Chris Warticki's Blog - Oracle Support

I’d love to hear your feedback, experience and post your comments on this.  I think it’s important to hear from our dedicated, longtime, support customers.

Users accessing metalink.oracle.com will no longer have a login option to choose between Classic MetaLink and My Oracle Support, but will be automatically directed to My Oracle Support.
My Oracle Support enhances the customer experience by delivering personalized, proactive, and collaborative support via a simplified support interface, making interactions with Oracle Support faster and more efficient.
This upgrade is part of Oracle's ongoing commitment to improving your support experience and providing a single integrated support platform across all products. The retirement of Classic MetaLink will mark the completion of the upgrade of all of our support interfaces to My Oracle Support.

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Chris Warticki is Twittering Support Tips @cwarticki

Talk about value of the support investment…The Advisor Webcast Program is now available to Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) customers. Customers can access information about the Advisor Webcast program through Metalink Document ID: 398877.1. Here, they will find information about the Advisor Webcast program, a current schedule of upcoming webcasts, registration information and more.

Advisor Webcasts offer a convenient and cost-effective way for PeopleSoft Enterprise, JD Edwards World, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, and Oracle EBS customers to interact with professional, technical, and application experts regarding topics to help them get the most from their support services. Our support experts will provide information such as tips and techniques, best practices, or how to effectively work with your support team to maintain your applications. Each webcast is delivered straight to your desktop and includes a live Q&A session with subject matter experts, enabling customers to receive answers to their specific questions. Advisor Webcasts are offered on a consistent basis and recorded for on-demand viewing—anytime, anywhere.

View the entire EBS, ST and FMW Advisor Webcast schedule and registration information. View the entire PeopleSoft Enterprise schedule and registration information
View the entire JD Edwards EnterpriseOne schedule and registration information
View the entire JD Edwards World schedule and registration information

View Support Tools and Process Seminars

Coming up for R12.1

An oldie but a goodie..
I'm in the Support business. It's always important to remember who is responsible for your company's survival. If survival means writing blog, participating in a wiki, authoring a podcast or twittering, than do it.  Meet your customers where they are.

I am your customer. Satisfy my wants with personal attention and a friendly touch and I will become a walking advertisement of your products and services. Ignore my wants, show carelessness, inattention and poor manners, and I will simply cease to exist, as far as you are concerned.

I am sophisticated, much more so than I was a few years ago. I have grown accustomed to better things. I have money to spend. I am an egoist. I am sensitive. I am proud. My ego needs the nourishment of a friendly, personal greeting from you. It is important to me that you appreciate my business. After all, when I buy your products and services, my money is feeding you.

I am a perfectionist. I want the best I can get for the money I spend. When I criticize your products or services, and I will to anyone who will listen when I am dissatisfied, take heed. The source of my discontent lies in something you or the products you sell have failed to do. Find the source and eliminate it or you will lose my business and that of my friends as well.

I am fickle. Other businesses continually beckon me with offers of more for my money. To keep my business, you must offer something better than they. I am your customer now, but you must prove to me again and again that I have made a wise choice in selecting you, your products and services above all others.

In the spirit of customer service, print this out and hang it on your wall (in your workspace or home office) I didn't author this, just passing it along.
-Chris
Twittering @cwarticki

When was the last time that our database recovery strategy was tested?  When was the last time that the database was even backed up?  Do we even know if we can even recover what we think we’ve backed up?

This one is all about Disaster Recovery, not just about hurricanes.  I live in Florida so I thought the title would grab you.  June 1st was the start of hurricane season.  I’m reminded of speaking at Oracle events over the last few years about Disaster Recovery and High Availability.  I’m also shuttering in remembrance to know how many customers have neither knowledge of, nor tested their backup/recovery plans.  I’m amazed at the single points of failure that exist if the company DBA was in a car accident on their way to work, that nobody else would know how to perform a backup/recovery.  Better yet – it’s not even documented anywhere.

Should this alarm us?  Yes.  It should. It should be a smack in the face to standard operating procedures.  As a former support manager for RDBMS, I remember the countless customers who have logged Sev1 service requests because of poor backup practices and nonexistent recovery testing.  The list is long and distinguished.  CIO’s  thought they had been backing up all along.  BAM! – hardware corruption.  Kapow!- Data UnLoader fees to recover data from ones and zeros.  Those CIOs are still working on their resumes.

Oracle Support has an extensive knowledgebase in My Oracle Support on Backup/Recovery.  Advanced Customer Services has Disaster Recovery-Backup/Recovery Assessments and Testing Services.   Oracle has incredible products like RMAN, RAC, Dataguard etc., which are solutions to High Availability and Data Recovery.

