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OAUG Support in Focus

Message from the Chair

Becky Tipton

OAUG Customer Support Council Chair Becky Tipton

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the summer of 2006 already — so many exciting events have happened this year and this season. Welcome to the shortened summer edition of Support in Focus, the OAUG Customer Support Council (CSC) newsletter that is filled with great ways to help you maximize your support of Oracle Applications.

Survey in Focus

How do you feel about the features and functionality of Oracle MetaLink? Share your experience today and be entered to win an iPod Shuffle!

If your summer is anything like mine, your plans are filled with vacations and holidays and upgrades and implementations! Where do we find the time? With schedules like this, I use every trick I can find to make stress-filled events go smoother.

This newsletter is filled with tips that will help you with upgrades and implementations, including an article about something most of us have experienced, a Priority 1 Service Request, as well as information about new search features in Oracle’s MetaLink support tool and the PeopleSoft/JDE Advisor Program.

As always, we’re grateful to our contributors and we urge more of you to help other OAUG members by sharing your support tips and hints.

Now, if I could just find some tips and hints for navigating vacations and holidays filled with family, friends and STRESS…

Regards,
Becky A. Tipton
2006 Chair, OAUG Customer Support Council

Day(s) in the Life of a Sev 1 TAR

By Marcia Michalik, Starkey Labs, Inc.

Marcia Michalik

Marcia Michalik, Starkey Labs, Inc.

Yes, I know we are supposed to call them “SRs” — Service Requests. But old habits die hard. To many of us, they will always be “TARs.” And “Sev 1” isn’t right either. These are now “P1s” — Priority 1s.

If you have not worked a Sev 1 TAR (P1 SR), this article may help to prepare you for that day (and night). If you have had the pleasure, relive the memories! This is a real-life example. The following are just some of the entries from this service request.

How we got to this point — We have identified an issue with depreciation that appears to be the result of our recent upgrade. Our business analyst (BA) has narrowed the issue down to two specific patches applied to our production environment; on an older test environment, without these patches, depreciation runs correctly. The Oracle support analyst has been able to reproduce the issue internally and has logged a bug.

Tips — Oracle Support will often request an OWC session. Through a secure connection, Support can log in to your application and see exactly what you are seeing. This has provided quick, easy resolution for us in the past. Also, even after you’ve logged an SR, keep working! The more information you can provide, the more you can test, the more notes you can find on MetaLink that address your issue and the quicker you will move toward resolution.

0 HOUR — March 22, 16:00:09 GMT — It is two days before cycle end and we need to have this issue resolved before we can close the period. BA and her manager contact the Oracle duty manager to request escalation of the SR to Sev 1. It is accepted. The bug is also escalated to Sev 1. Oracle Development responds that they have accepted the escalated bug status. From this point on, both Oracle and our internal resources must be available to work the issue straight through to resolution.

Tips — Oracle indicates that it is appropriate to escalate an SR when the business impact is increasing and/or deadlines are approaching. Severity levels are:

Escalation may be done online through the support analyst, but is most often done via phone request to the duty manager. A request for escalation must include the following:

Bugs, like SRs, have their own statuses. The analyst will often report on the status of the bug in the SR so that you can monitor progress. Typical bug codes are:

Be aware of the ramifications of escalating an issue to Sev 1. Not only does Oracle commit to working the issue 24/7, but you, as the client, must also commit to being available to work the issue 24/7. You must have an analyst, a DBA and possibly a developer available around the clock until the issue is resolved. If you are a global organization, like we are, you may have the ability to pass the issue around the globe, as Oracle will do. If not, you’re in for some sleepless nights!

HOUR 7 SEV 1 — March 22, 23:48:25 GMT — Within hours, development updates the TAR with a note that they are testing a fix.

HOUR 12 SEV 1 — March 23, 4:33:58 GMT — BA receives the call that a one-off patch has been developed and should be tested. BA agrees to do this within hours.

Tips — Be careful with one-off patches. It is your responsibility to keep track of these during future upgrades and to identify whether they need to be reapplied if the functionality was not corrected in the base product.

HOUR 31 SEV 1 — March 23, 23:33:39 GMT — Support analyst requests that priority be reduced back to Sev 2 since this is in user testing. BA indicates that users have identified issues even after application of the patch, but they are different issues.

