Users Esri Support Services has nearly doubled the number of technical experts within the last year. It's Just Easier Now New support resources Support Services is your primary resource for troubleshooting any technical issues you encounter with Esri software. Esri has new resources for getting you solutions quickly. More staff, extended hours, online resource centers, and a new Customer Care portal make it easier to get the support you need to be more successful with Esri products. More people to take phone calls and respond to e-mails immediately As Esri customers have changed the way they use software to reach their goals, Support Services has added to its talented team. Within the last year, Esri Support Services has nearly doubled the number of technical experts available. Continued aggressive recruitment ensures the staff will grow with the increasing number of users. Extended hours of operation that better match when you need support With the addition of the East Coast Support Center, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, along with Esri's global headquarters in Redlands, California, Support Services now takes questions from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Pacific time) Monday through Friday. Easier access to useful information Esri's new online resource centers (resources. esri.com) make it much easier to locate information that can point you in the right direction when you encounter a problem. These 60 ArcUser Spring 2009 centers are organized by topic or product, providing one place to access information and support. Go to these resource centers to quickly find samples, online instructional content, tutorials, hosted content, developer resources, and Esri blogs. Resource centers can be launched directly from the software. Bugs Online database In addition to resource centers, the Support Center now publishes a searchable database containing known Esri software issues. Save lots of time and aggravation by visiting Bugs Online at support.esri.com. Use this database to determine if your problem is a known software bug. New Customer Care portal After contacting Esri Support Services, it is now easier to track the incidents and bugs you have reported. Managing and monitoring all Esri account and support information are easy for an organization's primary contact person using the new Customer Care portal (customers. esri.com). Primary contacts are the people in an organization who are involved in the business relationship with Esri and have access to the Customer Care portal. Through this portal, primary contacts for an organization can keep up with specific software and maintenance information, account activity (e.g., order history, shipment tracking, User Conference passes, primary contact information), technical support history of all incident and bug information, and The Customer Care portal is an excellent tool to use to manage and monitor Esri account information. training information on classroom and Virtual Campus courses. Service Pack Announcements Before the release of every service pack, Service Pack Announcements on the Esri Support site will help you better prepare for future upgrades and projects more effectively by using this list of issues targeted to be fixed in the release. (See "More Information on Service Packs" on page 7 of the Winter 2009 issue of ArcUser.) You can give feedback on the listed issues through a dedicated forum available with the announcement. More changes planned for the coming year are planned to improve your experience with Esri Support Services. Log on to the Support Center and send feedback to guide Esri on how to best serve your needs. www.esri.com