We are currently experiencing problems with the system that enables customers to submit and update support tickets by e-mail.  We have traced the source of the problem to the third-party component that we utilise to extract messages from our mail servers.  This component is performing erratically and is not extracting e-mail data as it is designed.

Our development team is actively working on a workaround on this problem and hope to resume normal service shortly.  In the meantime, please report a new tickets, and reply to any existing tickets via our Support Website, http://www.acssupport.co.uk.

Following several months of extensive design and development work, a new version of SecureSiteSolutions (SSS) is being introduced. With new features and enhancements to existing services, this new version delivers improved levels of versatility and functionality to our secure hosting customers.

We are currently in the process of migrating existing SecureSiteSolutions accounts to the new version. Individual account holders will receive an e-mail notification when their account has been migrated.  Until individual accounts have been migrated, please continue to use the old version of SecureSiteSolutions.

What’s New?

SSS V2 incorporates new and revised features that impact all users of SecureSiteSolutions.  Key changes include:

For Shop Owners

• New online management suite simplifying the management of transactions
• Integrated credit and debit-card number validation *
• Expanded payment methods including invoicing, accounts and cheque payments.
• Expanded Postage and VAT/Sales Tax settings.
• Checkout themes
• Checkout customization including own logos and message
• Transaction message customization

For Customers

• Streamlined checkout process
• Different payment routes.

For Developers

• Enhanced basket and checkout functionality facilitating closer integration between on-site shops and SSS.
• New simplified integration components for Classic ASP, ASP.Net and Javascript.
• Ability to pass extended details to SSS to improve and streamline the checkout process for end-users.

What Coming?

Our developer team is continuing to build new features and capabilities into SecureSiteSolutions without compromising on its’ principal role.  Planned improvements include: **

• Shop specific e-mail templates
• Transaction monitoring
• Enhancements to integration components.
• Dedicated Support portal in addition to material already available on ACS Support.

SecureSiteSolutions is a service available from Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited.   If you would like to learn more about the range of products and services available from ACS including our secure hosting services like SecureSiteSolutions, please contact us.

* Credit & Debit card checking is limited to the validity of card numbers with regards to formatting and providor.  At present, no direct checks are made with the card issuer with regards to card validity and/or legitimacy.

** All planned improvements are subject to final approval and may change or be removed from future versions

In the aftermath of Michael Jackson’s untimely death yesterday, many people are noticing a general slow-down on the internet caused by increased traffic to news sites etc.

Google have reported that they actually feared that their network was under attack at one point yesterday due to the massive number of similar “Michael Jackson” search term look-ups around the time when there was still speculation about his fate.

The Twitter network crashed completely (again).

Many news organisations have experienced problems which appear to have continued into today : CNN, BBC, Sky, AOL, CBS, Yahoo and MSNBC all suffered slowdowns.

The additional traffic to these websites is having a knock-on effect on other internet traffic – infact average download times were doubled at around 2.30PM Pacific time yesterday.

This all just goes to show that world-wide news items can affect the fragile internet which we have all grown to depend upon. We all expect it to be there when we need it, but the fact is that the internet does have a finite capacity and it sometimes gets pretty close to being “full”.

It’s encouraging, therefore, that the UK government announced yesterday that a cyber-terrorism plan is in place now that the lack of access to the internet is seen as a potential terrorist target, but if million’s of people’s internet access can be affected by a single news story, are the Government’s plans going to be enough to counter a deliberate attack. What do you think ? Are you going to leave it to trust that the Government’s plans are going to be good enough or are you going to start making some fall-back plans for your business yourself ?

There are things which businesses can do to mitigate their company operations against internet failures – true, if the entire internet is down, many backup solutions will fail, but that’s why it’s so essential to have an up-to-date Disaster Recovery Plan with different options which has been throught-out in advance rather than at the time of most stress. As the saying goes “the best war plans are made in peace time” !

If your company still does not have a DR plan in place, call ACS for help, rather than leaving it to chance – after all, how many people predicted MJ’s sudden demise ? You never know when the unexpected is going to happen.

It has been in the works for some time, but after extensive design and development the new version of our support website, ACS Support was launched earlier today.  With new features and enhancements to existing services, our support site delivers new levels of versatility and functionality to our support customers.

