Transcript Technical Support Presentation

Ana Rezende
Product Support Manager –
MIT and Gateways teams
Oracle Support Services
[email protected]
zSeries Oracle SIG – 2004
Working Effectively with
Oracle Support Services
To Ensure Your Business Success
Agenda
Goal: To improve your working relationship
with Global Product Support
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Support Terminology and Tools
Working Effectively with Support
Escalations
Metalink
Q&A
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Support Terminology and Tools
• Support Acronyms and Terminology
– A CSI number
– SR number and Severity Definitions
– SR Status Codes
– MetaLink
– RDA
– ODC
– Web Conferencing
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CSI Numbers
Your Key to Accessing Oracle Support
What is a CSI Number?
• CPU Support Identification Number
Why is it Important?
• Used to Verify Eligibility for Support Services
• Identifies Your Account Information
• Allows Tracking of Service Requests, Updates & Patches
for a Product/License
Where do I Find it?
• Packing Slip
• Sales Representative
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Service Request
Severity Definitions
Severity Level 4
No Business Impact
No loss of service or resources
Severity Level 3
Minor Business Impact
Minor loss of service or resources
Severity Level 2
Serious Business Impact
Severe loss of service or resources w/o acceptable
workaround
Severity Level 1
Critical Business Impact
Complete loss of service or resources and work cannot
reasonably continue - the work is considered
“mission critical”
Use MetaLink iSR for all Severities
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SR Status Codes
Support:
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NEW
ASG
WIP
RVW
1CB
2CB
IRR
INT
New SR
Assigned to Support Rep
Work In Progress
Review
1st Callback
2nd Callback
Immediate Response Required
Awaiting Internal Response
Customer:
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WCP
CUS
SLP
LMS
SCL
HCL
Waiting for Customer to apply Patch
Waiting on Customer
Sleep until Customer Available
Left Message
Soft Close
Hard Close
Development:
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DEV
Assigned to Development
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Working Effectively with
Global Product Support
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What Does a
Support Representative Do?
• Works a queue of current customer issues in a
variety of statuses
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Provides resolutions and / or workarounds
Responds to new incoming SRs.
Acts as liaison between customer and development
Contributes to Knowledge base content in MetaLink
Does not replace Education or Consulting
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Best Practices
Lessons learned from our customers…
• Shared ownership in resolving the issue
• Quality and quantity of communication
• Joint planning on problem resolution
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Each Environment is Unique!
• Always test solutions BEFORE introducing them
into your production environment.
• The data, software and hardware configurations,
patch combinations, and integration points are
different for every customer.
• We depend on our customers to manage their
environments and help us understand them.
• Customers control the quality and quantity of
information about their environment
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Help Us Understand Your
Environment
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Do you have MetaLink access?
Have you tested ODC or dial-in access?
Have you downloaded, executed and reviewed RDA?
Do you have a test environment?
Does your test environment mirror production?
Does your schedule allow adequate time for testing?
Does your team have the skills for the products installed?
Do you maintain a system log book to track changes, manage
patches and patch testing?
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Communicating the Issue
• Clear problem statement: Cause & Effect
– All known facts
– Is the issue reproducible?
– Detailed history of environment and changes
• Answer all Template questions
• Review our knowledge base on MetaLink
– Top Tech Docs
– Forums
• Contact Support – iSR
A problem well stated is a problem half solved
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Successful Communication
• Minimize SR ‘tag’ or ‘pinging’
• Documentation is essential
• Answer all questions
• Action plans after each update and define who
owns each action
• Monitor changes in SR status and severity
• Escalate concerns via the Escalation
process
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Escalations
Bringing Management Attention
to your Service Request
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Raising Severity vs. Escalations
Escalating an issue brings more attention to it, and
when appropriate, more resources. This does not
automatically mean that the severity level of the SR
will be changed.
If the severity level of the SR becomes inappropriate
over time, it may be raised by mutual agreement
between the Oracle Support Representative and the
Customer.
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Escalations
• Encounter critical roadblocks
• Communicate business issues to managers
within Oracle Support
• Dissatisfied with resolution or response
• Escalate issues in a timely manner
• Quality of escalation criteria is key:
– Project deadlines?
– Lost Revenue?
– Government reporting?
– Users at your door
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Escalation Process
V.P. or
Executive
Senior Manager
or Director
Manager /
Escalation Manager
Support Representative
Customer
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Oracle Support Services
oracle.com/support
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Benefits of MetaLink!!

Increase Support Alternatives
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Knowledge Base
–
Forums
–
Patches
–
Service Requests (SRs)
–
Bugs
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Quick and Convenient

