Support for System Integrators

[TP_8787381]

As a system integrator, I have no idea how many Kepware licenses I've sold to clients over the past 20+ years. Two weeks ago, I was able to log into MyKepware account, open a support ticket, browse the knowledgebase, download software. Now, I can't do anything. Hoping that somebody in eSupport sees this. It says:

Access Denied - Insufficient Privileges

You are currently setup with a Basic PTC.com Account that does not provide access to this area of eSupport. This means that you may have an active PTC Global Support agreement however you have not yet Upgraded your Account to reflect your Support entitlements. To access this area please Upgrade Your Account.

OK, so let's upgrade my account. Besides "upgrading an account is easy".. Bull**bleep**,

I need a Customer Number, Service Contract Number, Sales Order Number or Security ID. I have none of those. My clients probably do. Good luck finding the person that knows where these are. I can log into the server and provide the license key. Where do I type that in?

The email I got from Tech Support was a garbled mess. I could not reply because the Case number was not in the subject line. The Add Comment button in the case webpage didn't work either.

Do you think I'll recommend Kepware to my next client?

Tony Perovic

Compumation, Inc.

[MRohilla]

Greetings!
Thank you for using PTC Community!
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We are working on fixing the MyKepware log in issue on priority, additionally you can expect a Kepware Tech Support engineer will reach out to you directly to log a case for your original support need

[SlidingDownhill]

It’s the PTC/Kepware integration on the site. The site always pushes you to the PTC side and they have no interest in Kepware or willing to fix this issue. Been dealing with it since they came on the scene and tried to get it fixed a number of times with the same response that you got.

[sstankay]

Hello my name is Steve Stankay and I am part of the Management team here at PTC working in the Support Services area of our company.  We certainly appreciate the feedback and can understand the frustration and disruption these issues are presenting to our customers and users.  We have some challenges with our account record types and how that translates over between the previous Kepware domain and the PTC domain.  The teams are working diligently to identify the main root cause and provide a full and permanent resolution.  While we look to address this holistically, we are currently fixing it on an account by account basis.  This is not ideal and we are all looking for a better path forward, but we want to be transparent on where we stand currently.  If you reach out to us here on the community we will take proper steps to help your specific concern or issue.

[SlidingDownhill]

Steve, I appreciate what you are saying and I sympathize with the effort it takes. Been through a salesforce migration more than once.

But it has been since day one of the PTC takeover and I have asked MULTIPLE times to fix it and the response has been just like yours.. we are working on it. I still see this behavior to this day. Most of the time I remember to go through mykepware.com to get the info I need and that usually works. But every time I forget and get pointed to the PTC end for whatever reason, I can never get to Kepware related data for the same reasons the OP mentioned. My fear is that at some point the mykepware.com site will be integrated into this platform and then there will be no other option. 

This site is a representative of the product and it colors the opinion of the product in a bad way. 

[sstankay]

I completely understand your point.  I agree that these issues reflect poorly and provide a negative perception.  Something we are going to have to spend years to turn around and correct.  The focus will be to continuously improve the digital experience we have for the Kepware user and customer base.  This has to be a future looking focus from our side and my intent is learning from what has gone poorly and utilizing that and customer feedback to make the improvements.  Very difficult though for my words to carry any weight if the experience has had similar outcomes though over and over, so I truly do get it.  I would like to connect with you directly, so I will aim to do so in the coming business days

[sstankay]

Hello to those following this post.  I wanted to provide an update that we are continuing to handle these log in issues on an account by account basis.  We do have several groups investigating a permanent fix but we do not have one ready.  We'll continue to update this thread until we have the solution.

[sstankay]

Hello Kepware Community,

I just wanted to add that if you continue to experience issues related to our web site and want to discuss, I'd like to connect with you.  You can send me a private message right here in the community and we can find time to connect.

Thank you

Steve

[SlidingDownhill]

I have given examples in other posts and perhaps even this one. I will try to find some time to go through it again but look at some of my other posts and you might find your answers there

Its only a problem on the PTC side, the my.Kepware.com thankfully still works as expected. But one peeve I remember is that when I fill out the form to submit a support request, the submit button is camouflaged a pastel green inline with the text and the button that says something along the lines of “I found my own answer” is BOLD and obvious. I have clicked that more times because I just can’t see the other one and it removes all I just typed into the form. Its like you wany to hide the support option and hope we go away. Those color choices were not made randomly.

The other is that when I log onto the PTC site (because a search engine takes me there and not to my.kepware.com) , the profile I get assigned has no connection to kepware or to PTC it seems, Questions are always met with “I’ll have to transfer you to kepware” or words to that effect. That too I have asked about and never been fixed.

I bounced over to software toolbox for support because this was just frustrating to work with at a time where I was already frustrated at having to ask for help..

[sstankay]

Thanks for those examples.  Regarding the buttons, I assume you are referring to the line at the bottom of the case logger page where we have "If you are still unable to solve your issue, click here", which is a line of text that the "here" portion is highlighted in green and is a hyperlink, and then an "Issue Solved" button, which also is in green:

What happens here is that when you type something into the "Tell us about your request" box, or the "Error Messages or Warnings" box, our automated tooling finds potential solutions from our knowledgebase.  This algorithm is consistently updated not only via work from our engineers and digital team but also utilizing if and when the issues actually are solved by the knowledge provided.  So each time someone finds a resolution from the automated search and clicks "Issue Solved" that helps the algorithm.  The "here" text in green is to continue with opening a support case.

You are correct in that the color choice is not random.  However the reasoning behind the color is due to that shade of green being a main component of our color palette at PTC.  That shade of green is consistent throughout PTCs web site.  Both the here link and Issue Solved link are in green.

The offer still stands to connect with you (or anyone) directly with profile or redirect issues.  I appreciate the time it takes to provide examples and what I'd prefer to do instead is walk through it live to troubleshoot and document.

[SlidingDownhill]

That’s the one, “HERE” should be the button not text that blends into the rest of the sentence and contains a BIG BUTTON that the eye is drawn to. ISSUE SOLVED is nothing but an exit and really isn’t useful as we will exit the page when it’s solved by various means anyway.

-Mac

[sstankay]

We can certainly review the design for improvements.  The feedback is heard and understood.

Just to ensure I drive home the purpose of the Issue Solved button - it is to signal that the specific article found from the automated search did in fact solve the problem.  This actually gets recorded as a closed issue in our system, and helps us determine the effectiveness of our knowledge - it does not just exit the page.

[SlidingDownhill]

Understood. But from the USER perspective, who SHOULD be the primary focus of such a page, it only serves to confuse.

There are better ways to do what you need.

-Mac