FAQ

If you have no additional requirements for your website at the moment and are happy with it as is, there is no immediate impact. All functionality, critical updates and support is expected to continue for until March 26, 2021,  however we will be monitoring this closely.

If you had been thinking of adding functionality, then we can have a talk about this to see if it is worth doing on Business Catalyst for now and migrating it later, or migrating first.

No your custom functionality is not going away. Every solution we find will be designed to at the very least maintain current functional needs. In many cases, the functionality will be enhanced, not simply maintained.

The heavy lifting in creating your website has been done - site structure, design, content and functionality.

We are researching means for all sites to strategically plan for migrating to a new platform in a way that minimizes financial impact. The Business Catalyst community have already identified a number of migration specialists and we will be working closely with them to make this changeover as smooth as possible.

Launch. We are advising all clients to complete their website redesigns and move forward. We have three full years of life of your site (which is a lot of time in the current web design cycles) to both achieve return on investment for your site and develop a platform migration plan.

Firstly - you are losing the benefit of being online every day that you are not online.

And secondly, we only want to do one migration for your site, not many - which means we need time to research and recommend the best solution for you so we can be confident it is the right move.

The answer to this is currently unclear.

What we can tell you today is that

a) we will be considering all options in light of minimizing the financial impact on you,

b) we will be evaluating your unique situation based on your specific business and website situation.

We will also time the migration when it makes the most financial and practical sense (eg. end of a hosting cycle).

Yes. If you have not yet purchased a secure certificate (ssl) for your website, then you need to address this very soon (and definitely before June 2018).

While this issue is unrelated to the migration, if you are thinking of migrating sooner than later it is best to migrate before you install ssl, as this may save you some costs. Mention ssl to me when we discuss migration implications together.

Read more about ssl here.

When you log your first support ticket (or when we log it for you), you will receive an email inviting you to click on the link and set your password. 

When you click on this link, you will be prompted to create a new password with a form which looks like this:

You will then be able to log into your Helpdesk and track your request there.

You can also simply respond to the emails you receive about your request and these will be logged inside the Helpdesk portal also.

If you did not receive this email, you can still just go to the Helpdesk and request that a password be set up for you. Just scroll to the bottom of the page and you will find this option here:

Unless you have an absolute emergency, we ask that you log a request ticket with your query or issue in the first instance.

If it is important for you to speak with someone about the issue, please make a note of this in your ticket and we will organise a mutually convenient time to call you back.

This will allow us to help you better and more quickly because:

• Your request will be immediately allocated to the person best placed to deal with your request
• We will have a chance to review your request before calling you back
• You will avoid catching staff in meetings, or not near a computer where they have access to relevant information about your account
• Your request can be tracked from beginning to end, with no parts missing (many a voice mail has been left with instructions which are either unclear, incomplete or undiscovered)
• A scheduled call at a time convenient to both parties will ensure the total focus is on your project at the time.
• It will save us time, as we will still need to log a ticket in order to track your request.

You can go directly to our Helpdesk link here https://onlineiq.zendesk.com/anonymous_requests/new

If you can't remember this link easily, then go to our website, click on the Support menu, and then on the Submit Request link.

Once a ticket is submitted, it will come to your email, and you can continue receiving information about your request and adding to it by email.

The easiest way to do this is to number your requests within the one ticket. We will then group and split your ticket into appropriate work batches.

If you do not have much need for support - then Casual support is probably the way to go.

The 'Launch Assist' is perfect if you have a site which has a lot of functionality such as eCommerce - as it is not unusual to want to make tweaks and changes as people start using the site and you gain an understanding of how people interact with your site. 

This subsidized package allows for 9 hours of tweaking over 3 months. To get this special package, you need to purchase it within one month of your site going live.

'My Webmaster' is perfect if you have ongoing website marketing and development needs. If you are investing in marketing activities such as email marketing, or have ongoing changes you want to keep your website fresh and optimised, this is the perfect package for you.

If you have little jobs coming up from time to time, then we'd suggest the 'On Tap' package.

A support instance is any time you contact us with a question, support, training or work request. This is charged at a minimum of 15 minutes per instance.

If a response to your query takes no longer than 5 minutes to review and respond, and has been submitted to the Helpdesk there will be no charge.

If you have not yet purchased a domain name, we recommend that you discuss this with us first (as a domain name has implications for online marketing). By having us purchase it we also save lot of time in chasing up logins and passwords for these important assets.

Deciding what the best domain name for your particular business is (its not always your business name!) is a good idea, especially if you want to give yourself the best chance of ranking well in search engine searches. Do not build your whole brand before securing a domain name. We have had cases where a whole website is built only to realise the client had not purchased the domain name for their business!

If you have a domain name, we can configure your email so that you can either use the Adobe Business Catalyst mail server (this is included as part of your general hosting package), or set it up through Google.

Some people choose to have their email setup through Google so that all their web and business assets are not in the one place, and also because Google has some great search and other features. It still allows you to use your own domain through their system (eg. yourname@yourdomain.com)

With both Google and Adobe Business Catalyst you have web access to your mail, as well as being able to set up your email on your local computer, tablet and smart phone to send and receive emails using any mail program such as Exchange, Outlook, Mail etc.

Setting email up on various devices can be tricky, and we will provide you with all the settings and information you need, but some people find they need help from more technical friends, or IT support to have this all set up smoothly. We offer some basic support with set up, but this can be difficult to do remotely.

Yes. If you want to have a website, you will need a domain name. Sometimes people purchase a number of domain names as a form of brand protection. Your domain name can be used for your website, or just for your own personalised email.

A domain name will need to be renewed regularly - usually every one or two years.

Talk to us if you have not yet purchased one, so we can help you decide the best name to buy from those which are available.

Yes we do. We use the Adobe Business Catalyst platform to provide hosting to our client websites.

We can offer some basic troubleshooting for email issues, however sometimes these can get very complex and have to do with factors completely outside of our area of control or expertise (such as ISP settings, spam filters, settings and so on).

If we exhaust our area of expertise, we can refer you to a reputable IT specialist.

Your website and online business assets are as important as any other business assets. 

How long does a project normally take?

We always go through a strategy process, even if it involves only one meeting, as it is very important that we are certain we understand you, your business and your clients.

If you are very clear with us, we can move to the blueprint creation phase quickly so we can get agreement from you to proceed to the design stage of the project.

onlineiq office hours are 9 am until 6 pm, Monday to Friday.

For support, we offer a support portal where requests are assessed and responded to within 8 business hours. The request is then either solved or scheduled for work or other resolution.

Except in the case of a website emergency, your project manager or support person will schedule a phone appointment with you (rather than just phoning in anytime) to ensure both you and we are completely focussed on your needs at the time, and that your request is allocated to the most appropriate person.

Domain names need to be renewed every year or every two years (in the case of Australian domain names). 

If a domain name has not yet been purchased, we recommend that you discuss this with us first (as a domain name has implications for online marketing).

An asset audit is a review of all the relevant website assets for your business.

Data gets updated, passwords noted or updated, and this is all documented into one file which you can access at any time.