Tips for getting most of Oracle support when opening SRs. How to escalate

1. “My” Oracle Support
How to get the most out of it for our clients
Slides by: Stefan Knecht

2. “My” Oracle Support
• Introduction
• Terminology
• People and Structures
• Use Cases
• In closing…
• WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message from client‘ ela=?
© 2015 Pythian Confidential2

3. Introduction
• Disclaimer:
I never worked for Oracle, or for Oracle Support
Services.
What’s presented herein is based on my own
experiences in dealing with Oracle Support.
© 2015 Pythian Confidential3

4. Introduction
• Before we get started, consider:
– Money talks
– You’re not alone
– No matter the position, they are all people
– Manage your expectations
© 2015 Pythian Confidential4

5. “My” Oracle Support
• Introduction
• Terminology
• People and Structures
• Use Cases
• In closing…
• WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message from client‘ ela=?
© 2015 Pythian Confidential5

6. Terminology
• Service Request (SR, TAR)
– Communication channel to Oracle Support staff
• Escalation
– Escalated SR gets treated with higher internal priority
– Escalated BUG gets treated with higher priority
– Doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhappy
– Gets management attention
• Customer Support Identifier (CSI)
– Link to your contract, licensed products
– Defines the level of support you can get
© 2015 Pythian Confidential6

7. Terminology
• Premier Support
– The “normal” Oracle Support
• Advanced Support
– Extra cost, named technical contact
– Priority handling (optional as add-on)
• Sustained Support
– Extra cost, de-supported products can still be
supported
© 2015 Pythian Confidential7

8. Terminology
• Severity
– 1: high customer impact
• Follow the sun
– 2: medium customer impact
• Worked during local business hours
– 3: low customer impact
– 4: very low customer impact
• Priority
– Internal – you can’t see it, but it defines how far up in
the queue you are
© 2015 Pythian Confidential8

9. Terminology
• Backport
– Fix is already included but in a newer version
– Code must be ported back to your version
– Not available for older versions
• Merge Request
– Fix conflicts with an existing patch
– Fixes must be merged and the new patch applied
© 2015 Pythian Confidential9

10. “My” Oracle Support
• Introduction
• Terminology
• People and Structures
• Use Cases
• In closing…
• WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message from client‘ ela=?
© 2015 Pythian Confidential10

11. People
• HUB staff
– First point of contact if you call
– Can create SR, and assign SR to engineers
– Re-assigns SR to different engineer (time zone, slow)
– Schedules manager call backs
– Can change severity of SR
– Can escalate SR
– Available in local languages in most countries, during
local office hours
– Available 24x7x365 in english
© 2015 Pythian Confidential11

12. People
• Analyst / Support Engineer
– Handles SR
– Is interface between you and development
– Works in predefined shifts
– They usually don’t tell you their shift, but are happy to
if you ask
© 2015 Pythian Confidential12

13. People
• Developer
– Works on the ORACLE code
– Usually won’t talk with you directly
– Maintains updates to BUGs (usually you can’t see)
© 2015 Pythian Confidential13

14. People
• Account Manager
– Every customer that has a CSI usually has one
– Is the assigned contact in licensing topics
– Can provide great boost for a problematic SR
– You should have his phone number in your cell
• For Pythian, we should build a list of all our client’s
account managers
• In case “it” hits the fan, they can help out a lot
© 2015 Pythian Confidential14

15. People
• Duty Manager
– Oracle Support Services staff that manages a team of
analysts
– Escalations end up on his desk initially
– Can assign the best engineer for your case from his
team
– Can assign your case to another team (incl. special
teams)
© 2015 Pythian Confidential15

16. People
• Advanced Resolution Specialists
– Usually escalated issues end up assigned to them
– Product-centric specializations
– When they get involved things move more quickly
• Global Escalation Manager
– Handle the “big” cases
– JET “Joint Escalation Team”
– One per region / country
– Initiate contact through the account manager
© 2015 Pythian Confidential16

