Version 3 Help Desk Update

For the past few months I've been trying to integrate the Zendesk Help Desk with NextComp, but the solutions they offered were more complex that I wanted to wrestle with, so I pushed off this feature.

Just last week Zendesk released a new integrated "drop box" tool. Ah ha, I thought, this is the answer to the issue of an easy, integrated help desk. And sure enough, after some testing today, it really does work! So I spent some time today updating every page of Version 3 with this new functionality.

Here's how it works.

From any page in Version 3, click the Support link at the top of the page.



You may be warned that the page contains some unencrypted information. Click Yes or OK depending on your browser. The only unencrypted information on the support dialog is the Zendesk logo. You may not receive this warning depending on your browser settings.





The background of the page will dim, and a Help Desk dialog will pop-up.



Enter your help desk request, a subject line for the message, and your e-mail address.



Click "Submit Query" and you'll receive a confirmation that your request was sent.



You'll receive an e-mail confirmation as well.



You'll also receive an e-mail when we have a solution to your request.



The best news is that this is all handled in NextComp and with e-mail. You don't have to leave the application to submit a request and you don't have to sign into another website to review the status of the request.

Integrated help desk support in Version 3... Check!

Update On Browser Compatibility

I received an e-mail today from a subscriber which prompted me to do a little research into NextComp's compatibility with Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6).

Our project management website, Basecamp, is dropping support for IE 6 in October of this year. This prompted a subscriber to question whether NextComp was also dropping support for IE 6.

IE 6 was released in 2001 and has since been upgraded to IE 7. Many organizations are still running IE 6 as the official desktop browser.

The current version of NextComp runs fine in IE 6 and I'm happy to report that Version 3 runs well in IE 6.

There appear to be a few minor display bugs with the drop down menus. Those can most likely be addressed as we move toward full launch of the version. In any event, we'll periodically test our builds on IE 6 to ensure a smooth experience for our end user's that are using IE 6.

Here's a run down on browser compatibility based on our testing:

Current Version

• IE 6
• IE 7
• Google's Chrome
• Limited functionality in Firefox, Safari

Version 3

• IE 7
• Google's Chrome
• Firefox 2.0 and 3.0
• Safari 3.0
• Mobile Safari on the iPhone
• Some rendering issues with IE 6 (we'll work on those in our development cycle)

As always, please drop me a line at matt [at] nextcomp [dot] net with any questions.
Support related requests can be sent to support [at] nextcomp [dot] zendesk [dot] com

The e-mail addresses are spelled out to reduce spam bot's from picking up the addresses and adding them to their databases.

Help Desk Launched

We've launched an online help desk system to support the launch of NEXTCOMP Gamma. The new system is completely web based and allows us to track tickets related to issues, questions, and requests related to Gamma (and also the current version of NextComp).

It's super easy to get started using the new help desk.

Visit this URL and enter your name, e-mail and password.

http://nextcompnet.zendesk.com/registration

Note: This is a separate sign-in from NEXTCOMP.

We are also building an online knowledge base as part of the help desk. To get started, I've added a message in the "Tips and Tricks" section of the Knowledge base related to updating the results table of the pay plan. This is an example of the type of information that will be available in the Help Desk.

We have some additional tips and tricks to add. We'll be adding information to the Help Desk on a regular basis, especially as we roll-out Gamma over the next few months.

So head on over to
http://nextcompnet.zendesk.com/registration sign into the Help Desk and keep track of updated tips and tricks or submit a question to our help desk!