Contacting us

For our clientsquantrax

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR OUR CLIENTS

This section has information on how to contact us, as well as details related to our support for custom modifications. It is important that you review this information and make it available to individuals who may have to contact us for support outside normal hours. Our procedures were designed based on the fact that we provide support from multiple offices and through resources based in different time zones. Please try to follow the listed procedures for support and programming support. It helps us to provide quality support and keeps our costs down.

PHONE    (301) 657 -2084

This is the only number you will need to remember. When you call, you will be able to contact technical support, operational support, talk to a specific individual, receive support after hours for emergencies or leave a message. Our normal business hours are 8.30 AM to 5.30 PM EST Monday through Friday.

If you have an urgent problem you will always be able to speak to someone in the office. In cases where your problem is not urgent, please send an email to support. We have invested in a very sophisticated telephone and voice mail system that will notify us of messages that have not been responded to, in the support or technical areas. If you have left a message for an individual, it is possible that the individual may not be available for an extended period, or is away from the office. If you need an immediate response, please talk to another person in the office. Since most of the issues that we are contacted about do not require immediate attention, e-mail is the preferred method of contact. We will be paying attention to and responding quickly to e-mails sent to support and the technical areas, so please use e-mail to contact us unless there is a very good reason to call us. Your cooperation is sought in our efforts to provide superior service to all of our clients.

When you call the office, the auto-attendant feature will offer you 5 choices:

  • Enter the extension you wish to transfer to. We presently have the following extensions :
    • 104 – Marcus Kempen
    • 105 – Jona Perdigon
    • 106 – Jamie Horrell
    • 107 – Kathy Willits
    • 108 – Madison Kindoll
    • 110 – Preston Ball
    • 131 – Quantrax technical support at Q2 Systems (Note that if you do not get an answer or the line quality is poor, please contact the office or page us depending on the time)
    • 133 – Quantrax staff at QXS (Operations staff). Operations staff may also be at Extension 131. Please try both extensions. (Note that if you do not get an answer or the line quality is poor, please contact the office or page us depending on the time)
    • 135 – David Lahr
    • 153 – Delight Kasserman
    • 154 – Mark Namba
    • NOTE – Ranjan Dharmaraja (Not in office often. Use cell# 301.755.3849 if it is urgent. If you do not get a response try 301.825.5630. That number will ring his phone even if he is out of the US. If you do not reach him, please contact the office or e-mail Ranjan)

Please use an individual’s extension only if you really need to speak to or leave a message for that individual. Otherwise, select one of the other choices below.

  • Press 2 for support. This option should be selected for any problem relating to the RMEx, but should not be used for programming issues. You will have 2 choices available within the support area :
    • Press 2 to leave a message. Unless there is an urgent problem, please leave an informative message. Our objective is to respond to all support messages and e-mail’s received up to 4 p.m. EST, within 30 minutes. Messages received after 4 p.m. may receive a response the following morning.
    • Press 3 if you have an urgent support problem that requires immediate assistance.
  • Press 3 for programming. This area refers to special programming projects that require you to contact us. You will have the following options within the programming area :
    • Press 2 to leave a message. Most programming issues will require some research, and if you are responding to a question or have a question that does not need to be answered immediately, please leave an informative message. We will respond based on the nature of the problem and the level of urgency.
    • Press 3 if you have an urgent technical problem that requires immediate assistance
  • You can always press 5 to speak to someone immediately. Please only use this option if you can not leave a message and have to talk to someone immediately. What are some examples of technical problems that would justify a need for “immediate assistance”? Some examples are :
    • Nightly processing has not completed
    • Your have a system error message and need to know how to respond
    • Users cannot sign on and you suspect a hardware problem

We will be very sensitive to issues that need our immediate attention, but if most issues are escalated to an “immediate” status, we will not be able to provide the levels of service that Quantrax and you would like to see. We appreciate your cooperation.

Software development and support requires great planning, skill, knowledge and concentration. Our procedures will allow us to make sure that the people who need to help you are available to do so. Quantrax has plenty of resources that if used effectively, will allow us to deliver fast and accurate answers or advice to all of our clients.

AFTER HOURS SUPPORT

If you are contacting us on a working day, after 10PM or before 8.30AM, please contact the Sri Lanka office that may be staffed at this time. The number is (301) 657-2084, Extension 131 / 133.

Outside normal business hours use option 6 from our Main Menu when calling in.

From there, you will have 3 available options. (Option 1, 2 and 3 – Always start with Option 1) Each of those options will attempt connect you to a support rep on call at that time. (we do not expect you to have to leave any messages) The reason we have 3 options is if in case the first rep is not available and you do not get an answer you have 2 more people available.

If you call after hours and someone does not answer your call, you will need to call the office and try the second option and that call will be routed to a different support rep and then the third option if necessary.

