Welcome to Perforce ALM (formerly Helix ALM). This handbook is your guide to getting help using Perforce ALM for agile management and planning.
Perforce ALM’s Global Support Team is available during normal business hours to assist you with your support needs. From answering questions about our product to assisting with troubleshooting, Perforce ALM Support is there to help you get the most from your Perforce ALM experience.
Perforce ALM Support's mission is to help you reach your goals. From answering questions that arise while using Perforce ALM, to troubleshooting, our support team will help you minimize your downtime and maximize your Perforce ALM experience.
NOTE: Nothing in this document supersedes your current contract with Perforce.
Perforce ALM provides a Standard Support offering to all customers, as described below. A Critical Care service is available, at additional cost, for weekend and out of hours coverage.
| Features | Standard Support | 24x7 Critical Care |
|---|---|---|
| New product updates and patches | X | X |
| Custom alerts on all new releases | X | X |
| Online support including downloads, technical knowledge base, active user community, and the Perforce Public Depot | X | X |
| Phone and email support during normal business hours | X | X |
| Online case logging | X | X |
| 24x7 support for critical issues with guaranteed rapid response times | X |
Perforce ALM offers support services via community portal, email, and phone. We recommend using either the web portal or email since those provide us with the most background information that we will use to quickly handle your case.
Email is the most popular channel to use when communicating with Perforce ALM support. Simply send your question or error message to [email protected]. You will immediately receive an email letting you know your request has reached our systems. You will hear back from Helix ALM Support as soon as they have reviewed your case. In most cases you will hear back from someone in thirty minutes or less.
Web Form
The perforce.com 'Request Support' is the main channel to use when opening support tickets if you do not have a Community Portal account. Select Perforce ALM as the ‘Product Brand’ and fill in the relevant information in the fields provided and submit your case. You will immediately receive an email letting you know your request has reached our systems. You will hear back from Perforce ALM Support as soon as they have reviewed your case. In most cases, you will hear back from someone in thirty minutes.
Community Portal
The Community Portal is the best method to use for opening and tracking your support tickets.
Telephone
Perforce ALM Support representatives are available 8am–5pm (9am–5pm Asia-Pacific) by calling the following locations closest to your geographic area:
North America
Monday–Friday
8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. ET
+(513) 276-4085
Europe
Monday–Friday
8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. UK
+44 (0) 1189 771020
Asia-Pacific
Monday–Friday
9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. AET
+61 (2) 9054-3712
Perforce ALM support engineers are on duty 8am–5pm (9am–5pm Asia-Pacific) M–F. Perforce ALM Support has staff in offices around the globe (US East Coast, UK, Estonia, and Australia).
Perforce ALM support offers a Critical Care package for an additional fee. If you are interested in Critical Care, please contact our sales team.
To escalate a case, as a customer just mention you would like the case escalated in an email or phone call. When this occurs the support manager is added to the case as well as all other required parties.
You may review all your open cases on the Community Portal. You may also use the Community Portal to open new cases or communicate with the Perforce ALM Support Team about open cases.
| Severity | Definition | Examples | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Severity 1 Blocker | Software is not Operational and end users cannot access the Software, or the functionality is significantly decreased, or back up or other security of data can no longer be performed. | Service will not start, database is corrupt, failed upgrade or installation. | Service availability is restored |
| Severity 2 Critical | Software is Operational, (i) functional limitations or restrictions have materially impacted Licensee’s operations, (ii) non-essential functions were disabled in production, or (iii) essential non-production functions were disabled. | Unable to log into client. License issues Client>server connection issues | Issue is resolved, satisfactory workaround is provided; fix incorporated into future release |
| Severity 3 Major | The Software is Operational with functional limitations or restrictions that are not critical to the overall operation of the Software or do not materially impact Licensee’s Perforce Software Support operations. | Unable to add a user, issues with sending email. Errors with reporting. | Satisfactory resolution or workaround is provided; fix incorporated into future release |
| Severity 4 Minor | Software is Operational with problems or errors that have minor impact on operation of the Software or on Licensee’s operations. | The documentation is incorrect. Basic “How do I...?” Feature requests | A solution is provided; fix incorporated into future release |
| Severity | Response Time | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Severity 1 Blocker | 30 min | Priority 1 Issues shall require continuous effort until functionality is restored either via an operational workaround or full resolution of the issue is achieved by Perforce. |
| Severity 2 Critical | 30 min | Priority 2 issues will be worked on during business hours until full resolution or workaround is achieved. Fixed in future release. |
| Severity 3 Major | 30 min | Future release |
| Severity 4 Minor | 30 min | Future release |
Perforce ALM’s on premise product downloads are located here. Select Perforce ALM from the menu on the left.
A Perforce ALM Account Manager will provide you with your product licenses. When you sign up for Perforce ALM Cloud, your account manager will provide you with credentials for accessing cloud instance.
Perforce ALM cloud planned maintenance notifications outside of standard upgrades will be emailed to you within five business days of the start date.
Perforce ALM Cloud team may occasionally need to perform emergency maintenance. Perforce ALM Cloud team will exercise reasonable effort to notify you twelve hours in advance by email. However, such notice is not guaranteed.
The Perforce ALM Cloud team is occasionally required to install relevant security patches in accordance with our patch management policy, as part of either planned or emergency maintenance activity. You will be notified in accordance with the maintenance type, as stated above.
Perforce ALM Professional Services – We have both administration and user classes that are taught by our Professional Services team. Contact Sales to explore the options that work best for you.
Perforce ALM Server Admin Guide helps you get started with configuring the Perforce ALM Server.
Perforce ALM Desktop Client and Web Client User Guides can help you get started using Perforce ALM.
Perforce Community Portal – The KB is your first stop for advanced problem solving and ‘how to’ questions. We are always updating it. Checking the KB before opening a new case may result in a faster resolution of your problems.
Perforce ALM Release Notes – New features and changes in functionality are announced in our release notes. Feel free to ask a support engineer about anything you read in the Release Notes.
Sometimes your problem will be traced to issues with software that is not under the control of Perforce ALM (e.g., open-source software and networking.) OpenLogic is a Perforce company that provides support for open-source software. Contact Sales to see if OpenLogic can help you with non-Perforce ALM problems.