Technical Blog Post
Abstract
What can I do to help progress PMRs (Problem Management Records) with IBM Support faster?
Body
As L2 Support Manager for Maximo (and TRIRIGA and IBM MessageSight) I frequently get asked by clients and fellow IBMers "What can I do to help get my / my customers PMR (Problem Management Record) addressed and resolved as soon as possible"?
Nobody wants to wait for a long time for an answer or solution and our teams are working diligently to resolve any issue as soon as possible.
So - is there anything you can do to help? Absolutely!
Here are a few suggestions on information to provide / things to do that can help to reduce time to problem determination and resolution:
- Gather and provide us with us much information as possible before you log a PMR - this can aid in reducing problem determination and resolution! Hence - before you log a PMR, go to the IBM Support portal (which is - by the way - a fantastic resource / starting point for all your product related questions) and search for our 'Maximo mustGather' documents. You can also go directly to the Collecting Data: Read first for Maximo Asset Management document, which does not only provide a general list of information to provide to Support, but also has a whole list linking you to other, more specific, mustgather documents, such as IBM Maximo Anywhere MustGather or Collecting Data: Maximo Purchase Orders.
- Include your complete environment information, such as your Webserver, Database and OS information, Maximo version and fixpack level, IFIXes, LA fixes and Industry Solutions installed.
- Have a basic, out of the box Maximo environment installed - at the same patch / fix level as your production. If you have been able to reproduce an issue in a 'vanilla' Maximo, then it can cut down problem determination time quite a bit, as this will generally exclude configurations / customisations as the root cause.
- Business Impact of the issue - this is an important one as it helps us understand exactly what impact an issue has on the end users or the business. What might appear like a relatively small issue may have an impact on your business that cannot be fully understood by us - unless you let us know.
- In line with the above, ensure that you set the right Severity when you open the PMR - one that reflects the impact on your business. Information on Severity setting can be found in the IBM Support Handbook.
- Are you doing an upgrade or going through a new deployment? Please let us know when you're upgrading, who is doing the work, what exactly are you doing etc - the more we know, the better we can be prepared - also in the case where any out of hours support may be required. In addition it helps us with prioritisation if we know your deadlines.
- Have a look at the IBM Software Support Handbook - especially if you're new to IBM Support. It provides a great introduction to IBM support, what you can expect from us, how to contact us, how to prevent problems and much more.
I hope this is useful - please feel free to comment below!
UID
ibm11132401