James Urquhart of CNET recently asked about the service levels offered by cloud computing providers. He suggested that many don’t meet the basic needs of enterprise customers in a number of areas, being mainly “self-service”. Even the supposed premium support offered by many isn’t up to the standards of enterprise users.
James presented a number of items that an “average joe” customer should be capable of, and we’d like to show how our service meets these needs:
- Collect data when a problem occurs - Nirvanix has a complete set of error response codes which are proactively presented to the customer if problems occur. We also have extensive internal logging mechanisms to track details of the system’s behavior so we can investigate the root cause of any issues.
- Report the problem with a click of a button - Nirvanix already offers a simple web form customers can use within our management portal to report any concerns. We are actively working to further improve and automate this facility.
- Have a "self-service" case created with fields where customers can track the progress they are making against issue resolution--and which can be "mined" by the vendor's support organization to discover trending bugs, etc. - Our issue reporting form (noted above) automatically creates a trackable ticket in our system. This kind of support tracking system is exactly what enterprise users have in-house and are used to working with. We are continually improving customer visibility of support status as well.
- Search documentation for workarounds or solutions without having to jump through hoops - The Nirvanix Developer Center has been very popular with users and developers alike. We have online documentation, code samples, and discussion forums where customers can ask and answer questions and share their experiences.
- Have the option to jump to a chat session or forum where he or she might get some help - The Nirvanix Developer Center forums are monitored by our support staff, and they respond to posts there in addition to our standard incident support communication channels.
- Have the option to select a one-time premium support option if a case warrants it - The Nirvanix Developer Center offers a high level of support across the board, and enterprise contracts include close personal support including live phone calls.
Nirvanix feels that the level of support called for in this CNET article is exactly what customers should demand, and we’re happy to be able to offer it to our customers today!