Service requests

You can open a service request with IBM when you need to modify or manage your production or preproduction environment and you cannot complete the change or operation with your standard IBM Sterling® Order Management System service access and capabilities. You can open a service request through the IBM® Support Portal. By opening a service request, you can gain IBM assistance with completing the change or operation.

Service requests are measured in 30-minute intervals. If you have a request that requires 30 minutes or less of IBM support services, your request counts as a single service request against your monthly allotment of requests. If your request requires between 30 minutes and 1 hour of support services, your request counts as two service requests against your monthly allotment. Depending on the scope of the operation that you need completed, the time and service requests that are required to complete the request can vary.

Your IBM Sterling Order Management System service includes a specific number of total hours per month that are available for service requests. This amount is specified within your IBM Sterling Order Management System service contract. Service requests do not roll over to the following month. If you do not use up your monthly allotment of requests, any unused requests are forfeited. Work with your third-party service providers and Business Partners to minimize the number of releases that you must implement and to reduce the number of requests that are needed to implement releases. If needed, you can purchase additional service requests.
In general, most service requests are related to acquiring access, deploying your custom releases, and troubleshooting or correcting data errors.
  • Requests that are related to deploying custom releases or code can typically require multiple service requests to complete. For instance, implementing a custom release can take approximately 6 hours and 12 service requests when the release requires single deployment, such as minor changes to an enterprise archive file. More complex releases can require more time and requests, such as to introduce functionality that relies on third-party integrations.
    The following lists identify some, but not all, of the common modifications or operations that are related to deployments that can require you to open a service request ticket.
    • Changes to firewall settings that are unrelated to any IBM Sterling Order Management System service support issue
    • Changes to integration points that require infrastructure changes, such as to change firewall or messaging settings.
    • Maintenance of integration points that involves third-party vendor dependencies or your implementation partners.
    • Changes to the system cron or job scheduler.
    • Changes to the database schema.
    • Implementation of SaaS extensions maintenance fixes or minor data changes.
    • Deployment of custom modifications or enhancements that are developed by your development team or by your Business Partner that is responsible for developing and supporting your SaaS extensions. For instance, deploying page or user interface design modifications or application enhancements that change business logic.
    Notes:
    • As part of your service request for deploying changes, follow the expected process for implementing your custom maintenance fixes and upgrades, or releases.
    • When IBM initiates an update, such as to apply a maintenance fix, the requests that are associated with implementing the update do not count against your monthly allotment of service requests.
    • For implementing your custom releases, you, your development team, or implementation partner can implement and test the release within your development environment, quality assurance environment, and preproduction environment. You must open a service request only for implementing the release into your production environment.
  • Requests that are related to troubleshooting or correcting data errors can typically require less than 30 minutes and a single service request. Complex issues can require more time and requests to troubleshoot and resolve.
    The following lists identify some, but not all, of the common modifications or operations that are related to troubleshooting or error correction that can require a service request ticket.
    • Resolving a user-generated input problem that requires technical support to resolve, such as when a user change affects data integrity.
    • Querying or updating database data
    • Configuring a database
    • Running a report against a database
In addition to these more common types of requests, you might need to open a request ticket to complete infrequent changes or operations, such as to complete the following operations.
  • Adding, finding, moving, analyzing, or updating a file
  • Restarting an application or server outside of a normal maintenance window
  • Refreshing application data. Data is backed up on an agreed upon interval to a secure location. Only a limited number of backups are maintained. You can use a service request to have IBM use a backup to restore your application data to a previous state.

Opening a service request

You must use the IBM Support Portal to open a service request. The IBM Support Portal provides you with the ability to open new service requests, update and view existing request tickets, and view historical information. The portal provides you with a single repository for information that is related to all of your service requests and inquiries. To ensure all of your interactions with IBM Support for service requests are available within the portal, every interaction with IBM Support is documented within a service request ticket.

For more information about opening a request, see Contacting IBM Support.