Let me share a support-story triumph.  Years ago, one of those hurricanes blew up through the Gulf Coast.  The Support line rang and on the other end was a DBA who basically had just enough time to grab his toothbrush and a duffle bag.  In the duffle bag were the backup tapes.  They had just been on the road for hours heading north.  They needed to get their system back up and business back open.  All they had were the backup tapes.  To make a long story short…..Oracle Support remained online with the DBA and within a few hours, the database was fully recovered and business was back up and running.

Oracle Support is here to help and we would do the same thing for any customer.  That’s our commitment to our customers. That’s our commitment to customer service and satisfaction.  I’m proud to work for Oracle.

Chris Warticki works for Oracle Global Customer Services & Support, under the office of Regional Advocacy
Chris twitters daily support tips and tricks @cwarticki

Projects.  One of the coolest content regions in My Oracle Support.   One of the least used features by our customers. Four years ago, before we had My Oracle Support, we had the tab in MetaLink called My Configs & Projects. Remember? 

Back to Projects.  So, what’s that all about?  Projects, allows customers to enter their project information into a Service Request.  Any ‘project’ will do, like an upgrade, install, implementation or even just plain ‘live in prod’ if you like.  Associate your Systems with the project. For instance, create an 11g Database upgrade  project and link it to three systems: DEV, TEST & PROD.  Then when you log an SR, select from the Project LOV that’s presented in step 2 of the SR creation (Oh!, that’s what that is..)

Wait.  There’s more.  Then add all registered users/roles that will log SRs against that project.  Finally, add all the key milestones and dates.  When the SR is created with associated project information, not only is the technical information in the SR, but so is the business-related project data.  Have you ever been asked for a business justification before?  (Oh, that’s what Support is asking for…)

How will this change the way Support does business? 

Customers have been requesting to ‘Alert Support’ of their pending go-lives and other activities.  Oracle Support managers could then run reports against the Projects entered. Which customers are doing upgrades this weekend? What SRs are in the queues that need attention before those project dates become critical?

Talk about problem avoidance.  Talk about Escalation prevention. This is pretty cool.
This is Projects.  Part of My Oracle Support.  Included with your Premier Support investment.

-Chris Warticki is now Twittering Support Best Practices and Daily Tips @cwarticki

The title says it all…some DO’s, some DON’Ts.  Some Best Practices. Some Worst Practices.

All in my famous writing style of course.  And, all from the perspective of a support manager, with the candid, open and honest opinion of a customer service veteran.

Also, @cavaj is your Twitter resource as an emerging customer engagement channel. Tony Cavotta moderates the My Oracle Support Community “Using My Oracle Support”

For a list of complete Oracle Tweeters/Twitter-ers go to http://wiki.oracle.com/page/Oracle+Tweeters

Question:  What's the definition of insanity? (hint: see below for answer) 

Why am I still creating Service Request upon Service Request?
Why do I expect someone else to solve a problem on a system they don't manage?
Why am I not getting proactive solution alerts and bug notifications?
Why can't I view all my products and environments?
Why can't I track all my projects?
Where's my built-in, support, business-intelligence reporting?
Who else has done what I'm doing and uses this product like I do?
Why is Google my only other fallback?

Answer: You know...doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result

Solution:  My Oracle Support & Configuration Manager
It's here.  It's now. And, we've only just begun.
Dashboards. Reports. System Configuration Details. Healthchecks.  Patch Advice.
Knowledge Libraries.  Communities. Tools.  Diagnostics.
Personalized.  Configurable.
Just for you.

Or, we can do things the same way we've been doing them for years and expect a different result.

Over the last 10 years we've gathered your feedback.  We've read your recommendations.  We've listened.
What we've created for you is in direct response to all of that feedback and more.

You've asked for a single, consolidated Dashboard interface of your Systems and Configurations
You've asked for Shareable, Distributable Service Request profiles
You've asked for Proactive Healthchecks and Patch Advice
You've asked for Project tracking capabilities and key milestone information
You've asked for Extensible Reporting for Lifecycle Management purposes.
You’ve asked for a whole lot more, and we’ve given a whole lot more.

It's here. It's now. It's My Oracle Support & Configuration Manager

Who doesn't want proactive healthchecks and patch advice?

Yesterday’s announcement and earnings report was stellar.  First, I'm grateful that I'm employed and that the company is strong.
Second, there's a much bigger story that needs to be understood.    In these economic times Oracle isn't, nor hasn't been, bilking customers and putting them under duress to serve ourselves. Sure, Oracle is a profitable company.  Yes, that's what for-profit companies do.
But, not too long ago, our CEO challenged Oracle to save 1 billion dollars by using our own technology, leveraging our very products and “consuming our own products'”.  That year, Oracle made difficult business decisions, but more so Oracle USED the technology we sold.  And then, guess what? Oracle accomplished what it set out to do and then saved another billion dollars. 