24x7 Access
e-Business is the future!
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OracleMetaLink
• Top Technical Documents
• Diagnostic Tools
• Oracle Support KB search including
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Bug database
Patch download
User Administration
Oracle DirectConnect & RDA
“My Configs & Projects”
MetaLink Knowledge Browser
OracleMetaLink – Top Tech Docs
• Your Starting Place
– Compiled by the “best and brightest”
– Continuously updated
– Rich resource for research and problem
solving
– Electronic documentation
– eTRM -Electronic Technical Reference
Manual
– Refined/enhanced through PAA - Problem
Avoidance Architecture
• Learning folded back into top tech docs
– Support Tools
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OracleMetaLink – Top Tech Docs
•
Support Tools
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ACT – Applications Collection Tool
• Top Tech Docs -> E-Business Suite ->
Diagnostic Tests Catalogue
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RDA – Remote Diagnostic Agent
• Search for “RDA” or “Remote Diagnostic
Assistant” (Doc ID 175853.1)
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Diagnostics
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Top Tech Docs Screen Shot
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OSS Diagnostics
• Tests designed and developed by OSS and
Oracle Development, gathering information
about the technical environment,
Application setup or data
• OSS Diagnostics give users the ability to:
 Validate and document the current status of the
technical environment and Application setup
 Compare multiple environments (eg: Test verses
Production)
 Decrease time for installation, upgrade and setup
processes
 Reduce time to resolve an issue
 Automatically collect complete and accurate
information requested by Oracle Support Services
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Problem Solving Process
Diagnostic Tests not used
Oracle
Applications
Error
Customer
Solution
Log
SR
(iTAR)
Manual
Knowledge
Search
MetaLink
Login
Customer
Exceptions
Oracle Support
Services
Diagnostic Tests used
Run
Diagnostics
Issue
prevented
Solution
Solution
Oracle
Applications
Error
Run
Diagnostics
MetaLink
Login
Exceptions
Manual
Knowledge
Search
Log
SR
(iTAR)
Exceptions
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Diagnostic Tests - Metrics
• Growing pro-active problem avoidance
Number of logged SRs
Number of Logged SRs by One of Our Customers Using
Diagnostics
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45
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25
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15
10
5
0
Diagnostics
installed
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC
JAN
FEB
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MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
OracleMetaLink – KB Search
Enhanced for Findability
• General or Advanced?
• Advanced allows you to specify
several options:
• Filter by product, platform,
modified date, document ID and
chose from the different
knowledge repositories
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Optimized Searching
Easier and more visible search options
Exclusion operator is now available
Improved product weighting
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Up to 10 Searches can be Saved
Permanently!
Options:
Duplicate
Run
Delete or
Update
Note:
The previous
10 searches
may be
recycled or
saved
permanently!
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OracleMetaLink – Patch Download
• Find the patches you need
– Simple search
– By Patch Number
– By Product Family
– Saved Searches
– Saved searches
– Quick Links
– Advanced search
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OracleMetaLink – Patch Download
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OracleMetaLink
Customer User Administration
• Provides greater control over your
company’s MetaLink access
– Set user access and permissions
– Create/approve new accounts
– Remove existing users
• Enhances security
– All new registrations with your support
identifier must be approved
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User Profile Privileges Screen Shot
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List Users Screen Shot
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Manage Users Screen Shot 1
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Manage Users Screen Shot 2
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Remote Diagnostic Agent (RDA)
• Gathers detailed information about Oracle
environment
• Enables faster, better problem routing
• Problem solving agents embedded in
software
– Context sensitive problem determination
and analysis
– Access databases for answers
– Capture environment that triggered issue
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Oracle DirectConnect™ (ODC)
& Web-Conferencing
• Faster Resolution Time
– On Demand Connection
– Online Collaboration
– Customer access to scripts, tools and
instruments
• Proactive Service
– Persistent Connection
– System monitoring and maintenance
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Oracle DirectConnect
• Accessible through OracleMetaLink
• Collaborate directly with an Oracle Support
engineer
• A secure encrypted connection between Oracle
Support and your system
• Available from MetaLink for resolving open SR’s
• Coordinate use with the support engineer working
your SR
• Chat/Desktop Sharing/File Transfer
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Oracle DirectConnect
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OracleMetaLink:
My Configs & Projects
• Internal Code name “My Support”
• Global initiative to move to proactive support
• Provides new capabilities on MetaLink
• Ability to manage your support needs by project
• Ability to catalog your environments
• Ability to view configuration details on your
environments
• Health check reports based on rules for best
practices and supportability
• Attach Configurations and Projects to TARs for faster
resolution
• Oracle can begin to enable proactive support
capabilities
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OracleMetaLink:
My Configs & Projects
“Configs”
• Ability to catalog all your configurations
 Detailed description of business-critical
environments
 Both manual and automated
configuration description creation and
maintenance
 Projects can also be associated to
configurations
 Third-party software impact
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Configuration Details
Support Agent
Installed on each
server
Uploads every
24hrs; low system
impact
View detail of
configuration
information
Secure Encrypted
Upload
Stored in MetaLink Configuration Repository
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Health check reports for
critical areas
Checks against current
knowledge base
Presents Findings, Risks
& Recommendations:
Warnings and Cautions!
Key Issues: Availability,
Integrity, & Performance
Summary Reports
give a comprehensive
view of systems
Fix problem areas
before problems
occur!
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OracleMetaLink:
My Configs & Projects
“Projects”
• Ability to manage your configurations by
project
 View your system configurations the way
you manage your business
 Identify Project Contacts & Project Roles
 Identify milestones and critical dates
 Project Dependencies
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Quick Reference
• MetaLink:
http://metalink.oracle.com/
– WEWS User Guide – Doc ID: 166650.1
– RDA Info – Doc ID: 175853.1
– ODC Info – Doc ID: 222608.1
– Escalation Process – Doc ID: 199389.1
• Severity Definitions and Support Policies:
http://www.oracle.com/support/index.html?policies.html
• ODC Website:
http://www.metalink.oracle.com/odc/west
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QUESTIONS
ANSWERS