Creating a case

1. SalesForce - ProQuest & Ex Libris Support

2. Login at Login link at upper right

   Open

   

3. Submit a case

   Open

   

4. Platform/Service: choose Ex Libris

5. Asset: Choose what best covers the part of the ULMS affected by the issue

   • Alma: Issues affecting Alma functionality, bib/item records & holdings and other back-end functionality

   • Primo: Issues affecting search, retrieval of results, front-facing UI configuration and similar issues

   • CDI: (add text here)

   • Rapido: Issues affecting Rapido functionality

   • Alma Data Services: Issues with specific electronic collections, portfolios, and other components of the knowledge base

   • bX: Issues with bX recommender results

6. To fill this form out in a hurry, you only need to fill out these sections: Priority, Case Type, Subject and Description.

• Priority: Use Ex Libris definitions to determine priority level

  • System/component down: Service or module isn’t working (also see 24X7 Hub System Down Support FAQ  for more on reporting critical outages to Ex Libris Support.)

  • High: Performance-related issue, typically functionality not working at all

  • Medium: Non-performance related incidents

  • Low: low-priority issues or questions with no specific timeline

• Case Type will differ depending on the asset chosen. Defect/System Issue or Defect/Regression are good default choices if nothing else looks right. 

• Subject should be a short summary of the issue of question at hand

• Description:

  • Describe what’s happening, including what was expected and what happened instead. (Examples provided by Lauren Magnuson)

    • THIS:  

      • In Alma under purchase order lines > Search for a PO Line, if I perform a search (for example, POL) and then click the Tools > Excel button, nothing happens.  No waiting icon appears in the center of the screen and the Excel file does not download.

    • NOT THIS:

      • “Excel downloading is not working in Alma”.  Why not? It may be the case that Excel downloading is working elsewhere in the system, so you need to be very specific about how and where you encountered the problem.

    • Example of describing what was expected:  I would expect an Excel file containing all of the PO Lines to download to my computer, but no file is downloaded.

  • Describe scope and impact of the issue

  • Describe frequency- does this happen every time, randomly, or just once or twice?

  • Have you made any changes to the system that might be related?

  • Describe steps taken to troubleshoot the issue:

    • Example: I’ve already tried logging in and out of Alma, trying multiple browsers (Firefox and Chrome), restarting my computer, and using another computer with a different user account, and the problem is not resolved. To check permissions, I checked with colleagues to see if they were experiencing the same issue. They verified it is not permissions.

  • Provide a test patron or test proxy user that ExL can use to troubleshoot and replicate the issue

    • Also provide info to help reproduce the issue: Examples: provide MMS IDs of record examples, item barcode, PO line number, screenshots, transaction numbers, job IDs, permalinks in Primo, etc.  For particularly complex examples, you may want to record a quick screencast to provide evidence of the problem you are seeing.

  • Include screenshots or files that illustrate the issue

• Additional e-mails:

  • Add anyone at your campus who will need to track progress of the issue. You can add up to 5 other emails addresses and they will be cc’d on everything about the ticket.

  • Include CO staff to help them track the issue:

    • Christina Hennessey for Alma or Primo issues

    • Jessica Hartwigsen for ERM issues, or eresourceshelp@lists.calstate.edu in order to reach more e-resources support in the CO

    • Chris Lee for CSU+, Rapido or RapidILL issues

    • Christina Hennessey for anything high priority or in need of careful watching
      
      

Managing cases

Once you have submitted the ticket, you will get an email with the ticket number. You can then add anything you like to the case in the Manage Cases area.

Example case:

Things to know:

• Normal status cases should have a response within 2 business days (High = 1 business day, Low = 3 business days)

• Note that opening multiple cases for the same issue is unlikely to generate additional attention for your issue – in fact, it is more likely to split attention. Adding more examples or escalating the case is a better bet.

• Similarly, assigning a “High” priority to a case that doesn’t meet Ex Libris’ description of priority is unlikely to get extra attention for the issue. You can always bring this case to Christina’s attention for extra monitoring.

• You request an update by adding a comment to your open case. This lets the assigned support rep know there has been an update to the case.

• If you don’t get a response to a request for an update, you can email Christina and ask her to escalate

  • You can also ask for escalation directly by emailing almasupportescalation@exlibrisgroup.com or primosupportescalation@exlibrisgroup.com . Put “Please escalate case #XXXXXX” in the subject and a brief description of why you want the case escalated in the body of the message.

Description of case statuses (from Support Center site)

Things to look out for:

• Awaiting Customer Confirmation, Pending Customer Input: Indicates which cases are waiting on an update from you in order to continue – should be checked daily

  • Check and respond to these regularly to keep movement on addressing the issue going

• Clicking on header reorders your case list either alphabetically or from earliest to latest date

  • Reorder the list by “Last updated” heading to look for cases that have not been updated in some time. You should ask for updates for these cases and escalate to Christina if no response is received

• Cases that have been resolved should be closed using the “Close Case” button. Leaving these open creates more work for everybody and takes time away from other cases that are still open.

Civility and tone

Dealing with systems issues is a frustrating experience. Understandably, emotions can run high after running into roadblocks keeping you from performing your work. Often, these feeling are compounded by the experience of troubleshooting functionality or data that should just work.

Understandable as these feelings are, expressing them through comments in a case is not helpful or additive to the process. Please keep your case description and comments factual and relevant to the case – this will facilitate quicker understanding of the issues and therefore more efficient actions undertaken to resolve the root issues. Not to mention, it is demotivating to assist others who are taking their frustration out on you, something we have all experienced in our lives. You can always reach out to Brandon to express your frustrations and concerns about the system.

Reporting System-Down case

A “system-down” issue is any issue that affects a module or entire system from operating normally. Typically this will only be used when you or your patrons cannot access Alma or Primo or Rapido at all and after local troubleshooting has occurred. These issues are handled outside of Ex Libris typical support channels and so this status should never be used as a substitute for a “High” priority issue.

 Ex Libris provides a few pathways to report a system-down issue:

• Create a case in SalesForce using the priority “System Down”

• Contact the 24x7 hub at 877-445-5693, press 9

• Use Alma chat to inform Ex Libris support

 Notes:

• Always create a case to report the issue and following up with the 24x7 Hub via phone if deemed necessary. This will provide Ex Libris with the necessary info in written form so nothing is lost in translation. The 24x7 response commitment is 1 hour and I have found them to be very responsive within this time frame when reporting System Down issues.

• You should let Christina know if you have not received responses within the specified time or if you are unhappy with how your issue has been treated.

• More info on reporting system down issues can be found on the Knowledge Center. A FAQ is also available with more information regarding coverage.