New year, new users area

For those who have not already heard the news, Maptek is launching a robust customer portal for Vulcan users this month. Director of Global Marketing, Stewart Maurer, provides the details in this week’s Q&A blog.

Q. What is the customer portal?

A. Our current Users Area is getting a face lift. Now clients with up-to-date Vulcan maintenance will have access to an online tool that will allow them to do a variety of things, including:

• Track and manage their support cases in real-time
• Search a knowledge-base of FAQs, solutions, videos, and tips and tricks
• Participate in a discussion forum where they can ask questions, and interact with Maptek global staff and other Maptek clients
• Stay current with Vulcan downloads

Q. What can clients expect to find in the customer portal?

A. The portal will contain a number of features providing clients with useful information to answer their technical questions. Features to note are the Cases and Knowledge-base sections.

In the Cases section clients will have a record of all of their support cases. They will also be able to utilize this page when working with Maptek support teams, which allows them to upload screenshots, make comments and even initiate a support case.

The Knowledge-base section gives clients the ability to search a repository of solution articles. These include many of the items from the previous Users Area such as FAQs and hundreds of new solutions based on common client questions. Various Vulcan ‘how-to’ videos that cover basics, including setting up environment variables and borrowing a license, will be an extremely useful tool in this section.

Q.  How do clients get access to the customer portal?

A. As I mentioned above, all Vulcan clients with up-to-date maintenance will have access to the customer portal at no extra cost. These clients will be receiving an email in the next month with details for setting up their accounts with a secured, unique login.

Q. Will other Maptek Clients have access?

A. Eventually the customer portal will also be extended to our I-Site, BlastLogic and Eureka clients.

Q. How did the idea of a customer portal come to fruition?

A. As the Director of Global Marketing, part of my role is to ensure our clients are getting what they need from Maptek. Many conversations with clients over the years has made it clear that some of them would like to find support answers on their own. Although client surveys indicate that we already provide great support – in fact we have a 99 percent satisfaction rating – clients suggested the need for other ‘channels’ to easily access information. Our top-notch support teams manage more than 7,000 support cases globally each year. Providing this portal is  another great way for us to distribute technical support and information.