Guide to Technical Support

1 - INTRODUCTION

2 - HOW DO I BECOME ENTITLED TO TECHNICAL SUPPORT?

3 - WHAT TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE?

4 - SUPPORT FOR APPLICATION PROVIDERS

5 - EVALUATION LICENSES

6 - WHAT ELECTRONIC RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE FOR PROBLEM RESOLUTION?

7 - THE TECHNICAL SUPPORT ORGANIZATION

8 - CONTACTING A TECHNICAL SUPPORT ENGINEER (TSE)

9 - SUPPORT CENTER'S CONTACT INFORMATION

10 - WHAT INFORMATION DOES TECHNICAL SUPPORT ASK FOR?

11 - THE CASE TRACKING PROCESS

12 - CUSTOMER ESCALATION PROCEDURES

13 - SUPPORT HOURS OF OPERATION

14 - ON-CALL, AFTER HOURS SERVICE

15 - MANAGERS CONTACT INFORMATION

16 - WORK REQUEST SEVITIES AND RESPONSE TIME

APPENDIX A:
APPENDIX A: TIPS AND BEST PRACTICES FOR USING THE KNOWLEDGE CENTER

APPENDIX B:
APPENDIX B: WHAT IS A (W/R) WORK REQUEST NUMBER?

APPENDIX C:
APPENDIX C: HOW TO OPEN A WORK REQUEST VIA KNOWLEDGE CENTER

6 - What electronic resources are available for problem resolution?

6.1 The Progress Knowledge Center

The most visited section of Progress's website is the Knowledge Center, a powerful and actively used form of electronic help. The Knowledge Center provides quality information and known solutions through a large collection of solutions, product documentation, and white papers. All solutions provided to customers by our worldwide Technical Support organization are available through the Knowledge Center. We strongly recommend taking advantage of this tool to find known solutions to problems. Eighty Percent of customer feedback states the solution to a problem was found or helped in solving it.

The Knowledge Center uses a "natural language" based search engine to search for solutions. To find your answers and get the most out of the Knowledge Center, review (See Appendix A: Tips and Best Practices on using the Knowledge Center Guide.)

• Knowledge Center
  http://progress.atgnow.com/esprogress/

6.2 Product Documentation

Complete Product Documentation and other useful books are available on Progress's web site. The Platform and Product Availability Guide can be used to check compatibility issues and the Product Release notes provide information on service pack fixes and migration help.

Below is a list of the above documents and their location:

• Product Documentation:
  http://www.psdn.com/library/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=129
  
  
• Platform and Product Availability Guide:
  http://www.progress.com/products/lifecycle/index.ssp
  
  
• Release Notes:
  http://www.psdn.com/library/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=364

7 - The Technical Support Organization

7.1 The Americas

The Americas Technical Support Center is segmented into five major groupings.

• Database Administration and Management: Supporting the Progress database, networking and deployment issues.
  
  
• AS400, Dataservers and Webspeed: Supporting AS400, non-Progress Database configurations, and Webspeed.
  
  
• Application Development and Tools: Supporting the application development process.
  
  
• Latin American Region: Supporting issues from the Latin America region.

7.2 Europe, Middle East and Africa
The EMEA Technical Support Center supports our Distributors, Application Provider's, and Direct End-Users in the EMEA region. The support center is setup based on language in order to provide communication in 10 languages. Technical Support Engineers belong to a language team to ensure telephone coverage and one or more skill groups, defined around different areas of the Progress product set.

7.3 Asia Pacific
The Asia Pacific Support Center supports our Subsidiaries, Distributors, Application Provider's, and Direct End-Users in the Asia Pacific region. Support is given in the English language.

8 - Contacting a Technical Support Engineer (TSE)

8.1 Technical Support Web site
There are three ways to contact Progress Technical Support via the web:

8.1.1 Progress Knowledge Center
The best way to contact Technical Support is through the Knowledge Center. This method may improve the time-to-resolution by as much as four days. Here is why…when you use the Knowledge Center, we record the queries you make and the solutions you review. If you open a support issue through the Knowledge Center (See Appendix C: How to open a Work Request via Knowledge Center.) we know what solutions you have reviewed and will not waste your time, sending you those solutions.

