Presentation from Smart ERP Solutions covering effective ways to work with Oracle's PeopleSoft support. Includes guidance on SR escalations and techniques to help expedite resolutions.

1. Working Effectively with PeopleSoft
Support
Steven Canter
Director, Global Service Delivery
Smart ERP Solutions
Steve.C@SmartERP.com

2. Agenda
• Introduction
• Being Prepared
• Opening an SR
• Managing the SR
• Other Strategies
• Q&A

3. About
Smart ERP Solutions

4. Smart ERP Solutions
 Comprised of the best former developers, architects,
support, functional consultants and executives from
PeopleSoft/Oracle
 Unique best practices and expertise in PeopleSoft strategic
planning, implementation, upgrade and add-on /
customization services
 Provide cost-effective, robust and repeatable add-on “Smart
Solutions” for PeopleSoft applications as an alternative to
customizations
 High Quality of Service at Every Level and Role: Executive
Leadership, Project Management, Functional and Technical
Expertise

5. About This Presentation
• Based on my 10+ years experience as CIO
for a company running PeopleSoft FSCM
• This content is NOT officially sanctioned by
Oracle
• Adapt the recommendations here to fit the
needs of your organization
• Your mileage may vary

6. Common Complaints
• My support analyst doesn’t understand the
problem
• They won’t help me unless I replicate in Demo
• It takes them forever to respond
• They say it’s “Working as Designed”
• They won’t help me unless I’m current on
maintenance/ bundles

7. Preparing for a Good
Experience

8. Being Prepared
• Be responsive and knowledgeable about your SR
• Know your version (Ctrl-J information)
• Know what bundles you have applied
• Be aware if you have customizations that may impact
you
• Know your technical architecture
• Consider using Oracle Configuration Manager

9. Why OCM?
• Automatically collects information about your system
and uploads it to an Oracle repository
• Allows for proactive notifications on issues that impact
your specific configuration
• Allows Oracle Support to see details about your
configuration that may assist with resolving your
problems
• Once installed, it is low overhead and fairly automatic

10. OCM Concerns
• Privacy issues (not really)
• Additional software to install/configure/maintain
• Removes ability to tell “little white lies” to Oracle
• If not using OCM, then you can still create and save a
configuration in My Oracle Support to speed SR
creation

11. Other Items
• Provide My Oracle Support access to the right
people
• Use the correct Support Identifier
• Make sure your contact information is correct
• Know the phone numbers to call if needed -
http://www.oracle.com/us/support/contact-
068555.html

12. CreatingYour SR

13. When to Log an SR
• ALWAYS!!!
• Even if the issue is small and you have already
corrected it, you should take a few minutes to open an
SR – Include your fix as an attachment and use
Priority 3
• Reporting a problem to Oracle now may save
someone else a problem later on and vise versa
• Saves you work on retrofit when patching or
upgrading
• Believe it or not, they really do want you to file SRs

14. Creating the SR
• Use a good description Problem Summary
• Be specific in your Problem Description
• Differentiate between a Tools SR and
Functional SR
• Always a good idea to include attachments
• Choose the correct Severity

15. What Severity to Use
• Severity 1 – The entire system or a key subset is
down or there is significant data corruption occurring.
• Severity 2- Significant defect no acceptable
workaround is available. Should be your default
severity.
• Severity 3 – Minor impact. Use if you have put in your
own custom or can easily workaround. Don’t use if
you want an Oracle fix.
• Severity 4 – Enhancement or information request

16. More on Severity
• Being in test before go-live doesn’t preclude
Severity 1 or Severity 2 if you cannot go live
with the defect
• You can open at a lower severity now and
then raise it later if the situation warrants
• If Severity 1 or Severity 2, be prepared to
defend your position (more on that later)

17. Severity 1 issues
• Always open the ticket via web so that you
can include screen shots, traces, etc.
• If very urgent, immediately follow up with a
phone call and provide the SR number
• Be prepared to work 24/7 or provide
reasonable responsiveness beyond normal
working hours
• Ensure that you have provided best contact
information

18. Business Impact
• Should always include Business Impact
information for Severity 1 and Severity 2
issues
• Explain in business terms (not in PeopleSoft
lingo or in tech language) how this issue
impacts the business or the users
• Include metrics such as frequency, time to
resolve, and financial impact

19. Replicating the Issue
• Replicate in Demo if you can. Sometimes
easy, sometimes not. If not, then replicate in
your Test
• Provide crystal clear replication steps –
include screen shots of important setup
parameters
• If replicating in your own Test system, then
also include a trace file
• Include important configuration details

21. Online Trace Settings

22. AE Trace Settings

23. Other Traces
• How to trace a COBOL program:
https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/ui/km/SearchDocDisplay.js
px?_afrLoop=95594598618497&type=DOCUMENT&id=1092955.1
&displayIndex=3&_afrWindowMode=0&_adf.ctrl-
state=15rsdemjrw_160
• How to trace an SQR program:
https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/ui/km/SearchDocDisplay.js
px?_afrLoop=95849690974880&type=DOCUMENT&id=1325869.1
&displayIndex=1&_afrWindowMode=0&_adf.ctrl-
state=15rsdemjrw_181

24. Other Things to Include
• Will you need a POC? (more on that later)
• Describe the business impact that this is
having
• Is this issue consistent or intermittent –
provide details
• Did this just crop up?If so, then why now?
(trying to implement new feature,
configuration change, etc.)

25. After Your SR is Open

26. Rule #1 – Be Responsive
• If you aren’t responding, your issue won’t be resolved
• If you wait days before responding to a request for
information, your SR will fall to the bottom of the
analysts priority list
• Lack of responsiveness will impact your ability to ask
for escalation or to qualify for a POC (more later)
• If you are delayed trying to get the necessary
information, at least update the SR with that
information

27. Requesting a POC
• Proof of Concept is provided by Development
for a specific customer for a specific issue
• POCs have NOT gone through the normal QA
process
• Use when you cannot wait until the release of
a bundle to receive the necessary fix
• Must specifically request to receive a POC
• Final fix that is released in a bundle may be
different

29. Changing Severity
• Should be relatively rare
• Generally one of the following should apply
o The original severity was incorrect
o The problem is worse than originally thought
o A crucial date is approaching
• Request your analyst to increase severity if
necessary

30. Escalations
• Escalation is NOT a change in severity
• Use Escalation when you are not getting the
level of support you need on a specific SR
o Support analyst is not getting back to you in a timely fashion
o Support analyst is unable to understand/replicate your problem
o SR has been sitting with Development for an excessive period
of time
o SR is noted as “Working as Designed” and you disagree

31. How to Escalate
• DON’T do it over the web
• DON’T go through the automated response
system
• DO call the 800- number and get to a live
person
• Give the person on the phone your SR number,
say that you want to escalate the ticket and
request a callback from a manager
• You should get a callback within a few hours

32. What Can Escalation Do?
• Light a fire under your support analyst
• Change/add support analysts for your SR
• Bring in resources from other areas (Dev or
Strategy)
• Act as a liaison with development
• Make your SR an agenda item on regular
internal status meetings

33. What To Do When
Escalating
• Make sure you have the name and contact
information of the manager that you have
spoken with
• Identify an action plan for your SR (may be
preliminary)
• After the call, document the call as a note in
your SR for visibility

34. My SRs are Out of Control!
• This can happen if you either are implementing
a new module or working on an upgrade
• Separate your SRs by priority (high/medium/low)
• Speak to a manager (follow Escalation process)
• Ask for related SRs to be treated as a single unit
of work
• Ask for regular (weekly?) conference calls to
review status of high priority issues

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36. Any Questions?
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