolution we ask that you include the following details in each support case:

• A summary of the task being carried out.
• Where errors messages appear, we ask that you take a full screenshot of the error or copy and paste the error text into the support ticket. (please don't crop as sometimes the context really helps!)
• The Browser and version being used.
• The Operating System and version being used.
• If the issue is concerning bookmarking, we ask that you provide a URL of the source (the webpage where the Add to My Bookmarks button was clicked) and also the URL of the created Bookmark. If the bookmark could not be created satisfactorily, send us the URL of the edit bookmark page.
• If the issue is concerning a certain list, the URL of the list.
• If the issue is concerning a specific user or group of users, we need user details in order to investigate or create a service login to enable us to recreate or view the issue as the user.

If we need to test an experience of a specific user, we may need to complete a Service Login. We will need the following information that you can copy and paste in the support ticket:

• The user’s My Profile page URL. To the right of the menu, when the user is logged in,  There will be a link with their name on it.
• The user's SAML attributes (instructions retrieving this information can be found here).

Where possible we try to resolve your issue in 1st Line (Support) by providing clear advice, and point you to useful information on the support site. Where further investigation is required, the ticket is assigned to our Technical Team, you are informed at this stage.

What ticket priority should I expect to see?

We categorise the severity of an issue in a ticket using the following priority levels.

• Low (sometimes referred to as P4): Affecting a small number or one user, it is not stopping workflow as you can work around the issue, and is not time-bound.
• Normal (sometimes referred to as P3): Affecting more than one user but is not stopping the use or access to reading lists or digitisations by students, but is having a small impact on workflow.
• High (sometimes referred to as P2): Affecting all or many users, it is stopping or hindering access to reading lists or digitisations, or is stopping workflow which is time-bound, in the run-up to key periods like the start of the academic year.
• Urgent (sometimes referred to as P1): System down or people can’t log in preventing access to any reading lists and/or digitisations.

If we adjust the priority we will advise you. Likewise, you can add more detail on the impact the issue is having in order to justify your priority decision, this will be taken into account.

Resolution Time

We don't prescribe resolution times for each priority level, as a ticket may start as an urgent issue, but as parts of the issue are resolved or workarounds are given, the priority can change.

Resolution times for particular priority levels also set unreal expectations because, if we have no other urgent issues to deal with, we will just get on with your low-priority ticket anyway because we believe that gives you the best level of support.

We can share the following resolution stats with you which demonstrate that half of all tickets are resolved within 24 hours and 70% of all tickets are resolved within 7 days

Viewing an existing or closed support ticket

1. Log in to the support portal.
2. Select 'Check your existing requests'. You will be shown your open tickets.
3. To view your closed requests, select 'View your recently solved and closed requests' from the right hand panel.

Adding a comment to an existing support ticket

You can add a comment to an existing support ticket or respond to a comment made by a support operator, in two ways:

1. Log in to Support.
2. Reply to the "Request confirmation" email you received when submitting your ticket, or to any subsequent email alerts from the support operator.  Note: Ensure you write your text above the "Do not write below this line".

Tickets that need Technical or Product team input

Sometimes we have to refer an issue to a more technical team to identify if something is a bug or a potential feature.

Tickets that need to be looked at by the Technical Team are generally reviewed in priority and chronological order, unless a potential customer wide or high impact issue takes priority. Tickets might be solved at this stage and you will be updated accordingly.

Sometimes we might refer a ticket to the product team. As a result you may be asked to raise an idea in our ideas portal so that the product team can get more context and use your idea in their product feature planning workflows. Tickets like this will be closed as there will be nothing more for the support team to do.

My ticket is 'Pending' what does that mean?

This will mean we are waiting for more information from you in which case you need to respond to the support ticket when you have the information we require. Tickets which have been pending for more than 15 days will be closed. If all is fine you can just leave the ticket to close, or respond if you have further issues or questions.

My ticket is 'Open' what does that mean?

This usually means the issue is with us and we will be taking action. NOTE: If you have responded to a Pending ticket to simply say you are waiting for a user to get in touch with the details, this will also set the ticket back to Open, though the response is still waiting from you.

My ticket is 'Concluded' what does that mean?

This means we believe that the issue is solved or the question answered, or that there is nothing further the support team can do on the ticket at that time. If this is not the case simply respond with further information. You can always refer to previous tickets if a issue reoccurs or you want to pick up the conversation in a new direction.

My ticket is Concluded and I’m being asked to rate the service, what am I rating?

You are rating the service you have received from the team dealing with your ticket. Please note that you are not rating the product!

How can I escalate a ticket?

If you feel your ticket is not being dealt with correctly, or the issue reported is urgent or time bound, you can escalate the ticket. To escalate, please email Tim Hodson with your ticket details detailing your concerns and telephone number, we will then work to review the issue and prioritise as appropriate, before updating you directly. We also are happy to arrange a catch up call with each University and you can raise concerns or discuss tickets of note as part of that call. If you haven’t had a call with us recently, please do log a ticket and we will be touch to arrange.

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