My objective is to uncover the differences between the two topics. During my travels speaking at conferences, marketing events, user groups and 1-on-1 with companies, the subject of support will arise. Most often, expectations surrounding Support haven't been understood, set, nor communicated. A lot of perceptions exist. A lot of assumptions are made. We know what happens then
Historically, support entities and helpdesk businesses were created as error-correction support. Loosely translated, Here's my error. What does it mean and how do I fix it? Technical support has morphed itself into mini-consulting, mini-implementors, and mini-advisors.
What does Support do? Does Support implement, integrate, install, migrate, and upgrade software for a living? Answer: No, we don't. Then, what does support do? Answer: Support TROUBLESHOOTS each of those activities, and in doing so troubleshoots them transactionally. That means, one technical issue per Service Request. Each of those transactions presents itself to Support differently for each and every customer. Thousands of integration points separate customer A from customer B. Support engineers work on teams that are specialized, skilled and broken down by products, functions and features.The statement I often make is, Support is not an implementor and integrator. That is best left to professionals who perform those activities mentioned, for a living. Do we have content solutions in each of those areas? Yes, Support does. Our Support portals have hundreds of thousands of solution documents that were created as a result of data-mining those transactions. Find it once. Fix it for many. That's one of Support's philosophies.
Are you aware that Oracle Support has a professional services offering? It is called Advanced Customer Services. This successful line of business is part of the Support Portfolio. It has many benefits and customers that leverage it, like it, and use it repeatedly.
One of the best examples of their offering I often speak too is called Assisted Services. Contracting with ACS allows our customers to augment their staff with knowledgeable, talented and experienced staff who have performed those functions mentioned for a living. Onsite. Side-by-side. Hand-in-hand. Need help upgrading dozens of instances? Get ACS involved. Need a Performance Assessment on your environments? How about a Disaster Recovery Assessment? Upgrades? Migrations? Security CPU's? Knowledge transfer on technology topics? Contact ACS.Advanced Customer Services are the professionals from Oracle Support that put their collective experience to work in the field. They are incredible! Bring them in according to your business needs and pay as you go.
In comparision, if you wanted to perform those types of activities you can decide not to use ACS. You can rely on Premier Support and Support is there to help you. Reminder, this assistance occurs transactionally. Performing those types of activities can result in many Service Requests being opened. The best support is no Service Request. Sure, Support has an extensive knowledge base and wealth of similar experiences, but that connection ends once that particular transaction is closed.
Ask yourself, How often am I including my account team and other services from Oracle to the planning table? What options exist? How can Oracle help you? Bring the Advanced Customer Services team to that table and proactively prevent Service Requests from being logged. Plan for success, not for escalation.
Oracle Support is an awesome maintenance organization. Once your environments have been setup, configured and tuned properly, Oracle Support is there to assist.Oracle Support is always available to assist.
For now, know what options exist. Next time, remember Advanced Customer Services (ACS). Invite Oracle to your planning table. Plan for success, not for escalation.
Oracle Support is dedicated to providing world-class customer support and superior support experiences.
