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
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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
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Global Support Centers
Reading
United Kingdom
GSC
Toronto
Colorado
Springs
India GSC
Orlando
Americas
Bangalore
GSC
Melbourne
Australia
GSC
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Support Terminology
• Support Acronyms and Terminology
What is ... / How …
– A CSI Number?
– Customer Service?
– Contact Customer Service
– A SR - SR Number – MetaLink?
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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?
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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
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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
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Contacting Customer Service:
Call your local Oracle office (+359-2-9238111)
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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
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Working Effectively With
Support
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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
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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:
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Data corrupted
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A critical documented function is not available
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System hangs indefinitely, causing unacceptable or indefinite delays for
resources or response
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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Questions to Help Us Understand
Your Environment
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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?
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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
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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
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Escalations
How to get extra help when you need it…
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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
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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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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)
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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.
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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
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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
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Vice
President
SR Status Codes
Support:
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NEW
WIP
RVW
1CB
2CB
IRR
INT
New SR
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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Innovative Tools and Programs
Let us help you solve the problem faster…
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Metalink Advanced Techniques
Demo: metalink.oracle.com
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Knowledge Browser (Top Tech Docs)
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Advanced Search and Quick Links
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Certify & Availability
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Patches
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User Profile
You might also choose to view our Advanced Metalink
recorded web-sessions at:
http://www.oracle.com/support/index.html?seminars.html
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Diagnostic Tools
Diagnostic Tools Demo: metalink.oracle.com
Two types of tests:
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Collection
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Diagnostic
Delivery mechanisms:
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Standalone - A test that runs in SQL*Plus or UNIX shell environment.
Downloadable from Metalink.
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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
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Oracle Web Conferencing
OWC Demo: metalink.oracle.com
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“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
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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
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Oracle Web Conferencing
• Increased security
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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
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control
Customer can share desktop, application or individual
windows – Sharing only required information
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Oracle Web Conferencing
• For more details click the OWC button on
metalink.oracle.com and examine the
Quicklink documents:
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Why this direction?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Access from MetaLink
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Arrange time for OWC
session with Support
Engineer through SR
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Log into Metalink
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Click on Oracle
Collaborative Support
button in lower left
corner
Join your Conference
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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
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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
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Initial Screens
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First see Initialization
screen, then
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Invitation to present
your issue to Oracle
Support
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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
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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
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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
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Exit Survey
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Exit survey information
is collected
System Requirements
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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
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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
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Resolving Problems
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Click on New User if experiencing problems
Then Test to check system compatibility
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Quick Reference Sheet
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MetaLink:
http://metalink.oracle.com/
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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
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QUESTIONS
ANSWERS
Thank you for the attention!
For contacts: evelina.karolyi@oracle.com
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