What happens when I raise a support ticket? (Article)

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

Introduction

The Services Team are available for support by raising a ticket at support.talis.com. We are here for those small questions, reporting errors or wanting to know about how we can help you with training or consultancy.

Status

If you have an issue with either Talis Aspire or Talis Elevate, then first head to status.talis.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. Where you are requesting changes to your tenancy configuration, we will let you know when we have completed the change, or ask for further clarification or detail prior to making the change. 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 screenshot the error or copy and paste the error text into the support ticket.
• 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 is clicked) and also the URL of the created Bookmark if it has been achieved. If the bookmark could not be created satisfactorily, send us the URL of the bookmarklet page which shows the preview on the right and the bookmark fields on the left.
• 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 (copy and paste the following in the support ticket)

• The user’s My Profile page URL (Top right when the user is logged in is 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 Technical Team and the Stage set to 2nd line (Triage), you are informed at this stage.

What priority should I give a ticket

Here is what we suggest in terms of Priority choices.

• 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 list 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 a 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 you 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 off 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

Resolution Time	Percentage of Tickets
0 - 5 hours	30%
5 - 24 hours	20%
1 - 7 days	20%
7 - 30 days	15%
> 30 days	15%

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".

Moving the ticket to Triage and Queued for Development

Tickets are looked at by the Technical Team to assess the issue and the information provided. They are generally reviewed in priority and chronological order, unless a potential customer wide or high impact issue takes priority. Tickets assigned to Triage can be solved at this stage and you will be updated accordingly.  They can also move to a queue for development, or logged as a Known Defect. When tickets are Queued for Development, they awaiting an identified fix for the issue to be developed - it could be that a code line change is needed, or the issue requires more effort to resolve.

Known Defect what does that mean?

For issues that you have raised that are known defects, and are currently not prioritised for resolution, Talis will be closing these support tickets with the status of ‘Known Defect’. These tickets have been noted for development work, and once it is completed we will open a new support ticket to notify you directly.

If this issue is having a significant impact on the way you, or your colleagues work, and you would like Talis to review the priority of scheduling this work, please do respond to this support ticket, otherwise, it will close in 10 days.

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 might also be set to Pending Closure, and in this case we will have advised that the ticket will close within 7 days. If all is fine you can just leave the ticket to close, or respond if you have further issues or questions on this issue/topic.

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 'Solved' what does that mean?

This means we believe that the issue is solved or the question answered. If this is not the case simply respond with further information.

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

You are rating the service you have received in 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.

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.

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