Portal Overview

Key Functionality

The QuantityWare Service Portal (“the Portal”) covers several key pieces of functionality:

• SupportCentre – Secure communication and document transfer with the QuantityWare team
• DataLounge – Downloading of Software versions, CSPs, Notes and Custom Patches
• Systems Manager – Request and generation of QuantityWare Usage Keys
• Customer Profile – Maintenance of Customer and Contact data

Benefits of the Service Portal

The Portal provides the following advantages:

• Secure (HTTPS-encrypted) communications and document transfer
• Monitoring by multiple members of the QuantityWare team
• Easily accessible history of past queries
• In-line with good business practices (transparency and accountability)
• Central point for communications, usage key management and software downloads

The portal should be the first place you visit whenever you have a question, issue or requirement relating to QuantityWare or your installation(s) of BCS.

There are several “roles” that are granted to various team members in your organization, which permit / restrict access to various Portal functions. See Portal Roles for more details.

SupportCentre

The SupportCentre is used to securely communicate and share documents between the QuantityWare team and you.

You can raise tickets with us via the SupportCentre for any of the following matters:

• Agreement/Contract discussions
• Technical / Installation / Security queries
• Calculation queries
• Financial queries (invoicing etc)
• General queries

In addition to these topics, the SupportCentre is used to track special requests, such as:

• New SAP Installation Number requests
• Trial Usage Key / Test Agreement extensions
• System number limit changes
• Extensions
• System limit changes

Learn more about the SupportCentre in the SupportCentre section of this guide.

DataLounge

The DataLounge is a repository of all QuantityWare software versions, CSPs, Notes and Custom Patches.

To help you download the software that’s relevant to your SAP installations, you can configure the Portal to only display the downloads that are appropriate for your QuantityWare Version and CSP level.

Full access to the DataLounge is limited to people at your organization who’ve been assigned the “Technical” role in the Portal.

Learn more about the DataLounge in the DataLounge section of this guide.

Systems Manager

The Systems Manager allows you to obtain usage keys for each of your QuantityWare installations and provides a centralized list of your systems.

QuantityWare Usage Keys are instantly generated for any new Systems that you add (for approved SAP installations, on Productive agreements / contracts). See Usage Key Generation below.

If you’re testing the QuantityWare solution, you can use the Systems Manager to request short-term usage keys.

Full access to the Systems Manager is limited to people at your organization who’ve been assigned the “Technical” role in the Portal.

Learn more in the Systems Manager section of this guide.

Customer

The Customer area of the Portal provides you with a summary of the records we have for your organization, including addresses, agreement / contract / invoicing details, email-based reminder configuration and the people (Contacts) within your organization who can perform specific functions within the Portal.

The above details can be modified – some directly, some via tickets to QuantityWare – by Contacts at your organization with the appropriate roles.

Learn more about the Customer area in the Customer Profile section of this guide.

Alerts & Notices

Alerts

The continued operation of your business is key issue and to prevent any issues surrounding Usage Key expiries we provide a range of alerts and notices to ensure you’re informed of any upcoming expiries or issues.

The following alerts are provided within the Portal:

• Usage Key expiries – approaching and expired (visible to Technical contacts)
• Agreement/Contract expiries – approaching and expired (visible to Application / Management / Financial contacts)
• Raised Invoices – due and overdue (visible to Financial contacts)
• Notices from QuantityWare (visible to all contacts)

Expiry / invoice alerts above are mirrored via nightly email reminders, which are sent out on key dates prior to expiries / due dates, e.g.: Usage Key emails are sent to all Technical contacts 100 days prior to expiry, then 60, 30, 10, 5 and 1 day(s) prior to expiry – and once expired. You are free to specify further recipients of such e-mails.

Notices

Aside from alerts, we provide email notices to you in various circumstances, including:

• When you raise a support ticket in the Portal
• When a ticket is assigned to you / comments have been added
• When new/extended usage keys have been generated (you’ll get this if you have a Technical role)

Usage Key Generation

When you add one or more BCP or BCG systems via the Systems Manager, a QuantityWare usage key is instantly generated as soon as you save your changes.

Usage Key Rules

To support the automated generation of usage keys, the following rules have been put in place:

• Usage key expiries are directly linked to the current “agreement validity expiry”, which is:
  • For test agreements, the end date of the test agreement
  • For productive agreements, the end date of the last paid-for yearly/quarterly period
• SAP Installation numbers are selected from a specific list
  • This reduces the chance of error when adding new systems and helps speed system addition
  • SAP Installation numbers can be maintained via the Systems Manager
• Default number of systems within the portal:
  • This is set based on the scale of your QuantityWare agreement
  • You can request system limit increases if required
  • IMPORTANT: You still have no limits to the number of systems that you can request under your usage agreement. This initial restriction is a security measure to prevent eventual misuse of the automatic key-generation functionality

Adding Flexibility

The reason for usage key expiry is usually the responsibility of your organization’s financial or agreement representatives. i.e. the expiration date of usage agreements defines the expiration date of usage keys; however, to provide some flexibility to your organization’s technical contacts, the following exceptions have been put in place:

• If usage keys are about to expire on a test agreement, technical contacts may request a test agreement extension via a special button in the Systems Manager
• If configured for your organization and if usage keys are about to expire on a productive agreement, we allow a one-off 31 day “emergency extension” of all productive usage keys. This can be performed with a single click in the Systems Manager. This function provides system keys to keep your systems running, it does not extend your agreement validity.*
• Special 28-day “trial usage keys” can be generated for software outside your current agreement – e.g., for BCG if you currently have a productive agreement for BCP
  • This allows you to try out our alternative software solutions alongside your currently contracted software
  • Once generated, you can request extensions of these trial usage keys using the “Request Trial Usage Key Extension” button within each system’s details

* Note: for Subsidiaries of a Global customer, emergency key extensions must be performed by the Global customer.

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