Make that First Contact Work for You – Troubleshooting with Sterling Integrator Support

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Being a long time support engineer for various products, I have found a few things that really expedite the progress of troubleshooting when you are reporting a usage problem. I have seen the following strategies really help many of my customers to get a head start when they open tickets with us:

1. Use the electronic support tools

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/electronicsupport/?lnk=uctug_ibmesa_ibmcom_2014-01-03_link_to_infosite_mte&cm_sp=MTE28950

Specifically there is an online service request tool under this page that would allow you to view and manage all service requests online, regardless of channel of input or of open/closed status. Service requests archived up to one year are also available.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/electronicsupport/workwithibm.html#ibm-table-header-2

This channel of reporting problem saves you time and also it provides you the flexibility of managing the progress of your tickets. For example, you want to know the status of current problem determination by the support engineer, you simply update the ticket with one line: Please advise the status. No more waiting on the phone to talk to support staff. And you can read/review any interm progress documented by IBM support staff.

2. Open the problem against correct component id – It takes extra time to reach resolution when the PMR is sent to the wrong team. It is very critical that when you open new PMR’s, select the correct component id the first time and you will get to the expertise the first time. Mis-queued PMRs waste your time and can really create customer satisfaction issue!! You can control that by entering the correct component id when you open the PMRs.

3. Upload data as soon as you open the ticket – If you have collected some data for the problem you are reporting, you want to upload the data once you have created the ticket. The advantages of doing this:
   1. It gives more complete details of what the problem is.
   2. It saves time for both you and the support staff because you do not have to repeat what you have done already in troubleshooting and the support staff can examine what you have done and get a jump start in troubleshooting.
   3. It allows the support staff to research before he/she contacts you and you can very easily receive answers/feedback you are looking for on that very first contact!

What if you do not know what to collect? Here is a link to mustgather and it gives good list of what data to collect under what error scenario:

                  http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21661568

I look forward to working with you on your Sterling Integrator PMR’s!! Make that First Contact work for you.