17. Structures
© 2015 Pythian Confidential17

18. “My” Oracle Support
• Introduction
• Terminology
• People and Structures
• Use Cases
• In closing…
• WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message from client‘ ela=?
© 2015 Pythian Confidential18

19. Use Cases … or “what do I do if…”
• Slow response time in SR
– Call the HUB
– Could be due to time zone
• Ask for the SR to be reassigned to your local time zone
– Could be due to low priority
• Talk to the manager
– Could be due to low severity
• Talk to the analyst, or his manager and increase severity
– Ask for a manager call back
• Do this by calling the HUB not just updating the SR
• Updates asking for management or escalations often are
ignored – the HUB won’t ignore you
© 2015 Pythian Confidential19

20. Use Cases … or “what do I do if…”
• Engineer is a noob
– It happens, we all started somewhere
– Call the HUB
– Ask for a reassignment
– Sometimes no reason is required
– Otherwise just say something like
“I’d like to get a fresh set of eyes on the issue and make
sure we are making appropriate progress”
– Be polite, be professional
© 2015 Pythian Confidential20

21. Use Cases … or “what do I do if…”
• Engineer is good but too slow
– Perhaps he’s overloaded with a couple sev 1
– If you have a critical issue, involve the manager
How to deal with the duty manager:
Have the following data ready before you talk to him:
– Business impact (from the clients PoV)
– Is there a workaround? Is it feasible for you?
– Do you want to escalate it?
– Is the a current impact or the threat thereof?
– Does it affect a customer milestone?
© 2015 Pythian Confidential21

22. Use Cases … or “what do I do if…”
• The bug is being handled too slow
– Talk to the duty manager (have data ready)
– Ask for an escalation
• There’s lots of bugs. Development time is often
assigned to who screams the loudest
• Don’t take the screaming literally
– Involve the account manager
© 2015 Pythian Confidential22

23. Use Cases … or “what do I do if…”
• You got the wrong solution (once, twice, etc)
– Involve duty manager explain the mistake
– Escalate it
– Involve account manager if it’s a critical issue
Never hesitate to escalate!
© 2015 Pythian Confidential23

24. “My” Oracle Support
• Introduction
• Terminology
• People and Structures
• Use Cases
• In closing…
• WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message from client‘ ela=?
© 2015 Pythian Confidential24

25. In closing …
• Be reasonable
– If you didn’t provide an update in two weeks, explain
why, or don’t expect them to provide one within the
hour
• Low severity SRs are just that, low severity SRs
– Don’t expect an answer in 15 minutes
– Call them if you don’t get anything in days
– Calling the HUB always helps
© 2015 Pythian Confidential25

26. In closing …
• Severity 1
– Oracle provides follow-the-sun
• That doesn’t always help and induces overhead
• Handovers must be made
– Or you’ll go back and forth with the same Q and A
– Request the managers to supervise the handovers if they
are lacking
• Stay in close contact with the duty manager
• Stay in close contact with the account manager
• Stay in close contact with your colleagues who
work on it during your absence as well!!
© 2015 Pythian Confidential26

27. In closing …
• Severity 1 (continued)
– Sometimes an escalated Sev 2 is faster
• A single skilled engineer dedicated to your issue
during his shift
• Can be requested through duty manager
– Ask for advanced resolution team involvement
• This often happens when duty manager is involved
• They don’t like having Sev 1 unresolved in their
quota either
© 2015 Pythian Confidential27

28. In closing …
• Severity 1 (continued)
– Escalate it further
– Calling is always better then updating the SR yourself
– If all else fails
• Get your account manger to contact the global
escalation manager for the customer’s territory
• Contact the product manager for the product that
has issues (ask around, Pythian knows lots of
them)
© 2015 Pythian Confidential28

29. “My” Oracle Support
• Introduction
• Terminology
• People and Structures
• Use Cases
• In closing…
• WAIT #0: nam='SQL*Net message from client‘ ela=?
© 2015 Pythian Confidential29