Support Agreement

Description of process

This process covers two main areas - creating a support agreement and creating a support key. 

Creating a Support Agreement

This process covers the setting up of a support agreement for a particular customer, entering customer contacts on a support agreement, entering flash notes on a support agreement, handling customer project information on a support agreement, and approving a support agreement. 

As a result, the customers will receive support according to the support level specified in the support agreement, a specific support organization will be assigned to work with the particular customer, you can keep track of the customer contacts and projects, you can provide flash notes to display critical information for call center personnel, and you can set a support agreement as valid or invalid as needed.

When creating a support agreement, you are required to enter the support organization which will be responsible for the customer's call center cases. Also, you have to specify a support level. The support agreement comprises of the default response times specified for the support level, but you can modify the response times for a particular support agreement. You can enter a work calendar and a support type for a particular support agreement as well. 

You can enter customer contacts relevant to the particular customer or select from all the users in an agreement. This information will be inherited by the cases that are connected to the support agreement. This information can be used to specify that only authorized contact persons are allowed to use the support agreement.

You can enter flash notes to display critical information to call center personnel. The flash notes appear as messages when creating the case. Also, they are displayed in the created call center cases, which belong to the customer connected to the particular support agreement.

You can enter one or more customer projects, sub projects, and activity combinations for the support agreement.

You can also view support keys that use that particular support agreement.

A support agreement is not valid until you approve it. Also, an approved support agreement can be temporarily blocked. You can remove the approval from an approved support agreement if the need arises.

Creating a Support Key

This process covers the setting up of a support key for an existing support agreement, defining business objects per support key, and handling secure information for a specific support key. As a result, you will be able to handle information about a particular customer installation or support site, including secured information. Also, you can connect business objects to a support key. 

A support key can be created through an existing support agreement or created directly. 

When you create a support key from an existing support agreement, the customer, support organization, and work calendar will be inherited from the support agreement. If needed, you can change the information on the support key, independent of the support agreement. If you create a support key directly using the Support Key window (without using the right mouse button option in the support agreement) this information will have to be entered. You must enter a description of the installation and the support key as well. You can connect business objects to a support key and select a customer severity weight. When you enter secured information for a support key, you are given the authority to limit the user access.

Call center cases can be created using a support key, and the information entered in the support key is inherited by the cases. You can modify the inherited information as needed.