Internet Support

Service Source PDF

For a PDF copy of this Service Source document, click here.

The Group 1 Technical Services Support Site serves as a resource not only to you, our valued customers, but also to the various departments within the Technical Services division. Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, it allows us to provide up to the minute information at your fingertips.

The goal of the Group 1 Support Site is to provide round-the-clock web-enabled services and support that fosters a ‘self-help philosophy’ and assists us in fulfilling our Corporate Objective.

Navigation

As with most Web sites today, there are many ways to gain access to information; our Group 1 Technical Services Support Site is no exception. Many Internet Support-related options, such as eService, access to online documentation, and software downloads are found within the Support Site. These options are described in detail later in this section. The Support Site is easily accessible from the Customer Services menu at the main Group 1 Web site. Use the navigation menu at the top of the page and click on the Customer Services tab. Under the Technical Services heading, there are several links to our various Technical Support sites. Since this Service Source specifically covers Group 1, we’ll focus on the Group 1 Technical Support site. This site is also referred to as the Support Site.

In addition to the Technical Support sites, the Customer Services page contains links to important online services that do not require user log in. The Group 1 University, List Services and Professional Services pages are all accessible without requiring user log in.

Clicking on either the Group 1 Technical Support link (under the Technical Services link in the center of the page) or the Technical Services link (under Customer Services on the navigation menu) will bring you to the main Group 1 Technical Services page. This is the “home page” of the Support Site. Once you’ve logged in, the Support Site is "services based" - meaning that, when you are looking for a particular online service (such as the My Products area, eService or online Documentation), you select that service from the main Group 1 Technical Services menu and browse through the information presented there.

There are several online services that do not require a login;

However, most services are secure and require logging in order to access the service. You will only see the secured services on the main Group 1 Technical Services menu after logging in.

A good way to save some time is to save many of the specific URLs in our Support Site as Favorites in your Web browser so you can return to them at any time. As with the navigation menu, secure services will require that you log in first but will then direct you to that specific location.

Customized Content

The majority of the information and content on the Support Site is published by the various Technical Services departments. Much of the Support Site is set up to present only the information that is relevant to your company. Because so much information is published on a daily basis, this customization allows you to only review the information for the products currently under maintenance for your company. In order to accomplish this, each user is required to log in with a unique User ID and password.

How to Log in

The Customer Services page of the Group 1 Web site currently maintains two Technical Services site links: Group 1 Technical Support and DOC1 Technical Support. To log in to any one of these Technical Support Sites, click on the Customer Services tab from the upper right-hand corner of the main Group 1 home page and select a support site. Your User ID is the first four characters (or less if your name is shorter) of your last name plus a four or five digit number that is supplied from Group 1.

Obtaining User IDs

If you have forgotten your User ID or password, simply follow the link below the Log in field. If your email address is contained in our Siebel Service customer database, your User ID and password will be emailed to you. If you require further assistance, please email us at the link below or contact us at (800) 367-6950.

Please keep your User ID and password in a safe location and do not share it with others in your organization. Certain areas of our Support Site, such as the Online Discussion Forums, will record and log your name for others to view. While it's not required, as a security precaution, we recommend that you log out of the Support Site once you have finished your session.

Note: Only those customers who are listed in our customer database, Siebel Service, will be able to obtain User IDs to our Support Site. Please refer to the Customer Information Management - Keeping Our Customer Database Current section of this guide for details on the four different types of contacts in our database.

Session Duration

Our Support Site is set up to allow a maximum of 15 minutes of inactivity per session. This prevents users from remaining signed into our Support Site for extended periods and holding an active session on our Web server. If your session times out, you will be prompted to log back in with your User ID and password. You can then resume where your session left off.

Privacy Policy

Group 1's Privacy Policy is published on our Web site and covers many areas such as scope of usage, cookies, security, and discontinuation of use. Our Privacy Policy can be found on the Corporate Information page of our Web site. This link can also be found in small print at the bottom of most pages on the Group 1 Web site, or through the navigation menu, Corporate Info - Privacy Policy.

Internet Support Services Offered

Through our Support Site, Group 1 strives to provide you with the best self-help experience possible. Several services are currently available that provide you with timely information about the Group 1 products that you own.

