In this guide, we will cover the different methods of accessing Technical Support for those who have purchased support from Bromcom (as opposed to a third party support centre, such as your Local Authority).
You can also find support on the Bromcom Online Community where you can tap into a network of thousands of Bromcom users.
For information on how to raise a development idea and the development process see How Customer Ideas Get Developed
It covers our:
- Who can Contact Support
- Adding new Contacts for Support
- How you can Contact Support
- What is the best method to contact Support?
- Phone Support Service Password
- Information to provide to Support
- Prioritising your Support requests
- Service Status Page
- Our service level agreement
- Checking Known Issues
- How to reset your Support Portal username or password
- How to escalate Support cases
- Why did my case close?
Who can contact Support
For security purposes, technical support is provided to authorised contacts only. These are individuals nominated by a registered contact from the school to raise case with us (see next section). Parents are also not able to use the Bromcom helpdesk.
Adding new Contacts for Support
Before you go live with Bromcom, the School or Trust (usually the person responsible for implementing Bromcom) will have provided Contact(s) for each school. These contacts are then added to the system by Bromcom, and sent their login credentials for the Support Site (help.bromcom.com).
Once individuals have received their login credentials they can then add further contacts for their school using the form on the Support Site (help.bromcom.com). Follow the below process:
Go To Help.bromcom.com > Click Sign In > Click My Support > Click Contacts
These individuals are then sent an invitation to the Support Portal and once the request is validated, the contact should be added to the list of Authorised School contacts within two working days. Please note, if a contact has not received training from the school or Bromcom they will not be sent login details to the Support Portal.
How you can contact Support
Support is available via the Phone (020 8290 7177), Online Chat, or via our online Support Site, which allows you to raise cases and exchange messages with our agents https://help.bromcom.com/.
The opening hours are as follows:
Phonelines: open from 08:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday except on Wednesdays when the lines are open from 08:00 to 16:00 hours, to allow for staff training.
Online Chat: open 08:00 – 16:00 Monday to Friday. Primary schools only.
Web cases: can be raised 24/7, 365 days per year.
What is the best method to contact support?
The contact channel you choose should depend on the nature of your query.
Phone – calling us is generally the fastest way to get an answer to your query.
Online Chat – chat is best for simpler queries, as we cannot see your screen or hear you describe the problem. For more complex or detailed questions, try calling us instead. Please note online chat is only available for Primary schools.
Web case – for complex, detailed queries and those that require screen shots and examples, its best to raise a web case. For any case raised online, make sure you add as much detail as possible into the case so we can get to work without having to contact you for more information. If you request a call back on your case, please be aware you will need to give the Service Password (see next section).
Phone Support Service Password
Bromcom support can be reached on 020 8290 7177.
To access Phone Support, you must provide a Service Password. This can be viewed on help.bromcom.com under Your Name > Profile.
IMPORTANT! Your Service Password is a shared password for the whole school and all Authorised Contacts will need to provide it when they call support. Making changes to the password should be managed carefully.
Information to provide to Support
In order for us to meet our SLA to you, we need the right information about the query or incident at the point the case is raised. This prevents us having to contact you for further information to help us resolve the case.
Each issue or query requires a separate ticket, even if they relate to the same school, module or process.
When raising cases, you should include the following:
- The module you are working in
- The path to the area (example, Reporting > Reports>List Reports>KS2 tracker)
- The priority of the call
- A description of the issue including;
- What the issue is
- Where the issue exists
- When the issue happens
- Whether the issue is reproducible and if so how – providing full steps to recreate including full screen prints and relevant audit reports as attachments
- Whether anyone else is experiencing the issue
- Whether there has been any change to the system recently, prior to which the issue did not exist
- Screen dumps and/or sample reports of error messages
Here is an example of a case where there is not enough information for us to progress it without having to contact you.
Here is an example of case with enough information that we can get working on it straight away.
Prioritising your Support Requests
Our Support Desk operates according to a Service-Level Agreement (SLA). This means the Priority of the ticket determines how quickly we will aim to respond and provide a resolution.
Categories: You will need to set a Category. A Service request is a query or request for support. An Incident is a loss of functionality.
Priorities: You also need to set the ticket priority. Priority is determined by the impact on the school. The grid below guides you through the prioritisation levels;
Service Status
You can check out the status of the Cloud on the Service Status page accessed through the support portal. Make sure you subscribe to get updates.
Our Service Level Agreement
Once the Category and Priority are applied to the ticket, the SLA in the tables below determine the target response and resolution times we will work to.
