Dealing with the support center

If you choose to contact the support center by telephone, your first contact at the support center is the call receipt operator, who takes initial details and puts your problem on a queue. You are subsequently contacted by a support center representative, and your problem is taken from there.

Alternatively, you might have access to an electronic system for reporting problems to the support center. In this case, a support center representative will respond to your communication.

The support center needs to know as much as possible about your problem, so have the information ready before contacting them. If contacting them by telephone, it is a good idea to write the information on a problem reporting sheet such as the one shown in Figure 17.

There are two advantages of using a problem reporting sheet when contacting the IBM support center:

• In a telephone conversation, you will be better prepared to respond to the questions that you might be asked if you have all your findings before you on a sheet of paper.

• We can use the information for planning, organizing, and establishing priorities for controlling and resolving these problems.

Figure 17. Sample problem reporting sheet

 PROBLEM REPORTING SHEET
 
 Date                     Severity                  Problem  No.
 
                                                    Incident No.
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Problem/Enquiry
 
 Abend                    Incorrout                 OS/390 or z/OS Release
  
 Wait                     Module                    WebSphere MQ Release
 
 Loop                     Message                   CICS Release
 
 Performance              Other                     IMS Release

                                                    DB2 Release
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Documentation available
 
 Abend                    System dump               Program output
 
 Message                  Transaction dump          Other
 
 Trace                    Translator output
 
 Symptom string           Compiler output
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Actions
 
 Date          Name              Activity
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Resolution
 
 APAR                     PTF                       Other
 
 
 
 
 
 

If you use an electronic system for reporting problems to the support center, you should still include as much information as possible about your problem.

You should also maintain your own in-house tracking system for problems. A problem tracking system records and documents all problems.