As new services and/or features are added to the Support Site, you will be notified either on the site itself (such as in the Online Discussion Forums under Internet Support) and/or via email (such as through NewsCast or List Services). In the event that there is a planned service outage, we will post a Support Alert Message on the Support Site approximately one week in advance. This will be visible as a red-outlined message box entitled Important Support Website Information. The Support Alert Message window is also used to notify you of time-sensitive issues that affect all users of a product or product line.

We welcome any input, ideas or feedback that will help us to make the Support Site a more effective way for you to find the answers to your questions! Remember – our goal is to provide you with exceptional service. Please provide your feedback in the Internet Support Online Discussion Forums or just send us an email using the link below.

The Technical Services area of the Support Site is generally divided into two main areas of Focus with multiple options under each one: the Technical Support area focuses on actual support options, while the Products area deals with software, software updates, license files, database and documentation downloads.

Technical Support

eService

Through the eService portal you have the ability to access your company's Service Requests (SRs), as well as create new SRs. By giving you access into our Siebel Service database, we have made it easier for you to more effectively manage the support issues that your company reports. An SR always contains basic information such as who reported the issue, which product it pertains to, and a brief description of the issue being reported. Other supporting information includes Activities that track progress on the issue and attachments that help with documenting the issue. Please note that once you have submitted content for an SR it becomes read-only; however, updates to the SR can be made by creating new Activities. You can also view your personal profile as supplied to Group 1 and all active contacts for your company.

In an effort to keep you informed as to the status of your online SR, we will send you email notification upon the following conditions:

A new SR is opened by either you (using eService) or a Group 1 TSR,
An SR is closed. This can only be done by a Group 1 TSR,
The Severity level of your SR changes. This can only be done by a Group 1 TSR. Please see the Determining Service Request Urgency section of this Service Source for more information,
An Activity is added to your SR by either you (using eService) or a Group 1 TSR,
An Attachment is added to your SR by either you (using eService) or a Group 1 TSR,

The eService area can be found by clicking on the eService / Knowledge Base link from the main Group 1 Technical Services menu.

Note: eService opens in a new window. You must be using Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher to use eService.

Solutions Knowledge Base

As part of eService, you will have access to Group 1's Solutions Knowledge Base (KB) containing solutions articles specifically written for our products. The Solutions KB is a database of support information and solutions for typical problems that you may encounter. Each article in the Knowledge Base contains a problem/question and a solution/answer. These may pertain to specific Group 1 products, a "family" of products, platform specific issues or all supported platforms. In many instances, resolution documents are included; resolution documents are separate text or graphic files that provide additional, detailed information about a particular solution. Keyword searches can be performed at any time to find answers to your questions.

The Solutions Knowledge Base can be found by clicking on the eService / Knowledge Base link from the main Group 1 Technical Services menu.

Note: eService opens in a new window. You must be using Internet Explorer version 6.0 or higher to use eService.

Online Discussion Forums

The Online Discussion Forums provide an area for you to interact with other Group 1 customers by posting information online. Anytime you add a posting to the forums, it is "signed" with your user name so other customers will be able to identify you. They will also be able to reply to your posting online or send you an email. You may prefer to remainanonymous and just browse through everyone else's postings, looking for unique tips that others have shared.

Note: Each customer will be required to electronically sign the Guidelines for Usage agreement prior to their first visit.

You may search through all forums for particular text or select the Active Topics option to see only those forums containing new postings since the last time you visited the forums on the same computer.

Please visit the Online Discussion Forums for more information on this feature.

List Services

List Services is an online system that provides customers with the ability to specify their preferences for receiving electronic communications from Technical Services. List Services provides a flexible subscription process. Through the use of your List Services Profile, you can choose to Opt-In for any of a number of lists or categories or Opt-Out of these same lists or entire categories (except Internet and media shipment email notifications). There is a one-click option to Opt-Out of all electronic communications.

Please visit the List Services area of the Group 1 Web site for additional information about our list services offerings, including how to register and subscribe/unsubscribe to the lists.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Access

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a protocol used to transfer files between an FTP server a computer system. FTP is a very stable protocol and is often used for transferring files that are too large to email. When “FTP” appears in a URL it means that the user is connecting to a file server (not a Web server) and that some form of file transfer is going to take place. It is often considered a faster way to transfer information using the Internet because there is a direct link between the FTP server and your system; unlike Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which involves your browser.

