Support Holiday - August 2008
August 2008 Staff Holiday and Upcoming Product Release for SBS 2008
Support Staff Holiday: August 7 to August 21, 2008
To address key points that may concern our customers about our operations level during these two weeks (as well a preview of our new product rollout for SBS 2008 starting in September 2008), here’s an outline of what follows:
- Normal Services and Operations Not to be Affected
- Staffed Support Options to be Temporarily Affected
- Enhance Peer Support Delivered via Discussion Forums (free of charge)
- Swing Migration for SBS 2008 Pre-Release Testing begins September 2008
SBSmigration.com is taking the opportunity for a holiday, a 2 week staff break. For the period from August 7 to August 21, 2008 of the normal direct email and premium (voice/remote access) support options we routinely provide will be temporarily unavailable, but resume following this break.
Swing It!! with SBS 2008...starting in September 2008
This company holiday is specifically timed in advance of the upcoming release of SBS 2008 now scheduled for this fall, Microsoft recently announced November 12, 2008 as the date for first product shipments. Following our holiday break, we will devote full attention to working with our customers and in development and testing with the final RTM code version of SBS 2008 (Cougar) this fall. Starting in September 2008 we will begin to provide pre-release information for our subscription customers who wish to test and plan adoption of Swing Migration using Windows 2008 Server platforms including SBS 2008.
SBSmigration.com offers project solutions and support based upon the Swing Migration technique we introduced in 2004 with the Swing It!! Technician Kit. Every first purchase product incorporates a 90 days of unlimited support window for the first project. A typical project can be between 12-15 hours of work that you can address at your own pace over a period of weeks, even months. This allows the option to work with an open time-line, nothing to undo if a construction problem occurs. You have the ability to build and test a replacement server without altering or impacting operations on the existing server. Therefore, the option to defer a deployment date with minimal impact remains available. The overwhelming majority of our customers celebrate having a choice to avoid server construction work confined to only weekends or with the business down. A unique value provided by Swing Migration is the option to schedule a fully tested server constructed in advance with the choice of a deployment date on an evening or weekend, perhaps even a weekday when it is convenient.
For anyone curious, this represents the first time since opening of SBSmigration.com in October 2004 that free pre-sales and unlimited direct support will be temporarily unavailable. We will resume normal sales and support operations for the last week of August, and as mentioned above, begin roll-out some significant new products and expanded website features starting in September.
Normal Services and Operations (Not to be Affected)
While this holiday break will impact some of our value-added Technical Sales and Support services, SBSmigration.com will still maintain the following customer service during this period:
- Website Resources and Operations: All website based resources, order processing, product fulfillment and features will remain available as normal. Please note this includes the available project discussion forums hosted on SBSmigration.com which are always provided free with unlimited use to all customers with an active account. Essentially any question ever asked about Swing Migration has been already answered at least once in the forums, and this resource operates 24x7 for research and troubleshooting information.
- Non-Technical Customer Service: Routine telephone contact and informational questions will be routed through our customer service lines to staff who normally handle our annual IT Pro Conference events.
- Website Ordering/Operations Help Desk: For any website operations issues, our website hosting services help desk will remain staffed by KFX2 to assist with any issues related to orders, fulfillment, online operations, or account management issues. (KFX2 does not participate in migration project support, only website operations management.)
SBSmigration.com is a highly automated website, it features extensive product delivery and account management services available to our customers to address independently. Order processing and fulfillment tasks are by electronic downloads. Our project references are intended to be both educational and project oriented, and in fact to minimize the amount of technical support a customer may need on any particular project.
Staffed Support Options to be Temporarily Affected
SBSmigration.com normal customer service policy sustains a unique, worldwide delivery of migration project support responses spanning 365 day per year. For these two weeks the following three staffed support options will be suspended or impacted:
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Technical Pre-Sales Support: Complimentary technical sales consultation is normally offered during weekday business hours by phone or email. |
Telephone inquiries will be deferred until after August 21, 2008.
Inquiries submitted from the Feedback page will be monitored for non-technical customer service Q&A, but technical consulting will be deferred.
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1:1 Expert Project Support (direct email support queue): Opening a case provides 90 days of unlimited email support spanning 1 entire project. This is the support included in a “first purchase” Technician Kit or Duet Bundle, and is also available to customers to purchase separately for additional projects. This is typically handled 7 days a week. |
Any new Expert Project Support cases opened during this period will be monitored by non-technical customer service. Related project support will either deferred or as needed a referral to an outside support contractor may be provided with the option to make separate arrangements.
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Premium Hourly Support: Voice/Remote Access for direct contact by phone or remote access, billed on an hourly basis, and arranged in advance. |
For this two week period, all hourly support options will be suspended. As needed assistance with a referral to Microsoft or a support contractor may be provided with the option to make separate arrangements.
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Our customers have the option to work within the overall span of a 90 day window for 1:1 Expert Project Support. We are encouraging our customers schedule their work around this two week window if you wish to have direct assistance in a project. If you will proceed to work on a project during this two week period, please consider using the website discussion forums for peer level support as your first option. Also note the enhanced peer support we are arranging is discussed below.
In the event of a crisis situation, you may contact our customer service by phone or email for guidance. You can expect guidance in obtaining support services from Microsoft or with a recommendation for one of several professional support contractors we may be able to refer you to for technical assistance as an alternative to our premium support.
Enhance Peer Support Delivered via Discussion Forums (free of charge)
During the August 7 to August 21, 2008 period we have made arrangements for high-quality peer-level support monitoring by a number of experience support professionals to supplement normal peer discussions.
- Elevated Forum Support Arrangements: We are making a special arrangement with a number of experienced support professionals (though not our staff) will contribute daily “as peers” in monitoring discussions in the forums, and offering their experience during this time. This will ensure that a high quality level of attention and technical advice will be provided on a timely basis from the forums during this period.
- Website Discussion Forums Moderation: Our support staff normally monitor our online peer to peer discussion forums during the week and participate routinely to provide complimentary support on a low-priority basis. Monitoring and responses from our staff will likely be addressed following our return to normal schedule August 21, 2008.