IBM Software Support

Software Support provides assistance with product defects. Before you contact IBM Software Support, your company must have an active IBM software maintenance contract, and you must be authorized to submit problems to IBM. The type of software maintenance contract that you need depends on the type of product you have:

• For IBM distributed software products (including, but not limited to, Tivoli®, Lotus®, and Rational® products, and also DB2® and WebSphere® products that run on Windows or UNIX operating systems), enroll in Passport Advantage® in one of the following ways:
  • Online: Go to the following Passport Advantage web page and click How to Enroll:

    http://www.lotus.com/services/passport.nsf/WebDocs/ Passport_Advantage_Home

  • By phone: For the phone number to call in your country, go to the IBM Software Support website (http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/contacts.html) and click the name of your geographic region.

• For IBM eServerâ software products (including, but not limited to, DB2 and WebSphere products that run in zSeries®, pSeries, and iSeries® environments), we can purchase a software maintenance agreement by working directly with an IBM marketing representative or an IBM Business Partner. For more information about support for eServer software products, go to the IBM Technical Support Advantage web page (http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/techsupport.html).

If you are not sure what type of software maintenance contract you need, call 1-800-IBMSERV (1-800-426-7378) in the United States or, from other countries, go to the contacts page of the IBM Software Support Handbook on the web http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/contacts.html. Click the name of your geographic region for phone numbers of people who provide support for your location. Follow the following steps to contact IBM Software Support:

1. Determine the business impact of your problem
2. Describe your problem and gather background information
3. Submit your problem to IBM Software Support

• Determine the business impact of your problem
  
• Describe your problem and gather background information
  
• Submit your problem to IBM Software Support
  
• Searching knowledge bases
  
• Obtaining fixes