The Exchange Network Help Desk is a resource designed to help support the success of states, tribes, and territories participating on the Exchange Network. Help Desk staff are available between the hours of 8:00AM and 6:00PM Eastern by phone at 1-(888)-890-1995 or by email at
nodehelpdesk@csc.com.
Help Desk personnel are available to provide technical support to Exchange Network partners seeking assistance with:
- Establishing nodes;
- Implementing data flows;
- Integrating with EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX); and
- Troubleshooting data flow maintenance issues.
The following tasks are examples of the types of support activities that fall within the Help Desk’s current scope of work:
- Establishing nodes
- General support and consultation in getting a Node up and running;
- Interpretation and explanation of:
- Node Functional Specification and Protocol Documents
- Network Security Policies
- DNC configuration, installation and development support
- General guidance and pointers on how to find documents and resources needed for developing Network Nodes;
- Testing Node functionality once it is up and running.
- Implementation of data flows
- Provide general guidance on how to find documents and resources needed for implementing Exchange Network data flows;
- Work through flow specific issues with programmatic data managers at EPA.
- Integration with EPA’s CDX
- Provide Network Authentication and Authorization usage support;
- Provide support for UDDI usage;
- Provide support for Validation service.
- Troubleshooting data flow maintenance issues
- Log reports of trouble with data exchanges and initiate an investigation to find the cause;
- Escalate flow specific questions and issues to the proper points of contact for resolution.
The Help Desk also provides a number of general support services including:
- Assisting with troubleshooting connectivity issues with network administrators, firewall administrators, or system administrators;
- Providing support on current and future CDX developed tools (user management, NAAS interface);
- Exchange Network Client, Java, .NET and COM support;
- Setting up administrator accounts for Exchange Network Nodes;
- Integration testing support (Includes Integration test tool/debugging for multiple platforms).
While the Help Desk will make every effort to assist Network partners with these activities, it is unable to serve as a substitute for a Node support contractor. Limited resources prevent the Help Desk from being able to provide support in the following areas:
- Extensive manipulation of submitted files to diagnose submission errors;
- Resolving problems related to a partner’s internal architecture or configuration;
- Replicating the deployment environment of a Network partner to replicate and diagnose errors;
- Providing ongoing support to any Node or Node configuration not developed by EPA/CDX; and
- Providing ongoing support for any tools not developed by EPA/CDX.
Network partners requiring any of the above services or needing extensive implementation assistance should utilize Exchange Network grant monies or other internal resources to secure the services of a qualified vendor. For more information on obtaining an Exchange Network grant, please visit U.S. EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/exchangenetwork/grants.
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