Where we can, Bromcom will always try to provide workarounds to any incidents, so that schools can carry on with their day to day tasks.
Note: These targets are based on working hours/days (8am – 5pm Monday to Friday, and 8am – 4pm on Wednesdays). However, our availability SLA (>99%) applies 365 days per year.
Service Request SLA
| Priority Level | Response Target | Resolution Target | Description |
| 3 – High | 1 Day | 4 Days | Requests for support which, if they are not answered, have a high impact (see prioritisation grid above). These are likely to be concerning business critical modules (e.g. Attendance, Census) |
| 4 – Medium | 2 Days | 8 Days | Requests for support which, if they are not answered, have a medium impact (see prioritisation grid above). These are likely to be concerning business critical modules (e.g. Attendance, Census) |
| 5 – Low | 3 Days | 30 Days | Requests for support that have a low impact on the running of the school (see prioritisation grid above) |
| 6 – Very Low | 4 Days | 45 Days | Very minor queries that have minimal or no impact on the running of the system in the school; for example, checking how something might be done in a future hypothetical scenario. |
Incident SLA
| Priority Level | Response Target | Resolution Target* | Description |
| 1 – System Down | 1 Hour | 4 Hours | No access to the MIS or subsidiary services, MCAS, VLE or Vision |
| 2 – Critical | 2 Hours | 1.5 Days | Total loss of functionality in a business critical module (e.g. Attendance, Census) that has a critical impact (see prioritisation grid above) |
| 3 – High | 4 Hours | 3 Days | Loss of functionality, likely to be in a business critical module (e.g. Attendance, Census), that has a high impact (see prioritisation grid above) |
| 4 – Medium | 8 Hours | 6 Days | Loss of functionality in a non-business critical module (e.g. MCAS) that has a medium impact (see prioritisation grid above) |
| 5 – Low | 16 Hours | 30 Days | Loss of functionality in a non-business critical software product (e.g. MCAS) that has a low impact (see prioritisation grid above) |
| 6 – Very Low | 32 Hours | 45 Days | Queries and requests that do not have any impact on the school (see prioritisation grid above) |
*Subject to release schedule.
Checking Known Issues
The Known Issues Page of the Support Site lists Medium, High, and Critical defects in Bromcom and is updated daily.
Click on an item to see the replication steps, along with the details of the expected and actual results.
You can also use this page to see the Estimated and Planned Resolution Dates, where these are available.
- Estimated Resolution Date: this is the latest date that the fix is currently scheduled for. This date is subject to change and can either be brought forward or moved back. Not all items will have an Estimated Resolution Date.
- Planned Resolution Date: If the fix will go out sooner than the Estimated Resolution Date, the date will be listed here. Not all issues have a Planned Resolution Date.
The Recently Resolved tab shows all defects resolved in the last 30 days.
Note that the Known Issues displays a list of known defects, rather than outages or temporary interruptions to service. These performance issues will still be listed on our Service Status Page https://status.bromcomcloud.com/
We aim to provide a workaround for every Known Issue and the timeline for fixing the issue.
How to reset your Support Portal Username or Password
You can reset your password from the login page https://help.bromcom.com/
Click the Forgot Username or Password? button shown below.
If your email is found on the system, you will receive an email from SupportDesk@bromcom.com containing your Username and an option to reset your Password.
If you already have your credentials and wish to change them at any point, this can be done on the Support Site. Sign In > Click Your Name > Click Profile > Click Change Password.
How to Escalate Support Cases
You can request an update on your case at any time by calling or messaging the support team and quoting your case reference number, or adding a Portal Comment to your case. Our support desk agents review any updates to their cases daily.
If you are not happy with the response or service on a particular case, you can email customercareteam@bromcom.com.
Please do not take out your frustration at the handling of a particular case on any of our front line staff. Read Bromcom’s zero tolerance policy towards abusive, threatening or hostile behaviour towards our staff.
Why did my case close?
Each case you raise with us has a Status. When you first raise a case the status is Open. Throughout the lifecycle of the case we will update the Status which provides you with information on its progress.
Two of the Statuses will auto close the case after six working days if there is no response, these are:
Awaiting Response – Occasionally cases are logged with insufficient information. In these instances the support agent will set the status of the case to Awaiting Response and ask for additional information such as examples and replication steps. If no response is received in six days the case will close and the status will show as Closed (Automatic).
Resolved & Awaiting Confirmation – This status indicates the case has been resolved but is awaiting confirmation from the you before it is closed. If no response is received in six days the case will close and the status will show as Closed (Automatic).
You can reopen your case on the Support Site by writing a comment on the case.