GUIDELINES FOR Engagement

Customer Success

Customer Success (CS) is all about your success. This document provides information about the different channels available for you to reach our team.

Moreover, it describes the resources at your disposal and the processes that we keep to ensure high quality and a swift service. Our CS Agents are with you throughout your whole journey, from onboarding to everyday use.

Overview of channels and resources

Support channels
Avallain Author
  • Self-service: Avallain Author User Guide
  • Avallain Service Desk
  • Direct chat support
    (Author cloud-shared and Magnet Author)
  • Trainings*
  • Status Page (Author cloud-shared and Magnet Author)
  • Release Notes
  • Newsletters
  • Webinars
  • Avallain Magnet
  • Self-service: Avallain Magnet User Guide
  • Avallain Service Desk
  • Direct chat support (Magnet Administration)
  • Trainings*
  • Status Page
  • Release Notes
  • Newsletters
  • Webinars
  • Custom Platforms
  • Design Packs
  • Mobile/Desktop Applications
  • *Additional costs may apply.

    Avallain's CS team is available from Monday–Friday, 7:00 AM—9:00 PM (UTC) any incidents, bugs, questions and new feature requests. Outside these hours, we are still there for you and will react, but only to incidents.

    All requests must be raised through the Service Desk and must capture the necessary level of detail. Only if this is not possible technically, is there also a 24-hour emergency number available for incidents: +1 917 512 5896.

    Using the customer success channels

    Avallain Service Desk

    Service Desk is where you raise incidents, bugs, functional or technical queries, new feature requests and track their progress. We will review all requests, provide answers, and escalate the problem or request to the development team if necessary. You access the Service Desk with your user account. Please contact us by any other means if you do not yet have such an account.

    Direct Chat Support

    Available for Author cloud-shared, Magnet Author and Magnet Administration

    Direct Chat Support can be accessed via the chat widget. It gives you direct and live access to one of our CS Agents. The chat widget is accessible from Magnet Administration and from Author environments connected with a Magnet tenant.

    Avallain Author and Avallain Magnet User Guides

    User Guides provide technical documentation that gives instructions and guidance on how to use our software and the platform with a table of contents and search tool with a step-by-step approach.

    To access the User Guides, use the (?) icon in the upper right-hand corner of the product’s header to open a new search window that can be used to search for suitable articles. We recommend opening the User Guide window to full size for a better user experience.

    Please raise a ticket in the Service Desk if the resources in the User Guide do not contain the information required or you are not able to open the User Guide.

    Jira Software Projects

    Jira Software Projects is a Development Management Tool to plan, track and coordinate release work for customer projects. A Jira Software Project is set up only for customers with a custom development roadmap for platforms, design packs or mobile/desktop apps. There is a limit of 10 users per customer to access the Jira Software Projects. During development and until a version has been released to production (launched to the world) this is where all the action happens.

    Important: Jira Software Projects should not be used to reach Avallain for any issue found on a production (live) system. Please use Avallain Service Desk for that purpose.

    Using additional resources for Author and Magnet

    Trainings

    Training options are available to assist both new and existing customers to gain a deeper understanding of our platforms. These options include an Author Training & Certification programme that is self-paced and available 24/7. Additionally, we provide the opportunity to request customised live training sessions that are specifically designed to meet your unique needs. Additional costs may apply.

    Status Page

    Status Page is an online platform designed to offer a real-time overview of a product or service's current status. Users can go to this page to verify the status of the service.

    Using release communications resources for Author and Magnet

    Release notes

    Release Notes refer to a form of technical documentation that provides visibility to all updates, modifications and new features that have been released into the production environment.

    This is available in the User Guides.

    Webinars

    Release Webinars are interactive online events that offer a platform for presenting updates related to our product, in addition to serving as an opportunity to clarify any questions you may have through a Q&A session.

    These sessions are recorded and made available within the User Guides so you can watch at your convenience.

    Newsletters

    Newsletters keep you informed about our company and products including releases, new features, expected downtimes, or upcoming webinars.

    They are sent directly to your mailbox. Please contact us if you do not receive our newsletters, so you can be added to the mailing list.


    The Service Desk process

    How to contact us?

    Step 1: Log in to the Service Desk portal.  

    Step 2: Select the type of support needed from the CS team, by selecting one of the following ticket types:


    Incidents

    "A fault that affects many end-users of the system in a manner that renders the system unusable to a significant degree and requires immediate attention."

    Note: Due to the effort and resources bound by incidents, the raising of inappropriate/wrongly raised incidents must be avoided with reasonable care by the client. Many wrongly raised incidents will lead to a degraded service.

    Examples:

    • The whole system is down or unreachable
    • Service outages
    • Performance of the system below usual standards
    • A component of the system is not usable

    Bugs

    "A flaw in a specific component of the system that can cause the component to fail to perform its required function satisfactorily."

    Note: For bugs resulting from custom development projects, commercial conditions might apply.

    Examples:

    • A User Interface component not behaving as expected
    • Slow response times of a component
    • A faulty data display
    • A specific user flow behaving erratically

    New features

    "A suggestion for the addition of functionality."

    Examples: 

    • "We think a talking parrot chatbot would be a fantastic feature."
    • "Our users would like to have access to all their audio recordings in their profile in order to document their progress."

    Questions

    "A problem, concern, or information request that is neither clearly a bug nor an incident."

    Examples:

    • "I read the manual and watched the webinar but can you look at the xyz adaptive course I created and tell me if I did it right?"
    • "How do I remove a content item from a course?"

    Step 3: Set the correct priority according to the required Service Level (see below for Service Levels).

