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  • MCL Support Interaction Guide

    Introduction

    MCL-Technologies consider technical support to be a very important part of the complete customer experience.

    That is why we provide technical support from the moment someone starts to explore MCL products and long after purchase/installation.

    The MCL-Technologies Support team provides third level technical assistance for all MCL products.

    Generally, our support is given to our VAR customer community (VAR = value added reseller / integrator).

    The current focus is on MCL version 4. All recently qualified devices are added to the V4 suite.

    The V3 legacy suite is still supported but limited to existing packages and corresponding knowledge base.

    We have created this document to facilitate the interactions with MCL-Support so our customer gets the specific help he needs in the fastest time possible.

    The topics below point to the available documentation on MCL products, describe how to submit a support ticket, explain that ticket’s life cycle and provide additional information on MCL Support’s scope.  

    Preliminary Action to Contacting MCL Support

    Prior to contacting MCL Support / opening a ticket, we encourage everyone to consult the existing MCL documentation which is available online:

    • On the MCL-Technologies website

                        Our website’s “Resources” area includes user guides of MCL products, sample applications with the corresponding project notes and specific technical documentation, all available for download.

                        http://www.mclv4.mcl-collection.com/appsgallery.php  (Sample Apps section)

                        http://www.mclv4.mcl-collection.com/documentation.php  (Documentation section)

    •  On the MCL Support center

                        This center includes not only a ticketing platform but also a Knowledge Base with advanced technical documentation you can download. To access the knowledge base, you must create a profile and log in.

                         https://community.mcl-technologies.com/files/

     

    There is also offline documentation you can consult – in addition to online help, most of our MCL Products provide offline user guides.  

    Support Ticket’s Life Cycle

    If your consultation of the available MCL documentation is not enough to solve your issue(s), you should contact MCL Support. When you contact our MCL Support team your request for support is logged in our system (meaning, a ticket is submitted in our MCL Support center) and it is assigned to a technical support engineer.

    The support ticket’s stages are:

    Collecting the necessary information so MCL Support can diagnose the problem.

    • Submitting a support request (via MCL Support center or email contact) containing the collected information.
    • Working with the technical support engineer to solve the issue.
    • Closing the support ticket once it is confirmed that the provided solution works.  

    Collecting the Necessary Information

    Below are some key pieces of information that will allow MCL Support to understand the issue and present you with a speedy solution:

    • Describe the issue.
    • Provide the device type(s) and operating system(s) affected by the issue.
    • Provide the MCL-Agent, MCL-Client, MCL-Designer, MCL-Net versions related to the issue.
    • Describe the steps taken so far to troubleshoot the issue.
    • If it is reproducible, provide step-by-step instructions on how to reproduce the issue.
    • If it is not reproducible, provide the specific actions that lead to the issue/ unexpected behavior.
    • Is it a consistent or intermittent issue?
    • Is the issue replicated in another computer, operating system, browser, device, location, and/or network?
    • Does the issue persist when tested within a test environment or with another device type?
    • Provide the number of affected sites/devices/operators as well the total number of sites/devices/operators running in your project.
    • Refer the date, time, and time zone when issue occurred.
    • Provide any logs that show the issue, marking all the occurrences in the log.
    • Provide any operator feedback that can help trace the issue.
    • Provide any relevant file, such as configuration files, screenshots, sample project showing the issue, etc..

           Note.jpg.39b21827ef9ba161c269463382c37dc6.jpg Remember, the more information is provided early on, the easier/faster it will be to evaluate, analyze and solve the reported issue.  

    Contacting MCL Support

    If you need MCL Support assistance, use one of the following available contacts:

    Submitting a Support Ticket in the MCL Support Center

    This is the recommended way to contact MCL Support. The MCL Support center allows you to manage your support tickets (ex: access recent ticket history), provides advanced technical documentation which is available for download in the Knowledge Base section and, most importantly, uses interactive ticketing forms to help you submit a ticket.

    •  Ticketing form - Filling in all the fields provides essential information that allows the MCL Support team to evaluate your issue and present a solution.
    • One issue/one ticket – Submit a ticket for each issue. Having several issues contained into one ticket quickly becomes confusing and is NOT efficient in terms of a quick and accurate response.  

    Sending an Email to MCL Support

    Email: support@mcl-support.com

    This is an alternative for contacting MCL Support which originates an automatic ticket in our ticketing platform. However, the generated ticket will NOT have the necessary information the MCL Support team requires to analyze/solve the reported issue. So, please, be sure to include as much detail as possible in your email.   