The FTP Access area of the Support Site enables you to create your own FTP account on our FTP server. Once you’ve created your FTP account, you will need to use your Internet browser, the DOS command prompt, or a third-party application (such as SmartFTP or WS_FTP LE) to access the FTP server. Your FTP account User ID and password are the same as for the Support Site.

If using your browser, use the format ftp://uuuuu:ppppp@supportftp.g1.com/ (where uuuuu is your FTP User ID and ppppp is your password). Please note that, due to IE support issues with Microsoft, using the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to access FTP services may be unstable. Other browsers, such as Mozilla and Opera, should perform fine.

To initiate your FTP account, please visit the FTP Access area of the Support Site.

Online Forms

This area provides you with central access to various forms that are necessary to communicate with our Technical Services departments. Forms such as the Solutions Knowledge Base Submission Form, Enhancement Request Form, and Documentation Order Form are available here. While these forms are already available on the Web site in various locations, the Online Forms area provides more convenient access.

Most forms are completely Web-enabled and can be submitted online with no further action required by you. However, some forms require signature, so in those instances you will need to print the PDF form and follow the instructions provided on the form. If you see a need for other forms to be available from this menu, please let us know! Write us using the link below.

To access any of these forms, please visit the Online Forms area of the Group 1 Support Site.

Service Source Online

This is the online version of the Service Source (this document), which outlines all of the customer services provided by Group 1's technical post-sales departments. It provides guidelines to help you use Technical Services as effectively as possible. For each of the Technical Services departments at Group 1, you will find descriptions for each of the services offered.

The link to the Service Source area of the Group 1 Support Site is http://www.g1.com/Support/Orientation/.

Glossaries

To assist you with the sometimes overwhelming number of unfamiliar terms, we’ve put together a collection of Glossaries of Terms to give you clear definitions to many words, phrases, and acronyms.

Please visit the Glossaries area of the Group 1 Support Site.

G1 Blog

Communicate directly with our Product Managers via the G1Blog. Check out our blog and keep up to date on the latest news affecting your products.

Please visit the G1 Blog area of the Group 1 Support Site.

Supported Platforms

This area of the Support Site lists the minimum supported versions of the platform operating systems for Group 1 Software's Centrus and Open Systems products. Group 1 products are forward compatible with any subsequent release of a platform operating system. Also listed is the preferred media for each operating system.

You can view a current listing of the minimum supported platforms by clicking on the Supported Platforms link from the Main Group 1 Technical Services page (after log in).

You can view a current listing of the minimum supported platforms for our Centrus products by clicking on the Centrus Supported Platforms link from the Main Group 1 Technical Services page (after log in).

Support Site Walkthrough

This is a great place to get acquainted with the Support Site. The Walkthrough takes you through all of the screens of the Support Site and should provide you with the answers to your site-related questions.

Please visit the Support Site Walkthrough area of the Group 1 Support Site.

Support Site Help

Our Support Site Help page should answer any questions that you may have about the Support Site itself or any issues that you may encounter during your visit.

Please visit the Support Site Help area of the Group 1 Support Site.

Contact Information

Need to get in touch with someone in Technical Services, but don’t know how? Our Contact Information page is full of contact numbers, email addresses, and even fax numbers.

Please visit the Contact Information area of the Group 1 Support Site.

Products

My Products

The My Products area is set up to be a resource dashboard that gives you access to the products that your company owns. The My Products dashboard is where you go to download software, software updates, databases, as well as license files.

Once you’ve clicked on the My Products link, you will be redirected to a page that lists each of your products. Click on the product’s hyperlink to take you to the Purchases page. This page indicates each individual purchase of a specific product. For example, if you own CODE-1 Plus for both UNIX and iSeries platforms, you’ll see a separate purchase entry for each platform. Click on a View Details hyperlink for a platform entry to take you to the actual Product Details page. This is where you can see all of the download options for the product purchase that you’ve selected. This page is broken out by Product, Product Updates, Databases, and SubComponents.

Note: If you own a product that has a complex purchase record, you may find that one or more of your software components is listed in the SubComponents section.

Please visit the My Products area of the Group 1 Support Site.

Documentation

Documentation for virtually all Group 1 products are available online in Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF) and can be viewed with Adobe Reader®. You can download this free viewer at the Adobe® Web site. Depending on the file size, the PDF will first be compressed into a self-extracting zip file to help reduce the amount of time required to download the file. Free compression software is available from WinZip.

