SAP Active Global Support A Guide to Managing OSS Messages

A
Guide To
Managing
OSS
Messages
20/05/2008

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SAP Active Global Support A Guide to Managing OSS Messages

Table of Contents

CONTENTS PAGE

SECTION 1 – CUSTOMER MESSAGE PROCESS FLOWCHART …..……………………………………3

SECTION 2 – PRODUCT SUPPORT OVERVIEW……………………………………………………………4

SECTION 3 – PRODUCT SUPPORT VERSUS CONSULTING INQUIRIES ……………………………...4

SECTION 4 – STEPS TO FOLLOW IN PROBLEM RESOLUTION………………………………………...5

SECTION 5 – MESSAGE PREPARATION AND NOTES RESEARCH…………………………………....5

SECTION 6 – OPENING A MESSAGE………………………………………………………………………...8

SECTION 7 – MESSAGE ENTRY TIPS………………………………………………………………………..8

SECTION 8 – ESTABLISHING A REMOTE CONNECTION TO SAP……………………………………..9

SECTION 9 – ESCALATING A MESSAGE…………………………………………………………………...9

SECTION 10 – MESSAGE INQUIRIES AND REQUESTS FOR HELP…………………………………….10

SECTION 11 – CLOSING OUT A MESSAGE…………………………………………………………………10

SECTION 12 – WAYS TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK ON YOUR PRODUCT SUPPORT EXPERIENCE…11

SECTION 13 – THE ROLE OF SOLUTION MANAGER IN THE OSS MESSAGE PROCESS………….12

SECTION 14 – THE BENFITS OF CCC CERTIFICATION IN OSS MESSAGE PROCESSING………...12

SECTION 15 – MESSAGE PROCESSING SUMMARY - THINGS TO REMEMBER……………………..13

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SAP Active Global Support A Guide to Managing OSS Messages

1. CUSTOMER MESSAGE PROCESS FLOWCHART

Open a
message -
see
Note 67739

SAP Notes Reference Table

67739 - Priorities of problem messages
Call the CIC 560499 - Global Support contact numbers
Initial (800) 677-7271 736045 – SAP Support feedback process
message No
and request to
response
from SAP “speed up
timely? message
processing”

Yes

Call the CIC

(800) 677-7271
and request to
speed up
message
processing
Raise message
Analysis priority (L->M) or
and
communication (M->H), or escalate
of status High (CIC option 2),
Yes occurring? or ask to speak to
Duty Mgr (VH only)
No No
No

Have Escalate
Timely No Has the No Has Yes Yes situation to
CIC business you SAP
issue been impact raised message
resolution? priority Account Exec,
contacted? changed? Sales VP,
already? or RSM

Yes
Yes

Customer
manually
confirms
message

Customer
completes
PCC
survey

Email
W ant to support.
provide Yes america @
feedback sap.com
about support for feedback
experience? (2 bus day
response)
Note 736045

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SAP Active Global Support A Guide to Managing OSS Messages

2. PRODUCT SUPPORT OVERVIEW

The SAP support organization responsible for message processing and problem resolution is
Product Support organized and managed as shown:
Product Support consists of two main business units:
- Primary Support (PS) responsible for managing the Customer Interaction Center (CIC)
Hotline (800) 677-7271 US/CAN, tier 1-2 message solving, and remote service delivery
- Installedbase Maintenance Support (IMS) tier 3 message processors/Note developers
Three English speaking 24x7 Global Support Centers (CIC call centers):
- Ireland
- Brazil
- India
Global CIC Hotline phone numbers can be found via Note 560499
IMS message processing and Note development takes place in the following locations*:
- Germany
- Ireland
- Brazil * Product component determines message routing location
- India
- United States (Palo Alto, CA)
24x7 problem management via Duty Manager monitoring is for Very High messages only:
- all message processing response times are best effort unless governed by SLA’s
- there are no contractual SLA’s associated with the Standard Maintenance 17% offering
in regards to message response time, corrective action, or action plan – SAP best effort

3. PRODUCT SUPPORT VERSUS CONSULTING INQUIRIES

In many cases customers will open messages of a “how to” nature and it is important to
understand the difference between a Product Support “code fix” issue and a Consulting inquiry.
The following content can be found in SAP Note 83020:

A problem message dealt with by SAP Support in accordance with the maintenance agreement
exists if:

there is an error in the software

an error in the software causes subsequent errors
problems exist when you implement corrections (considering the SAP correction
instruction)
there are standard functions with incorrect documentation

Otherwise, it concerns a consulting inquiry. This includes inquiries related to:

processing logic of the software, the business processes and Customizing (questions
regarding the work with transactions, programs and screens, the contents of screens and
printouts and so on)

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the administration (including archiving and recovery) or the tuning of the SAP system, the
database, or the operating system
errors that were caused by a change to the system (for example, with the help of user
exits and so on)
whether the solution is clear from the short text or from the help text of the system error

For “how to” questions customers should not submit an OSS message, but instead use the SAP
“Ask the Expert” forum located within Service Marketplace under Solution Support > Request
Help, or the SAP Software Developers Network (SDN) forum for Netweaver related issues, as
well as the ASUG User Community forums.

