Contacting IBM Support
IBM Software Support Handbook
This guide contains important information on the procedures and practices followed in the service and support of your IBM products. It does not replace the contractual terms and conditions under which you acquired specific IBM Products or Services. Please review it carefully. You may want to bookmark the site so you can refer back as required to the latest information. We are interested in continuing to improve your IBM support experience, and encourage you to provide feedback by clicking the Feedback link in the left navigation bar on any page. The "IBM Software Support Handbook" can be found on the web at http://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/set2/sas/f/handbook/home.html
Accessing Software Support
When calling or submitting a problem to IBM Software Support about a particular service request, please have the following information ready:
IBM Customer Number
The machine type/model/serial number (for Subscription and Support calls)
Company name
Contact name
Preferred means of contact (voice or email)
Telephone number where you can be reached if request is voice
Related product and version information
Related operating system and database information
Detailed description of the issue
Severity of the issue in relationship to the impact of it affecting your business needs
Contact via Web
Open service requests is a tool to help clients find the right place to open any problem, hardware or software, in any country where IBM does business. This is the starting place when it is not evident where to go to open a service request.
Service Request (SR) tool offers Passport Advantage clients for distributed platforms online problem management to open, edit and track open and closed PMRs by customer number. Timesaving options: create new PMRs with prefilled demographic fields; describe problems yourself and choose severity; submit PMRs directly to correct support queue; attach troubleshooting files directly to PMR; receive alerts when IBM updates PMR; view reports on open and closed PMRs.
You can find information about assistance for SR at http://www.ibm.com/software/support/help-contactus.html.
System Service Request (SSR) tool is similar to Electronic Service request in providing online problem management capability for clients with support offerings in place on System i, System p, System z, TotalStorage products, Linux, Windows, Dynix/PTX, Retail, OS/2, Isogon, Candle on OS/390 and Consul z/OS legacy products.
IBMLink - SoftwareXcel support contracts offer clients on the System z platform the IBMLink online problem management tool to open problem records and ask usage questions on System z software products. You can open, track, update, and close a defect or problem record; order corrective/preventive/toleration maintenance; search for known problems or technical support information: track applicable problem reports: receive alerts on high impact problems and fixes in error; and view planning information for new releases and preventive maintenance.
Contact via phone
If you have an active service contract maintenance agreement with IBM , or are covered by Program Services, you may contact customer support teams via telephone. For individual countries, please visit the Technical Support section of the IBM Directory of worldwide contacts via http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/.