Replacement of Cognos Insight! by IBM support. Or not.

[Alan Kirk]

This post comes more under the heading of "general discussion" than being specific to the bug report that prompted me to make it, so I've split it out into a separate topic.

Cognos Insight was supposed to be replaced by IBM's Service Request tool on 4 May. For those who didn't get it (hopefully not many), the following e-mail came on Monday:

Please note, we have made the decision to delay the move from the Cognos Insight system and processes to the IBM Service Request (SR) tool for a short period of time. This delay will allow us to meet the level of readiness that we believe is acceptable and give you more time to prepare to make the transition. We will provide timely communication on when we will move but do not anticipate the delay to be long.

Nothing like precise, detailed information.

Although one Insight request has been raised on my behalf since then (which reminds me, I must post the details of it) I've elected to hold off on raising any non-critical issues myself until after the migration goes through. The reason? I received this on one of my Insight requests:

we are attempting to close any Service Requests in the current Insight! system that are in a "Parked" state waiting for a related JIRA Item (Bug or Enhancement Requests) to be resolved.
...
Since there is an open JIRA Item, it will be migrated over to the new bug tracking / enhancement request system and remain an open item to be resolved.

I am going to go ahead and close out this (Insight) service request.
If you wish to remain updated on the status of the bug / enhancement request that was generated as a result of this service request, please open a service request in the new system

Not that I have anything particularly critical to say about this - after all, they DO have to migrate systems - but I'd rather not raise a request then have to re-raise it later. Obviously if the issue is critical, there's no choice, but for anything that's merely an annoying, non-critical bug I'm holding fire until the new system comes on line.

However that's only a personal choice; for reports in the Bugs forum in general, Insight IDs would still seem to be valid though we may have to end up updating them with an IBM S/R number.

(Posted in relation to http://forums.olapforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=965)

[mattgoff]

I'd say this is par for the course for them. I've had more than one bug closed due to my "inactivity". Looking at the bugs, the last entry was a quick reply from someone in support saying they were looking at whatever comment or attachment I'd added-- since they replied, the status went to "waiting for customer." After x days in that state: autoclose! Yay! See, our support metrics are improving!

Matt

[Alan Kirk]

I'd say this is par for the course for them. I've had more than one bug closed due to my "inactivity". Looking at the bugs, the last entry was a quick reply from someone in support saying they were looking at whatever comment or attachment I'd added-- since they replied, the status went to "waiting for customer." After x days in that state: autoclose! Yay! See, our support metrics are improving!

{Maxwell Smart} Ah, the old "close the request after changing the status to 'waiting for customer'" trick. {/Maxwell Smart}

This sounds disturbingly familiar. {Cue John }

[John Hobson]

I hate to disappoint but I haven't raised a support request for TM1 for over 12 months.

The product is perfect now.

[Alan Kirk]

I hate to disappoint but I haven't raised a support request for TM1 for over 12 months.

The product is perfect now.

Because the product is PALO?

[John Hobson]

Alan - shouldn't you be asleep at this time of night in Oz ?

[Alan Kirk]

Alan - shouldn't you be asleep at this time of night in Oz ?

You guys seriously need World Time. It's only 20:47 over here at the moment! I'm not superannuated enough to need to be going to bed before 9pm with a glass of warm milk and a digestive biscuit!

(Even though I do need to get up before 5 tomorrow to go photo shooting...)

[Alan Kirk]

News from the Sydney meeting of the Cognos User Group this morning:
- The changeover to IBM support will now occur on Monday 1 June.
- All existing and open Insight! requests will be migrated. You'll receive notification of the IBM request number. (For anyone who's posted one in the Bugs sub-forum, please update your post when you get that (when you have a moment) if you'd be so kind.)
- Insight! history (closed requests) will NOT be migrated. If you want to keep copies of for your own records, export them before the migration occurs.
- From 1 July Cognos standard support will migrate to IBM Passport Advantage. There are some practical differences compared to what people have been used to with Cognos support, though since I've been a TM1 user only I haven't been with Cognos Support long enough for this to register. A couple that were mentioned is that under Cognos there were varying response times depending on the level of severity of the issue (1 hour for a level 1 request, 2 hours for a level 2 and so on), while under IBM it's 2 hours for everything. Also product support for a given version will run for 3 years after the release of the next version. Apparently this is substantially longer than under the old Cognos arrangement. (But again, I haven't been a Cognos user long enough to comment.)

Some useful links provided at the meeting (where they conceded, with some level of understatement, that the IBM site may not be the easiest one on Earth to navigate):
For Support
http://www.ibm.com/cognos/support

For Migration Information
http://www.ibm.com/cognos/customercenter

For anything relating to "doing business with IBM"
(Yes, that's what the "dbwi" bit means)
http://support.cognos.com/go/dbwi/
(Note the absence of "www") which appears to redirect to:
http://support.cognos.com/en/support/ibm/dbwi.html

They also emphasised that you need to get your IBM Customer Number if you haven't already done so.

There was a demonstration of the new online instruction tool (Centra) that Cognos training will be using for what they call ILO (Instructor Led Online Training). This includes some hands on work (via the Centra application) on some servers which are based in Atlanta Georgia.

Coke is not provided.

It looks like a useful tool and it affords a degree of interactivity that you wouldn't get from "video" on-line training such as that provided by Total Training or Lynda... but I think I'd still prefer the latter in many cases since at least you can pause those and come back to them as time allows.

Australian customers can take a look at the following link for training:
http://www.ibm.com/training/au
which redirects to some impenetrable URL inside the IBM Web jungle.