Note that consulting inquiries are subject to charge and are not covered by your maintenance
contract. For more information, read the document "The SAP Ecosystem in a Nutshell" located
at Service Marketplace http://service.sap.com/~sapdownload/011000358700006245642006E/.

4. STEPS TO FOLLOW IN PROBLEM RESOLUTION

When a problem occurs it is important to follow a methodical approach in identifying and
documenting the issues, and associated business impact. The following steps will guide you
toward efficiently managing the problem:
Ensure problem is reproducible and steps documented which lead to problem
Research problem via SAP Notes database for known issues and fixes
Gather system information (release level, component area, database level, screen shots,
dumps, error messages, etc) to be included in message
Assess and document business impact needed to set message priority (Very High priority
is only for production system down or Go-Live endangered within 72 hrs)
Ensure remote connections are open and system logon information (sysID, User ID,
pass) is included in message
Submit message via Solution Manager, SMP support portal, or CIC (800) 677-7271
Verify status of message daily via Solution Manager, SMP portal, or by calling CIC
If PS response is slow request to “speed up processing” if status unchanged after 4 hours
(Very High), 24 hours (escalated High), 48 hours (High), 7 days (Medium), or 14 days
(Low). For Very High messages only ask to speak to the Duty Manager if questions.
If you want to speak with the message processor request callback in message text or call
CIC and ask for processor to call you – provide 24x7 phone number and call-back time

5. MESSAGE PREPARATION AND NOTES RESEARCH

The component area (CA) serves as an internal routing criteria for the message, determining
what functional/technical teams work on diagnosing and resolving the issue. It is also used in
Notes research to narrow area of search to targeted Notes. CA is critical to timely response.

If you are not using Solution Manager for message processing (SolMan captures component
and transaction automatically), and you do not know the component for a transaction or program,

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you can use program RSSTATUS via transaction SE38 and the system will identify the
component for your message:

SE38 > RSSTATUS > execute > enter Transaction Code or program > execute.
A transaction code or program can be determined by viewing the System > Status from the
menu path.

The Notes database is located in Service Marketplace (SMP) @ www.service.sap.com/notes.

Some recommended Notes search tips and tricks are:
Search for phrases, for example "delete company code”
Wild-card search (*), for example "data record*”
Return to basic form and continue search (entered terms are automatically converted to a
basic form)
Relevance ranking of the SAP Notes in accordance with how well they match your
situation
No SAP Note search hit?
– search topic area, random sample analysis
– continue search with the "good" key words found
– continue analysis to find appropriate key words (Program names, transaction codes, error
messages)
A large number of SAP Note search hits?
– limit search terms
– limit search criteria (for example, release, application)
A particularly good SAP Note search hit?
– record SAP Note number
– document search method
Consider AND / OR combinations
Specify Release / Support Package
Specify components:
– with exact component
– without component
– with the wildcard search ( *) for example, MM-IV*
Specify category
Example of SAP Notes searches:
– see SAP Note 192194
In addition, customers should provide the following information, as best as possible, related to
the assessment of business impact. Business impact is the single most important aspect in
determining message priority and SAP’s response time:
Is the problem in a production, test, or development system?
- if it is in a test or development system, when are you planning to go into production?
- will it be a showstopper for a larger go-live?

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What impact does your problem have on your business?

- financial impact ... what is the amount of revenue that will be lost?
- process impact ... what business processes are affected?
- are you stopped or delayed and if delayed, by how long?
- will any critically important dates be missed as result of this problem?
Do you have a workaround? If so how effective is it?
How many users are affected?
Are SAP Consultants on-site?
Is someone available 24 x 7 as a point of contact for this message? Please provide
work phone, pager, cell phone, and email address in the order in which you want to
be engaged. Do not provide an 800 number!
Do you have resources standing by to take corrective action as directed by SAP
if appropriate?

