Bugs – Any request that is submitted to the Tour de Force CRM Professional Services Team and determined to be the result of a bug in the Tour de Force CRM software application is not charged support credits, regardless of the time spent by Tour de Force CRM on the request. A “bug” is defined as any issue that requires code change by the Tour de Force development staff to rectify.
Any request that involves a problem specific to a single user’s computer or specific to the client’s network environment, and is not repeatable on other user’s computers or other client networks are not considered to be bugs, unless code changes are made to resolve the request. These types of support requests are considered to be an environment type of request.
New Feature Requests – Any request that is submitted to the Tour de Force CRM Professional Services Team and determined to be an enhancement to the Tour de Force CRM software application is not charged support credits. The input of users is critical to the continued development lifecycle of the Tour de Force CRM application.
The Tour de Force CRM Professional Services Team strongly recommends submitting all new Feature Requests through the Tour de Force CRM web support site. All Feature Requests that are submitted can easily be tracked through the support site to check the status of the request directly from the Tour de Force CRM development database.
Standard Requests – A Standard Request will typically be handled by the Tour de Force CRM Professional Services Team, and will typically fall into one of the following categories:
- Commonly asked questions not found in the knowledge base.
- Assistance using standard functionality within Tour de Force.
- Training on how to use specific utilities within the TDF Admin Console.
- Assistance running a Tour de Force Administrative utility.
- Requests for the Tour de Force Professional Services Team to perform server side upgrades.
- Troubleshooting basic issues related to a user, which is not seen by other users.
- Confirming that the TDF Services, such as Email Logging, are set up and running properly.
- Confirming the base components of MS Office and MS Outlook, such as CDO, MDAC, and the .NET Framework, are properly installed.
When required, a Standard Request can be escalated to the environment consultant or business consultant that is assigned to the client’s account.
Escalated Requests – Prior to a support agent escalating a Standard Request to a consultant, the client must approve the escalation of the request due to the nature of how escalated requests are charged.
Some examples of requests that may be escalated to the consulting team are:
- Environment Requests
- Consulting to Define Business Processes
- Web Training Requests
- Business System Integration – Data Reconciliation
- Instructor Led Training
Environment Requests – Requests for assistance in troubleshooting or identifying environment related issues that are specific to a client’s IT infrastructure or a specific computer at the client are not considered to be Tour de Force CRM specific. Environment requests are typically related to issues on the client’s network that are impacting the overall speed and performance of how Tour de Force CRM is operating on the client’s network. Some examples of requests that are considered Environment Requests by the Tour de Force CRM Professional Services Team are as follows:
- Troubleshooting remote connectivity issues that Tour de Force CRM users at the client are having using a VPN or other remote access method.
- Troubleshooting any issues that arise as a result of the upgrade of any server or client workstation that is running a component of Tour de Force CRM and was working prior to the upgrade of the server.
- Troubleshooting any issues that arise as a result of moving any Tour de Force CRM server side component, such as the Email Logging Service or BSI Connector, to a new server.
- Troubleshooting performance bottlenecks that exist on a client’s network.
- Consulting and/or support related to network infrastructure changes and/or hardware and software changes affecting SQL server or Exchange server.
- Consulting and/or support related to any disaster recovery of a server that impacts the stability of Tour de Force CRM.
- Requests for assistance using Tour de Force CRM with other 3rd party applications such as MS Outlook, MS Word, Crystal Reports, etc.
It is strongly recommended that the client contacts the Tour de Force CRM Professional Services Team prior to a major environmental change such as a new server or upgrade to an existing server, in order to avoid any unnecessary charges that may result from issues related to the upgrade.
Consulting to Define Business Processes is a common function performed by a Tour de Force CRM Business Consultant. After the initial installation of Tour de Force CRM, clients often need assistance setting up the best practices and business processes required to take advantage of new and/or advanced functionality that is offered within the Tour de Force CRM solution that may not have been a part of the original project scope. As a part of a client’s maintenance plan, support credits can be used for the consulting time required by Tour de Force CRM to assist the client with this type of need.
Customization Requests sometimes result from specific needs that a client has that and are not supported through the configuration tools available in Tour de Force CRM. In these cases, the Tour de Force CRM Professional Services Team will quote the client for customizations in two different manners. The customization quote will be based on a fixed price or based on an estimate of hours with a not to exceed amount. Any customization developed by Tour de Force CRM for a client is not covered by the maintenance plan. When software upgrades are performed on the client’s systems, it is the responsibility of the client to fully test any customizations that they have purchased. Any additional development time that is required by Tour de Force CRM in order for the customization to work on a new release will be billed to the client through support credits or direct invoicing.
Business System Integration – Data Reconciliation requests often require the assistance of a consultant and the Tour de Force CRM development team. During the implementation of Tour de Force CRM the Professional Services Team works closely with the client’s team to make sure all BSI data is accurate and properly reconciled to the sales numbers being reported by the business system. The client is responsible for reporting any discrepancies in the BSI data to Tour de Force CRM during the “Data Reconciliation” phase of the implementation. During the implementation project, Tour de Force CRM will allocate time for the data reconciliation process to the budgeted line item provided to the client in the original quotation for the project. After the implementation has been completed, time spent by Tour de Force CRM reconciling BSI data will be considered billable time through support credits. If, during the process of reconciling the data the issue is found to be related to a bug in the BSI Connector or in the Tour de Force CRM application, support credits will not be charged. If the issue is related to how information is being captured from the business system related to something unique to the client’s environment, support credits will be charged.
Web Training Requests are those requests that fall outside of the category of a standard request and require time spent on-line to educate or consult a user on best practices or specific functionality when using Tour de Force CRM. Commonly, a Web Training Request is a request that would normally be covered in a customer training class.
Instructor Led Customer Training is available on a periodic basis for Tour de Force CRM Product Champions, Tour de Force Administrators, and Tour de Force Users. Instructor led training classes are hosted by a Tour de Force CRM Business Consultant at Tour de Force CRM or at a public location. Classes are typically ½ to 1½ days in length.