August 16, 2004 BrailleNote Online Technical Support Will Be Trialed
Pulse Data International in New Zealand plan to trial online support of its BrailleNote family of products using an internet application that provides high quality, secure voice communications. The program in question is called Skype and will run under the LINUX or Windows operating systems. The technical support will be aimed at Pulse Data customers who require assistance in using their BrailleNotes, and have access to a PC. The trial will be spread over a two week period, beginning Monday 23 August 2004, New Zealand time. The support trial is being conducted in part to find out how feasible the idea of online support is in the future and to gauge customer demand, as well as seeing whether support efficiency can be improved with the aid of this tool. Having taken into consideration that not everyone will be able to take advantage of communicating with Pulse Data in this way, a large percentage of BrailleNote customers do have access to a PC, hence being able to justify the trial. The messaging client Skype offers will not be used, even in cases of bad connections that inhibit reasonable conversation with support staff, as this would partly defeat the purpose of the trial. In situations such as this, normal communications, such as email and telephone calls, will be used to investigate resolutions to technical issues. Notes: Skype can be downloaded at no charge directly from the Skype website: www.skype.com To use Skype BrailleNote support, customers will require a microphone and speakers or a headset, with either Linux or Windows 2000/XP. Support will commence on Sunday 22 August at 20 hours UTC (Monday 23 August 08 hours NZST) and finish at 05 hours UTC on Friday 3 September (17 hours NZST). For US customers, New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of Eastern time and 19 hours ahead of Pacific time. As Pulse Data in New Zealand is conducting the support trial alone, support will be restricted to New Zealand working hours, Monday to Friday. Before technical support can be obtained from New Zealand technical support staff, the customer's name, BrailleNote serial number and geographical location will be required for logging purposes. This is already normal procedure when communicating with some Pulse Data subsidiaries. Pricing queries will not be handled on Skype. Any queries regarding this announcement should be directed to Dean Jackson in the first instance. Contact details including Skype information are listed below. Regards, Dean Jackson Customer/Technical Analyst Pulse Data International Ltd. DDI: +64 3 373 6184 Fax: +64-3-384 4933 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Internet: www.pulsedata.com Skype: pulsedata-support-nz __________________________