New ACS Support Website Design

The new site incorporates our new corporate logo, and a new clean design.  Our Support and Development teams have reworked nearly every aspect of the site to deliver our online support services

Some of the new features include:

• Online Account Manager – manage your ACS Support account online
• Order & Licence Management
• Online Account Signup
• Online Product Registration *

As well as the more visual changes, there have been substantial modifications under the hood to improve the performance and overall user experience.  This has led to some changes to the way certain services work, but core functionality and processes such as creating and submitting support tickets operate nearly as they did before.  Our guiding aim in developing updates and improvements to ACS Support is to make the entire support experience simpler and easier.

The biggest single change is the arrival of the My Account section.  This area is accessible by all ACS Support account holders and delivers new levels of account management and services.  Through My Account, users can not only manage their support tickets, but also their Orders, Product Licences * and their account details including their contact details and security credentials.

The Support Knowledgebase continues to grow with every passing month, with over 25 new articles added last month covering subjects ranging from database backups to advice on product troubleshooting.  The knowledgebase currently contains more than 400 articles **.

Our Support Team is always looking for new ideas and suggestions on how to improve and enhance our support services.  If you have an idea or request, please send us an e-mail to suggestions [at] appliedconsultancy [dot] com

* Product Registration and Licencing applies only to products and services designed, developed or distributed for whom licences are issued by Applied Consultancy Solutions Limited.

** Access to some knowledgebase articles is restricted and may not be available to all users.

We have recently implemented a change to the ACS Support website to allow customers to signup for ACS Support accounts without the need for us to authorise each request.  Previously, all new support accounts had to be either manually approved or created by our support staff.

This change is part of an ongoing program to streamline and automate certain aspects of our support site to further improve and enhance our services.  Our development team is currently working on a revised customer login area that will deliver a high level of control and management capabilities to individual account holders.

To ensure that the sign-up process is not exploited by automated tools or bots, we have introduced what we are colloquially calling an Are You Human? test into the signup process.  This test utilises the reCaptcha service to verify that the user is actually human.  If you are interested in including this functionality in your website, please contact us for further details.

ACS Support accounts are free and are open to any customer who is using a supported product or service.  If you do not already have an ACS Support account, sign-up today.  The signup process only takes a few minutes to complete.

As some of our more regular visitors may have noticed, our support portal ACS Support has been revamped.  This revamp includes a new look and feel to ACS Support based upon extensive feedback from both our customers, and our support engineers.  The aim has been to make ACS Support as easy to use as possible, without impairing any pre-existing functionality.

One change that regular users will notice is that Faults are now called Tickets.  This change was brought about simply because not all messages submitted via ACS Support relate to a problem or issue.  Sometimes, it was a simple question.  A Ticket encompasses all types of message and avoids any confusion that the term fault may have caused.

For most users, the most apparent change will be when they first login.  Open tickets are now listed separately from closed tickets, with the latter not appearing by default.  This change has drastically simplified and speeded up the process of locating and updating open tickets.

The revamp is not limited to existing features.  There is also a new feature, the Knowledgebase.  This is an online library of articles containing the answers to common problems and questions that we encounter on a daily basis. 

Another change is that to support messages.  You will still receive messages from ACS Support, but their content and layout has changed slightly.  Included in all messages is a click-back link.  Click on this, or copy it into your web-browser, and you are taken directly to the Ticket history on ACS Support (you may be asked to login, but you will still be taken to the ticket history post login).

We are actively working on the ability to submit tickets and updates via e-mail.  The sticking point here is not the actual functionality, but the need to guard again Spam.  The last time we tried this functionality, we were getting 2000+ spam messages a day on the incoming account.

We are currently working on a few more changes to ACS Support.  Some will be visible, others will not.  We will post information on changes as and when they are implemented on this blog.  In the meantime, if you have any comments on the design, or suggestions on how to improve ACS Support or any ACS website, please e-mail us at suggestions -at- appliedconsultancy.com

ACS is proud to announce that version 1.1 of IT Personnel Recruitment Management system, ARM, has gone live. This new version incorporates a whole raft of new features that enhance the capabilities and functionality of ARM.

ARM was developed in partnership with Project-IT Resource, and has been designed and developed from the ground up for use in managing personnel recruitment for complex and diverse target markets.

If you would like information about ARM, and the services that Project IT offers to recruitment agencies and clients, please visit the Project IT Website.