Blog 
Jul
01
2010
Launching the new BC Support Site and Public Knowledgebase
Since the launch of the new Support Central with its built-in Knowledgebase a few months ago we've received quite a lot of constructive feedback from the Partner Community about it not being a true replacement for the Online Business Wiki. This is because of usability issues such as not being able to link to/bookmark articles directly or use the 'Back' browser button to help with navigating when surfing articles especially if you were clicking through 'Related Articles' link.
To address these concerns we've launched a brand new Support Site with a Public Knowledgebase to be the one-stop-shop for Partners to find self-help. Please bookmark this site as you will find it useful for:
To address these concerns we've launched a brand new Support Site with a Public Knowledgebase to be the one-stop-shop for Partners to find self-help. Please bookmark this site as you will find it useful for:
- Searching the Knowledgebase to which we're continuously updating content and adding new articles with the primary goal of helping web designers find solutions to help their clients. You'll be able to bookmark articles, share links and browse it in the same fashion as you did the Online Business Wiki.
- Checking System Status - we now have 'System Status' box on the top right of the Support homepage so you can check if you ever feel the system is behaving strangely.
- Watching our Videos - we have been publishing professionally recorded training videos on Adobe TV. You can browse through the catalog of these under the 'videos' tab where you can learn about best practices on BC and how to sell to system to your clients.
- Booking into our Q&A sessions - these are free for designers to join when they have questions (especially on implementation issues) for which they need live help from a experienced BC Support Engineer via a screencast with audio. These are run twice a week currently, as the demand increases we will increase the frequency as well.
- Browsing and Searching Forums - Looking for help from other partners especially around HTML/CSS and Javascript issues - the forum is where you can join in a conversation to contribute and also look for answers.
Share This Post:
Leave Comments
Follow us on Twitter (@adobebc)
Recent Posts
- Updated order and cart management in R172
- R172.0.2 - System Update including fixes on order management, photo galleries popups and other bug fixes
- Help us build a better support environment for Business Catalyst!
- Major DNS Upgrade and Service Maintenance on February 8
- Tune in for Episode 15 of the BC podcast!
- Moving towards better support
- R172 - Extended Business Catalyst V3 Beta, Improved Code Editor, Security updates and bug fixes
- Important Security Policy Updates for CRM Users - Effective February 8th
- Start the year on the right track: 25% discount on partnership plans
- Upcoming SEO improvements
Copyright 2004 - 2012 Business Catalyst
Our biggest need is for links we can send to clients in an email message. Our second biggest need is a usable, searchable support site our clients can use. Our third biggest need is an elegant, easy to use, and content-rich support site we can use to help sell more sites.
We can't use this for any of that - it is aimed squarely at partners, and all the links are leading towards signing up new partners.
Obviously this is in your interest, but far too much of the linked content is not something ANY partner - especially those who paid for the rebranding service - would ever send to their clients. We'll just have to keep using the increasingly outdated Wiki for our clients.
When do you anticipate a version of this aimed at end users, rather than for partners?
I suspect all it would take would be a minor bit of editing and a template revision...
Sorry I couldn't heap praise as I had hoped...
Bill
For example, when I'm in the administrative area of a site, I tend to click on "Support Central" when I'm looking for a help resource. That takes me to "http://securesyd.worldsecuresystems.com/Utilities/SupportCentral.aspx?branded=true", which is different from the resource you've identified in this post.
To get to the resource you've identified above, I have to click on Partner Portal, then in the Partner Portal click on Support, then find the link "Community Forums" under "Resources". Oddly, there's not even a link to the resource you've identified here from either the admin side of a website or the Partner Portal (that I could find, anyway).
Why the two support resources, Support Central and this Public KB, each of which, as the other commenters mentions, seem to be targeted at partners; and each of which are quite difficult to access through available support links? Why not just one support resource that is linked to directly from the admin side of a client's website for easy access?
Please do not take this down until you have an equivalent feature in the KB. Whilst the content is a bit out of date, it is still the BEST resource I have for new clients introducing them to BC features and how they can get started using it learning the basics at their own pace.
And yes - whatever happened to white labelled resource for the partners? This was of such added value to a Partner and now we have lost that altogether.
Whilst the new KB may offer some distinct advantages over the Wiki it is NOT a replacement offering better value. I believe it is a step backward and I will continue to use the Wiki for a number of things as the preferred choice. It is not about willingness to change - it is all about delivering value and functionality and for the moment the Wiki is an absolute MUST in certain circumstances.