IBM 51 Determine the business impact of your problem, Submit your problem to IBM Software Support

2.Describe your problem and gather background information.

3.Submit your problem to IBM Software Support.

Determine the business impact of your problem

When you report a problem to IBM, you are asked to supply a severity level. Therefore, you need to understand and assess the business impact of the problem you are reporting. Use the following criteria:

Severity 1	Critical business impact: You are unable to use the program,
	resulting in a critical impact on operations. This condition
	requires an immediate solution.
Severity 2	Significant business impact: The program is usable but is
	severely limited.
Severity 3	Some business impact: The program is usable with less
	significant features (not critical to operations) unavailable.
Severity 4	Minimal business impact: The problem causes little impact on
	operations, or a reasonable circumvention to the problem has
	been implemented.

Describe your problem and gather background information

When explaining a problem to IBM, be as specific as possible. Include all relevant background information so that IBM Software Support specialists can help you solve the problem efficiently. To save time, know the answers to these questions:

vWhat software versions were you running when the problem occurred?

vDo you have logs, traces, and messages that are related to the problem symptoms? IBM Software Support is likely to ask for this information.

vCan the problem be re-created? If so, what steps led to the failure?

vHave any changes been made to the system? (For example, hardware, operating system, networking software, and so on.)

vAre you currently using a workaround for this problem? If so, please be prepared to explain it when you report the problem.

Submit your problem to IBM Software Support

You can submit your problem in one of two ways:

vOnline: Go to the ″Submit and track problems″ page on the IBM Software Support site (http://www.ibm.com/software/support/probsub.html). Enter your information into the appropriate problem submission tool.

vBy phone: For the phone number to call in your country, go to the contacts page of the IBM Software Support Handbook on the Web (techsupport.services.ibm.com/guides/contacts.html) and click the name of your geographic region.

If the problem you submit is for a software defect or for missing or inaccurate documentation, IBM Software Support creates an Authorized Program Analysis Report (APAR). The APAR describes the problem in detail. Whenever possible, IBM Software Support provides a workaround for you to implement until the APAR is resolved and a fix is delivered. IBM publishes resolved APARs on the IBM product support Web pages daily, so that other users who experience the same problem can benefit from the same resolutions.

Appendix B. Support information 227