Contacting Customer Support
Customer Support at Sparkrock is staffed by qualified professionals who will assist in resolving your software issues.
Hours of Operation
Online Customer Support case activity is monitored between the hours of 8:00 am to 8:00 pm* EST Monday through Friday. Depending on your Support plan, services may be available to you After hours.
*or as specified in your Support Plan
Contacting Support
Customers are able to log a “case” with relevant information to enable Sparkrock support staff to quickly understand the nature and severity of the issue and assign it to an “owner” for resolution. Sparkrock may request additional information, such as issue reproduction steps, data files, screen captures, log files from the Customer to validate and work on a support case.
- Online at https://success.sparkrock.com (preferred method)
- By email at support@sparkrock.com
Online Case Management Credentials
Depending on your Support plan, credentials are provided for between 2-5 of your core team members. The expectation is that these core team members are designated as subject matter experts and will troubleshoot any questions, issues, and requests from your end users. Should they require assistance to respond or resolve any questions or issues, the named contact with credentials will open a Support case with Sparkrock and also be responsible for closing the case online, once the question or issue has been resolved. You may replace any contact with credentials from time to time, by submitting a request online.
Sparkrock Community Member
Credentials are provided to the Sparkrock Customer Success Center for all contacts, from your organization. Please notify Sparkrock of any contact changes, by emailing support@sparkrock.com
Case Severity
Customers are asked to assign a severity to their cases based on the definitions below. Severity levels should reflect the impact on your organization and are subject to verification by Sparkrock.
| Type | Definition |
|---|---|
| S1 – Critical | A critical or material function of the Sparkrock Solutions is unavailable to all users and no workaround is available. |
| S2 – High | An important function of the Sparkrock Solutions is unavailable and there is no workaround. |
| S3 – Medium | A critical or important function of the Sparkrock Solutions is unavailable, but there is a workaround, or a non-critical or non-important feature cannot be used as intended. |
| S4 – Low | A non-critical or non-important feature of the Sparkrock Solutions cannot be used as intended, but a workaround is available. |
Support Response based on Severity
For customers in Support, Sparkrock aims to meet the following response times to cases, according to the severity of the issue.
| Severity | Response Time | Updates until resolution |
|---|---|---|
| S1 – Critical * | 2 hours | Every 1/2 business day |
| S2 – High | 1/2 business day | 1 business day or as agreed to in each situation |
| S3 – Medium | 2 business days | As agreed to in each situation |
| S4 – Low | 5 business days | As agreed to in each situation |
* Response times will be doubled After Hours.
Case Stage
Depending on where the incident is in the process it is assigned a Stage as follows:
| Stage | Description |
|---|---|
| New | The case has been logged but not assigned yet. |
| Investigation/In Progress | The case has been assigned to Technical, Developer, Consultant or Support Staff at Sparkrock. |
| Not Reproducible | The issue cannot be reproduced again. |
| Estimate | The issue or request involves a quote being provided and Sparkrock staff are working on providing this. |
| Development | The case has been escalated to the development team so a solution can be provided. |
| Testing | If the case has required development it is currently being tested. |
| On Hold | The Customer does not want any work to be done at the moment to resolve the case and does not want to remove it from the list of cases being tracked. |
| Updated by Customer | This is a workflow generated setting that occurs when the customer has updated or added a note to their case. |
| Waiting for Customer | Sparkrock Support Staff have worked on the case and are waiting for the Customer to reply. More information may be needed, the Customer may be required to sign off on additional time required to resolve the case, etc. |
| Waiting for 3rd Party Vendor | Some aspects of a Customer’s solution may have involved deployment of a 3rd party product (i.e. a software product that was not published by Sparkrock). Examples of these products include Microsoft Dynamics NAV or CRM, JET Reports, KwikTag’s, and the like. In some cases, Sparkrock needs to contact these vendors regarding actual or perceived software defects. If there are actual defects, Sparkrock will ask on behalf of the Customer for resolution. Our Customers may wait for the 3rd Party Vendor to fix the issue in a release or hotfix, or they may wish to engage Sparkrock to devise a shorter term fix. Such fixes will be provided on a time and materials basis and managed through a Work Order. |
| Delivered | Objects or Employee Center package delivered to the customer, waiting for confirmation of object deployment and testing. |
| Complete | Sparkrock has solved the issue and is waiting for the customer to confirm. |
Case Closure
Reminders will be sent for cases with the following statuses, if no response is received, they will be automatically closed.
| Case Status | Email notification | Closure |
|---|---|---|
| Complete/Delivered | No reminders sent | After 10 Business Days. |
| Waiting for Customer | First reminder after 2 Business Days Second reminder after 4 Business Days |
After 6 Business Days. |
Note: Answering the initial email or adding a note will keep the case open.