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MarkBarefoot
Level 6
Employee
Last year, the Enterprise Vault support team devised a process that would eliminate "dead time" when a customer logged a case and an engineer picked it up. The idea was for this to be automatically sent out, via an email, when a support case had been registered in our case system. The idea behind this initial email response is to gather some pertinent information.

Here is a copy of what you will see :-


This section is included for you to add additional information that may be missed when logging the call. It is worthwhile filling this in and sending it back ASAP as it will help the engineer when picking up your call, and also (hopefully) stop you having to repeat yourself. When you log a case via GCSS, you are speaking to a case logger, not a technical person and sometimes the case abstracts are nowhere near what the problem is, thus causing confusion!

______________________________________________________________________________
TYPICAL INFORMATION NEEDED FOR TROUBLESHOOTING


If the case that you have logged is to report a problem or fault with your Enterprise Vault installation, please answer the questions below and then also provide initial technical information using the applicable document in the Self Help Resources section of this mail, otherwise simply answer these questions:

1. Please explain the problem in your own words.
2. How many users are affected?
3. Is the environment that the problem is occurring in new?
4. When did the problem start?
5. Were any changes made to the environment leading up to this problem?

Please include any other information you feel is relevant for this incident.


Thank you.
Symantec Technical Services

______________________________________________________________________________




The next section has been written with references to some "Self Help" Technotes, whereby we have tried to think of some of the more common issues our customers come across when logging cases. Again, it is worthwhile going through these Technotes and following the troubleshooting steps, as the main objective is for us to have as much information sent to us, and available in the case, so the engineer can pick the case up and work it immediately. Most of the steps end in requesting the Deployment Scanner .CAB file. This file is a mixture of information and logs which again will help us to assist you quicker.


SELF HELP RESOURCES

To capture the technical information needed to troubleshoot your issue, please follow the link that corresponds with the Enterprise Vault product that you are experiencing a problem with and enclose the resulting data in your reply to this email (if the data <10mb), or simply use FTP to transfer the data using the instructions below. Please advise us that you have used FTP to transfer data in your reply.

* FTP Instructions:
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/302592.htm)

* Enterprise Vault for Microsoft Exchange
ftp://exftpp.symantec.com/pub/support/products/Exchange_Mailbox_Archiving_Unit/300881.pdf


If your product is not yet listed, please gather Deployment Scanner output from the Enterprise Vault server that is applicable to the issue:

* Collecting support information using the Deployment Scanner
http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/300867.htm



It may seem like a lot of effort to initially get this data, but it rarely takes that much time, and will mean that the case abstract is correct, and the engineer should be able to identify exactly what is going on, without you having to wait for us to contact you, and then request all the information. As Enterprise Vault matures as a product we will be looking into enhancing what we can do from an automated side, with regard to the client and server installations. As yet, these are ideas being looked at, but hopefully we should see some improvement in this area in the future.

Comments
Maverik
Level 6
Very Very good Mark.
Bruce_Crankshaw
Level 6
Partner
Yes this is something I always update
The more information the assigned Symantec engineer has the quicker  the resolution ..in theory :)
GertjanA
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified
Hi Mark,

From my days at Symantec Support (yes, been there, done that ;) )I recall that in the case-application it was possible to attach a note to the customer. Would it be possible to attach a note per customer shortly describing the environment?

Where I work, DTO. Netherlands, I sometimes call in an issue. I have to explain our environment every time I'm on a call. When speaking to an engineer I spoke to before he/she recalls the environment (as it is a large one), but a new engineer is blank towards this. I am aware that this is done automatically for customers having a 'platinum' support contract, but one level lower (or even a standard one) would benefit from this too. It helps an engineer understand the specifics for that customer he is dealing with.

This would also help in determining what kind of engineer can take the case (a rookie, or an expert) Don't get me wrong, I'm really satisfied with the help and advice given on cases, but this is something that sometimes bothers me.

And yes, I do fill in the questions as soon as they get in!

Keep up the good work,

Gertjan

Maverik
Level 6
It is something that Symc support have discussed previously and would be great as long as the information was up-to-date.  The problem we have had in the past is that customers change something and then dont tell us the change so therefore we have incorrect information. 

In essence it is a great idea, we just need some sort of procedure on this that makes it easy for the end customer and us.

I will have a think ;)

MarkBarefoot
Level 6
Employee
Hi Gertjan,

As Genie mentioned, this is something that has been looked into, and I am not 100% sure if it has been entirely lost focus at the present time. As you are aware, this would make things so much easier for both parts of the equation, but it would also depend on the customer updating Symantec every time a change was made (which we all know would never be 100% of the time). This could lead to issues in that we would have historic data and use that to troubleshoot with, which could cause time being wasted, incorrect prognosis etc.

This could be a worthwhile "idea" posting, as in could we expand the capabilities of Deployment Scanner to effectively scan more within the Enterprise Vault system, but again this could cause issues especially with secure environments etc.

I don't think there is a "one fits all" solution for this, and at the present time it's going to have to be manually done. Maybe when submitting the answers to the cases, customers could have a "Symantec Config" file which they could cut and paste into their response, showing their current environment? Not too big a thing to manage....

Thanks

Mark
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Last update:
‎06-17-2009 07:52 AM
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