Overview of Oracle Support

1
Overview of Oracle Support

• Rob Colten
• Motorola, Inc.

2
History of CSC

• CSC - Customer Support Council
• Formed in 1997
• Result of Oracle/OAUG Surveys
• Support Rated High in Importance
• Support Rated Low in Performance

3
CSC Objectives

• Work with Oracle Support Development on ways to
  improve application support
• Educate customer base on Oracle Support services
  and how to best use them

4
CSC Objectives

• Coordinate/solicit OAUG volunteers
• Provide /Review test plans
• Provide Test data bases
• Participate in testing of new releases
• Encourage Oracle to establish and publish service
  level agreements and to publish performance
  metrics

5
CSC Objectives

• Work with Oracle on methods to make certification
  and TAR/bug/patch information available to Oracle
  apps customers via various media
• Work with Oracle on other quality improvement
  initiatives

6
CSC Structure

• Chair is member of OAUG Board of Directors
• Participation from OAUG membership
• Participation from Oracle
• Monthly phone calls
• Two meetings/year at Oracle
• Two meetings/year at OAUG

7
Lessons Learned

• 1997 - Too many versions to support - Character,
  SC, NCA
• Different Patching Strategies
• Megapatch
• PatchSets
• MiniPacks
• Applying a patch results in new problem

8
Lessons Learned

• Analyst Issues
• Training
• Retention
• Closing Tars too soon
• Access to Duty Manager
• Quality of Product
• Varies by Application

9
Lessons Learned

• Metrics
• Average Hold Time
• Backlog
• Average time to Close TAR
• Lack of Implementation/Upgrade Visibility
• Opinion on New Product Support

10
Lessons Learned

• README.txt
• Support Database Limitations - ITS
• BUG or ENHANCEMENT?
• Development versus Support
• iTars
• Y2K

11
Lessons Learned

• US Support versus Global Support
• Regions
• East (Orlando)
• Central (Colorado Springs)
• West (California)

12
Lessons Learned

• User Issues
• Training/Testing
• Customization
• Setup
• Failure to analyze reports/logs
• Cry Wolf - Improper use of P1
• Multiple TARS for Same Issue

13
Available Resources

• MetaLink - http//www.oracle.com/support/
• Upgraded to 2.0
• Self Service
• OAUG Conferences - Oracle Support Center given
  high visibility

14
Available Resources

• OAUG - http//www.oaug.org/
• CSC
• Conference Paper Database
• How other companies deal with Support
• List Server
• Patching Strategy

15
Questions?

• Rob Colten
• cfnn44_at_email.mot.com