The call handling flow goes through the following steps:

1. The Customer Relations Desk (CRD) answers the call and logs the case. Case severity is determined.
2. For issues requiring Technical Support, the case is sent to the Systems Support team.
3. If the Systems Support Team does not solve the case, it is escalated to Advanced Technical Support (ATS).
4. If ATS finds a defect or determines that an engineering skill set is required to isolate or resolve an urgent issue, the case is escalated to Engineering.

Call Logging

The Customer Relations Desk (CRD) is the customer's initial contact point when opening a new case. The CRD performs the following support tasks:

• Verifies customer information (including contact information, RSA Support contract status, and versions of operating systems and RSA products).
• Responds to license inquiries.
• Verifies software shipments.
• Records a brief problem description that is used to select the most appropriate Technical Support team.

Severity

Once basic information is logged into the call management system (Clarify), the severity of the case is determined. Cases are handled on a first-in-first-out (FIFO) basis. All Cases are prioritized according to their impact to the customer (Severity 1 [S1] through Severity 4 [S4]), with S1 being the most important and urgent. Definitions for each severity are fairly standard within the industry and are documented in the RSA Support contract and the RSA Customer Guide. The severity of a given case can change, being upgraded or downgraded, depending on developments during the call handling flow. Response time goals for each severity level are documented in the RSA Support contract and are listed here for completeness.

For all RSA software products, excluding Consumer Hosted services:

• S1 cases receive a response within 1 hour either 24X7 (Enhanced Support contract) or 9x5 during customer business hours only (Basic Support contract).
• S2 cases receive a response within either 3 hours, 24X7 (Enhanced Support contract) or 4 hours, 9X5 during customer business hours only (Basic Support contract).
• S3 cases receive a response within either 4 hours, 9X5 during customer business hours only (Enhanced Support contract) or 8 hours, 9X5 during customer business hours only (Basic Support contract).
• S4 cases receive a response within either 10 hours, 9X5 during customer business hours only (Enhanced Support contract) or 12 hours, 9X5 during customer business hours only (Basic Support contract).

Consumer Hosted services, have one common support contract, which is a hybrid of Basic and Enhanced Support contracts:

• S1 cases receive a response within 15 minutes, 24X7.
• S2 cases receive a response within 1 hour, 9x5.
• S3 cases receive a response within 1 business day, 9x5.
• S4 cases receive a response within 2 business day, 9x5.

RSA measures its business performance and regularly exceeds these goals.

After Hours Support

Menu choices allow the customer to select the appropriate level of service for After Hours Support (8:00pm Friday – 5:00pm Sunday, EST). Answering Services are available for customers that wish to speak directly to a TSE live. TSEs are readily available by mobile phone. The TSE accesses our integrated knowledge management system if necessary to get customers up and running again as soon as possible. By having the ability to provide support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we are able to offer worldwide support to our entire customer base.

Follow the Sun

Regardless of where the call originates, our worldwide Customer Support Centers will make every effort to solve the case when it is opened. We proceed with a "follow the sun" process to hand-off calls between different Customer Support Centers. For example, between Monday and Friday, a call from Europe will be routed to our Americas or Sydney Customer Support Center when the Bracknell Customer Support Centre is closed. If the call remains open, we pass it back to the Bracknell Customer Support Centre for the beginning of their next business day.

In general, customers are supplied with a remedy to their issue and their case is closed when all parties agree the reported issue has been resolved. If the customer issue is determined to be an enhancement, an Enhancement Request is entered into RSA’s defect tracking system. An Enhancement Request is handled and processed by Product Management and Engineering. A letter explaining the disposition of the reported enhancement is also sent to the customer.