About IBM Support Work Orders

Description

There are times when IBM needs to visit your site to give you the help you need with your products. When this is necessary, IBM will work with you to find a convenient time for a service appointments. Recent updates to the Support site have made it easier to confirm and reschedule your appointments. In many cases, you can make scheduling changes to your work orders through the Support site, without needing to email or phone IBM.

Viewing Your Work Orders

Related documentation:

• Using the Case Details Page
• How to Open a Support Case
• Instructional Video: How to Open and Manage Support Cases

From the support site home page at ibm.com/mysupport, visit Cases > View Your Cases, or click the View Your Cases link below the search bar.

The Cases page displays a blue wrench icon in the task column alongside cases with a work order.  Click the down arrow to expand the task and see basic information about the work order.

Click the case's Title for more information. The Case Details page displays. 

Next, click View All Work Orders (figure 2, callout 1) to see appointment details.

The Work Orders window displays information about work orders that IBM has scheduled for your cases. These columns change as new information becomes available.

The date and time listed for each appointment is the date and time at the location where the appointment will occur, denoted on a 24-hour clock. For example, the date and time shown in figure 3 is for an appointment scheduled to occur in Istanbul, Turkey.

Use the Work Orders window to:

• To make changes to the Onsite Contact's information, click the Edit icon (figure 3, callout 1).
• Click Request change (callout 2) to change the appointment. 
• Click Confirm (callout 3) to confirm the appointment and return to the case details page. Once you have confirmed an appointment, this option no longer displays. After you have confirmed your appointment, you can still request changes until a technician is en route to the site.

On the Onsite Contact window (figure 4), adjust the contact's information as needed, and then click Save to return to the Work Orders information box (Figure 3), where your updates display. 

Note: These changes only affect the work order you are viewing. The support site does not save them to your profile or any other work orders.

The Work Orders window displays information about work orders that IBM has scheduled for your cases. The dates and times listed for each appointment is the local date and time at the location of the appointment.

To request a scheduling change:

• Click Request change.
• On the Request to Reschedule Work Order window, use the Select your preferred date and select your preferred time window options to choose a time that better suits your needs. You can use one of the standard arrival windows, or select Enter another time and then use the Earliest Arrival and Arrival window fields to customize your selection.
  1. Earliest Arrival: the earliest time a technician may arrive at your site, denoted on a 24-hour clock.
  2. Arrival window: the length of time in hours from the Earliest arrival during which a technician may arrive. As you make your selections, the scheduling text automatically updates to reflect your changes (figure 5, callouts 1 & 2).

• Confirm your selections, and then click Save to submit your request. IBM's dispatch team will work to meet your schedule and will contact you if necessary to discuss other options or discuss further.

You can confirm and request changes to your work orders using the email notifications that IBM sends through the work order process. IBM recently changed these emails to make it faster and easier for you to manage your work orders without having to email or phone IBM Support.

By default, IBM sends work order notification emails to the case owner (the person who opened the case), the onsite contact. and any of the case's interested parties or team members.

Note: Please check your spam or junk email folder if you cannot find any messages that you believe you should be receiving.

Configuring Email Notifications

• Related document: Update your Profile.

To ensure you will receive email notifications: 

1. Visit the IBM Support Site at https://ibm.com/mysupport.
2. If you are not already signed into the community, click the user icon in the upper-right corner of any Support site page, then click Log In, and then sign in with your username and password.
3. Once signed in, click the user icon in the top right of any page on the IBM Support site, and then click Profile & Settings. The Support Preferences and Settings page displays. 
4. On the Profile tab, select HTML or Plain Text emails. 
   
   Figure 6. HTML / Plain Text Format Selection
5. On the Cases tab, confirm your Case Notification Settings. Be sure to select the checkbox next to Enable Email notifications for my work order activity. If this checkbox is not selected, you will not receive email notifications and you may miss important information about your cases.
   
   Figure 7. Case Notification Settings
6. In this section, select whether you prefer to receive Enhanced emails, which provide more information than IBM's standard notification emails, for example, case title and the latest case update. Enhanced emails also provide you with the ability to request changes or confirm your appointments, while you can review appointments through non-enhanced emails.
   Note: The information in IBM's enhanced emails may include sensitive or other personally identifiable information. Be sure to take appropriate precautions to protect this information.
7.  Click Save.

Using Email Notifications

IBM sends email notifications to the case owner, on-site contact, and team members as work orders move through the process. These status emails correspond to the status column on the Work Orders window (figure 8, callout 1).

The following table lists the statuses at which IBM sends work order notification emails, and the actions you can take from the emails at each step.
 

In each of these emails, just click the action buttons to perform the following:

• Review appointment: Use this button to open your work orders list, which is shown in Figure 3 and Figure 8. You can also access this list through the View All Work Orders link on a case's details page.
• Use the Confirm Appointment (enhanced emails only) button to visit the work orders list shown in Figure 3 and Figure 8. There, you can accept and confirm the appointment as scheduled. 
•  Use the Request Change button to visit the Request to Reschedule Work Orders window, as described in Requesting Changes to an Appointment. 

Figure 9 contains samples of the non-enhanced and enhanced emails IBM sends about work orders. The wording in the emails you receive may differ from what is shown here.

Figure 9. Sample work order email messages

Viewing your Customer Replacement Units (CRU)

You can now see their parts ordered on the Case Details page.

When a work order is in an 'ordered, shipped, backordered, or delivered' status it will show up on the support site.

Below is an example of where a CRU would appear. Same location as a Service Appointment. If a Service Appointment and CRU exist on a case both will have their own tile.

When you click on the CRU tile the following modal will appear

Note that a tracking number link is provided so you can easily track the delivery information for your order.