    Step 4: Once the suitable type of request has been selected, fill in the form making sure that as much detail as possible is provided to help us reproduce it and take action. Details include e.g. project, browser, steps to reach the issue, user affected, etc. We need to be able to reach the same point quickly to effectively solve the problem. 

    You can find some helpful tips below:

    Technical

    Provide details of any information that would make it easy for others to find the issue. Try to include only relevant information.

    Confirm if it occurred in a desktop or mobile app and share the device name architecture x64 or x32, OS info. If the problem is happening in the App, verify if the problem is replicable in the desktop version.

    Provide the operating system, browser name and version, the platform URL and name, device type. And as part of the initial investigation do confirm that you have updated the Operating System and the browser to the latest versions and cleared cache and cookies.  Be mindful that the browser version supported can be confirmed by checking the System requirements information available in the User Guide.

    If applicable, mention the student or teacher name and ID, the product name and ID, LO links in the CMS, assignment titles, group names.

    Share ny information that would make it easy for others to find or understand the problem.

    For a prompt resolution, please try to include only the information that is relevant.

    Behaviour

    Describe what is happening with a step-by-step approach of what the user sees before, during and after the potential problem occurs.

    Provide details on what was the expected behaviour before the problem started to occur and if it was working as expected.

    Follow every step to be able to replicate and understand what the user sees in order to eliminate the chance of this just being a question and not a bug. Check all supporting information available, such as in the User Guides (use keywords for search) and check System Requirement articles logged in as Org Administration.

    Please highlight what is different in the results expected from the current scenario making sure to check beforehand what the expected behaviour is according to the User Guides or by asking us in advance via direct chat or the service desk.

    Important: Add steps taken to reproduce the issue along with screenshots, images, or a quick video.

    You can also use the business need field to add any additional information, only when necessary or applicable, regarding the urgency or resolution timeline expected.

    User

    Confirm if the issue is replicable with an Administration or any other specific user. Please do NOT share the passwords of CMS production accounts.

    Provide a test user, whenever possible, for us to be able to replicate the problem.

    Frequency

    Provide day and time of first occurrence.

    Indicate if it has occurred once or multiple times.

    Important: Please remember to share your request with your organisation to make it visible to all its members. We may adjust the request to make sure the correct type has been chosen, and that the priority is aligned with the severity and impact according to the rules above.

    After submitting the information you might not have all the information available yet or specific details may change over time. So you can edit the following information: priority, operating system, browser, device type, platform name, platform URL, business need and note.

    How to check on your requests

    By clicking on the Requests button in the top right corner, you can see the list of all requests by the user (“Created by me”) or by the organisation (“All”).

    Once the issue is reviewed by the CS Agent, the request can have different statuses describing its progress through the workflow. This is defined in the Service Desk workflow below.

    The Reporter of the issue receives notification emails describing the progress of the specific request.

    The issue can be closed as resolved in the Service Desk or raised by Avallain in the appropriate Jira Software Project if development is required to address the issue.

    Upon ticket resolution you will be invited to share your satisfaction with the resolution via an email notification or directly within the ticket.

    Important: In custom development projects, the issue will be treated further in the Jira Software Project only. The original request in the Service Desk will then be closed with a reference to the Jira Software Project issue.

    Service Desk Status

    Below are all the possible statuses of Service Desk support requests:

    Status
    Meaning
    Open
    The ticket is not yet assigned to a CS Agent.
    In Progress
    A CS Agent is working on a solution.
    Waiting for Customer
    More information is required to proceed with the investigation. The person who raised the ticket needs to provide further input.
    Escalated
    The Product Team is working on a solution.
    Planned*
    The Product Team has found a solution, which requires development work, and is planned to be included in an upcoming release.
    Waiting for Acceptance
    The ticket is ready for review and final acceptance.
    Cancelled
    The ticket has been closed, and no further action is required from the CS Agent or the customer.
    Closed
    The ticket has been resolved or escalated to the Software Project.

    *The Planned status does not imply any specific release version or release date.

    Priority and service level targets*

    Once you report an issue in the Service Desk, a CS team member assesses the priority level in line with the severity and impact described. Only incidents and bugs are covered by Service level targets.

    There are different response times according to the severity of the incident or bug reported:

    Severity description
    Incidents
    (Urgent)
    A fault rendering the whole or a significant portion of the system unusable to a significant amount of end users and with no workaround. Typically, this would relate to an infrastructure failure / site down event.
    15 mins
    8 hours
    Incidents
    (Important)
    A severe fault making it difficult to use the system in the manner intended or impairing essential functionality or visitors/users access to the system and with no workaround available.
    30 mins
    48 hours
    Incidents
    (Normal)
    A system's secondary functionality is impaired or broken, reducing the user experience but leaving the system usable in fulfilling its main purpose. A system speed is suboptimal, impairing the quality of the user experience.
    24 hours
    Target is current or upcoming release. Requires confirmation.
    Bugs
    (Urgent)
    The flaw significantly degrades the user experience for many users in a manner that affects commercial viability.
    24 hours****
    5 working days
    Bugs
    (Important)
    The flaw degrades the user experience for many users in a manner that reduces the quality of the product experience.
    24 hours****
    Target is current or upcoming release. It requires confirmation.
    Bugs
    (Normal)
    The flaw degrades the user experience for many users in a manner that in the long term would lead to unsatisfied end users.
    24 hours****
    It requires backlog prioritisation

    * Components in a pre-production stage of the development cycle do not have service level targets.

    ** You receive an acknowledgement of the request once CS has checked all the information required to proceed with the analysis of the issue. Further details may be requested by the CS team if necessary.

    *** CS informs you that the issue is resolved and ready for confirmation tests.

    **** 24 hours (on working days). Requires backlog prioritisation.