• Knowledge Center:
  http://progress.atgnow.com/esprogress/

8.1.2 TechSupport Direct
TechSupport Direct is the web interface into your regional Technical Support case logging and tracking system. Only direct customers of PSC are eligible for this service and must obtain a login to access this service.

To request a TechSupport Direct login go to the "Request Login Page". After submitting the required information Support will make every effort to have the account approved within 1 business day. If unable to access the system after 2 business days, or if you have any questions, contact your Technical Support Center. Via this service, you can log, monitor, update, and close issues over the web.

To access TechSupport Direct by region:

• Americas:
  https://www.progress.com/cgi-bin/techweb-americas.cgi/qtm53/qweb.w
  
  
• Europe, Middle East, and Africa:
  https://www.progress.com/cgi-bin/techweb-emea.cgi/qtm53/qweb.w
  
  
• Asia Pacific:
  https://www.progress.com/cgi-bin/techweb-pacrim.cgi/qtm53/qweb.w

When logging a Work Request (See Appendix B: What is a (W/R) Work Request Number?) via TechSupport Direct there is an option to set the case priority. (See section 16. Work Request Priorities and Response Time). Set the case priority appropriately to reflect the impact of the issue to your business.

8.1.3 Quick Log
Quick Log is a tool specifically designed for users to quickly log an issue into the specific region:

• Americas:
  https://www.progress.com/cgi-bin/techweb-americas.cgi/qtm53/quicklog/usrqklog2.w
  
  
• Europe, Middle East, and Africa:
  https://www.progress.com/cgi-bin/techweb-emea.cgi/qtm53/quicklog/usrqklog2.w
  
  
• Asia Pacific:
  https://www.progress.com/cgi-bin/techweb-pacrim.cgi/qtm53/quicklog/usrqklog2.w

8.2 E-mail
Emailing support is an excellent way to provide detailed information when opening an issue. For Support to automatically see the email is not "Spam", ensure that one of the following is present in the subject line:
- A current Work Request number, For example: W308067051
- The 9 digit serial number of the product the work request is being opened for
- The phrase: Technical Support issue.

Support's email address is regionally specific, use the appropriate addressed based on your support center:

• Americas: support@progress.com
• Europe, Middle East and Africa: emeasupport@progress.com
• Asia Pacific: asiapac-support@progress.com

Emails sent to support automatically open an issue with the email included in the log. Follow-up emails sent to Support staff can be appended to the log of the issue by including the Work Request number in the subject and CC the appropriate support email address.

8.3 Phone
The phone is best used for urgent issues. Support recommends using the telephone for critical issues such as a 'Database Down' situation. This will allow support to begin working on the issue immediately.

8.3.1 Americas Support (US, Latin America, and Canada)

8.3.2 Latin America Direct Numbers

For countries not mentioned above, call the local ATT number and ask the operator (at no cost) to transfer you to the support number 877 741 8340 or dial the number indicated directly.

Free numbers of ATT:

8.3.3 Europe, Middle East and Africa: Toll Free Numbers

Others

8.3.4 Asia Pacific

9 - Support Center's contact information

9.1 Contact Details Americas Support:

9.2 Contact Details Europe, Middle East, and Africa Support:

9.3 Contact Details Asia Pacific Support:

10 - What Information does Technical Support ask for?

When contacting Technical Support, always be prepared with the following information to help expedite the problem resolution process:

1. The Serial Number of the Progress Product where the problem is being encountered. Information on how to obtain the serial number can be found here. Providing the correct serial number:
   • Facilitates the time it takes for an engineer to start researching the issue.
   • The research, testing, and recreation of the issue is on the appropriate version and platform associated with the problem.
   • The creation of a fix, if any, is for the appropriate version and platform.
   • Provide to you, the level of support you are entitled to.
   • Keep track of your issues for the right platform and product for customer reports.
2. Telephone number you can be reached at.
3. Email address where you may be reached.
4. Your system environment including:
   • Memory
   • Number of Users
   • Disk Space
   • Machine/ Model
   • Operating System Version
   • All the system environment information listed above can be gathered using the ProInventory tool. Further information on ProInventory can be found in our Knowledge Center, Solution P11957.
     
