Working Effectively with Oracle Support Services Evelina Károlyi Product Support Manager Bulgaria To Ensure Your Business Success Agenda Goal: To Improve Your Working Relationship With Support and Take the Most of it • • • • Introduction Overview of Support Terminology Working with Support • Severity Definitions/Settings • SR handling • Escalations • Innovative Tools: Metalink Advanced, Diagnostic tools • Oracle Web Conferencing Q&A 2 Global Support Centers Reading United Kingdom GSC Toronto Colorado Springs India GSC Orlando Americas Bangalore GSC Melbourne Australia GSC 3 Support Terminology • Support Acronyms and Terminology What is ... / How … – A CSI Number? – Customer Service? – Contact Customer Service – A SR - SR Number – MetaLink? 4 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 Requested Allows Tracking of SRs for a Specified License Identifies Your Account Information Allows Tracking of Updates, Patches for a Product/License Where do I Find it? • Packing Slip • Support Sales Representative • Customer Service 5 Customer Service Customer Service is the organization responsible for providing customers non-technical support services, including: CSI Information Maintaining / Updating Customer Data Other Non-Technical Info Contacting Customer Service: Call your local Oracle office (+359-2-9238111) 6 SR - SR Number – MetaLink - iSR - SR (Service Request) = TAR (Technical Assistance Request) - SR Number is the tracking or reference number for an issue reported to Oracle Support (always linked to CSI Number) -MetaLink is the electronic/on-line Oracle Support Service -iSR (Internet Service Request) = a Service Request logged using Metalink - Enhancement Request – request for including a feature not initially planned in the product - Bug – code malfunction causing the product not behaving according to the documentation 7 Working Effectively With Support 8 SR Severity Definitions (1) Severity Level 4 (No Business Impact) You experience no loss of service. The result does not impede the operation of a system. Severity Level 3 (Minor Business Impact) You experience a minor loss of service. The impact is an inconvenience, which may require a workaround to restore functionality. Severity Level 2 (Serious Business Impact) You experience a severe loss of service. No acceptable workaround is available; however, operation can continue in a restricted fashion. For details check the Technical Support Policies document Use MetaLink iSR for all Severities 9 SR Severity Definitions (2) Severity Level 1 (Critical Business Impact) You experience a complete loss of service. Work cannot reasonably continue, the operation is mission critical to the business and the situation is an emergency. A Severity 1 SR has one or more of the following characteristics: • Data corrupted • A critical documented function is not available • System hangs indefinitely, causing unacceptable or indefinite delays for resources or response • System crashes, and crashes repeatedly after restart attempts 24 Hour Commitment to Severity 1 SRs: OSS will work 24x7 until the issue is resolved or as long as useful progress can be made. You must provide OSS with a contact during this 24x7 period, either on site or by pager, to assist with data gathering, testing, and applying fixes. You are requested to propose this classification with great care, so that valid Severity 1 situations obtain the necessary resource allocation from Oracle. Use MetaLink iSR for all Severities 10 SR Severity Settings Answering the following questions ensures your iSR is logged at the Severity you require: -Can you easily recover from, bypass or work around the problem? (Yes/No) -Does your system or application continue normally after the problem occurs? (Yes/No) -Are the standard features of the system or application still available; is the loss of service minor? (Yes/No) Severity 1 setting for an iSR is based on the Yes/No answer provided on the question: ‘Are you experiencing a mission- or business-critical loss of service that requires immediate and continuous effort to resolve?’ within the second screen or step of the Metalink iSR creation process. 11 SR Handling – how we work? • All severity 1 and 2 SRs are immediately assigned to an available expert • All severity 3 and 4 SRs are only assigned during country working hours • If your SR happens to get assigned to an expert in another timezone, and this is negatively infulencing the collaboration, you can ask for the SR to be reassigned to an Engineer in the European timezone (repatriation) • All Severity 1 SRs are served 24*7 • For an escalated severity 2 SRs you can explicitely ask for 24*7 service. 