It's probably why Oracle has so much cash in the bank.  Congress may come ask us for a loan. (I digress)  It's why Oracle can afford not to finance our acquisitions. 
Most importantly, Oracle took those measures (the same measures that the industry groups are just NOW advocating) and is reaping the benefits, and to the benefit of our shareholders.  Who else is paying a dividend these days?
Oracle isn't the big, bad enemy. 

Oracle has led and continues to lead the industry by USING our own products and leveraging that investment. 
Oracle has proven that anyone’s Top 5 reasons to cut costs have to do with what Oracle already did years ago.

Having trouble finding E-Business Suite (EBS) Release 12 data when you need it? This will help.

With Oracle’s quest to get you the EBS Release 12 information you need, when you need it, a list of links has been created that should provide you with all of the necessary information needed to upgrade, implement and successfully use EBS Release 12.

From this R12 Resource page, you will find links to documentation; upgrade tools, free training, recorded training, white papers, Tips and Tricks and Oracle’s Best Practices on Release 12 (R12).

You will also find links to Oracle’s Advanced Customer Services and Oracle University, should you need additional help with upgrading, implementing or learning about R12 and its product features. (Remember what Chris has said in the past, “Support is a troubleshooter of installs and upgrades – not a performer of those tasks”)

Most links require a My Oracle Support login. (Value of the Premier Support Investment)

E-Business Suite Release 12 Help
Use the links below to get to information that will help you with your upgrade to EBS Release 12.

R12 Information Center – Links to Best Practices White Paper and other Upgrade Documents. (MetaLink Note 401740.1)

Advisor Webcasts: Support Tools and Processes – Free R12 Best Practices Web Seminars. Recordings and Live Sessions available. (MetaLink Note 405149.1)

Advisor Webcasts: Product Training Schedule – Free Web Seminars covering topics specific to Oracle’s products. Recordings and Live Sessions available. (MetaLink Note 398884.1)

E-Business Suite Upgrade Guide – Step By Step process to help with your Upgrade to Release 12. (MetaLink Note 461705.1)

Maintenance Wizard Overview – Upgrade Tool – Free with Oracle Support Contract. (MetaLink Note 215527.1)

Advisor Webcast: Maintenance Wizard Schedule – Free Training on the Maintenance Wizard upgrade tool. (MetaLink Note 418301.1)

EBS Release 12 Diagnostics Catalog – Free with Oracle Support Contract. Includes Setup Diagnostics. Note includes instructions on using the tool. (MetaLink Note 421245.1)

Advisor Webcasts: E-Business Suite Diagnostics – Free Training on the E-Business Suite Diagnostics tool. (MetaLink Note 418300.1)

Advisor Webcasts: Release 12 Product Features – Recorded Training available for download covering the following topics: (MetaLink Note 744894.1)

· R12 Financials Upgrade

· R12 Payables

· R12 Payments

· R12 Close Process and Reconciliation

E-Business Suite Newsletters – Subscribe to EBS Product and Topic specific newsletters. (MetaLink Note 222.1)

Want to interact with other Oracle Employees, Customers and Partners on R12?

• Oracle Communities are part of Oracle’s new My Oracle Support offering
• Oracle Mix: EBS R12 Implementations is a discussion group with people interested in R12

Need help with managing your Upgrade to Release 12?

• Oracle’s Advanced Customer Services can help

Want to learn more about the products within Release 12?

• Oracle University has the classes for you

If you have any questions about the information above or want to learn more about the value provided with your Oracle Support contract, please contact David Warhoe at david.warhoe@oracle.com

Submitted by David Warhoe, Sr. Manager of Regional Advocacy N.A., Support Education

As I mentioned in my previous post, 2/3 of the Oracle maintenance investment is in the product.  Leveraging the functions and features of the product will create efficiencies.  Efficiencies drive savings.  Savings equals greater ROI.  Greater ROI increases profitability.  Enough said.

Oracle did a great job on compiling this. Our customers did a great job using these features and services.  They serve as examples for the rest to follow.

16 Ways to Cut Costs & Save

I’ve read all the industry reports out there.  Everyone has a top-10 list out there on how to save money.  (Can we just leave those to Letterman?)  I digress.  Reductions in support fees don’t even crack the top five.  That’s like canceling your insurance policies on your home and car.  Ironically, what IS in the top five, is leveraging, using and implementing what has already been purchased.

Oracle knows that customers use less than 10% of the included product features and functions.

Investments in products have been made.  That investment has become unrealized and untapped, not unworthy.

I think I’m going to trademark UNREAL ROI to signify unrealized return on investment. 

There’s so much to the investment in Oracle.   Distractions take shape in the form of projects and tasks. 
Budget meetings dictate our actions. Know what is available in the asset inventory to help achieve company objectives.

Too often bottom line-item vetoes occur.  Questions about maintenance value get twisted immediately into service request resolution, when in fact there exists a multitude of resources to prevent problems in the first place.