Use the following guidelines in determining and establishing message priority – see SAP Note
67739 for additional details:
Very High:
- a message with priority “Very High” is justified when extremely serious interruptions in normal
operations occur:
absolute loss of productive system
delays in production start-up or upgrade within next 3 days (Go-live endangered within 72
hours)
- affected system should be OPEN (remote connection) with ID/pass provided within message
- 24 x 7 customer contact person should be available to provide information on problem and be
able to provide logon data
- problem should be detailed and reproducible with steps to reproduce documented in message

High - with request for escalation call to CIC (IVR option 2 – escalate a message):
- a message with priority “High” with escalation flag ON is justified when extremely serious
interruptions in normal operations occur, but criteria for Very High are not met:
severe malfunction of productive system capabilities
severe financial or project impact due to lack of timely response
High:
- a message with priority “High” is justified when serious interruptions in normal operations occur:
normal business transactions are seriously affected
necessary tasks cannot be performed
continuous malfunction can result in serious effects on the entire productive system
Medium:
- a message with priority “Medium” is justified when interruptions in normal operations occur
Repeatedly, but business impact is manageable with workaround available
Low:
- a message with priority “Low” is justified when there are few or no effects on normal business
transactions and/or the function is not required daily, or is only used rarely

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6. OPENING A MESSAGE
There are three ways to open a message each with different capabilities and levels of efficiency
as shown:

Solution Manager Service Desk:

- most effective and efficient method as part of overall support operations Incident Management
- automatically captures system information (component & transaction) associated with problem
- facilitates attachment of supporting documentation (screen shots, error messages, dumps, logs,
etc) critical for root cause analysis
- logs messages into Solution Manager issues database for customer reference
- Service Desk can triage problem before sending to SAP for action
- all documentation related to issue is archived for reporting purposes
- full end-to-end life-cycle support for issue management

Service Marketplace (SMP) support portal:

- access SMP at www.service.sap.com/message
- all aspect of problem documented by customer via message wizard process ensuring message
completeness
- facilitates attachment of supporting documentation (screen shots, error messages, dumps, logs,
etc) critical for root cause analysis
- easy access to remote logon information which is maintained within portal

Call the Customer Interaction Center (CIC) @ (800) 677-7271 IVR option 1:
- easiest and most flexible, but least effective and efficient method
- call center agent must transcribe conversation into CRM case
- transcription may not capture all problem related issues and induce errors mistakenly
- does not facilitate attaching supporting documentation

7. MESSAGE ENTRY TIPS

The following guidelines should be followed when opening a message for efficient processing
and information completeness:
Record only one problem per message per SAP Note 50048
Completeness and correctness of contact information (contact name, phone number,
pager number, email, etc.)
Documentation of your analysis and SAP Note search
Step-by-step instructions to reproduce the problem
Remote logon data (sysID, userID, password)
Create a “meaningful” short text of error-related information
Selection of appropriate priority level according to SAP Note 67739

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Selection of appropriate component area (as specific as possible)

Business impact information for Very High and escalated messages

8. ESTABLISHING A REMOTE CONNECTION TO SAP

A remote connection to SAP expedites root cause analysis and message fulfillment. Use the
guidelines indicated below for the establishment of remote connections:
For new customers see Note 35010 for a general overview:
- must have a physical connection to SAP along with SAProuter
- must register your connection IP address with SAP – see Note 28976
- questions about configuring SAProuter – see Note 30289, or open a message under
component BC-CST-NI and SAP will guide you through setup
- setting up transaction OSS1 for testing connection – see Note 33135
- if you have any problems or questions concerning establishing a connection open a message
under component XX-SER-NET-NEW and SAP will guide you through the setup of a
connection
SAP can only logon to systems whose data is maintained in Service Marketplace:
- procedure for maintaining system data – see Note 31515
Placing user ID/password information in the secure area of the message for
remote access by SAP - see Note 508140:
- customers can set the duration the logon connection will be available in the message
(typically 2 to 5 days – shorter durations may cause a delay in message processing).

