Support Services Guide
This guide outlines the technical support services provided by the Specify Collections Consortium (SCC) to its member institutions.
What We Cover
[!success] Covered
SCC members can contact our Help Desk for assistance in accordance with their membership level. SCC membership covers the following types of issues:.
- General Questions: Inquiries about the SCC or general use of Specify software.
- Consulting Assistance: Inquiries about workflows or data ingestion.
- Technical Support Incidents: Issues resulting from software defects (bugs) or usability problems that prevent the normal operation of Specify software or producing errors or exceptions. These resolutions typically require support or engineering staff research.
- Installation Troubleshooting: Inquiries into troubleshooting installation issues. The SCC will not install or navigate the member’s infrastructure, but will consult.
- Data Migration and API Consultation: SCC staff will consult on data migration and API integration with members at the level of Full or higher.
What We Do Not Cover
[!danger] Not Covered
While we strive to support all of our members, some issues fall outside of the penumbra of SCC support.
- Dependent Software Installation: Inquiries or issues with installing dependent software should be directed to the company that created the software or the member’s IT staff.
- Institutional Infrastructure: Issues arising from the member’s own institutional infrastructure should be directed to the member’s IT staff, including database networking and DNS issues.
- Issues from non-approved tools: Issues arising from using non-Specify-approved tools, such as, but not limited to, editing Specify code or modifying the database directly. Specify may be able to assist in repairing issues, but that falls outside the scope of regular support and may incur additional costs.
- Data Modification: We cannot assist with large-scale data migration or database restructuring outside of incidental requests without an additional membership fee.
How to Contact Us
The Help Desk is your primary point of contact for all support related communications, including incidental, technical issue, and consulting assistance.
The Speciforum is the primary resource available exclusively to members for documentation, support questions, technical issues, and consulting assistance. SCC staff regularly monitors the Speciforum and other SCC members frequently respond with their experience and insights as well.
Incidental support inquiries or questions that contain sensitive information or data can be sent via email to support@specifysoftware.org.
Hours of Operation
Assistance is available Monday through Friday, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM US Central Time (November-February UTC -6h, March-October UTC -5h), excluding U.S. federal holidays and closures of the SCC’s University of Kansas campus.
Before You Contact Us
Before contacting the Help Desk, we encourage you to:
- Utilize the documentation and tutorials available on the Speciforum.
- If your institution has a primary Point Person, consult with them.
- Consult with other Specify users within your institution.
If local help has been exhausted and SCC staff assistance is needed, please contact the Help Desk via the Speciforum or email with the following information:
- Your complete contact information (first and last name, institution name, collection name).
- Your Specify 7 system information report and version (e.g. 7.11.1).
- A detailed description of the problem or request, including any error messages, screenshots, the time of the event, the name of your Specify user account, and what you were trying to do at the time.
Priorities and Response Times
The SCC Help Desk prioritizes and responds to Technical Support Issue requests based on severity of the issue, scope of the effect on members, and the membership level of the requester.
Severity Categories:
Critical: Major system outage or issue prevents ongoing work.
High: System is still functioning but there is significant impairment on productivity or increased impairment for a wide scope of members.
Standard: System is functioning. The issue is causing intermittent impact or has a small productivity impact; usage has not stopped.
Low: Productivity is not impacted or advice requested.
Scope Categories:
Isolated: The issue affects one member
Distributed: The issue affects a small number of members
Wide: The issue affects a large number of members
Complete: The issue affects all members
Our Commitment to You
The Specify Collections Consortium will queue and track incoming requests. Our Help Desk staff will determine the nature of the problem, refer it to the appropriate staff member, and monitor progress toward a solution. We will keep you informed of your issue’s status.