Working Effectively with Oracle Support Services

Evelina Krolyi
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

Global Support Centers

Reading Toronto Colorado Springs Orlando

United Kingdom GSC India GSC

Americas GSC

Bangalore

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?

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

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)

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

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: 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
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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 SRs 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

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
Vice President

Director

Senior Manager

Manager Support Representative

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

Customer:

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
-

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

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Diagnostic Tools
Diagnostic Tools Demo: metalink.oracle.com
Two types of tests:

Collection
Diagnostic
Standalone - A test that runs in SQL*Plus or UNIX shell environment.
Downloadable from Metalink.

Delivery mechanisms:
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 Development

Consulting / Implementers

Better Support Faster.. Bring all the right resources to the problem
Tools

Advanced Support

Customers Support Personnel Customer Information

Global Product Support

Connectivity
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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
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

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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?

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

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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

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

Arrange time for OWC session with Support Engineer through SR Log into Metalink Click on Oracle Collaborative Support button in lower left corner

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Join your Conference

Clicks Conference Title matching TAR/SR number

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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

First see Initialization screen, then Invitation to present your issue to Oracle Support

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Sharing Modes
Desktop Sharing Mode Share an Application Share an Area

Stop Sharing 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 attendees name Shared control, click the yellow (mouse) icon next to the attendees name

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Exit Survey

Exit survey information is collected

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System Requirements

Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4.0 SP 4 or higher, Windows 2000, Windows XP BrowserInternet Explorer 5.5 or higher JavaEnabled
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

Resolution1024 x 768 pixels

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Resolving Problems

Click on New User if experiencing problems Then Test to check system compatibility

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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

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QUESTIONS ANSWERS

Thank you for the attention!

For contacts: evelina.karolyi@oracle.com

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