9. ESCALATING A MESSSAGE
Use the following information as a guideline when to raise the priority of a message or escalate
a message as appropriate:
Only one message type can be escalated – High:
- Very High is already top priority and managed 24x7 until resolution by Duty Manager
- Medium and Low priority messages should have priority raised as appropriate based on
business impact
Very High priority message criteria:
- production down situation
- Go-Live within 72 hours is endangered
Criteria for escalating a High message:
- severe business and/or financial impact due to effect on go-live schedule or production
operations
- increasing business and/or financial impact due to lack of timely resolution
Method to escalate a High message:
- call CIC 800-677-7271 and choose IVR option 2 (escalate a message)
- provide business impact to justify escalation request – SAP will determine if escalation justified

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Benefits of High message escalation:

- escalated messages go to the top of the High message queue and receive priority handling
Requesting escalation does not guarantee the escalation flag will be set as business
case must be justified – follow SAP Note 90835 when providing business impact:
- Productive System:
Is core business severely affected (financial loss)?
Extensive manual workaround?
How many users are affected?
How long is the problem already persisting?
- Test / Development System:
What project do you plan?
Live date, product and release?
Showstopper yes / no?
How does this issue affect Go-Live date?

If escalating more than one message, prioritize the messages so that SAP knows which
one is the most important

Customers must provide a 24 hour contact name and number along with remote logon
information for Very High and escalated High messages:
- office phone, cell phone, email (provide in the order you want to be contacted)
- ensure that the connection is open for the maximum time (5 days)
- ensure that the remote logon information provided is current and will not go out of validity

10. MESSAGE INQUIRIES AND REQUESTS FOR HELP

The Customer Interaction Center (CIC) should be the primary contact for message inquiries and
requests for assistance – not your SAP account manager, CP, or Sales VP:
All customer communication via CIC is logged in CRM message case for reference
Request to speed up of message processing (pre-requisite for escalation of High)
To raise the priority of a message, or escalate a High message (CIC IVR option 2)
To request to speak to the Duty Manager (Very High messages only)
To request a call from the processor to clear up any misunderstandings regarding the
issue, or to clarify SAP’s response
Questions of a general nature should be addressed via SMP portal “Ask the Expert”
forums located at www.service.sap.com > Support Portal > Help & Support > Request
Help, SDN or ASUG forums. Pick the forum category that applies to your situation.

11. CLOSING OUT A MESSAGE

Properly closing out a message is yet another way to gain benefits and efficiency in the process.
Use the information listed below to guide you through the closing out of a message and Positive
Call Closure (PCC) message survey participation:

SAP recommends that customers manually close out messages:

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- to enable PCC survey participation for service quality feedback (SAP looks closely at surveys)
The Positive Call Closure (PCC) survey was created to collect the customers’ feedback regarding
SAP’s support processes worldwide. A questionnaire displays as a pop-up in the CSS messaging
system when the customers manually confirm their messages.

Five standard questions used worldwide were defined to survey key SAP support topics:
Response time:
How satisfied were you with the initial response time?
How satisfied were you with the problem solving process?
Solution Quality:
How satisfied were you with the quality of the solution?
Process transparency:
How satisfied were you with the feedback on the processing status?
How satisfied were you with the conduct of the support consultant involved?

Each question can be answered with a range from 1 to 10 (1 means very bad, 10 very good). This
survey helps to reveal SAP Product Support’s strong and weak areas and helps us to improve the
services we extend to our clients.
- to clear out message queue in a timely fashion which benefits other customers in need of help
- to let SAP know that issue has been resolved and you need no further assistance

Messages will be automatically confirmed (closed out) by SAP if they reside in a

“customer action” state for the following periods of time with no customer action
status update received by SAP:

Very High - 14 days

High - 21 days
Medium - 45 days
Low - 45 days

To avoid messages being confirmed automatically, respond to the message explaining

that the solution is being worked on, or the problem is still persistent

12. WAYS TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK ON YOUR PRODUCT SUPPORT EXPERIENCE

SAP values customer feedback, which is important in our ability to continually improve the
quality of service. Use the following guidelines on how to provide feedback on your experience:
Message close-out PCC survey (see Section 10 on closing out a message for PCC info):
- must manually close out the message to receive survey (survey scores are evaluated!)
Email support.america@sap.com (CIC option 4 directs you there) and provide:
- customer name
- customer number
- your personal contact information:
first name/ last name
job title
email address
your telephone number (extension)
- reason for your feedback or complaint:

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if your feedback/complaint refers to a message, give the message number

- if necessary the background of the feedback/complaint
- SAP will respond within two business days; the most formal way to provide feedback
- see Note 736045 for more details
Annual C-Sat “Quality of SAP Support” survey questions
Via Sales VP or Regional Support Manager (RSM) who will internally review situation