12 SR Handling – what can you do? • Make sure your SR’s severity correctly reflects the seriousness of the problem. Let us know if it changes over the time • You dictate the speed • Please provide complete and objective information. Use our diagnostic tools for collecting supplementory information • Let us know your expectations and your opinion. Did you check Metalink? • Avoid reporting different problems in one SR • Be prepared for remote connection with our Engineers 13 Questions to Help Us Understand Your Environment • • • • • • • • Do you have internet access? Have you tested remote connection? Do you have multiple test environments? Do your test environments mirror production? Does your implementation schedule allow adequate time for testing? Do you have the skills for the products involved? Do you maintain a system log book to track changes? Do you have a process that manages patches and patch testing? 14 Framing the Issue • Clear problem statement: object/defect – Is the problem reproducible? • Test and Production? – Review recent changes that were implemented • Review Templates and gather all information required • Review our knowledge content on MetaLink – Forums – Top Tech Docs • Contact Support – iSR A problem well stated is a problem half solved 15 SR Handling – how do you feel about our service? SR Survey mail notification sent to you when the SR gets hard closed – your opinion on the service received on that particular SR Helps Support Management to evaluate and take actions accordingly 16 Escalations How to get extra help when you need it… 17 Why escalate? • In some cases the SR resolution process may not match your business needs Some examples – Project milestone is within 1 week and is on critical path, with concern about problem resolution by this date – Erroneous functionality is causing major extra work / costs for the business and more progress in the resolution is required • In such cases you can escalate your Service Request 18 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. 19 Managing Escalations • Escalate issues in a timely manner • Quality and timeliness of information is key: – Support relies on the customer to communicate the relative importance of critical issues – What is your escalation criteria? – Project deadlines? – Lost Revenue? – Government reporting? – Users at your door (CIO/CFO) 20 How do you request escalation? • Updating the SR with requesting escalation • Calling Support to request escalation • A combination of the above two methods * In all of the cases, be prepared to provide your business justification * We encourage you to call Support. Check for your local Support contact number on the Support page on www.oracle.com. Our new Support hotline number: 02 9238130. 21 What can you expect? The Support Manager becoming the escalation owner will call you in abt 30 minutes to: – Agree on proposed action plan, including identifying owners for each action – Ensure customer milestones and/or implementation dates are clearly understood – Agree the date and time for the next update – Agree the de-escalation criteria with Product Support and will ensure these are documented in the SR 22 23 Escalations: Still Progress Unsatisfactory? You can consider escalating to the next Management level – The one corresponding to the level the issue is escalated at your organization Director Senior Manager Manager Support Representative 24 Vice President SR Status Codes Support: • • • • • • • NEW WIP RVW 1CB 2CB IRR INT New SR Work In Progress Review 1st Callback 2nd Callback Immediate Response Required Awaiting Internal Response Customer: • • • • • • 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: • DEV Assigned to Development 25 Innovative Tools and Programs Let us help you solve the problem faster… 26 Metalink Advanced Techniques Demo: metalink.oracle.com - Knowledge Browser (Top Tech Docs) - Advanced Search and Quick Links - Certify & Availability - Patches - User Profile You might also choose to view our Advanced Metalink recorded web-sessions at: http://www.oracle.com/support/index.html?seminars.html 27 Diagnostic Tools Diagnostic Tools Demo: metalink.oracle.com Two types of tests: • Collection • Diagnostic Delivery mechanisms: Standalone - A test that runs in SQL*Plus or UNIX shell environment. Downloadable from Metalink. Oracle Diagnostics (OD) - A Java test that requires the Oracle Diagnostics framework (JTF) for execution. Updated packs released monthly Principles: Diagnostic tests do not perform any changes on the data and do not list company-sensitive information 28 Oracle Web Conferencing OWC Demo: metalink.oracle.com 29 “Collaborative Support” – Vision 3rd Party / Partner Support Personnel Consulting / Implementers Development Better Support Faster.. Bring all the right resources to the problem Customer’s Support Personnel Tools Customer Information Connectivity 30 Advanced Support Global Product Support Oracle Web Conferencing • Next generation of Oracle Direct Connect - hosted by Oracle and part of Collaboration Suite • Easy to launch directly from the MetaLink homepage • Multi-user enabled - all involved parties can participate to help diagnose your issue • OWC