The following article appeared in Ricardo’s Software Quarterly magazine, describing the online customer support system created by Anthony for Ricardo Software customers:
On-line interactive support service launched
Following an extensive period of pilot testing with a number of its customers, Ricardo Software is pleased to announce the launch of its new on-line interactive support system which enables users to monitor, review and manage the progress of their own support enquiries.
For customers, the effective co-ordination of support enquiries can save considerable time and duplication of effort, particularly for licensees with a large user base of engineers using multiple products. Support enquiries have long been managed by Ricardo on a central database and the new interactive system works by providing direct internet access to key information within the database relating to support issues raised by each company.
Confidentiality between customers remains of the highest priority and access is available to only the enquiries raised by users within their own company. Volkswagen has been among the first to evaluate the new system, having commenced internal roll-out nearly six months ago. “We encouraged Ricardo to develop this system and we have been very pleased with it," explains Dr. Christoph Lund of the CAE methodology department, which is responsible for the use of CAE systems throughout Volkswagen. "Our experience has been that in comparison with those of other commercial CAE software vendors, the Ricardo Software on-line support system is among the best we have used. It provides a high degree of transparency and an efficient system both for ourselves and for Ricardo as software provider.”
To invoke the interactive on-line support system each licensee organisation needs to nominate an 'administrator', who will be provided with access to an on-line toolset enabling them to set up new accounts for individual software users within the company and to ascribe a range of access privileges to each of them. At the most basic level users can see a listing of enquiries raised by users in their company including the initiation date and unique reference ID, the user who has raised the enquiry, the software product it relates to and a summary of the problem. Solving complex CAE software support problems is often an interactive process between the user and the software vendor and, crucially, the system provides an indication of whether the customer or Ricardo is responsible for the next action, thereby avoiding the problem left "hanging". By clicking on the reference number the user is able to review a web-log of e-mail communications held on the enquiry in order to investigate the precise state of progress.
A second level of user access privilege allows individuals to review details of all support enquiries open with their company or site in addition to those they have raised themselves. Separately, a further level of permission can enable selected users to download bug fixes or software patches. The distribution of such access privileges will clearly vary between different licensee organisations depending upon company IT and CAE management policies, which is why administration of the system is carried out by the licensee administrator and not Ricardo.
Customers can invoke the new interactive support system at their organisation by sending an e-mail request to RS_support@ricardo.com and stating the name and full contact details of the person who will act as administrator. Subject to appropriate checks of existing support and licensee records held by Ricardo, this person will then be e-mailed an administrator user name and password. At the first log-on, the administrator is prompted to accept the terms and conditions relating to use of this facility. This is necessary due to the confidentiality and legal issues (such as data protection) which arise from the delegation of control of the system to the licensee company. Thereafter, operation of the system is entirely in the hands of the customer and the administrator may add or delete user accounts and assign access privileges as required.
Scanned version of the article.