How To
Summary
When you report a problem to IBM Software Support, you will be asked to supply a severity level and how the problem is impacting your business. Therefore, you need to understand and assess the business impact of the problem you are reporting.
Objective
The following table displays the four different severity levels as defined in the IBM Support Guide. When you report a problem to IBM Software Support, you will be asked to supply the severity level and how the problem is impacting your business.
| Severity | Impact | Detailed description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Critical | System or Service Down Business critical functionality is inoperable or a critical interface has failed. This usually applies to a production environment and indicates an inability to access products or services resulting in a critical impact on operations. This condition requires an immediate solution. Note: We will work with you 24 hours a day, seven days a week to resolve Severity 1 problems provided you have a technical resource available to work during those hours. You must reasonably assist IBM with any problem diagnosis and resolution. For IBM Cloud services, 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. |
| 2 | Significant | A product, service, business feature, or function of the product or service is severely restricted in its use, or you are in jeopardy of missing business deadlines. |
| 3 | Some | The product, service or functionality is usable and the issue does not represent a significant impact on operations. |
| 4 | Minimal | An inquiry or non-technical request. |
In addition to the severity selection, IBM Software products will ask the question "How is this impacting your business?" to understand the business impact. Please provide the following information:
- Is there a specific target date you are trying to meet? (For example, is there a go-live date, a project release, deadline, etc)
- How many users are affected and what is the frequency of the problem?
- Is there monetary, revenue or other financial impact?
- Is there regulatory, social or media impact?
- Is the problem affecting your production output?
Please provide a description of the impact to help the support team prioritize the problem. If the problem is not impacting your business, please state there is no current impact.
Document Location
Worldwide
[{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB33","label":"N\/A"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU051","label":"N\/A"},"Product":{"code":"SUPPORT","label":"IBM Worldwide Support"},"ARM Category":[],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions"}]
Was this topic helpful?
Document Information
Modified date:
21 February 2024
UID
ibm17115282