Ana Rezende Product Support Manager – MIT and Gateways teams Oracle Support Services

1. Ana RezendeProduct Support Manager – MIT and Gateways teams Oracle Support Services Ana-Cristina.Rezende@oracle.com zSeries Oracle SIG – 2004

2. Working Effectively with Oracle Support Services To Ensure Your Business Success

3. Agenda • Goal: To improve your working relationship with Global Product Support • Support Terminology and Tools • Working Effectively with Support • Escalations • Metalink • Q&A

4. Support Terminology and Tools • Support Acronyms and Terminology • A CSI number • SR number and Severity Definitions • SR Status Codes • MetaLink • RDA • ODC • Web Conferencing

5. 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

6. Service Request Severity Definitions • Severity Level 4No Business Impact • No loss of service or resources • Severity Level 3Minor Business Impact • Minor loss of service or resources • Severity Level 2Serious Business Impact • Severe loss of service or resources w/o acceptable workaround • Severity Level 1Critical 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

7. SR Status Codes Support: Customer: Development: • NEW New SR • ASG Assigned to Support Rep • WIP Work In Progress • RVW Review • 1CB 1st Callback • 2CB 2nd Callback • IRR Immediate Response Required • INT Awaiting Internal Response • WCP Waiting for Customer to apply Patch • CUS Waiting on Customer • SLP Sleep until Customer Available • LMS Left Message • SCL Soft Close • HCL Hard Close • DEV Assigned to Development

8. Working Effectively with Global Product Support

9. What Does a Support Representative Do? • Works a queue of current customer issues in a variety of statuses • 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

10. Best Practices • Shared ownership in resolving the issue • Quality and quantity of communication • Joint planning on problem resolution Lessons learned from our customers…

11. 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

12. Help Us Understand Your Environment • 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?

13. 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

14. 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

15. Escalations Bringing Management Attention to your Service Request

16. 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.

17. 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

18. Escalation Process V.P. or Executive Senior Manager or Director Manager / Escalation Manager Support Representative Customer

20. Oracle Support Services oracle.com/support

21. Benefits of MetaLink!! • Increase Support Alternatives • Knowledge Base • Forums • Patches • Service Requests (SRs) • Bugs • Quick and Convenient • 24x7 Access e-Business is the future!

22. OracleMetaLink • Top Technical Documents • Diagnostic Tools • Oracle Support KB search including Bug database • Patch download • User Administration • Oracle DirectConnect & RDA • “My Configs & Projects” • MetaLink Knowledge Browser

23. 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

24. OracleMetaLink – Top Tech Docs • Support Tools • ACT – Applications Collection Tool • Top Tech Docs -> E-Business Suite -> Diagnostic Tests Catalogue • RDA – Remote Diagnostic Agent • Search for “RDA” or “Remote Diagnostic Assistant” (Doc ID 175853.1) • Diagnostics

25. Top Tech Docs Screen Shot

26. 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

27. Solution Diagnostic Tests not used OracleApplicationsError MetaLink Login Manual Knowledge Search Log SR (iTAR) Customer Customer Exceptions Oracle Support Services Diagnostic Tests used Issue prevented Run Diagnostics Solution Solution Run Diagnostics Manual Knowledge Search OracleApplicationsError MetaLink Login Log SR (iTAR) Exceptions Exceptions Problem Solving Process

28. Diagnostic Tests - Metrics • Growing pro-active problem avoidance Diagnostics installed

29. OracleMetaLink – KB SearchEnhanced 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

30. Optimized Searching Easier and more visible search options Exclusion operator is now available Improved product weighting

32. 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!

33. OracleMetaLink – Patch Download • Find the patches you need • Simple search • By Patch Number • By Product Family • Saved Searches • Saved searches • Quick Links • Advanced search

34. OracleMetaLink – Patch Download

35. OracleMetaLinkCustomer 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

36. User Profile Privileges Screen Shot

37. List Users Screen Shot

38. Manage Users Screen Shot 1

39. Manage Users Screen Shot 2

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. Oracle DirectConnect

44. 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

45. 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

46. 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

47. Health check reports forcritical 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!

48. 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

49. 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

50. Q & Q U E S T I O N S A N S W E R S A