HOUR 37 SEV 1 — March 24, 5:22:02 GMT — Support analyst indicates that a second TAR should be opened for the new issues identified. This SR remains in Sev 1 status until users complete all testing and are confident that the patch has corrected the original issue.

Tips — Oracle Support will be firm about the need to open a new SR when a new issue is discovered while working on an existing SR. When you open a SR that has been “spawned” by a previous SR, be sure to make note of the originating SR number so the analyst will be able to review all of the background and get up to speed more quickly.

HOUR 53 SEV 1, HOUR 742 OVERALL — March 24, 21:46:02 GMT — BA closes TAR. Support responds by documenting bug number, one-off patch number and resolution. Everyone gets to sleep tonight!

Getting By With a Little Help from Our Friends or Getting More Support from Oracle

By John Schmitz, University of Wisconsin — Madison

John Schmitz

John Schmitz, University of Wisconsin — Madison

Ever wonder if you are getting the most out of your annual Oracle support fees or maximizing your use of Oracle in maintaining the E-Business Suite? We at the University of Wisconsin — Madison Division of Information Technology have a small IT team supporting about 10 Oracle modules. Most staff has non-Oracle related responsibilities, as well. Among us we have a variety of needs for, experience with and tenure using MetaLink.

On a quest to improve the overall quality of our applications and related in-house support, we jumped at Oracle’s offer to visit onsite and discuss Oracle Support tools best practices. A member of the Oracle Customer Support Management team presented and facilitated a lively discussion. Together, our team was able to: obtain the latest Oracle Support news; learn how to best use MetaLink; compare notes on how to search for needed information; and share insights on how to get appropriate Oracle attention when needed.

In addition to valuable techniques, we gained an improved understanding of our vendor and a better appreciation of our common objective of providing high-quality E-Business Suite support.

If you are interested in a similar session for your organization, you may contact the Oracle Customer Support Management team at support-training_us@oracle.com. The training session is a courtesy and you will incur no additional fee for the service.

Announcing a New Search Capability in Oracle MetaLink

Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) is now available on MetaLink. SES allows you to search from within MetaLink in other non-MetaLink content areas, such as Oracle Product Documentation, Oracle Technology Network (OTN) and oracle.com content. Look for additional repositories to be added in coming months.

Simply click on the “Secure Enterprise Search” link just to the right of the “Quick Find Go” button on MetaLink or, under the “Knowledge” tab, click on the “Secure Enterprise Search” link on the dark blue bar immediately below it. Either link will display the Secure Enterprise Search page in a new window. Please note that, since SES does open in a separate window, any pop-up blockers that you have turned on may prevent the SES search screen from displaying.

Key Features of Oracle Secure Enterprise Search

Oracle Secure Enterprise Search 10g, a standalone product from Oracle, enables a secure, high quality, easy-to-use search across all enterprise information assets. Key features include:

Click on the “Help” link in the upper right hand corner of the SES screen for additional detailed instructions for refining and filtering your search (inclusion and exclusion keys, wildcard matching, etc.), and also how to use the advanced search capability in SES.

For more information on using SES, please see the News & Notes entry “Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES) Now Available on MetaLink” posted in MetaLink Headlines on June 30, 2006.

For training on this feature or any other Support tool, please e-mail support-training_us@oracle.com.

Advisor Webcasts — More Insight. More Information. More Value.

Oracle Advisor Webcasts

There’s never been a better time to take advantage of Oracle Advisor Webcasts. It’s been over a year since this legacy PeopleSoft program was re-introduced using Oracle technology and the program continues to gain popularity, delivering expert knowledge and information about services, products and technologies straight to your desktop.

All presentations are delivered by experienced Oracle professionals and are currently available to all PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and JD Edwards World maintenance customers at no additional cost. Each session includes a question and answer session, presentation materials and an archived recording for later viewing.

Presentation schedules are updated regularly and can be accessed through the Plugged In Customer Newsletter or Customer Connection. If you currently don’t have a Customer Connection user ID and password, you may obtain one by contacting your local Customer Care representative.

Oracle is confident that the information presented through this program will continue to provide you with the value and service you know and expect from Oracle Support. For additional information or to suggest a topic for an upcoming presentation, contact advisorfeedback_us@oracle.com.