How to access the Help Desk?

1. Directly, which provides a dashboard that streamlines the process of managing all your tickets.
   
2. Through Alinity, which enables you to quickly file a support ticket without leaving the Alinity system.
   
3. Indirectly, which allows you to file and manage your tickets by sending an email to us.  
   

Our help desk and support system is reserved for the staff and admin of your college. Please do not share our contact information with your members.

1. An email will have been sent to set up your password, but if you don't remember receiving it (or simply don't remember your password), simply click on the "forgot password" action on that page:
   
   

1. If you are logged into Alinity, we include a link to our help desk at the top of the page under the Help menu. After clicking on the "go to help desk" link, use the instructions listed in the "directly" section of this article.
   
   
   
2. In that same help menu, we also include a "report a technical issue" option, which allows you to file a ticket with our Help Desk directly from your Alinity system.
   
   
   
3. Additionally, if you encounter an error message while using the system, we include a "report this issue" option at the bottom-right of the error message. A ticket reported in this fashion, automatically includes a set of technical details that help us track down and resolve the issue.
    

By using the help desk, rather than simply emailing us, you have access to an improved support experience, most notably:

Access to knowledge base articles

Our knowledge base requires that you to log in to access these articles: https://support.softworksgroup.com/portal/en/kb/softworks-group

1. We have a growing, sizeable, knowledge base that covers a wide range of system components:
   
   
   

1. This collection of articles can be searched by titles, tags, and keywords. They also display related articles, and have a table of contents to help you navigate the content efficiently:
   
   

As Alinity evolves which each release, our knowledge base will continue to grow and improve. It is a comprehensive resource for answering questions, and can be used to help you train new staff on aspects of the system in combination with our collection of Training Videos.

Tracking your tickets

Another benefit to using the help desk is the ability to track and review any details related to support tickets filed by your organization. The "My Area" dashboard provides you with an extensive view of all the support items for you and the college, as well as ticket statuses, and history. Replies can be made directly within the site, including the upload of documents and extra information to help us resolve your ticket.

1. Click the "My Area" menu option at the top of the Help Desk to show all of your open, pending, and historical tickets:
   
   

From here you can also see all other tickets associated with your organization, and all tickets you are not directly assigned to but have been cc'ed on.

1. If you have multiple ongoing tickets, this makes it significantly easier to track all ticket-related work, allowing you to keep an eye on what other tickets are in-progress with other admins at the college. This dashboard enables you to review your ticket history, and also search through those tickets (both subject and contents) for keywords:
   

Making the most of the Help Desk

Best practice when filing tickets

If you believe that your issue is related to data corruption, security, or you cannot access your system, please put these words in the subject of your ticket/email when contacting us. 

1. Which user did you see the issue with? Even if you saw the issue with multiple users, having a practical example we can both look at gives us a common starting point for reviewing the issue. Reproducing the issue is the starting point of any investigation and the issue may be particular to a certain data scenario this user, or users, is in.
   
2. Was there an error message? If there was an error message, we'll want to know what that message was. An error message will also have a link beneath to let you file a ticket directly from within the system, which will automatically include extra technical details we can use to track down the issue.
   
3. What were you doing prior to the error message? In order to reproduce the issue, we'll need to know what you were doing when you encountered the issue. A screenshot of the section you were on, and the data you were trying to enter, can be especially helpful.
   
4. What were you trying to accomplish? Especially if there's no error message, knowing what you wanted to do helps us with reproducing the issue and advising you on how to accomplish what you're aiming to do.

If your project is still in the implementation phase with no production database (only test), it is best practice to use the issues section on your Project site.

Utilities N' Such

Occasionally, there may be a scenario wherein our support desk may require specific information about you and the machine you are using to access the Alinity service. Luckily, we've created a simple tool to help both parties in the exchange of this technical information without the use of third-parties or computational know-how. 

Simply visit: Utilities N' Such (alinityapp.com) and snap a screenshot of the table displayed on this page.

Here are a few ways to take a screenshot,

You do not need to download any additional software to take a screenshot!

1. You can use the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard, then "Paste" (Ctrl + V) the image into an email or support ticket (provided your machine has the print screen key),
   
2. Most browsers have the ability to capture a page as an image, in Edge/Chrome you can right-click a page then select "Capture",
   
   
   
3. Windows and MacOS both include a screenshot tool. On Windows, this is called the "Snipping Tool". For MacOS, the "Screenshot tool".