Policy status: Active
Please note:
Abuse of the Red-Alert/911 system (using it for supporting elements that are not outlined here) can result in the suspension of red-alert access for a given show and/or account. For standard support, please visit the support portal, here.
Overall goal
Assistance for system-down emergency issues during an event, initiated by the support team, or by the customer.
Summary
The VME home page will provide a priority code for use by the customer when contacting support, along with a button to initiate the red-alert. This code will validate the authority of the customer to request critical assistance and will activate the escalation in response to the critical situation. There are specific situations in which this code will be appropriate:
- Systems inaccessible
- Streaming outage
- Wide-scale login issues
In general, these represent wide-scale systemic issues. These are explicitly not related to customer-managed items like booth setup and configuration, scheduling, or other items managed outside the context of a given event currently in “live mode.”
Implementation
Customers will be provided a “911” code to be used the day or days of the live event. (Based on active sessions playing)
The process is initiated through the technical support chat team via in-event chat or via the emergency chat access page on the main vConferenceOnline.com site.
Support agents will validate the code, confirm the issue, and activate the escalation procedure.
Required information:
- Specific event ID
- Contact name
- Project manager
- Headline description
- Detailed description (error message, any supporting information available).
Escalation initially notifies the systems team and the project manager for the event. Escalation is monitored, if one of the teams is not reached and confirmed in 5 minutes, the escalation will continue to management.
Customers will receive a contact back in the originating support chat window – the customer should not leave this window (or close it) until the situation is resolved. This initial contact may ask for additional information if needed. If this chat is not initiated, or the customer leaves the chat for any reason, or the chat is non-responsive, the red-alert will be canceled and considered closed and no longer an issue.
Troubleshooting will continue until resolved. Customers will receive updates on the status (note that updates do not imply resolution, but rather steps being taken, estimated completion of those steps, possible outcomes of those steps) every 30 minutes in the originating chat conversation.
After-Report
If needed, as determined by the project team, after the incident has been cleared and corrected or addressed, the Bits on the Wire team will review the situation, perform a root cause analysis and provide suggested guidance for
- Prevention
- Future mitigation
- Recommendations (if any)
- Any additional information about the issue and ongoing impact on production events.
This information will be made available to the affected customers as quickly as practical, allowing for time for testing, documentation, and confirmation of the approach deployed and underlying issue(s), if any.
History:
8/14/2020 Original version
10/21/2020 Update to indicate customer should remain in the chat for communications, updated after-report specifics
9/5/2021 Update to indicate customer should stay in chat until resolution