Issue Categorization & Priority

Veson Support will work to provide timely resolution of issues reported through the Help Center based on categorization and priority agreed to with the client during the initial ticket triage process.

The below information will assist with defining how tickets are categorized and prioritized, ensuring resolution is achieved appropriately.

Ticket Categories

Services covered by Veson Support consists of Support Inquiries, Bugs, and Suggestions.

Support Inquiries

Support inquiries are troubleshooting questions regarding the standard use of all Veson Products.

If an inquiry transforms into a bug or suggestion then they are processed as such.

Support Priority & Resolution Guidelines

Support inquiries are typically not time-sensitive and are set as low priority by default. Veson Support will work with clients directly to discuss further priority changes if necessary.

Initial Response Time: After initial submission, the Help Center will send a confirmation notification immediately to ensure proper tracking. Veson Support analysts target an initial response time to all support inquiries within 8 hours of ticket creation.

Resolution Time: Veson Support triages incoming tickets basis priority and creation time within the Help Center. For non-urgent inquiries, Veson Support analysts aim to provide a suitable resolution within 3 to 5 business days.

Hours of Coverage: Hours of coverage are basis standard business days and include 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday for the following time zones: United States Eastern (UTC-5), United Kingdom (UTC+0), Athens (UTC +2), Singapore (UTC+8).

Identifying Engagement Opportunities

Resource time to examine Support Inquiries are typically within maintenance. If issues indicate material time to research and respond or the need for additional training or consulting, Veson Support will connect the Client with Professional Services and Account Management to discuss options for a Project Request or billable services engagement.

De-escalation Process

For all Clients, we should have a discussion with the Client and justify our reasoning for lowering the priority of a P1 – Critical, or P2 – High priority ticket. Our experienced Clients have knowledge of our different priorities, and we should work with the Client to understand the business impact of the issue before lowering the priority. Please use the ‘Defect Priority Setting’ table to assist with justifying a priority. The Client should be provided with a detailed explanation of the de-scalation.

Once we receive the Client’s agreement, we can go ahead and change the priority level. If this becomes a difficult conversation with the Client, please reach out to TS Management to assist with the conversation.

In cases that is clear that the Client is not familiar with our processes where the wrong priority level has clearly been used, please go ahead and change the priority of the ticket providing a detailed explanation of the de-escalation.

We can utilize the canned response as a template, however further details would need to be added specific to the issue at hand.

Bugs

Bug reports may be submitted via the Help Center and are assigned to Veson Engineering only after being evaluated by Veson Support. Priority is set initially by the client in the Help Center and further refined directly with Veson Support. Once a defect is fixed, the ticket is assigned to Quality Assurance for testing. Resource time for defects falls under the maintenance agreement.

Release Procedures

Clients are notified of an available fix directly through the corresponding ticket. Changes are released directly within the platform per our Continuous Release process. See more here regarding Veson Nautical Policies.

Continuous Release Products

Veson IMOS Platform (IMOS), Oceanbolt, Veslink Distances, Q88, VMS, Milbros, VesselsValue.
IMOS On-Prem is outside of the Continuous Release process, and clients can use the Client Center to download their full build maintenance release.

Defect Priority Setting

For the Veson IMOS Platform (IMOS), detailed Service License Agreement (SLA) information is available at Veson IMOS Platform Subscription and Services. For all other Veson Products, please reach out to your Account Manager to discuss targeted resolution times further.

Definitions

Priority 1 (Critical)

Consistent system crash
Product not accessible, widespread login failure
Critical database failure
Critical financial impact due to message service failure or widespread defect
No reasonable workaround

Priority 2 (High)

Defect that blocks or limits core workflow across all users
Blocking task or calculation discrepancy with moderate urgency
Interface failure points degrading standard integrations
Major feature defect that blocks critical operations
A minor error that requires a time-sensitive fix due to critical project phase
No reasonable workaround

Priority 3 (Medium)

Minor defect that decelerates operations
Minor financial impact, a workaround is available

Priority 4 (Low)

Low priority defect or UI issue, a workaround is always available
Low-frequency issue difficult to reproduce
General feature degradation

Veson Targeted Resolution Time

12 Hours

15 Days

60 Days

Future Release

Examples

Many, all users are not able to login and the platform has been slow throughout the work day.

Major Services Engine (i.e. Messaging Service) is failing for 24 hours impacting critical financial integration processes.

All users are receiving database errors when saving voyages and cannot proceed with updating operational data.

Performance of accrual generation or core financial reporting is degraded and is delaying our standard procedures across departments. End of month procedures are blocked with no workaround due to a system error.

The interfacing of important business data is failing and needs to be rectified within a few days or it will impact financial reporting.

A database error occurs when attempting to generate an a substantial payment to counterparties.

Bunker calculations are incorrect for more than one voyage leading to substantial profit and loss errors.

Error in voyage estimation functionality that impacts integrity of calculations across all users.

Platform performance is degraded intermittently for all users across core functions (lists, views, forms).

Root Cause Analysis

After a significant incident has transpired, Veson Engineering uses a RCA (Root Cause Analysis) mechanism to uncover multiple opportunities to mitigate risk and prevent incidents. If an incident warrants a client-facing RCA explanation, then it will be provided via Veson Support through the applicable support ticket. Generally, RCA investigations are conducted within 7 business days and within 48 hours for system-wide stability events.

Suggestions

Updates to the Veson Products occur on a continuous basis and are client and market-driven. We recommend you follow our What’s New and Release Notes articles from the Knowledge Base to ensure you are taking advantage of these.

Our product roadmap and investment in our platform is oriented to solving the largest challenges our clients face while ensuring we are delivering a high-quality user experience to our clients.

Submitting a suggestion

We greatly value and appreciate feedback from our community, and suggestions are processed through our Feature Board. Please add your suggestion to our Feature Board, where your idea will be visible to the public community for voting and comments. Click here to access the Feature Board. If a Support or Bug ticket is categorized as a suggestion, Veson Support will guide the client on what steps to take.

Feature Board evaluation process

While submission to the Feature Board does not guarantee or represent a delivery commitment, the Veson Product team reviews the most popular items on a regular basis. New features are selected and scheduled based on a number of factors, not just popularity. As we plan our investment in new functionality, our Product Team evaluates requests against the following criteria - general applicability, size and complexity, and alignment with our existing strategy and roadmap.

Monitoring your suggestion

The primary method to monitor your suggestion is checking the Feature Board post you previously created to review votes, activity, or a status change. If the information is available, the Veson Product team may reach out directly for additional input.

We are making extensive improvements to Veson Products on a continuous basis that are client and market-driven. You can follow our What’s New and Release Notes articles from the Knowledge Base to ensure you are up to date and taking advantage of these enhancements.

Project Requests

A Project Request would include a scenario where a client has a desire to collaborate with Veson Nautical resources extensively. Or in the situation where Veson Support sees that the Client has a clear need for training or other services based on the content of tickets reported through the Help Center. This more robust collaboration requires additional requirements gathering and SME discussion. To discuss further reach out to your Account Manager to discuss further engagement.

Redesign of major workflow
New module or major functionality idea
Interest in starting a collaborative project with Services (Project Management, Consulting) and Product (Design, Engineering)