Information Express News

We've Missed You Too!

We haven't actually gone anywhere but we've been so busy filling your orders and sending out your tables of contents that I haven't done much updating here. So, what've you been up to?

Some updates are coming this week as we gear up for SLA 2007 in Denver. If you're going, you'll get to meet Neema, the head of our Service Quality department who's making his first trip to SLA. We're taking over the phones for him while he's away so he can meet you and hear firsthand what a great job he's doing (right?!) and what we can do to make IE work better for you in the future.

You'll also see Robyn, from our Rush department, and Ben who many of you already know, as well as our president Bruce. They'll all be at booth #106 (handy map included below) so please stop by and say 'hi!'.

IE Holiday Schedule

Information Express will be closed on December 25th, December 26th and January 1st. We are open all other days through the holidays with staff covering all of our departments. If you need assistance please contact our Service Quality department at (650) 812-3588.

Better identification for Rush orders in your inbox

A very quick new feature release for what's turning into a rainy Friday afternoon. If you order a Rush document through our online system, and the filled article is emailed to you, the subject line of the email containing that document will start with "Rush:". That should help you easily identify these more urgent orders in your Inbox.

This only applies to orders placed through IEOnline - emailed or faxed orders will not have this added automatically. If you're interested in learning how to order Rush documents through IEOnline please give us a call!

Office Closed for Thanksgiving

The Information Express offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday so that, like many Americans, we can stuff our faces with turkey and pie. Hope your holidays are equally gut-busting and we'll see you back again on Monday. Drive safely!

New Team Member: Alex

We like to be all proud of ourselves when we churn out some new feature, but some of us have more reason to be proud than others with what they're producing. The whole office has been sneaking daily webcam viewings of this little guy and thought it time we introduced him to you. Please welcome Alex Antelman, newborn son of our company president Bruce and his wife, Maria. Alex is cute and smart and is starting to accumulate internet URLs quickly with an appearance on the NY Observer site today.

New Custom Text Field for IE Online

For those of you who administer an IE Online interface you are already aware of the number of custom fields we offer for various message texts. We've just added one more. Now, you can customize the subject line of the email that goes out to a new user when they've first signed up for an account.

The default text says "Confirmation of your new ALERT account" but you can now submit a request to have that changed to other text of your choosing. The field is limited so you can't use more than 40 characters or use any HTML.

If you want to change the subject line, please submit your new text to Service Quality (service@ieonline.com) and we'll make the update from there.

(And an early happy Halloween as well!)

Go Go Service Quality!

As I get ready to go out of the office for a couple of weeks I've been reminding people that I won't be here to and providing them with alternate contacts. I've also been learning some of the people who I work with regularly aren't really aware of the abilities of our Service Quality department, so I'd like to take some time here to talk about it.

Service Quality (SQ) is the hub of document delivery. The folks there (right now Neema is working on his own but will be joined by a new person next week) run reports, answer questions, check status and do all sorts of tasks to ensure that the orders you place are well taken care of while they're here. They are also the advocates of our clients within IE - they respond to your inquiries, deal with any problems related to orders and work with other departments to enhance or clarify our services and to add new services as requested by our customers.

What many people don't know is that SQ is also well capable of dealing with many requests related to IEOnline. They already handle some back-end administrative tasks for IEO and are able to answer most questions you may have about the system, especially those related to placing orders.

Certainly there are also departments you may contact for special needs: myself for more advanced IEOnline questions or Rush for anything related to rush orders or clean copies - but Service Quality is always a great place to start if you're not sure who to call or can't reach the other people who you think could help. If they don't know the answer they're a very short step away from finding someone who does and can escalate any problem out to another group and make sure you get a response.

The Service Quality department is open from 8am - 5pm PST and can be reached by phone at +1 (650) 812-3588 or email at service@ieonline.com. Those points of contact are always checked and staffed no matter who may be in the office at any given time and so please make use of them if you have any needs whatsoever.

(In case you missed it, I'll be out of the office from Sept 26th-Oct 6th)

Reminder: IE Closed on Monday

The Information Express offices will be closed on Monday, September 4th for Labor Day.

The Department of Labor on the history of Labor Day
Labor Day from Wikipedia
PBS Online on Labor Day

And when we come back on Tuesday, you can rest assured that we will not be wearing white shoes while processing your orders.

Our Farenheit 451 Guarantee

Our policy is that if you are unhappy with the quality of any document we provide we will refill the order at no charge. And of course if we've sent something and you haven't received it we will obtain and send another copy. Orders getting lost in the mail almost never happens anymore because nearly everything is sent electronically. They do sometimes get lost in the email but those can more easily and quickly be re-sent.

But what came across our desk yesterday is certainly a new case.

These were ordered in June of last year and sent out via mail a day later. Unfortunately, the truck that carried them got into an accident and the orders were caught in the subsequent fire. I guess it took a while for the contents to be released and re-sent out so the requester just received the orders¹ and, of course, they're not readable.

As we don't typically torch our articles before we mail them out (we do our best to respond to special requests but that would be a new one even for us) this wasn't something within our control. Still, no matter: this person didn't get his articles in a readable manner and we're refilling the orders, at no additional cost, now. I think these ones might get emailed to him. I just hope he doesn't have one of those Dell laptops that burst into flames!

¹ I'll also take the time to point out that it should never take a year for someone to receive an order so please check your order status online or call us! Keep the confirmation email until you receive your order. We can check to see if the order has shipped and if you haven't received it will resend right away.

New Feature: Order for users and designate their email address

Today we released an update to the IEOnline ordering mechanisms for all administrative users.

Now, when you place an order on behalf of one of your users, you can specify the email address for that user. If you are ordering multiple items for multiple users you can specify a different email address for each item. This is in addition to the existing Requester Name and Requester Number fields.

In doing so:

1) the user will receive a separate email confirmation for each order placed on their behalf - the admin will receive a single email confirmation listing all of the orders you placed for all users during that session;

2) if you use direct-to-user email delivery for your document orders, the order itself will be sent to that user's email;

3) any status updates for individual users will also go to the user for that order.

A field titled "Requester Email" appears on the blank order form within IEOnline and appears on the Order List page underneath each item you've transmitted. If your IEOnline options are set to have Requester Name/Number appear for guest users this option will also appear for guests if you come in via IP-validation through another gateway.

If you do not have this option turned on, then you must be logged in for the Requester Email option to appear as we have to identify your account as having administrative rights. If you come in via a gateway and are IP-validated you will not see this feature on the Order List page (we don't yet know who you are and so don't know that you are an administrator). Please login via the My Account area then go on to complete your order (clicking Logout will prompt you to complete the order). At that point you will see this option.

Please contact us if you have any questions about this new feature. It is added automatically to all administrative accounts.