Magda,

If I understand what you're saying is that someone can build 1 site, replicate it 99 times and be considered a "more experienced" partner... and therefore, get privileged access to level 2 support. That makes no sense.

Level 1 support is basically useless, and having about 25 years of IT industry experience, I don't say that lightly.

With an MLM-style business, you really only need to build one or two sites, then replicate from there..so there's really no more experience than someone who has built one or two sites, except that they know how to sell to a single MLM business.

For qualifications for level 2 support, I would think that being a paid partner would be a good place to start.  At least a paid partner has a level of committment to BC that free "partners" do not.  There are ways to determine qualifications in terms of experience, however, doing so in this case would over-complicate the process and make it inflexible for future growth.

Regarding certifications, I do believe they could be a part of the qualifications, but the ceritifcation should only be available to paid partners. The certification program was only around for a very short time, and a lot of that was before anyone really had heard of BC.  Now that there is a serious marketing effort and more time has passed, BC should seriously reconsider the program.

I also feel that beyond FAQ's, forums should be only available to paid partners.  When the free "partner" program was created, I suspect many paid partners felt a slap in the face, or at least to the forehead for investing.  This free program cut out many of the benefits that a paid partner program provided.

As far as Level 1 support goes, a part of their job should be recognizing when a support issue should be escalated, and this should happen before paid partners reach a point of having to beg.  My experience with BC's Level 1 support was that a BC update broke worflow notifications, and their response was that the forms I had created with BC's form builder were broken.  Their positions was that I had code in the forms that was the reason the forms didn't work, yet some of these forms had been working for over a year without modification.  Every form on every site that had a workflow notification process suddenly stopped working but somehow BC Level 1 support was convinced it was my mistake since all they had to do was create a new form that would work.  I never got to Level 2 support because I didn't have the time to waste.  My clients sites were not functioning which made them and me look incompetent.

The message is simple - put aside the cosmetic updates and put the Business in Business Catalyst.

This is a three part problem to me.

1. Paid Partners should get a different level of support than free partners.  Even though I'm a Standard Partner, I'm ok with Premium Partners having a higher level of access to support than me, but I don't think Free Partners should have as much access as they do.  Premium Partners have access to the API so they have special requirements that Standard Partners do now.
2. I do not support the idea of trying to decide who has what access based on experience.  There are too many variables and it will lead to preferential treatment.  Support calls should start at Level 1, and should be assigned and/or escalated to the appropriate support person / Level based on the type and severity of the problem.  For example, if a partner says several sites are suddenly experiencing the same problem, but has changed nothing then the call needs to be escalated right away.
3. Level 1 support needs to be educated on when to escalate problems.  They need to be measured on their ability to handle Level 1 support issues, and know when to escalate a problem.  They should never, never, never be measured on how many calls they clear or how quickly they get people off the phone.  A well educated Level 1 support team will make for a much more efficient and effective use of Level 2, Level 3, etc..  Raise the standard, don't lower it.

When we our clients look bad, we look bad.. When we look bad, Adobe/BC looks bad..

The message is simple. Put the Business in Business Catalyst.

Magda,

Is it true that White Label is gone and all of the Support Documentation will be re-branded BC and Adobe just like the new Terms of Service and as the Blog post suggets? You note that "The white label support has been modified at the suggestions of our customers”. Did you talk to any of the smaller Partners that use BC as a White Labeled solution?

I think the new changes need to be taken one step further by allowing Premium Partners the choice to also give our customers access to the non-branded White Label support/help documents, videos and Terms of Service (Has anyone read the new T&S?) as well as a link to our support page if I can't have both I'll take the white labeled help documents and videos over a link to my support page any day. I can see where a larger Partners might be able to fully support BC without access to the help documents but as a smaller shop I cannot, I think it's great that you allow us to provide a link to our support site but by turning off the support documentation it leaves our clients hanging without the basic help documentation and videos that they are used to being able to access while using the system.

As a Premium Partner I've jumped in with both feet and built my business around a White Labeled BC Solution, now along with the new Adobe Terms of Service that my clients have to sign off on (Which are Terrible) and support/help documentation BC seems to be giving them the full BC and Adobe branding treatment. Where does this leave Premium Partners that signed on so they could resell a White Labeled solution? Please do not forget the Premium Partners out there that use this as a White labeled solution.

Regarding all of the changes to the support site noted in this forum post, I don't have 100 sites on BC but hope to at some point, I have a large number of client sites on another system that I'd love to move over to BC but that takes time, I think the 100 sites number may be a bit tough if not impossible to reach for some partners, leaving them to deal with Level1 support no matter how much experiance they have with BC. I would agree with Rwtconsultants I think they have hit the nail on the head…

As noted I have a number of sites on other systems that I'd love to move over but until issues such as Support, White Labeled Help Documentation, Videos and the Wording in the new Adobe Terms of Service get sorted out I'm very hesitant to move more of my current clients to BC.

Brad,

Based on what I read on this blog post http://www.businesscatalyst.com/_blog/BC_Blog/post/May-release-New-par tner-support-Infrastructure-updates-Site-templates-and_bug-fixes/ they will be re-branding the support documents rendering them non-white labed.

Here's a quote from the blog post:

"The default Support experience provided by BC for your clients will be updated in a few releases to be similar to the partner support experience. This includes BC-branded support cases and documentation. If you'd like to keep a white-label experience for your customers, please set your own Help & Support URL in Partner Portal."

Basically what I was saying based on the blog post and how this works as I've tried it is:

1. If you enable a link to your own support to have White-Label experiance it turns off access to the basic support documention, which is fine if you don't want to give your clients access to this very useful info and have all the time in the world to create your own BC support documentation
2. If you want to link to your support site for say a support email, chat and phone number this is great but you loose acess to the support docs
3. So if this is the only option, I'll leave it as is so my clients have access to support docs.
4. But by doing so (which will be updated in a few releases) all the documents they see will be branded BC & Adobe, which is is bad for White Label Partners

If they brand everything BC & Adobe this is not White Labeled as before and yes the ability to link to your site is an extra feature that makes sense but by enabling it you turning off support documents, which is not the answer.

I hope you're correct about seeing more white labelled assets as time goes on.

Thanks Liam, not that I don't believe you, I'd like to hear if from the horse’s mouth and not have to read between the lines. Can someone from Adobe please confirm that White Label (Docuemnts, Video ect.) is going away?

Appealing you bet, I built my business around this concept and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I already do support but go build my own help documentation Ya right, like I have the bandwith to do that! I am one man shop, it's hard enough to get paid work done on time much less have to go out a create adn keep updating our own support documentation.

Anger and frustration does not even come close to explaining my feelings if this is true, that's the main reason I paid extra to become a Premium Partner! This is the first time anyone has stated this, my question is why does Liam have to be the one that explains this to us? I think we deserve some honest clarification from Adobe.

White label - Gone ? Does this mean I will get a refund ? I have paid for the white labelling...