Group 1’s documentation is broken out according to category. As you click on each category’s hyperlink, you’ll be redirected to a page that displays a pre-filtered view indicating links to the available documentation for that category. Use the three Document Filtering fields to further refine your view:

New Documents – Use this category to view all new documents since your last visit. New documents are denoted with a icon.
Certifications – Check here to see CASS and PAVE Certificates.
Customer Information Management – One of the more active categories. This is where you go to access Release Letters, Product Alerts, Etc. Pending Product Notifications are also listed here – look for the word Pending in boldface type in the Document Description field.
Greenbars and Technical Bulletins – Get the latest Database Greenbars and database Technical Bulletins here.
Installation Guides – This category contains links to all of our Installation Instructions and Guides.
Miscellaneous – Miscellaneous documentation such as the Group 1 Technical Support Phone Menu and information on our National and Local User’s Groups can be found here.
Technical Product Info – Check here for links to Technical Application Notes, White Papers, Sample JCL, Copybooks, Conversion Notes, Etc.
User Documentation – This category contains links to User Guides, Quick Reference Guides, Etc.
All Categories – This category is an unfiltered view of all available documents (currently under maintenance).

The following information describes some of the features that are available in the Documentation area of the Group 1 Support Site:

Sortable Columns – Many of the displayed columns are sortable. The default sortation is by Published date in descending order so that you see the newest documents first.
Document Descriptions – Provides a brief summary of the information pertaining to each document. Descriptions can be displayed or hidden depending on your preference; you simply click the link to Hide or Show document descriptions (located above the listing). It will remember your selection for the current session as you navigate through the various views.
Note that Pending Product Notifications are also listed here – look for the word Pending in boldface type in the Document Description field.
Document LiveSearch – Use this feature to quickly search for and retrieve any document in our online documentation database.
Category, Product, and Platform filtering – This handy feature allows you to filter your document display by a particular category, product, or platform – or any combination of the three. You simply select the desired category, product or platform in the filter view to see the results.

Special Request Downloads

This area is for our customers who have been given a special Access Code by Technical Support as needed. Use of the Special Request Downloads area does not require you to log in to the Support site.

Additional Information

License Management

Group 1 uses License Management to help administer its agreements with our customers and the US Postal Service (USPS). Group 1 implemented its License Management system to monitor transaction counts, volume, and regulatory compliance. Failure to adhere to license restrictions may result in the disabling of the product until compliance is achieved.

License Management-enabled software products require you to install special license files and execute software on your host system with read/write access and may require you to update your license files periodically. Group 1 may request system audits and reports to provide you with updated license files.

Note: License file information is company-specific and should be treated it as proprietary material.

For most Group 1 products, license file downloads and installation instructions can be found through the My Products area of the Support Site in the same area where you download your software files. For these license-managed products, there will be a License File hyperlink on the filename. Use this hyperlink to retrieve your permanent license file.

To request a license file for other license-managed Group 1 products, please contact Technical Support.

Supported Browsers and Add-Ins

The Group 1 Web site uses the newest web technologies to make the site faster, more accessible, easier to navigate and easier to read. We are using XHTML 1.0 Strict markup and CSS for its presentation.

Most modern browsers support these standards, however, the site has been tested and works best with Internet Explorer 6.x+, Netscape 6.x+ and Mozilla 1.4+. If your browser is having trouble displaying the content properly, you may want to visit the Web Standards Project to make sure you are using a standards compliant browser.

For security reasons, we do not currently support the use of Download Managers (for example, RealDownload, Download Accelerator Plus and GetRight) for downloading our database files.

Adobe Reader is required in order to view most online documents; their files are created in the Portable Document Format (PDF). This free PDF Reader can be found at the Adobe Web site.

Many files are compressed using WinZip and/or DynaZip. This helps reduce the amount of time required to download the file from our Web server. WinZip files can be identified by a .ZIP extension. For the most part, compressed files are converted into self-extracting files, which can be identified by their .EXE file extension. You may download a free trial version of WinZip from their Web site. It is not necessary that you have DynaZip installed on your computers. For additional information on the DynaZip product, please visit their Web site.

Finding Help

If you are having issues using the various Online Services, please submit a Web Bug report from our Web site. This form is also found from the navigation menu under Site Help, Bug Report. This form gathers information about your browser session that will aid our troubleshooting your problem. Please be as descriptive as possible about your problem.

Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software