Ascent Technology customer support services

Ascent Technology offers two levels of customer support services, Standard Support and Premium Support, to help customers use traditionally-licensed solutions productively and worry-free. Ascent Technology provides Premium Support for solutions acquired via Hosted services.

What Standard Support Services provides

Standard Support Services provides access to the Ascent Technology customer support team for remote assistance by telephone and email. It also provides access to a password-protected customer support website, where registered users can obtain technical information and download new product versions, patches, and documentation.

Hours of assistance: Monday–Friday, from 09:00–18:00 Cambridge, MA, time, excluding Ascent holidays
The expected response time for Severity Level 1 problems is two hours from the time Ascent Technology receives the request for support.

What Premium Support Services provides

Premium Support Services provides access to the Ascent Technology customer support team for remote assistance by telephone and email around the clock for critical system problems. It also provides access to a password-protected customer support website, where registered users can obtain technical information and download new product versions, patches, and documentation.

Hours of assistance for Severity Level 1 problems: 24 hours/day, 7 days/week
Hours of assistance for noncritical problems: Monday–Friday, from 09:00–18:00 Cambridge, MA, time, excluding Ascent holidays
The expected response time for Severity Level 1 problems is 30 minutes from the time Ascent Technology receives the request for support.

How to report a problem

When you need assistance with one of our solutions, speak with your authorized contact person, who is, typically, the user or system administrator in your organization that is responsible for the Ascent Technology solutions. Your authorized contact person serves as a single point of contact for your organization, aggregating problem reports, helping to assign problem-severity levels, and tracking problem-report resolutions.

When your authorized contact person determines that your problem should be reported to Ascent Technology, in general, he or she:

Sends a problem report via telephone call or e-mail message to the Ascent Technology customer support team
Calls the customer support hotline number, if it is an emergency and your organization has a Premium support agreement.

What happens when you report a problem

When you report a problem, Ascent Technology logs it in an incident-tracking database and assigns a severity level to it. The incident-tracking database contains a history of all problem reports, including the contents of the report, when the report was made, the name of the person who made the report, and information that can be used to reproduce the problem. Each incident report includes a history of steps Ascent Technology followed to resolve the problem.

Ascent Technology tackles more severe problems before working on less severe problems.

Resolving your problem may involve refreshing your memory about how to operate a certain part of the solution. Other times, Ascent Technology may need to install a software patch on your system to resolve the problem. Real-time repair technology generally makes it possible to fix your system while you continue to do your work.

How we classify problem-severity levels

Severity level Description Explanation Response time
1 Critical A fault that causes all or most of the solution to fail, leading to a loss of service to all or many users Premium Support: 30 minutes, 24x7x365. Standard Support: 2 hours, during Ascent Technology's regular business hours*
2 Major A fault that causes a portion of the solution to fail, leading to a loss of service to some users. Typically there is no workaround, and the problem could lead to a critical failure if not resolved in a reasonable amount of time Premium and Standard Support: 4 hours, during Ascent Technology’s regular business hours*
3 Minor A fault that causes a minor portion of the solution to fail, which may typically have a work-around procedure, and does not impede most users in their ability to perform their jobs Premium and Standard Support: 24 hours, during Ascent Technology’s regular business hours*
4 Request A request for a CD, documentation, or an explanation of product functionality Premium and Standard Support: notification of receipt of your request within one day; delivery of CD, documentation, or * Ascent Technology's regular business hours are Monday through Friday, 09:00–18:00 Cambridge, MA, USA, time, excluding Ascent holidays.

Severity level	Description	Explanation	Response time
1	Critical	A fault that causes all or most of the solution to fail, leading to a loss of service to all or many users	Premium Support: 30 minutes, 24x7x365. Standard Support: 2 hours, during Ascent Technology's regular business hours*
2	Major	A fault that causes a portion of the solution to fail, leading to a loss of service to some users. Typically there is no workaround, and the problem could lead to a critical failure if not resolved in a reasonable amount of time	Premium and Standard Support: 4 hours, during Ascent Technology’s regular business hours*
3	Minor	A fault that causes a minor portion of the solution to fail, which may typically have a work-around procedure, and does not impede most users in their ability to perform their jobs	Premium and Standard Support: 24 hours, during Ascent Technology’s regular business hours*
4	Request	A request for a CD, documentation, or an explanation of product functionality	Premium and Standard Support: notification of receipt of your request within one day; delivery of CD, documentation, or * Ascent Technology's regular business hours are Monday through Friday, 09:00–18:00 Cambridge, MA, USA, time, excluding Ascent holidays.