     After running the ProInventory tool, e-mail Support the results. When emailing the ProInventory file please included the W/R number if one exists in the subject line of the email.
5. The exact error messages received and where/when received?
   • Messages appearing on screen from client or server or in log file (in the order they appeared).
   • Previous messages in the log file (go back several days before onset of problem)
   • Message in hardware log/event viewer, if appropriate.
6. What was happening when the problem occurred?
7. Is the problem new, has it occurred before, or has it always been there?
8. Can you reproduce the problem?
9. Was there anything unusual about the environment when the problem occurred?
10. Were there any recent changes in the system environment?
11. Were there any recent changes in the application?
12. What have you done so far to debug or isolate the problem?
13. Which solutions did you review in our Knowledge Center?

The inability to provide this information when opening the Work Request may have significant impact on the ability of Technical Support to resolve the issue in a timely manner.

11 - The case tracking Process

11.1 Getting Status of an open case
The engineer assigned to the case will provide frequent updates based on case priority and response time. These updates will be communicated via e-mail or phone. Alternatively, updates on the case can be viewed using the TechSupport Direct system available over the internet. For information on case priority and response time, see section (16. Work Request Priorities and Response Time).

11.2 Closing a Work Request
Take the time to confirm when a Work Request can be closed. This will cut down on unnecessary telephone calls, and allow Support to concentrate on other outstanding issues. Additionally, a Work Request can be closed using the TechSupport Direct system available over the internet.

11.3 When will Support Close your Work Request
Engineers will only close cases when the issue is resolved, and with your agreement, unless:

• Support has tried repeatedly to contact you, and you have not responded.
• A timescale has been agreed in advance for when the case can be closed if we have not heard from you.

11.4 Reopening a Work Request
If the issue is not resolved, quote the Work Request number and request that the issue be reopened. Have any additional information available ready at this time. If encountering a new issue, open a new Work Request to enable our engineers to focus on individual problems. Support can only reopen a case within 30 days of case closure. After this time, open a new case and reference the original.

12 - Customer Escalation Procedures

Technical Support is responsible for case handling and has access, all corporate resources available to resolve the support issue. If for any reason, you feel that the issue is not being given the appropriate attention or priority, follow the escalation procedures below.

12.1 Escalating an "Existing" Support Issue
To escalate an existing Work Request contact the Technical Support Engineer handling the issue and request the case be escalated. If you are not comfortable with this contact one of the Technical Support Managers and ask the case to be escalated. The Technical Support Engineer and Manager will review the issue, and discuss with you an action plan to resolve it. This will ensure the support issue receives the level of priority and attention required.

12.2 Escalating a "New" Support Issue
To escalate a new support issue, log a new Work Request (W/R) and immediately ask for the issue to be escalated. When escalating a support issue, one of the Technical Support Managers will review the issue and get back to you to discuss the action plan needed to resolve it. Once escalated, a regular time for conference calls and/or status updates will be agreed upon as appropriate.

13 - Support Hours of Operation

The Standard hours of operations defer between the Technical Support regions.

13.1 Americas standard hours of operations:

• English support 8:30am to 8:00pm Eastern Standard Time
• Spanish support 8:00am to 8:00pm Eastern Standard Time
• Portuguese support 8:00am to 6:00pm Brasilia Time

13.2 Europe, Middle East, and Africa:

• Hours of operation are 8:00am to 6:00pm Central European Time

13.3 Asia Pacific Standard hours of operations:

• 9:00am to 7:00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time
• 9:00am to 8:00pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time

14 - On-call, After Hours Service

On-Call, After Hours Service allows customers with current Maintenance Agreements who have an occasional need for Technical Support outside their standard contracted support hours, to pro-actively schedule contracted on-call support from their Progress Technical Support Center for brief, pre-planned periods of coverage. This is a billable service.

Progress Support must be given 5 days advance notice of the date needed to ensure a resource can be scheduled. If interested in this service, speak to one of the engineers who will arrange for someone to call you with the pricing information.

15 - Managers Contact information

For Technical Support Managers contact information click here.

16 - Work Request Severities and Response Time

16.1 Severity

16.2 Response Times

Work request response times are based on supports hours of operations for the region handling the case. For a list of the hours of operations for a particular region see section (13. Support Hours of Operation).

Appendix A: Tips and Best Practices for using the Knowledge Center

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Appendix B: What is a (W/R) Work Request Number?

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Appendix C: How to open a Work Request via Knowledge Center

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