IBM Software as a Service

Important Note:  All IBM Cloud services follow the standard procedures described here unless they are listed in the IBM Product Support Details page


SaaS support

IBM's Cloud Service support teams are available to assist with technical issues of varying degrees of severity. There may be occasions where the support teams may not be able to answer all your questions, but they will engage other groups within the company, including operations and/or development teams, to help provide answers to you.

Severity level guidelines and response time objectives

The following table outlines response time objectives that IBM strives* to achieve, measured from the time IBM receives your initial request for support to the time IBM provides an initial communication back to you regarding your request.

Severity Severity definition Response time objectives Response time coverage
1

Critical business impact/Service Down: Business critical functionality is inoperable or critical interface has failed. This usually applies to a production environment and indicates an inability to access services resulting in a critical impact on operations. This condition requires an immediate solution. You must log a Service Down case within 24 hours of first becoming aware that there is a critical business impact and the Cloud Service is not available.

Note: We will work with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week to resolve critical problems provided you have a technical resource available to work during those hours. You must reasonably assist IBM with any problem diagnosis and resolution.

Within 1 hour 24×7
2 Significant business impact: A service, business feature, or function of the service is severely restricted in its use, or you are in jeopardy of missing business deadlines. Within 2 business hours Monday – Friday business hours
3 Minor business impact: The service or functionality is usable and the issue does not represent a critical impact on operations. Within 4 business hours Monday – Friday business hours
4 Minimal business impact: An inquiry or non-technical request. Within 1 business day Monday – Friday business hours

*Please note: Response time objectives described in this document and in the IBM support guide are intended to describe IBM's goals only, and do not represent a guarantee of performance.

Customer responsibilities

You play a key role in assisting us when you have questions about or have encountered problems with your Cloud Service offering. Information that you provide about your system and/or problem is often critical to resolving your issue. The following practices can help our customer support team to better understand your problem and more effectively respond to your concerns, as well as help you make the best use of your time:

  • Submitting problems electronically
  • Keeping different issues (questions or problems) separate (one issue per support ticket, incident or case)
  • Selecting a Severity based on your judgment of the business impact
  • Keeping IBM support informed of major upgrades/implementations of your system (where applicable)
  • Providing timely feedback on recommendations, so the IBM support team can close out the issue when it has been resolved. If the issue reoccurs, you may reopen the original support ticket, incident or case by resubmitting it electronically

You will be required to provide the following information when contacting support:

  • Your name, company name, email address, and telephone number with extension (if applicable)
  • Ticket, incident, or case number (as applicable)
  • Support entitlement identifiers such as client ID, mailbox ID, or IBM customer number, as appropriate for the offering
  • Product name (release level and any product maintenance level, if applicable)
  • Any additional information required by the IBM support team

Availability Service Level Agreement (SLA) Considerations

You must submit a support case claim for failure to meet an availability SLA within 3 business days after the end of the contracted month. The support case must be related to a production system that is not available (a Severity 1 / Service Down case). The availability SLA for the Cloud Service can be found in your Transaction Document. Service Down is the time measured from the time you report the Severity 1 case until the time the Cloud Service is restored and does not include time related to a scheduled or announced maintenance outage; causes beyond IBM's control; problems with your content or third party content or technology, designs or instructions; unsupported system configurations and platforms or other Client errors; or Client-caused security incident or Client security testing.

Satisfaction surveys

IBM periodically surveys its customers to obtain additional feedback on recent experiences with customer support. The survey focuses on quality of support provided and overall experience. The survey results are reviewed by management. IBM reserves all rights, title and interest in and to any feedback that you provide to IBM, including without limitation, in the form of suggestions, ideas, concepts, improvements, reports and any other materials, whether written or oral.

Advanced Support

Advanced Support provides a higher tier, priority care support to respond to critical support requests and drive faster case resolution.  Advanced Support allows IBM clients to tailor their Support needs to their business and environment.

 
Advanced Support options Client need Features Initial Case Severity Response Goal Prerequisites
  • Provides increased responsiveness and higher support case prioritization
  • Priority Access to Senior Technical Support Professionals
  • Provides holistic approach of advising clients based on case patterns
  • Higher Support Case Prioritization
  • Priority access to Senior Technical Support Professionals
  • Mutually agreed Critical Support Sev 2 cases will be worked 7*24 if Customer agrees to work 7*24 as well
  • Support Case reporting and trends, clarity of status of priority cases on a mutually agreed basis to ensure proper case prioritization with business alignment
  • Advanced Support Focal (ASF)
  • Severity 1: 30 minutes (24x7) Initial Response
  • Severity 2-4: 1 Business Hour Initial Response
    • Mutually agreed Critical Severity 2 issues will be worked 24x7 if customer agrees to work 24x7 as well
Requires active:
i.  Subscription & Support;
ii.  Sustained Support; or
iii. Software as a Service subscription

Review the Severity Descriptions guidelines for business impact associated to each severity level. Response Goals are intended to describe IBM's goals only, and do not represent a guarantee of performance.

  

Additional Support:

  • For IBM programs that are not covered by the software support offerings listed above, as defined in the IBM Support Product lifecycle page for the IBM programs, refer to the Software support page provided by IBM Technology Lifecycle Services.

Additional references:

  • If you are a client in the United States looking for tighter security with your support interactions, review our US Secure Support page.
  • If you require a support solution across multiple vendors, review our Multi-vendor Support page.
  • If you are a developer looking for help to code your applications, see IBM Support for Developers for available options.
  • International Passport Advantage Agreement (IPAA) and the International Passport Advantage Express Agreement (IPAEA) Overview.
  • Renew your Subscription and Support with Passport Advantage Online.
  • Here are other value-added Services offerings for On-premises Software