This may sound cumbersome but it really isn’t going to be. Our goal is to make sure that you can always reach someone when needed, and now instead of having to go to the website to look for additional phone numbers, all you have to do is call the office!

Summary:

Call office (301-657-2084) -> Take Option 6 and then Press 1 – If No Answer or you get a recording
Call office (301-657-2084) -> Take Option 6 and then Press 2 – If No Answer or you get a recording
Call office (301-657-2084) -> Take Option 6 and then Press 3 – If No Answer – Follow instructions as if phone system is down.

  • In the event that our phone system is down or you have not heard back from someone within a reasonable period of time, call the cell phone number (240) 505-1813. Outside normal business hours, please do not call any of the other numbers listed unless you have a problem that can not wait. We value the personal time of our people and your cooperation is appreciated.

E-MAIL ADDRESSES AND RELATED INFORMATION

Our primary method of communication is e-mail. It is fast and can get messages to people even if they are away from their office or traveling. Our business model calls for an individual responding to any e-mail sent to the general support and custom programming mail boxes within 30 minutes. We are not referring to an “automated acknowledgment”, but to a response that is sent by a technical person who has been able to review your message. Our mutual goals should be :

  • generation of fast and accurate responses,
  • superior service for all of our clients at the lowest possible costs and
  • giving Quantrax the opportunity to allocate its resources wisely, in the key areas of research, development, problem determination and education for our users .

We will require cooperation from all of our clients to accomplish our mutual goals. Everyone at Quantrax understands the importance of great service. Please do not misunderstand us if we had to “remind” you to “follow the procedures” in a case where you are impatient or want immediate service, when there may not be the justification. We clearly understand our responsibilities. Our clients will call us and be impatient if we do not perform as promised. You can help us by telling us when we have not met our stated goals. This will make us aware of weaknesses in the system and help us address them. We thank you for your support and cooperation.

With regard to specific details :

  • Our goal is to have e-mail’s addressed to individuals responded to within 24 hours, but you will usually hear from the individual prior to that. Ranjan may be the exception. If he is not in the US, time zone differences may mean that he is not able to respond to you the same day (See section “Contacting Ranjan” in the event that you need to get in touch with him urgently.)
  • For support-related e-mail, you can expect a response within 30 minutes for messages received by us between 8.30 AM and 4.00 PM EST (You must send your message to the address designated below for support, and not to any specific individual). We are not referring to an “automated” acknowledgment – you can expect a response from someone who has reviewed your problem or question.
  • For custom programming issues, someone will usually review your e-mail within 30 minutes if it is received between 8.30 AM and 4.00 PM EST (You must send your message to one of the addresses designated below new or existing projects, and not to any specific individual). At that time, you should receive an acknowledgment of your message. The final response can take up to 24 hours if research is needed or it is not necessary to respond immediately. In such a case, you should receive a message indicating that we will be getting back to you. (See notes in section titled “Custom programming” where we discuss the scheduling of projects and testing.)

In the case of operational support or a problem with a delivered custom program, the first e-mail you receive from us will usually contain a solution to your problem or a response to your questions. In the case of items that may need some research and take longer to respond to, our goal is to acknowledge your message and  provide regular updates. Remember that an individual could be out of the office or traveling, and may not be able to check mail for several hours. If an individual is out of the office for more than a day, you will usually be notified. You must send the e-mail to the specific addresses below for the “away” notification to be generated.

Please use the following e-mail addresses.

  •  New projects : project@quantrax.com  After a custom modification has been delivered,
    if there are questions or problems relating to its use : custom@quantrax.com
  • E-mail address formats. The following are to be used.  To contact someone you have been dealing with on a specific project (new and not delivered),use first name+first letter of last name@quantrax.com (e.g. nelsonz@quantrax.com or ranjand@quantrax.com). If the inquiry or message is time-sensitive, please copy custom@quantrax.com in case the specific individual is not available. E-mail addresses are as follows (followed by@quantrax.com). Format is first name and first letter of last name.
    Ranjan – ranjand
    Nelson – nelsonz
    Delight – delightk
    David – davidl
    Jamie – jamieh
    Jona – jonap
    Kathy – kathy
    Marc – marck
    Preston – Prestonb
  • Madison – MadisonK
    Buddhika – buddhikan
    Chamee – chameeh
    Chrishantha – chrishanthas
    Prathip – prathipr
    Kasun – kasunn
    Geeva – geevas
  •  Support issues and any base-related problems
    (or if no other e-mail address is applicable) : support@quantrax.com
  •  Scoring-related issues : scoring@quantrax.com
  • In a case where you want to contact a senior person about a lapse in our service, use ranjand@quantrax.com

Do not copy different  people unless it is necessary. It could lead to duplication of effort, misunderstandings and delays.

