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- What's New at PlanPlus?
Web Advisor has a new home in the IBM Datacentre
PlanPlus is pleased to announce that the migration of our production servers for Web Advisor users to the IBM datacentre in Montreal is now complete. This was a major transition as it did not include simply a relocation of existing hardware to a new computer room, but:
- the acquisition of 4 powerful new servers
- operating on the Linux operating system as opposed to Windows for increased performance and reliability
- moving from Microsoft SQL-Server to IBM DB/2 databases
- IBM Websphere web application server for increased support and reliability
We would like to express our thanks to our strategic partners Croesus Finansoft in Montreal who manage the hardware operations for PlanPlus, for all their assistance in the migration. We would also like to extend our thanks to all of our customers for your patience in this transition.
For more information about our hosting arrangements see PlanPlus Hosting Solutions (PDF)
A mission critical aspect of this migration is that it allows us to move to 24/7 monitoring of all aspects of the solution including hardware, operating systems, communications, DB/2 and Websphere, our own Web Advisor application and more.
As everyone knows the nature of the high tech industry is "piling complex applications on complex database and server packages on complex operating systems on complex hardware using complex communications." If any one piece of the puzzle goes down it can make it impossible for a user to access the tools that their business relies on.
Now that we are fully in production, a special "monitoring computer" in the datacentre "pings" various aspects of the overall solution every 5 seconds to determine if "they are still responding". If any aspect of the hardware, operating system or redundant communications fails to respond, after 15 seconds an email is sent to technicians monitoring the system for immediate action. If any aspect of the PlanPlus Web Advisor fails to respond emails are sent out immediately to our technical staff.
PlanPlus has also implemented a rotating schedule with our technical staff for 24/7 notifications using a special Blackberry device that will allow notifications and some levels of remote server administration to occur. You can bet that our technical staff are highly motivated to ensure that everything runs smoothly to avoid midnight wake up calls! In addition, corporate customers will be provided with the special support email address to be able to report service outages in the unlikely event the automated systems have not already done so.
At the end of the day, these are still computers running complex and sometimes all too fragile software systems and issues will arise, but we are excited that PlanPlus will be able to offer our customers a much higher level of service in ensuring your Web Advisor is there for maximum availability!
Over the next few days you may notice the addition of a new icon/link on the login page for your Web Advisor. Web Advisor in production environments has always maintained HTTPS secure certificates, but with the move to GeoTrust (a division of Verisign), it allows access to the site without the additional "Security Alert" popup intervening.
Although PlanPlus is continually working to make Web Advisor as intuitive and easy to use as possible, the tool does a phenomenal amount of analysis work for both you and your clients. As such, training is a key to your success.
PlanPlus has dedicated significant time over the summer in developing a new series of on-demand eLearning modules that allow you to gain a better understanding of the software, the analysis and the documents in the system.
As of Labour Day, the first 10 of these new FREE training sessions have been hooked into Web Advisor, with several more to follow over the balance of September.
The initial response from these training modules has been great and we are confident that if you and your assistant take the time to watch these sessions, your use, understanding and confidence in the plans you generate will be greatly increased.
Simply log into Web Advisor and select the "Training" link in the upper menu bar. The screen this brings up has links to your User Guide (recently updated), Frequently Asked Questions and more, but the section to focus on is the "eLearning". Invest a few hours now and you will save hundreds of hours in the future!
We would like to extend a very warm WELCOME to Louis-Martin Landry as the newest member of the PlanPlus Team.
Louis-Martin has joined the PlanPlus team as our French language technical and sales support resource. He is very familiar with our software, having been the technical support resource for our Quebec distributor Berger Laurin Scott. If you require French language assistance please send your questions to supportfrancais@planplus.com.
