Some Changes to how we handle Support

Some big changes are coming to the SciChart website in the near future. In about a week, the SciChart support forums will be turned off, and we will stop handling support and sales requests by email. After that time, the forums will remain online for archive purposes, but will not be moderated or answered. Email will be redirected to a new ticketing based system.

This is part of our long term vision and strategy for 2014 to improve customer service and streamline our business operations, so we can focus on building better software for you, the user.

New! support.scichart.com – In Beta Now

So, what will replace the SciChart Forums and email as support? Well, we have an awesome Support Site up and running right now! This is in Beta and being used by a few early adopters. Some of you may have already received tickets after contacting us via email. We expect some, but not too many, teething problems 🙂

This is a fully featured ticketing-based support system and you can create an account now and submit tickets to us if you have questions. Go ahead! Create a ticket! The team is able to pick them up now.

Email Channels will route to support tickets

This is set up now. If you currently send us an email via the contact form, it creates a ticket in the support system. However, you can also email us direct, a ticket and user-account will be created on your behalf:

• For sales enquiries, email [email protected]
• For support enquiries, email [email protected]

It’s that simple! Drop us an email, the system will create you a ticket and we will respond.

News, not Tutorials at www.scichart.com/tutorials

The Tutorials page on the SciChart website will become a news page. Tutorials from here will be duplicated on the support site, and then we will use the scichart.com/news as a blog to announce updates, latest news.

New SciChart.com Website

Also at about the same time, we will be switching over the scichart.com website for a new look, to present the information we have in a clearer way and help users find what you they looking for more easily.

New Searchable Knowledgebase (Coming soon)

The new support site will feature a knowledge-base of around 50-100 articles about our API, common features and Frequently Asked Questions, which are being written now. This will replace the old documentation and will be searchable and browsable via support.scichart.com. It will also search as you type new tickets, e.g. ask us about something, with a bit of luck, it should suggest appropriate answers!

… If not, our staff will be on hand to suggest the best way to achieve something. Also we intend for the knowledge base to be dynamic, e.g. as you ask, if its a frequently asked question, we will create a new article so future users can find it.

It’s all part of our plan to streamline how we handle support, handle your requests and hear feedback from the users of SciChart. We intend this to free us up so we can provide A-Grade support, but also have the time to develop better features and new products.

New Premium Support for customers in-support subscription (Coming Soon)

So, currently we have email channels and forums open to all, trial users, paid users, users whose support has expired, users who have pirated our software 😉 We know many of our customers by name, but as we are growing it is becoming harder to keep track of who is who.

We want to prioritise support for our extremely valuable customers, yet also serve trial users for a limited period of time to give them a feel for how we do things before they become customers. In order to do that, we have to prevent giving valuable support time to users whose support has expired, or who have been trialling indefinitely.

Initially support.scichart.com will be open to all, however we have in development now an activation system that will link your license key / licensed user to the support system, so we will be able to see who has an active support subscription. Also part of this work we wish to give you the customer a page where you can see your account details and see licensing information. This will also tie in with an implementation of per-developer licensing/activation, which is coming later in the year.

Don’t worry, we’re not changing our licensing model on you! SciChart will remain a per-developer, royalty-free, perpetual and non-exclusive licensed product. We are just building systems that will help us keep track of our licensing model, which is necessary now that our business is growing and there are more people to serve.

Conclusion

So that’s a roundup of the website changes, coming very soon! We hope you’ll get great value out of them, especially the support system. A lot of thought has gone into how best to serve a growing customer base, remain responsive yet efficient so we can keep growing and building, serving you for years to come!

Best regards,
[SciChart HQ]