So I see they launched a new Central Console. I am wondering if it is possible to get the old one back. I used to be able to see all the computers with both Endpoint and Web Gateway information on one page. Now it is in two completely different locations making it really hard to tell if a computer status is healthy. Not impressed Sophos and a little warning would have been nice.
If you figure out how to get a response, please let me know. Our account rep seems to be ignoring us at this point. Guess I opened too many tickets and asked too many questions like "why hasn't the Cloud Web Gateway worked for 2 months?" :)
Hello all,
[I'm not Sophos and not a Central guy but ...]
I've heard that the underlying paradigm is Every Setting In No More Than 3 Clicks. Apparently this is not to everybody's taste.
The Community is not an institutionalised channel to whatever power within Sophos you want to reach - whether direct or indirect.
Depending on the product or product line response varies. If you drop a feature request in the General forum you'll get a polite Thank you response from Bob either suggesting one of the Ideas sections or a I'll send this to the appropriate team. Like it or not, this is how it is.
I don't think that embarrass[ing the] company into responding will help with your request, there might eventually be a vacuous response and that's that then. Even a this is a thing to consider when renewal comes up might not have the impact you imagine (apart from the fact that it is not necessarily obvious which customer you represent or how many licenses are involved) - keep in mind that development incurs costs and that even if development is willing and willing to bear them some other business unit might object.
In this case perhaps even a more formal contact won't help. Just conjecturing (purely fictional): Someone said "hey, let's have them build a next-gen GUI", surveys were made, management approved, development opposed but had to, eventually it was rolled out and received with mixed acceptance. That some (how many?) customers won't like it was (literally) a calculated risk.
What could a response in this case be? [:P]
Sorry for the rant. Final remark: Is the Submit feedback indeed available in Central Admin, has someone used it to see what it does?
Christian
Hello all,
[I'm not Sophos and not a Central guy but ...]
I've heard that the underlying paradigm is Every Setting In No More Than 3 Clicks. Apparently this is not to everybody's taste.
The Community is not an institutionalised channel to whatever power within Sophos you want to reach - whether direct or indirect.
Depending on the product or product line response varies. If you drop a feature request in the General forum you'll get a polite Thank you response from Bob either suggesting one of the Ideas sections or a I'll send this to the appropriate team. Like it or not, this is how it is.
I don't think that embarrass[ing the] company into responding will help with your request, there might eventually be a vacuous response and that's that then. Even a this is a thing to consider when renewal comes up might not have the impact you imagine (apart from the fact that it is not necessarily obvious which customer you represent or how many licenses are involved) - keep in mind that development incurs costs and that even if development is willing and willing to bear them some other business unit might object.
In this case perhaps even a more formal contact won't help. Just conjecturing (purely fictional): Someone said "hey, let's have them build a next-gen GUI", surveys were made, management approved, development opposed but had to, eventually it was rolled out and received with mixed acceptance. That some (how many?) customers won't like it was (literally) a calculated risk.
What could a response in this case be? [:P]
Sorry for the rant. Final remark: Is the Submit feedback indeed available in Central Admin, has someone used it to see what it does?
Christian
Hi Christian.
I get what you are saying. I really do. However, we have taken some hard hits to our business when the various things have broken (we have many cloud services that we depend on to do business). I want others to know that there is a serious risk in these products and there is a definite weakness with the support and communication.
In a past life I worked as a consultant and used <insert most competitor names here> and I have never had this level of difficulty with the product or with getting support. There has been some mild improvement, but most tickets get a 2-3 day response instead of within 30 minutes (typical response from most competitors). I am not expecting immediate resolutions to problems, but I at least want a human (not automatic email) to acknowledge my issue and that they understand it. Some of my tickets never got any response and I had to open new tickets.
We have tried repeatedly to reach out to our account rep, but there has been very little communication and more recently it seems like our emails are flat out ignored. Maybe you have a better rep than we do, but from what I am hearing from other members this seems to be the status quo for Sophos.
Side note - 'Submit Feedback' is available - it is called 'Give Feedback' in Central. I stopped using it when it all seemed to go into a place harder to get our of than a black hole.
Keith
Christian,
Submitted formal feedback to as an official complaint. No Response.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Sophos Technology Stack, the way it all ties in together, its clean, enables me to enable my business.
What I don't like, which I feedback when I can is the lack of feedback from Sophos.
Case in point, I submitted false positive by Intercept X, it took WEEKS to get to third line to get sensible answers or sensible questions.
Turns out, as part of their road map, they would fix the issue.
So really all I want is more transparency, and asking the customers before making sweeping changes that make our life more challenging.
And regrettably, in some instancing, getting a company to change, is to force the issue with embarrasment.
Again, look at how quickly Sophos changed the "we understand the NHS" page when "wannaCry" bit.
Chris.
Hello Chris,
I agree with most of what you say.
Don't know which group is responsible for Intercept X - I'd have expected "Labs" or its unit that does the "signature-based" AV. This doesn't seem to be the case from what you say (or there have been recent changes - I've always got a response).
getting [Sophos] to change
might be a double-edged sword. Someone higher up might get the idea to streamline and reorganize the whole company [;)]. From many years of experience with them I'd say that Sophos is quite immune. WannyCry is PR, Gartner Quadrants too, price, compliance, auditors - all this is stuff a customer's management more or less understands. An administrator's gripes with a GUI - come on! The (sometimes sad) fact is that inter- and intra-company relations follow similar rules. Personally I'd like to see that my suppliers spend less money on PR and bells and whistles. But a long as investing in the "public profile" yields more return than trying to make all customers happy things won't change [:P]
As said, otherwise agreed with all your points.
Christian
Hello Keith,
I want others to know
and this is a good thing. IMO just more or less quietly (or with a general this thing sucks) turning to another vendors will get us nowhere.
this level of difficulty with the product
this might be because in some respects Sophos is different (said in a non-judgemental way), seriously. This doesn't excuse the difficulty with getting support - looks like indeed it got worse, at least in certain areas
Yes, Submit is the heading in the Help, Give is what to select. May bad [:)]
Christian
Thanks all for the responses, just not getting a warm, fuzzy feeling.
We looked forward to migrating to the cloud, one less server we had to deal with, but our district may have to consider returning to on premise management console.
Originally management of policy was a very simple task on Sophos Central but now it has become very convoluted.
Thanks Again
