SupportLink Online Gives MicroStrategy Visibility and Control
Goal:
Improved internal communications about support issues, with a method for tracking all questions and answers.
Why they chose DataDirect SupportLink:
SupportLink Online gives MicroStrategy development teams an organized means of tracking support issues.
Business benefits:
Being able to monitor and track support issues online allows MicroStrategy developers to maintain constant visibility into the progress - and to circulate information among their team.
Technical benefits:
SupportLink Online is a password-protected site available only to SupportLink customers.
MicroStrategy's business intelligence platform software helps more than 2,500 businesses transform their operational data into valuable information. Having to support all major databases and versions on both Windows and UNIX involves MicroStrategy's Systems Engineering Manager Samuel San in some unusually advanced support issues. Sam therefore relies heavily on SupportLink Online. "It's very convenient logging cases without having to pick up a phone," he says. "A great deal of my support contact involves simple requests for information. With the online support I can just let the request be processed while I turn my attention elsewhere. That's very convenient for me."
"I can check the status of my request and see where it stands in the entire chain of internal communications. Many companies offer online tech support, but it's not necessarily done well. Without timely response from the vendor, online support is nothing but a website."
Samuel San
Systems Engineering Manager,
MicroStrategy
Sam typically gets an answer back within an hour or two. Having the support exchange in writing lets him easily disseminate the information with others in his company or out in the field.
In addition, SupportLink Online gives him an organized means of tracking any outstanding support issues. He can search for all issues using assorted criteria in order to obtain a list of relevant issues. Clicking a listed issue allows him to drill down to the communication details. "SupportLink Online integrates everything together into their system," he says. "I can check the status of my request and see where it stands in the entire chain of internal communications. Many companies offer online tech support, but it's not necessarily done well. Without timely response from the vendor, online support is nothing but a website."
Sam compares this with some other vendors' online support he has used. "It bothers me to send a question over to a company without knowing if anyone's received and reviewed it," he says. "I like the peace of mind that comes from following the progress of my request."
Regarding his SupportLink Online experience, Sam says that it shows that "DataDirect's people are clearly watching this service." He adds that the live response from the people behind the service "is what really raises DataDirect's online support above that of other vendors."