sessions can be recorded - vital info can be shared within Oracle once captured • Screenshots can be captured on the fly 31 Oracle Web Conferencing • Increased security – – – – – Hosted by Oracle Uses Secured Socket Layer with 128-bit data encryption SR and CSI numbers required to collaborate MetaLink access is needed to collaborate Only standard outbound HTTP and HTTPS ports (port 80 and port 443) are used • Default mode is Oracle seeing Customers screen • Customer can decide to allow Oracle mouse/keyboard • control Customer can share desktop, application or individual windows – Sharing only required information 32 Oracle Web Conferencing • For more details click the OWC button on metalink.oracle.com and examine the Quicklink documents: 33 Why this direction? • • • • To resolve issues faster To improve customer satisfaction Move closer to vision of proactive support To facilitate a better knowledge of our customer base and to develop more personal relationships Benefits of Collaborative Support • • • • Resolution time is reduced by @26% Less SRs are re-opened SRs are less likely to be escalated Eliminates time lost waiting on serial communications through the SR/MetaLink 35 When might Oracle Support want to use OWC to assist you? • To confirm information provided • To see the issue before attempting to replicate the problem • • • • To answer simple questions When multiple potential solutions exist To verify that a solution works Whenever it is the most effective form of communication • Multiple OWC sessions per SR may be necessary 36 Access from MetaLink • Arrange time for OWC session with Support Engineer through SR • • Log into Metalink 37 Click on Oracle Collaborative Support button in lower left corner Join your Conference • 38 Clicks Conference Title matching TAR/SR number Join your Conference - Problems • To see your Conference Title you may need to use Filter by Conference Title where Conference Title = SR number • If there is a problem click on New User sub tab under the Home tab and then click the “Test” button to run a series of tests. This test will point out any issues along with the resolution required. • If you still have problems, run the Diagnostic Tool under Quicklinks & send your Oracle engineer the report 39 Enter your Details • For your security: your unique Customer Service Identification (CSI) is used as the meeting Password or Conference Key • Once your name, email address & Company are provided, you may join conference 40 Initial Screens • First see Initialization screen, then • Invitation to present your issue to Oracle Support 41 Sharing Modes Desktop Sharing Mode Share an Application Stop Sharing Share an Area Share Entire Desktop • Select 4th icon from left to begin Desktop Sharing Mode • To present an application, click the Share an Application icon • To present an area of your desktop, click the Share an Area icon or for entire desktop, click the Share Entire Desktop icon 42 Sharing experience with experts Voice Streaming Record Session To resolve complex issues, Engineer & Customer may need to share their findings with Oracle Development or system experts, not present. • Record on screen activity and/or conversation if acceptable to customer • Recorded sessions are password protected for security only to be seen by participants and designated persons 43 Mediation Controls • Host or presenter can grant authority to any attendee • Presenter rights, click the blue (person) icon next to the attendee’s name • Shared control, click the yellow (mouse) icon next to the attendee’s name 44 Exit Survey • 45 Exit survey information is collected System Requirements • • • Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 SP 4 or higher, Windows 2000, Windows XP Browser—Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher Java—Enabled – • Make sure Java Virtual Machine is installed, with following steps: 1. In Internet Explorer, select Tools and then Internet Options. 2. Select the Advanced tab. 3. Select all check boxes under Microsoft VM Resolution—1024 x 768 pixels 46 Resolving Problems • • Click on New User if experiencing problems Then Test to check system compatibility 47 Quick Reference Sheet • MetaLink: http://metalink.oracle.com/ – – – – – – • • • WEWS User Guide – Doc ID:166650.1 RDA (Remote Diagnostics Agent) Info – Doc ID:175853.1 Apps RDA (Remote Diagnostics Agent) Info – Doc ID:161474.1 PDA (Portal Diagnostics Agent) Info – Doc ID:169490.1 Escalation Process – Doc ID:199389.1 Patch Set Policy – Doc ID:209768.1 Severity Definitions and Support Policies: http://www.oracle.com/support/index.html?policies.html ODC Website & Additional Info: http://www.metalink.oracle.com/odc/east http://www.oracle.com/support/index.html?direct_connect.html eSeminars: WEWS – Advanced Metalink: http://www.oracle.com/support/index.html?seminars.html 48 QUESTIONS ANSWERS Thank you for the attention! For contacts: evelina.karolyi@oracle.com 50