Online Knowledge Database Comes To Tool Users' Aid

July 7, 2003

You got EDA questions? Mentor Graphics' growing online compendium of data on its tools has answers, sometimes in 15 seconds or less.

David Maliniak

Customer service is critical in many businesses, but its importance in EDA is even greater. Engineers work around the clock in sites all over the world. No EDA vendor has the resources to have technically astute help available 24 hours a day. But when your tool scripts aren't working, or you've got a question, you need immediate help or you're in trouble.

In its new SupportNet KnowledgeBase support database, Mentor Graphics endeavors to provide instant online access to continuously updated information on its products, along with answers to commonly encountered problems. The database lists relevant solutions to users' questions within an average of 15 seconds.

Encapsulating the expertise of 300 application engineers, the database provides an alternate channel to existing phone or online customer support. Its advanced search capabilities include natural language search and search refinement functions.

Users access the KnowledgeBase through Mentor's SupportNet Web site with a password. Then, they simply type in their questions. The database displays related TechNotes topics sorted by relevancy. If users don't find an answer to a question, they can open a service request, pre-populated with the question, from within the TechNote in a single click.

The database holds more than 10,000 TechNotes. Mentor's CAEs create a knowledge record each time they answer a question. Capturing these solutions limits duplicate defect and problem reporting, and others can benefit from answers to previously asked questions. More than 600 new TechNotes are added to the system per month.

SupportNet KnowledgeBase is available at no cost to Mentor Graphics customers with service contracts in place.

See associated figure

Mentor Graphics Corp. www.mentor.com/supportnet

About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.