That's ALL IBM training; there's a link to Cognos training down near the bottom (an equally impenetrable link).

There's some free ILO training for Australian users on the 27th of May but I can't find any link to it (that's a surprise); contact Iboglix training if you're interested.

In other matters, the coffee was kinda sorta OK, and the mini-muffins weren't bad. Actually they were kinda nice.

And the customer demo actually used EV. So THAT'S the guy who's using EV, I was wondering who it was...

[Steve Rowe]

Just to let you know the migration has happened!

I'd suggest that you all make sure that you can submit requests and have your new customer numbers, it's a bit of a drama. For me they have not migrated the correct details so now I need to get e-mails sent from directors etc saying that I should be primary support person, this has 2 working day turnaround time on the IBM side.

Contact numbers for people who should be abel to provide you with a ICN (IBM Customer Number)
https:www-112.ibm.com/software/howtobuy/passportadvantage/paocustomer/docs/en_US/ecare.html

(don't seem to be able to get the URL link thing to work, nvm)

Good luck!

Cheers

[Steve Vincent]

I'd help if i knew what my ICN was. It'd help even more if someone that answers their support line knew the difference between "i cannot log in to your website" and "is it a hardware problem". The way i was talked too i'd be surprised if they even knew what an internet was

Whats wrong with having a form that asks you for your email address and then it sends an email with your ICN in it? Its good enough for 99.99% of the sites out there but seemingly not IBM. Its not a good way to start, not a good way at all

[kbogies]

by Steve Vincent » Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:13 am

I'd help if i knew what my ICN was. It'd help even more if someone that answers their support line knew the difference between "i cannot log in to your website" and "is it a hardware problem". The way i was talked too i'd be surprised if they even knew what an internet was

Whats wrong with having a form that asks you for your email address and then it sends an email with your ICN in it? Its good enough for 99.99% of the sites out there but seemingly not IBM. Its not a good way to start, not a good way at all


**** you may want to contact all the TM1 contacts within your company. our IBM Welcome letter was sent to the "Primary Contact" (whom may have been the primary contact for 1 piece of our company per-Cognos) rather. THis snail mail letter was distributed Feb 29th 2009 and includes your entire company's Software Site Number, IBM Customer Number and the IBM temporary passcode which is needed for submitting technical support requests. *****

[Steve Vincent]

i'm getting there, got a reply from their support email address but it took them a few days. i *was* that primary contact which is where some of the frustration comes from - ages ago i asked them to clarify the accounts (we have lots) and they never gave a satisfactory answer. time will tell - all i wanted to know was the status of my previously submitted bugs

[Steve Rowe]

I'm still waiting for a response from them > 5 days now not happy, useless

[George Regateiro]

I'm still waiting for a response from them > 5 days now not happy, useless

That is okay. I have recieved several responses from them so far. All of them telling me that I need an IBM ID which I have (and have provided screen shots for them of the entire process I am going through). I have stated multiple times that I am getting to a screen saying that an approval email has been sent to me, but nothing ever comes of it. The helpful response that I receive looks like

Hello,

To access the Service Request (SR) system, you will need to create an IBM ID. To create one, follow these steps below:

1) Go to SR - https://www-946.ibm.com/support/servicerequest/
2) Click the "Register" link located just above the login box

and then the ticket is promptly closed.

Hopefully not an indication of how this will continue to go

[Alan Kirk]

all i wanted to know was the status of my previously submitted bugs

What, "Transferred to Engineering"'s not good enough for you any more?

(I haven't been game to try to go in yet. Before The Great Migration I just kept looping around in endless circles amongst pages which asked me to log in; pages which showed me as "currently logged in as Alan Kirk" at the top of the page. I'll have to try it out sooner rather than later, but I keep snoozing the Outlook reminder because since it's budget time, and I don't need any additional points on my blood pressure.)

[Steve Vincent]

<rant>
it gets worse. how i hear you cry. the cognos site wasn't brilliant but at least you could find stuff eventually, the ibm one is just an utter, piss-useless mess. i got an email from them with loads of newsletter stuff including details on a "Champions Toolkit" they have put together. i followed the link, took me to lots of other links to bits and pieces, clicked one of those and it asked me for my name, address, company, shoe size etc etc. Errr, i'm logged in, YOU ALREADY HAVE ALL THAT. why the hell do i have to complete the same form for anything i actually want from this stupid site?

i didn't like the cognos site but i could at least live with it. this abomination is just pathetic, a waste of time and makes a mockery of the license fees we pay because i can get sod all support from something like that

</rant>

[John Hobson]

Well we all said that being taken over by a company with all of the resources of IBM would be a shot in the arm for TM1 support and development.

I guess we just didn't expect it to be full of strychnine

[Steve Rowe]

Finally!
The people at the SR developemnt desk associated my account with my id, woot! Sr submitted.

Two things, I used this form here to submit another request, this seemed to generate a much faster response than the emails I've been sending. The email address was I think going to the same group of people but I've no way of proving that.

https://www-111.ibm.com/software/servle ... ?topic=esr

The other thing and perhaps the crucial thing is that I can see that ICN that I was quoted was incorrect.

I was quoted, in both mail and verbally that my ICN was 123456, now that my account has been set up I can see that my ICN number is in fact 0123456, since I did not know about the leading zero I'm guessing I was entering an invalid ICN number.

Words fail me sometimes...

Anyway hope some of the above helps someone else

[Steve Vincent]

IBM have obviously realised that their website is a mare to navigate and the support structures clear as mud - i got a mailshot from them today with a couple of links that help to "explain" the whole thing;

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