Please have your contact info in the email. In particular, your telephone number.

If you have not  received a timely response to any e-mail you have, please call the office and speak to someone.

With a technical operation (Q2 Systems) that is located outside the United States, we have (as can be expected) several individuals with foreign-sounding names! The first names of the AS/400 technical staff at Q2 Systems are Prathip, Kasun, Chrishantha and sometimes Ranjan.

At the Bethesda office (and working remotely), we have Nelson, Jamie, David, Delight, Cyril and sometimes Ranjan.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON ATTACHMENTS – From time to time, you may e-mail an “attachment” of a report, a screen etc. to help us better understand a problem you may be having. There are many ways to capture a screen or report and send it as an attachment. While we do not have a preference for the format of the attachment (e.g. a bitmap, TIF or GIF file) some formats take up more space than others and will need to be zipped to create at attachment of a reasonable size. Our systems may reject very large attachments, so please be aware of this when creating attachments.

CONTACTING RANJAN

Most of you know that that Ranjan spends a great deal of time outside the United States. He does not take many long vacations and can usually be contacted via e-mail (Note that e-mails sent to ranjand@quantrax.com will get to him regardless of where in the world he may happen to be). If you do not get a response to an e-mail, contact the office. While Ranjan is in the US, his cell phone number will be (301) 755-3849. If he is out of the US, you can text him on this phone. If you leave a message on that number and do not hear back from him, please check with the office.

If you really need to contact him, also try (301) 825-5630. This number will call his phone even if he is not in the US. You can also leave a message on that number.

If you have to contact Ranjan, you can always call the office and ask them to locate Ranjan and give him a message. If possible, please try to give us some information about the reason for your call.

MAILING ADDRESS   

Quantrax Corporation Inc.
4300 Montgomery Avenue, Suite 105
Bethesda, MD 20814, USA

SUPPORT CALLS   

You can expect a call back or response within 30 minutes for a message left for the support team, or an e-mail related to the use of the product (You must send your message to the address designated for support, support@quantrax.com, and not to any specific individual). In most cases, you will be contacted sooner. In the event that you do not get contacted within the expected period, please call the office and speak to someone.

Again, please do not copy individuals as this can lead to confusion and delays. Also, make sure your phone number is in the email.

Some of us will use Skype while traveling and sometimes Skype produces a Called ID number that you do not recognize. If we will try to reach you via Skype and it is not urgent, we will notify you in advance that we will be calling using Skype.

CUSTOM MODIFICATIONS

Our procedures are designed to make sure a project is delivered accurately, on budget and on time. By having good systems we will also be able to better manage all of the projects that are presented to us. We will be able to spend time analyzing them and advising you of your best options – This can only happen if we are given the time to think and understand your requests. Your cooperation is critical in making our systems work as designed.

