When you call the Support Center, your first contact will be with a Support Center operator. This operator records some initial details about your problem, and then places it in a problem queue. You will receive a call back from a Support Center representative, who will try to help you solve your problem or refer you to someone who can.
The Support Center will need to know as much as possible about your problem. You should have the following information ready before making your first call:
Figure 68 provides an overview of what happens when you call the Support Center.
After you identify your organization, the operator will ask if you are calling about a new problem or following up on an existing problem. If it is a follow-up call, you will be connected with the appropriate Support Center representative.
If the problem is a new one, you will be assigned a unique incident number. A problem management record (PMR) will be opened on the RETAIN® database, where all activity associated with your problem is recorded. Be sure to make a note of the incident number. You will be asked to provide the incident number in all future calls to the Center connected with this problem.
The operator will then ask you for the following information about the problem:
The keywords you supply will be used as search arguments on the RETAIN database. This helps the Support Center determine whether your problem is a known one that has already been the subject of an Authorized Program Analysis Report (APAR).
Details of your call are passed to the appropriate support group using the RETAIN problem management system. Your problem is put in the CICSPlex SM problem queue. Problems are dealt with in order of severity level.
A Level 1 support representative will use the keywords you provided to search the RETAIN database. If your problem is found to be a known problem, and a fix has been developed for it, a Program Temporary Fix (PTF) will be sent to you.
If the RETAIN search is unsuccessful, your problem will be passed on to a Level 2 representative, who will contact you for more information about the problem.
Be sure to tell the support representative if any of the following events occurred before the problem appeared:
You might be asked to quote values from a formatted dump or trace table. You might also be asked to perform some special task, such as turn on a specific level of trace, and then report on the results.
It might be necessary to have several follow-up calls, depending on the complexity of the symptoms and your system environment. The Support Center representative will record in the PMR the actions taken by you and IBM at every stage of problem diagnosis. The representative can then be acquainted with the complete history of the problem before making any follow-up calls.
The results of the investigation will determine whether your problem is really a new one, or one that is already known to IBM. If it is already known, and a fix has been developed, the fix will be sent to you.
If the problem is new, an APAR might be submitted. The APAR will be handled by the CICSPlex SM change team. What you have to do is described in APARs, fixes, and PTFs.
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