Yes, 24-hour support is available. Autovation provides three Support Plans from which to choose.

Priority  provides support during normal business hours defined as 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM (MST) Monday through Friday excluding holidays. This plan features:

• Phone support as needed to resolve product defects
• Remote dial-in capabilities to diagnose and resolve problems
• Problem reporting, tracking, monitoring and resolution
• Service requests classified by severity level
• Product upgrades including major and point-level releases

Encompass  includes all of the features of the Priority with expanded hours of coverage to 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.

Custom  provides customized support for clients based on special business needs which can include all of the features of the Encompass plan and include any of the following:

• Semi-annual/annual assessment of system operations
• Semi-annual/annual audit of backup and recovery procedures
• Assistance in planning for new releases, updates and major modifications
• Priority routing and response to product defects
• First level user support
• Computer support outsourcing
• DBA outsourcing

Autovation Customer Support consists of two levels of support, the Support Engineer and Developer Support.

The Customer Service Support Engineer is the primary contact for clients seeking support. The Support Engineer can resolve most issues related to product usage or data problems. They are responsible for in depth research and analysis of software or database issues, devising workarounds, coordinating additional resources in identifying resolution or implementing enhancements.

Developer Support provides a high level of expertise and support in the expert analysis of Autovation applications software, database, OS, device interface issues.

Autovation recommends that a client designates a limited number of contacts to resolve first level help desk support, resolve miscellaneous operations issues, and coordinate second level support requests to Autovation. Problems may be escalated toAutovation's help desk through these contacts should issues remain unresolved.

Support calls are prioritized by level of severity.

Level 1- A problem that seriously affects the operations of the business such as a system crash, or one that prevents production to continue, is considered critical and is given the utmost priority. Autovation will provide its best effort to restart the system or resolve the issues immediately. Autovation Customer Service management is immediately informed of all level 1 problems.

Level 2- Problems that affect the business, but do not threaten production, or have a workaround, are considered to be important and are assigned a high priority. The resolution for these types of problems will be assigned to the earliest possible scheduled maintenance release.

Level 3- Requests for information are prioritized after level 1 and level 2 problems and are dealt with in a first in first out manner.

Your Support Engineer provides the initial response to system issues or questions. When additional or special expertise (e.g. RF, database, UNIX, mapping & configuration, etc.) is required, problem resolution will involve Lead Engineers or Developers. Customer Support management is informed of the need to escalate a problem by the support engineer. The Customer Support Manager then calls in the appropriate help.

An engineer works on a critical issue such as a system crash with the goal of achieving an immediate solution. If a prompt solution is not apparent, the engineer will then seek assistance. Typically no longer than one hour is spent trying to solve a problem before help is called.

The Manager of Customer Support also reviews all reported issues to ensure that each issue receives the proper priority and escalation path.

Typical calls involve product usage problems, operator errors, data problems, requesting a change to the application, crash recovery or upgrade issues.

A toll free number (1-800 680-0656) to contact Autovation National Customer Service Center is available to clients 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Clients under a Support Agreement have assigned Support Engineers. The engineer assigned to resolve the reported incident will act as the contact person. The Customer Service Center personnel log the call and determine the proper call dispatching that should occur. The call is then routed to the assigned Support Engineer.

We provide each client with a set of product documentation. Product training classes are offered on a scheduled basis for each of our product options. Customized training plans are also offered.

Autovation provides comprehensive product training which ranges from end user training to system administrator training.

Autovation recommends that each client have their in-house experts and system administrator attend Autovation's training course.

At a minimum, we require clients to provide us with dial up capability to help diagnose problems. Autovation also recommends that each client maintain a QA (test) environment separate from their production environment.

Yes, the Customer Support engineers all attend a series of product training courses. Additionally, the Customer Support engineers are periodically sent to training courses provided by our vendors such as SUN, HP, IBM, Oracle, or Microsoft.

Autovation can provide hardware support if the client desires. Typically, this type of support is tailored to each client’s specific hardware environment and support requirements.

With a hardware support agreement in place, Autovation will act as a centralized point of contact to help ensure rapid problem resolution.

Should the client elect to maintain individual support agreements with each hardware vendor, Autovation will advise the client on the issue and refer any hardware problem to the client for resolution with the appropriate vendor.

By having Autovation serve as the single point of contact for all systems issues, conflict between various vendors is eliminated which typically results in faster response and less frustration for all parties.

Over the years Autovation has built very good working relationship with many vendors and will act on the client’s behalf to obtain a timely solution.

Autovation has 13 Customer Support and Development engineers located in our Salt Lake City office.

Most engineers have a B.S. degree in a technical discipline (usually Computer Science). The level of experience is very broad ranging from 1 to 26 years of experience. Senior and Lead Engineers have 8 to 13 years of experience.

The Level 1 response time during regular business hours is typically ten to fifteen minutes. Level 1 response time outside of our normal business hours is generally one hour or less.

When our engineers are not directly resolving an issue for a client, they are performing software maintenance, software modifications or enhancements, operating system or database upgrades, technical writing, or training.

To assist Autovation engineers to understand and resolve an issue efficiently, clients are requested to provide as much detail as possible regarding the problem when placing calls or e-mails.

Calls to the Customer Service Center should be initiated by the client’s designated representative that provides 1st level help desk support for the Autovation software. When reporting a problem, have the following information ready.

• Company name and site location
• Autovation support contract number
• Name of caller and main client point of contact regarding the problem.
• Phone number where we can call you
• Identify the software you are using
• Provide a short description of the problem
• Have available specific details of the problem to review with the Support Engineer
  • What happened
  • What is wrong
  • What was done to trouble shoot the problem
  • Where the associated data can be found
  • What results will judge that the problem has been resolved

During normal business hours you will be transferred to a Customer Service Support Engineer to begin working on the problem. Outside of normal business hours a Customer Service Support Engineer will be immediately paged or contacted via cell phone.