  • Requests for any custom modifications must be received via e-mail. For new projects, use the “Project Request Form” for new business loads. For other jobs, use the option “Submit a project” directly from our web-site. Provide as much information as you have, paying attention to details. Use the e-mail addresses described above, depending on the type of request. If you have a special programming agreement with Quantrax, we may ask you to use a special e-mail address for contacting us in relation to your projects.
  • If we have questions and e-mail you, please respond using e-mail. If we ask you to call us, please contact us on the Technical Support line (see above). Since we may only require an answer or that you supply us with missing information, leave a detailed message if you call us and the call is routed to an answering service. We will be checking these messages frequently.
  • For custom programming, our maximum standard delivery times are about 7 working days for a 10-hour project and 2 weeks for a 25-hour project. Longer projects will be estimated on an individual basis. Complete specifications must be received before a project can be started. A faster turnaround may be possible based on our workload, or may be requested for higher fee. We are not always able to provide faster response even if you are willing to meet a higher charge.
  • We have customized “Programming Agreements” for those clients who consistently require a higher level of service compared to our standard offerings. How would this work? We would set up a special programming agreement where an average number of hours per month and for a 6-month and 12-month period would be defined. The client would pay us a fixed monthly fee and would be guaranteed a faster turnaround without an additional fee. Please contact us for more information.
  • When requesting a delivery date for custom modifications, please make sure that you will have sufficient time for testing. If we do not plan and jobs are delivered only on or very close to the day that they are needed, we may not be able to correct any problems or make any changes in the time frame that you require the work.
  • In all cases, you can expect a response from us within 24 hours, if a request has been sent to us electronically. We will either accept the project or tell you that we need more information and describe what is needed. Please do not call us before the 24-hour period has elapsed. If you have not received a response as described, please call us. As with any system, we recognize the fact that there will be exceptions. If your problem is of a more urgent nature than our procedures are designed for, please call us first. We will try to accommodate your request.
  • To keep your costs down and to quickly proceed with a project, we do not usually contact you with an estimate if a job will take 8 hours or less. We will send you an estimate via e-mail if the job will take longer than 8 hours and await your acceptance. Please respond quickly. If you require an estimate, regardless of the size of the job, please let us know this when the request is submitted. It may take longer to start the job if this is the case. If the job is urgent and you want us to start on it without waiting for your approval, please indicate this when you make your project request. It could save you a day! The following guidelines should help you approximate the cost of some standard jobs. There can always be complexities that could significantly change these estimates. Special instructions on your part (e.g. complex client assignment logic, combining several charges into one account etc.), could also add to the costs. Remember that complete and accurate specifications at the time of submitting the project will ensure the fastest turnaround at the lowest cost.
    • New account load with very basic account information. Input file is a file with fixed fields and one record per account – 4 to 6 hours
    • New account load with medical insurance and F6 Medical information. Input file is a file with fixed fields and one record per account – 6 to 10 hours
    • New account load with multiple records per account – 6 to 15 hours depending on the information to be loaded. Typically, loading information into areas such as comaker, notes, additional contacts, 1500 or UB92 screens will involve more work.
    • New account loads that are in comma-delimited or another character delimited format can be more complex than standard loads.
    • Creating a payment transaction file from data supplied by the client – 4 to 8 hours
    • Creating a file of payment transactions for the client – 4 to 8 hours
    • Taking a file supplied by a client and reconciling the information with the data stored in RMEx – 6 to 10 hours
    • Creating a daily or periodic file with all notes created for a specific client or group of clients – 8 to 12 hours
    • Creating a daily or periodic file with information such address changes, insurance updates etc. – 8 to 16 hours
  • When a project is delivered, you will receive an e-mail notification. This e-mail will contain any special instructions or testing procedures. We may also choose to include separate documentation that will be stored on your system. This documentation must be viewed from within the “Quantrax Remote Support Options” within RMEx. We will notify you if such documentation has been created.
  • The key technical contacts at your company will receive an e-mailed status report daily (Monday to Friday) that lists all active projects as well as recently completed projects. Please review this promptly and e-mail the technical team if you do not see a specific project or have any questions.
  • It is vital that we have a dial-up line between Quantrax and your system, connected at all times, allowing us to transmit code to your system at any time in the day or night. If this is not available, you can expect delays and a possible increase in the cost of the project. Quantrax sets up a communication line with all of their clients – All you have to do is supply the appropriate hardware, modem and telephone connection, making sure that that line is dedicated to Quantrax. This same line will be used if we feel that it is necessary to look into your system to better understand a support problem you may have presented. We will be considering options that will allow us to transmit code via the internet. However, security concerns may make this a challenge and until we can do that with most of our clients, we may choose to use the existing dial-up connection. Several of our clients have their iSeries or AS/400 on the internet. If you have your system set up that way, please contact us with an IP address that we could use to access your system via the internet (if we had to check something for operational support). We will continue to transmit custom programs and PTF’s through the modem.

PROGRAMMING STANDARDS

We are sometimes asked about programming standards. That is not an easy question to answer because “programming standards” covers many different areas. Programming standards can refer to the complete software development cycle from design through coding, testing and documentation. While all of our technical staff have some formal training in information systems, we believe that the key to delivering great software is the quality of the analysis and design. We will usually ask a lot of questions and make an effort to understand what is required before programming commences.

To maintain high standards we pay attention to some of the following details.

  • We make sure we obtain a good “requirement specification” from the client.
  • Depending on the project, we may ask for the client’s “acceptance” of our understanding of what is required.
  • We make sure we have practical and tested procedures to control source and object code at Quantrax and on the client’s system..
  • Code is always changed on Quantrax’s systems and then transmitted to the client’s system ensuring that the same code is on both systems.
  • We can set up test environments where base or custom code can be tested prior to deployment.
  • Any requests are always carefully analyzed and considered as candidates for the base system. Making a base change means a lower cost to the client, a better supported product and the probability of future investment by Quantrax in enhancements to the new features.
  • Base changes are tested at different levels. We have a very successful record of delivering base changes which speaks to the quality of the code and the testing.
  • Programmer-level testing is performed on all custom code delivered. We attempt to reach a balance between testing, the time taken and the cost to the client. We are always willing to do more testing, but since this becomes a part of the cost of the project, we will settle on what we feel is a reasonable amount of testing and ask the client to also test the changes.
  • When any problems are identified, whether they be changes requested by the client or software bugs, every attempt is made to resolve those problems in a timely manner.
  • We expect our clients to keep copies of all of the specifications supplied, for future reference.
  • Depending on the project, documentation is supplied and should be stored by the client for future reference.