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Cloud Surfing
We’re excited to begin introducing the Management Portal to all of you. We believe you’ll love its efficiency. The customizable Workspaces can be a game changer by allowing you to gather and organize modules you use regularly so they are at your fingertips. Plus, you’ll enjoy the same convenient access you’ve always had with CiraNet: no need to be in the office directly connected to servers or the need to connect to a VPN. We want you to be able to surf along on any of CiraConnect’s cloud-based portals seamlessly as they were designed and intended, but what happens if you bump into a storm cloud? We thought this might be a good time to review some basic troubleshooting tips.
Getting Ready for a Great Experience: Know Your Ingredients
Thinking about your hardware as well as your software is helpful when trying to determine if your experience with a site could be linked to other components.
Think of cloud-based computing like a layer cake: there are multiple ingredients that all blend together to deliver the final product. The recipe here is your computer, your internet service, your preferred browser and the software you are accessing. Understanding their relationship can be helpful to understanding performance issues, and very helpful when reporting them. While many of you have laptops or PCs owned and maintained by your company, their hardware support team is likely handling their maintenance when needed. But whether that’s the case or you have your own laptop or one owned by your community association, it’s a good idea to understand what you are dealing with in terms of your machine and its operating system. To check is often as easy as typing in “About my PC” in the search bar to bring up the server settings. Mac users can click on the Apple icon on the top right and drop down to “About this Mac”. Our support team will occasionally ask for that information when troubleshooting problems, you are experiencing. And while our team cannot help you with your hardware, if you learn your operating system is outdated, reach out to your hardware support team to see if your machine could use an upgrade.
Keep in mind that computers age quickly. If you work from home and are hanging on to that old brick you wrote your senior thesis on, it might be time to let it retire to the closet and graduate to a new machine to have the best experience with the latest cloudbased programs.
Internet service is another key component to the recipe. The tips we provided in the holiday issue (CiraHelp page) for effective internet usage remain relevant the rest of the year as well. If you experience an overall lag that seems unusual, check your internet connection as part of your troubleshooting routine.
Cheers to Jira
CiraConnect employs a robust ticketing system powered by Jira Service Management. There are several advantages for both your team as submitters and the User Support team as recipients, primary among them being the ability to allow submitters to be participants on the tickets they create and to see the ticket progress and be alerted to any status changes. The system also allows for a communication chain between the ticket participants so that information is always directly linked to the open ticket.
Alternatively, if you want to suggest an enhancement, please do! Click on the lightbulb to be taken to the correct pathway for that option.
To help get the bugs exterminated timely, please be careful to choose the right option and help keep User Support focused on the issues they need to keep you running. Enhancement requests are reviewed differently, and on a separate schedule.
This is your convenient pathway to open a technical support issue
Find the Helpers
Mr. Rogers famously told us when we were young to look for the helpers. Now that we’re working adults, who are our helpers? As part of the community who use the CiraNet Portals, each of you has myriad resources, so let’s take a quick look at who they are and when to use them:
- Ask a peer. Sometimes the most expert teachers are the people sitting right next to you. The ones who know what you need and have found the best way to get to it.
- Consult your supervisor. These individuals are always your first line of defense. If you are unsure about how to use the portals, or what your company’s policies are in relation to some of the processes within the portals, ask them first. Don’t forget your Financial Manager. All clients utilizing the CiraConnect Shared Services Groups for their back-office accounting have access to a Financial Manager. That individual would be an excellent resource to check with for all acaccounting-relateduestions.
- Check CiraHelp. The 24/7 assistant at your disposal is CiraHelp. The easiest way to get straight to the help text you need is to click on the question mark next to the page title.
- User Support. Understand that this team is here to help with bug issues directly related to CiraNet, CiraMobile and CiraBudget. They cannot assist with hardware or ancillary software applications, however. How do you reach them? Via the Jira ticketing system!
Tip of the Month: Understanding Why We Ask
Trying certain self-help remedies first before diving into writing a ticket might just clear up the problem, can save you a lot of time and inconvenience! These are things we often need to ask, so try them first and see what happens. If you still need to open a ticket, you’re ready to document the results of these actions and will still save valuable time by reducing our need to ask follow-up questions. Why do we ask these things? We’re happy to tell you!
Why do we ask you to clear your browser cache?
Cloud based software has another advantage we didn’t mention in the lead article: new code and bug fixes can be pushed out to all users without them having to do anything more than logging in afresh to access it. Problem becomes: your cached data is from the previous version and can create conflicts. However, if you notice odd behavior in CiraNet or any web-based platform it is a good idea to try clearing your cache. Please understand that if you report an issue to our User Support team, we often suggest that you try doing just that as a first line of support to rule out the possibility that any cached data is causing the issue you are seeing; therefore, just go ahead and make sure you try it first. You might just find it helps resolve the issue with no more time spent on your part. If you are worried about losing data, the important key here is we’re trying to encourage you to have a fresh start with the CiraNet modules, so those cookies are the ones we’re asking you to clear. A common misnomer is that when you clear your cache you lose all your passwords. This is not necessarily so. You can choose to wipe the slate clean, but you need not lose any saved passwords.
Why we suggest you refresh the page. Some of you have been asked to try refreshing your page by using Ctrl+F5, otherwise known as a hard return. It forces the application to bypass the cache and reload a completely fresh version of the page sent by the server. This is not to dismiss the error you may have seen, which likely will still need to be reported, but might get you up and running in the interim.
Why do we ask what browser you are using? While many of you reading this article are using Chrome, please understand we try hard not to assume anything, and if you are reporting an issue on behalf of a board or committee member, that is a definite question to ask them and disclose in the ticket when opening a support ticket on their behalf. What version of your chosen browser is great to know as well. If you are running an older version of a specific browser, that could be a contributing factor. As many of you know, we will independently try to re-produce issues that are reported to gather as much data as possible, and it’s important to try to do so in the same browsing environment you are using.
Using CiraNet Management / Board Portal
CiraNet Management / Board Portal is using the latest version of our software, currently only accessible by our internal users (board members do not now have access.) We are updating it regularly with new advancements and features. Do note that despite this being very stable software, the nature of how we are adding new functionality and value week after week means there is a slight chance for minor hiccups. We want to ask you to help contribute to improving CiraNet by reporting the issue to your supervisor.
Access to CiraNet Management / Board Portal To access the new functionality available, you need to first visit CiraNet.com, then select Management Portal Beta. (This is not currently available for Board members)
As always, my inbox is open to your feedback about any specific communication suggestions at hamed.nouri@ciraconnect.com. As a reminder, any application issues and/or application-specific requests should be submitted through either the Idea Center or Technical Support menu options in User Support.
CiraConnect, 6400 International Parkway, Suite 1000, Plano, Texas 75093, United States