Software Support Handbook

IBM Electronic Support offers a portfolio of online support tools and resources that provides comprehensive technical information to diagnose and resolve problems and maintain your IBM products. IBM has developed many smart online tools and proactive features that can help you prevent problems from occurring in the first place, or quickly and easily troubleshoot problems when they occur. With improved personalization of support resources, you can focus on and be alerted to exactly the information you need for efficient and effective problem prevention and resolution.

IBM Electronic Support addresses five critical areas to ensure you have the best possible support experience:

1. Simplifying support and creating more consistency across all IBM products.
2. Delivering intelligent resources and tools that display information focused on the products you use.
3. Providing proactive capabilities that solve problems before operations are affected.
4. Thriving collaborative communities that connect to worldwide support networks and knowledge.
5. Enabling seamless and smooth transition between online and live support teams for quick problem resolution.

The new IBM Support Portal is a unified, customizable view of all technical support tools and information for all IBM systems, software, and services. It brings all the support resources available for IBM hardware and software offerings together in one place and is replacing all legacy IBM technical support sites.

The IBM Support Portal provides powerful features that make it fast and easy to find the exact information or tool you need.

• Select your IBM products and the task at hand for direct access to all pertinent resources.
• Browse featured support links that guide you to the most critical and useful information and tools.
• Filter the results of a simple text search with one click to pinpoint the most appropriate documents

How does the IBM Support Portal help you? 

You get a unified, centralized view for all:

• Technical support tools and information
• Hardware, software, and services

You can personalize it by:

• Moving, adding, deleting, and reorganizing modules
• Adapting it to the way you work

It is an improved experience that:

• Exploits IBM's solutions and integration
• Provides more efficient access to a wealth of technical information
• Simplifies your experience, with a single place for support
• It's part of current support contracts, so there's no extra charge!

That's complete, customized support.

And what does it mean to you and your business?

It can lower your total cost of ownership for IBM technology by giving you flexibility and choice and making you more efficient in keeping that technology - and your business - running.

Where to start?

Getting started on the IBM Support Portal is easy

1. Go to the IBM Support Portal.
2. Select the products in which you are interested.
3. View your page

To further customize your portal, click the Sign in link in the masthead and login using your IBM ID. Those without an IBM ID can create one from any IBM web page.

You can use the Service Request Application to open, update, monitor your service requests (also known as Problem Management Records - PMRs) on-line and to report problems on nearly all IBM supported software products. Customers who have support contracts, like Passport Advantage, Accelerated Value, SoftwareXcel, Support Line, Software Maintenance Agreement (SWMA) and Monthly License Charges (MLC), can open service requests via the web 24x7.

With Service Request you can;

• Describe software issue and environment in problem submission form (eliminates call center contact)
• Monitor/update existing requests -- view a list of all service requests associated with customer numbers for support contracts
• Attach multiple files to service requests
• Receive notification when your service request has been updated by IBM Support

IBM Service Request (SR) is available on both the IBM Support Portal and the IBMLink ServiceLink main menus and follows IBM's Technical Support Transformation strategy of moving to one electronic problem reporting portal. The Electronic Technical Response (ETR) application, that SR is replacing, will continue to be available on IBMLink ServiceLink until an evaluation of the transition is completed. For additional help and information on how to use the application, please visit Service Request Assistance.

• Appendix A

  Additional support offerings

• Appendix B

  Site Technical Contact information for Passport Advantage

The handbook is also available as a PDF-formatted document. The current version is dated November, 2012.

• Software Support Handbook (1.1MB)
• Get Adobe Reader

The handbook has been translated into the following languages.

• Japanese (HTML)
• French (1.2MB)
• Portuguese (3.1MB)