    Viewing and Updating Open Support Tickets

    You can view the status of your support ticket(s) by logging in to our MCL Support center:

    https://mcl-technologies.kayako.com/conversations

    You can add comments and/or upload files to your support ticket at any time - files up to 10MB in size can be uploaded directly to the center.

    If you need to upload a larger file, you can share an FTP site with MCL Support.   

    Working with the Technical Support Engineer

    Once you contact MCL Support and the corresponding ticket is generated, that ticket is assigned to a technical support engineer. He will be your main contact to provide the necessary technical support and guidance.

    A technical support engineer is responsible for:

    • Responding to your contact by email or telephone.
    • Recreating your technical environment/circumstances to replicate and troubleshoot the reported issue.
    • Researching, identifying and solving the issue and any subsequent issues.
    • Working with the MCL-Technologies development team to solve reported and/or subsequent issues.

     The technical support engineer that is assigned to your ticket follows its evolution until the ticket is closed.

    It may be necessary for him to contact you via email or telephone, during this time, to be able to fully diagnose the issue and/or run tests to confirm the provided solution. It is your responsibility to ensure that the people with knowledge about the reported issue and any necessary resources are available to work with the technical support engineer. These are some of the things the technical support engineer may contact you for:

    •  Ask for more detailed information.
    • Request that you install specific software and/or patches.
    • Request specific debug data from your system and, if necessary, ask you to conduct related tests and generate the corresponding data.
    • Ask you specific questions so he can try to reproduce the issue in our test devices.
    • Request a sample project (smaller project that only contains the problem elements/context), data files or database information.
    • Ask you to implement and test workaround suggestions that may bypass the problem.
    • Request you involve specific networking, database, or other technology administrators to help troubleshoot.
    • Work with you to involve relevant third party software or hardware vendors, in case there is a suspicion of issues in a third party product (for example, your device’s manufacturer).

         Note.jpg.39b21827ef9ba161c269463382c37dc6.jpg Sometimes, it is impossible to isolate the reported issue in a sample project. In that case, it may be necessary for you to share the entire project and provide the necessary information so the technical support engineer can narrow it down to the command/process/control causing the behavior. In other words, you must give step-by-step instructions so MCL Support can replicate the issue.

         Note.jpg.39b21827ef9ba161c269463382c37dc6.jpg Keep in mind that MCL Support may not have access to the target host system for testing (network limitation, etc.).

        Note.jpg.39b21827ef9ba161c269463382c37dc6.jpg At first glance, some cases may appear difficult to replicate. We recommend the logging of all cases detected (small diary), by either the developer and/or the end-user, specifically, the actions that precede each logged case. This will help find a pattern, and even if a pattern is not identified, it will help to build up a possible reproduction scenario.

         Note.jpg.39b21827ef9ba161c269463382c37dc6.jpg It is important to have your contact details up-to-date. 

    Bug Report

    Whenever a bug is confirmed by the technical support engineer, the MCL Support team informs you and takes care of its resolution. When a fix is available you are informed and, then, the corresponding support ticket can be closed. 

    Closing a Support Ticket

    A support ticket is typically closed when you confirm the provided solution works or if MCL Support does not hear back from you after two contact attempts over a period of, at least, 5 business days.

    Support tickets may be closed if there is currently no available solution for the reported issue or if an issue is considered invalid. 

    Customer Satisfaction Surveys

    After a support ticket is closed, you are invited by email to fill out a short survey about your experience. Your feedback is the only way to measure how well MCL Support is meeting your expectations.

    Customer satisfaction surveys give you the opportunity to provide MCL-Technologies with valuable information to help improve our interaction with you and develop a support service that matches your needs.   

    Support Policy and Scope

    MCL-Technologies normally intervene on confirmed faults detected in their software.

    MCL products must run on systems/devices that are qualified/supported. If an unexpected behavior is identified in an unsupported system/device, MCL - Technologies cannot be held responsible and a fix may not be available.

    In any case, help can be provided in order to find a workaround.

    The MCL Support team does not usually perform direct debugging/testing in your systems. It is up to you to apply the provided fixes in the target system, with MCL Support advising as much as possible within its scope.  

    Feature Requests

     Your input is always welcome, however, it is not possible for the MCL Support team to process feature or enhancement requests. Please contact our sales department.


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