Cincom Smalltalk Support, Services and Community

Nothing tests the value of a vendor's solution like the support and services underlying it. Good support and service minimize your costs and risks. Support and service help determine how quickly your investment—of planning and labor, time and money—is returned in the form of cost savings or profit.

At Cincom, we believe our support and services are the best in the software industry, and we create the best value for our clients. Our proof appears in the success stories our clients report to us, telling us the ways in which we’ve helped them simplify the management of their complex processes. And you can find more evidence in the Cincom Smalltalk community.

You Can Count on Cincom's Support

Cincom Smalltalk's Support Policy is generally based on the current release of a product as described in the License Agreement. Cincom's policies encourage upgrades to the latest versions, but older versions are also supported on a sliding scale based on age.

Please see the summary tables for the relevant support policies for ObjectStudio™ and VisualWorks®.

Internet Support

The Cincom SupportWeb™ provides internet-based support, problem resolution, tracking and reporting, as well as access to a keyword searchable knowledge base containing answers to many frequently asked questions. SupportWeb™ access is available to registered users of Cincom products 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Telephone Support

Our Customer Service Center is staffed with knowledgeable and experienced Product Support Specialists who are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Visit our office list for the phone number of the nearest Customer Support Center.

Cincom Smalltalk™ Professional Services Web Input

Even experienced Smalltalkers need help from time to time!

You don’t need to go it alone. Call Cincom Professional Services–your performance partner that's been maximizing productivity through services and support for over 40 years.

Product Upgrades
Don’t risk a critical upgrade to a learn-as-you-go, in-house approach. Our senior consultants know the small, impossible-to-document steps that make the difference between an unresolved task and a completed process.

Whether you have been successfully using Cincom VisualWorks® or Cincom ObjectStudio®, an assessment of the environment, interfacing systems and available resources provides a reliable estimate of effort and cost for the upgrade itself, and includes a report on your Cincom Smalltalk application environment and the steps needed to upgrade to the current product release.

Transitioning from Envy to Store
Whether in conjunction with a full product upgrade or separately, we will transition your application from using Envy to the newer, more complete Cincom Smalltalk component Store and provide initial training on the tool for your staff.

Mentoring
It’s easy to learn the basics of installing and using Cincom Smalltalk. However, the most productive use of this sophisticated, pure object-oriented application development suite is achieved best through customized mentoring that is developed to meet your needs at your level of experience.

Troubleshooting
Whether it’s identifying and resolving a processing glitch or improving a performance drag, we have experts who can work with you remotely and/or on-site to re-create the problem and then provide an alternative viable approach.

Performance Enhancement
Cincom Smalltalk development environments provide a wide range of functionality. But we human beings tend to lock in the capabilities we know and miss out on the performance ability of those dimensions of the tool we don’t know.

A performance-enhancement service reveals how a team is using Cincom Smalltalk, which aspects of the tool they are not using and how they could energize so many more existing capabilities.

This service is shaped to meet specific customer needs with defined objectives, clearly delineated areas to review and documented results and recommendations.

Migrations
Cincom Services can move your application suite from Visual Smalltalk® Enterprise or VisualAge development platforms to the most productive Cincom Smalltalk programming environment, giving you fully scalable web-based and client-server development enhancements. With connectivity to all major relational databases, object databases and internet standard protocols, we can give you a complete solution for Windows, Power Mac, Intel Linux, AIX, Compaq UNIX, HP-UX and Solaris.

Proof of Concept
Not sure if VisualWorks or ObjectStudio is the tool you need? An on-site proof of concept using your data and meeting your business goals will provide that last element of confirmation. There are four key ingredients in any successful proof of concept:

• A defined limited scope of effort – Large enough to provide the confirmation you seek but small enough to not waste time or resources.
• A project plan with established success criteria – The proof will be conducted like a mini project with clearly predefined and agreed-upon success criteria, ensuring that at project completion, the tool meets your goals.
• Committed resources – From you, the customer and Cincom Services. By working together, you will experience the power of the tool firsthand.
• Committed time and dollars – Deciding on a tool to achieve business success requires a serious effort.

Cincom Smalltalk™ Developer Community Keeps You Informed Online

The Cincom Smalltalk Developer Community is a thriving network of Smalltalk users, blogs, wikis and other resources for the most current information about everything Smalltalk.

Cincom Smalltalk supports a diverse range of developers, across commercial projects, non-commercial projects, academic research, and education.

For news, tricks, tips, how-to demos, and more, explore the Cincom Smalltalk Developer Community site.