13. THE ROLE OF SOLUTION MANAGER IN THE OSS MESSAGE PROCESS

Solution Manager is the centerpiece of SAP’s application management and collaborative
support model and as such plays an important role in OSS message processing.
Solution Manager’s Service Desk functionality provides comprehensive ITIL-based Incident
Management capability to help your support organization manage and respond to issues
efficiently. The benefits of using the Service Desk to open and manage messages are as listed
below and it is SAP’s strong recommendation that you use it in this manner:
Users can open messages from within any SAP application screen (Help > Request for
Assistance) and the system automatically captures system ID, component, transaction ID
and other relevant information as part of message
Customer Service Desk first line support personnel can catalog these messages and
begin developing a Solution Database as part of Incident Management beneficial for
Change Management and skills development planning
As part of initial message triage Notes search is enhanced with information captured
when message was opened thereby improving the chances of problem identification if the
issue is known and documentation related to Notes search is archived as part of
message for reference
Solution Manager Diagnostics can also be utilized for root cause analysis saving time in
helping pinpoint the problem as appropriate
Should you need help from SAP Product Support to resolve the issue the message can
be forwarded to SAP with all the accompanying documentation for efficient processing
Upon problem resolution the entire incident documentation is archived locally within the
Solution Database for future reference by the Service Desk should the issue arise again
As issues and incidents get managed via the Service Desk which may necessitate the
need for system change the documentation derived feeds Solution Manager Change
Request Management which documents change for regulatory compliance and efficiency

14. THE BENEFITS OF CCC CERTIFICATION IN OSS MESSAGE PROCESSING

As part of the SAP Maintenance Agreement every customer is responsible for establishing a
CoE providing support for your end-users and acting as a liaison to SAP Product Support. By
certifying your CoE as part of SAP’s Customer Competency Center (CCC) program you gain the
following benefits:
Certified CCC customers get priority message processing via a flag set within the
message that puts them higher in the message queue than uncertified customers

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Certified CCC customers have fewer message submissions overall than uncertified
clients due to their internal knowledge of process, and use of tools such as Solution
Manager Service Desk and Diagnostics, which improves Incident Management efficiency
Customers who are certified as a CCC are eligible for participation in advisory council
and special workshop events, can view level 2 benchmark staffing data, and submit
product enhancement requests online through Service Marketplace support portal.
Information on CCC certification can be obtained in the Service Marketplace (SMP) @
www.service.sap.com/cccnet
Customers can also ask questions about the CCC program and certification process by
emailing SAP at ccc.program@sap.com

15. MESSAGE PROCESSING SUMMARY - THINGS TO REMEMBER

As a summary of all the things covered in this document the below items are important to
understand in order to get the most benefit out of the Product Support message process:
Only the customer can ascertain business impact and establish message priority, and
raise/lower priority – not SAP!
Message priority can only be raised when message is in “customer action” status, or by
calling the CIC (800) 677-7271
Message escalation only applies to High priority messages – Medium and Low priority
messages should have priority raised – Very High is already a top pririty
Request to speak with the CIC Duty Manager for Very High messages only when SAP
response is uncertain, slow, or business impact severity changes
If after submitting a message you do not receive a reply from SAP within the timeframes
shown request to speed up processing by updating the message text or calling the CIC:
- Very High (1 hour - ask to speak to the CIC Duty Manager)
- escalated High (4 hours)
- High (24 hours)
- Medium (96 hours)
- Low (10 business days)
If you want to speak with the message processor then request a call-back in the message
text, otherwise email communication prevails due to time zone differences – provide 24x7
phone number and time to call
Questions of a general nature should be addressed via SMP portal “ask the expert”
forums located at www.service.sap.com > Support Portal > Help & Support > Request
Help > pick forum that applies to your situation
All requests for assistance must go through CIC – not your SAP account manager!
Provide feedback via manual message close-out PCC survey, or email SAP @
support.america@sap.com and SAP will respond within two business days
Use the Solution Manager Service Desk functionality for Incident Management and the
opening and managing of OSS messages for maximum efficiency
Use Solution Manager Diagnostics for root cause analysis in determining the source of
system problems (must be on Solution Manager version 4.0)

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Use Solution Manager Change Request Management for documenting, managing, and
reporting system changes for change control and regulatory compliance. Configure
Solution Manager for one-transport-order to ensure changes are applied effectively.
Become CCC certified for building up internal competence in SAP support processes,
tools, and receive priority message handling when SAP Product Support is requested
Ask questions about the CCC certification program by emailing ccc.program@sap.com

SAP is committed to providing our customers with the highest level of support experience. This
white paper outlined the processes and expectations of this shared governance model. Working
together we will minimize business disruption through a methodical problem resolution approach
and enable continued value realization through the use of SAP technology.

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