Providea's Technical Support department operates under the concept of the 5 Minute Rule:

"If a problem with a conference can't be corrected within 5 minutes, the chances that the conference will be a success will diminish rapidly."

So, we work to solve real-time issues in a real-time way.

Our Help Desk support techs answer the phones live, with no automated attendant, from 5am-5pm PST. Customers get a real person who can help, right away. After hours, we maintain 24hr support on-call via pager by calling our tech support line at 888-477-6225.

• LIVE phones- no phone attendant or Voice Response System from 5am-5pm PST
• Our four-year running average time to answer a support call is 6 SECONDS.
• 80% of calls are resolved in 3 minutes or less
• Technicians are continually trained
• Polycom CVE, Tandberg Certified Tech, and Cisco CCNA technicians in-house
• Experts in Videoconferencing technologies, Standards, Bridging, Video over IP and ISDN

Real-Time Support™ (RTS) is also Providea's branded service name for 24x7 help desk support of certified products and configurations.

Real-Time Support™ Overview

RTS includes the following:

• Determine the "Need"
  • Establish customer priorities
  • Diagnose and isolate any problems
• Develop and communicate the resolution path
  • Engage and escalate to the appropriate resources
  • Coordinate replacement equipment, if necessary
  • Communicate milestones and track project in accordance with Best Practices
• Close the issue

Determine the Need
A Providea Certified Engineer will work with the customer to review the symptoms, isolate the problem, and understand the customer priorities for resolution.

Develop and Communicate the Resolution Path
A Providea Certified Engineer will engage and escalate to the appropriate resources in order to resolve the issue. If replacement parts are required, the PCE will contact the vendor or provide information to Procurement and confirm that the equipment arrives onsite. We will communicate to the contact(s) throughout the resolution.

Close the Issue
A Providea Certified Engineer will confirm with the contact(s) that the problem is resolved and close the issue.

Real-Time Support™ is designed to give end users a single point of contact for all "video related" items, including:

• Wiring - cabling, cross connects, patch panels, etc.
• Access - physical facilities including last mile services - ISDN BRI, PRI, T1.5, DS-3, etc.
• Network Transport - including both LAN and WAN connectivity (Switched Digital Service, ATM, MPLS-based services, public internet, etc).
• Product Support - includes all hardware, software, and end-user support
• Bridging - Providea Conferencing Services (PCS) for scheduling multipoint video, audio, and web conferences. PCS customers are entitled to receive RTS to ensure successful video calls.

Real Time Support is typically bundled with equipment maintenance, but can be sold as a standalone service. RTS is available only to locations within the United States.

We provide customer support through live personnel during our Primary Hours of Operation, and call back service during Extended Support Hours.

• Primary Hours of Operation: Monday thru Friday, 5am to 5pm PST
• Extended Hours of Operation: all other times (includes Providea observed holidays).

Our RTS model employs an "Ownership" principle. The answering technician "owns" the customer satisfaction and is responsible for coordinating the resources required to resolve the issue. Ownership of an issue may only be transferred to another technician through mutual agreement, it cannot be passively transferred via e-mail or any other way.

We categorize Product Support into on four categories listed below. Our ownership model applies to all categories with the exception of "Manufacturer":

• Real-Time Support™ - all Providea Certified Engineers have been trained on the product. The target is that the PCE who answers the call can resolve the issue 90% of the time without requiring additional assistance.
• Specialist Support - our PCE's have basic product training, but we have trained members with Technical Services to act as product specialists (Subject Matter Experts). This ensures that technical assistance can be provided within the service organization.
• First Call - we take first call, but rely on support either from Providea Engineering or the manufacturer support for technical matters.
• Manufacturer - support is provided directly by the manufacturer (we don't support the product directly).