What is Argus Priority Support?

Benefits of Priority Support

Priority Support (paid service) offers superior benefits to Email Support (unpaid service):

Benefits	Priority Support	Email Support (Free for GPs, Specialists and Allied Health)
Free software
Unlimited number of reinstalls and configurations
Priority problem resolution
Auto address book updates
Online software upgrades

Priority Support Overview

Priority Support is for GP, Specialist and Allied Health Practices. Other medical practices are subject to separate Licence and Annual Support Agreement types.

Our fast response Priority Support service, based on telephone and remote computer connection is provided under an annual fee, renewable each year. The standard support cost is $121 per year per practitioner in an Argus-user practice. GPs, Specialists and Allied Health practitioners that have had Argus installed through a GP Division involved in Argus Affinity program receive a discounted rate of $99 per practitioner.

Part-time practitioners attending five or less sessions per week are eligible for a further discount and pay only 60% of the applicable full-time rate. Each practice must pay for at least one practitioner at the full-time rate.

The costs for Priority Support are summarised in the following table: 

The Argus Affinity program is ArgusConnect's relationship program for Divisions of General Practice - find out more.

The cost of Priority Support per practitioner equates to between approximately one and five postage stamps per week. Practices can save many times the cost per year of sending and/or receiving electronic clinical reports via Argus - from reduced costs of paper, envelopes, printing, postage, faxing, handling, scanning, storage and retrieval of paper documents. Other benefits are increased security, delivery assurance, speed of communication and seamless integration into your patient management software.

Argus users that do not wish to pay for support will continue to have rights to use and operate Argus in their practice; however, they will need to obtain their own technical assistance for any problems or else may submit support requests via the ArgusConnect email notification system. Provision of technical assistance through this channel remains free but will be on a first-come-first-served basis and the ArgusConnect response time will depend upon available resources after servicing Priority Support clients.

How to register and pay for Priority Support

You can register for Priority Support through our website at www.argusconnect.com.au/priority-support or simply go to our web site and select ‘support' then ‘apply for support' in the menu. Instructions on how to pay are provided in the registration process.

Exceptions

The following cases are exempt from needing Priority Support:

• Practitioner sites that already have their support funded or pre-paid as part of a major project, such as the Northern Territory's Secure Electronic Messaging Service (SEMS) and Health Hub in Queensland;
  
• Allied Health practices and HMR Pharmacy Consultants that have the ‘old type' annual support agreements in place (prior to 31st August 2008) will continue under their current support arrangement until the anniversary of their current support agreement is reached, at which time they will need to register for Priority Support; and
• Sites covered by existing support arrangements through other corporate healthcare providers .

ArgusConnect continues its commitment to providing Argus software as a freeware product to our GP, Specialist and Allied Health clients. We also continue to not charge for message traffic volume and maintain our commitment to provide a free support option for those who are not prepared to pay for any technical assistance or service.