Tickets are raised to address an issue (eg. data load errors/ data reconciliation / data missing issues /incorrect data in reports) or to perform some enhancement or to execute some thing that is not part of scheduled activity (for eg an adhoc load as requested by business).
Tickets can be created thru different methods like calling the support teams/using tools like Remedy or sending mails to support with all details and requesting for a ticket etc.
Based on the issue they will prioritize like High priority, Medium priority and Low priority or Like Category or Categoryegory 1 to Categoryegory 5 where Category 1 indiCategoryes maximum severity and Category 5 the lowest severity.
For each Category/Priority there is a different SLA (Service Level Agreements) maximum allotted time to resolve the issue. This depends on each project agreement.
Category 1 - Generally means high severity like system down/no connectivity and has SLA as 3 hrs or so.
Category 2 Also means serious issues but with some less severity and has SLA as 5-7 hrs or so.
Category 3 typically mean data load error and SLA may be 12-24 hrs or so.
Category 4 may be data reconciliation / data missing issues /incorrect data in reports and SLA may be 2 weeks or so.
Category 5 is enhancements and has the luxury of more time available like 3 weeks to one month or more.
This is generally a business decision.
System generated tickets are generally those in Category 1, 2 and 3.
(Eg. data load errors/ data reconciliation / data missing issues /incorrect data in reports)
- Invalid data.
- Duplicate Category records.
- Lock issues.
- No Sid value found.
- Caller 70 missing.
- Idoc/tRFC error.
- Error at source system etc.
- Customer gated tickets are generally those in Category 4 & 5.
- (Enhancement/adhoc activities etc)
- Optimizing Process chain
- Reloading of R/3 data from different clusters Reconciliation issues
- changing an existing report/Creating New report.
- Adding a char or KF to cube.
- Performance issues.
- Enhancements as per Business requirement.
This a means of not just resolving issues but also enable business to track the activities performed on the system and also for billing purposes.
What is SAP Production Support - Ticket Resolving
1. How the tickets in production support are resolved?
2. Give some examples with solutions?
What are the types of ticket and its importance?
This depends on the SLA. It can be like:
1. Critical.
2. Urgent.
3. High.
4. Medium
5. Low.
The response times and resolution times again are defined in the SLA based on the clients requirement and the charges.
This is probably from the viewpoint of Criticality of the problem faced by the client as defined by SAP.
1) First Level Ticketing:
Not severe problem. Routine errors. Mostly handled by Service desk arrangement of the company (if have one).
Eg: a) Say Credit limit block in working on certain documents?
b) Pricing Condition Record not found even though conditions are maintained?
c) Unable to print a delivery document or Packing list?
PS: In the 4th phase of ASAP Implementation Methodology( i.e Final Preparations for GO-LIVE) SAP has clearly specified that a Service desk needs to be arranged for any sort of Implementation for better handling of Production errors.
Service desk lies with in the client.
2) Second Level Ticketing:
Some sort of serious problems. Those Could not be solved by Service Desk. Should be referred to the Service Company (or may be company as prescribed in SLA).
Eg: a) Credit Exposure (especially open values) doesn't update perfectly to KNKK Table.
b) Inter company Billing is taking a wrong value of the Bill.
c) Need a new order type to handle reservation process
d) New product has been added to our selling range. Need to include this into SAP. (Material Masters, Division attachements, Stock Handling etc.)
3) Third Level Ticketing:
Problems could not be solved by both of the above, are referred to Online Service Support (OSS) of SAP Itself. SAP tries to solve the Problem, sometimes by providing the perfect OSS Notes, fits to the error and rarely SAP logs into our Servers (via remote log-on)for post mortem the problem. (The Medical check-up client, connections, Login id and Passwords stuff are to be provided to SAP whenever they need or at the time of opening OSS Message.)
There are lots of OSS Notes on each issue, SAP Top Notes and Notes explaining about the process of raising a OSS Message.
Sometimes SAP Charges to the client / Service company depending on the Agreement made at the time of buying License from SAP.
Eg: 1) Business Transation for the Currency 'EUR' is not possible. Check OSS Note - This comes at the time of making Billing.
2) Transaction MMPI- Periods cannot be opened – See OSS Note.
There are many other examples on the issue.
4) Fourth Level Ticketing:
Where rarely, problems reach this level.
Those problem needs may be re-engineering of the business process due to change in the Business strategy. Upgradation to new Version. More or less this leads to extinction of the SAP Implementation.
What are the tools to download tickets from client? Are there any standard tools or it depends upon company or client...?
Yes there are some tools for that. We use Hp open view. Depends on client what they use. You are right. There are so many tools available and as you said some clients will develop their own tools using JAVA, ASP and other software. Some clients use just Lotus Notes. Generally 'Vantive' is used for tracking user requests and tickets.
It has a vantive ticket ID, field for description of problem, severity for the business, priority for the user, group assigned etc.
Different technical groups will have different group ID's.
User talks to Level 1 helpdesk and they raise ticket.
If they can solve issue for the issue, fine...else helpdesk assigns ticket to the Level 2 technical group.
Ticket status keeps changing from open, working, resolved, on hold, back from hold, closed etc. The way we handle the tickets vary depending on the client. Some companies use SAP CS to handle the tickets; we have been using Vantive to handle the tickets. The ticket is handled with a change request, when you get the ticket you will have the priority level with which it is to be handled. It comes with a ticket id and all. It's totally a client specific tool. The common features here can be
- A ticket Id,
- Priority,
- Consultant ID/Name,
- User ID/Name,
- Date of Post,
- Resolving Time etc.
- A ticket Id,
- Priority,
- Consultant ID/Name,
- User ID/Name,
- Date of Post,
- Resolving Time etc.
There ideally is also a knowledge repository to search for a similar problem and solutions given if it had occurred earlier. You can also have training manuals (with screen shots) for simple transactions like viewing a query, saving a workbook etc so that such queried can be addressed by using them.
When the problem is logged on to you as a consultant, you need to analyze the problem, check if you have a similar problem occurred earlier and use ready solutions, find out the exact server on which this has occurred etc.
You have to solve the problem (assuming you will have access to the dev system) and post the solution and ask the user to test after the preliminary testing from your side. Get it transported to production once tested and posts it as closed i.e. the ticket has to be closed.
What is User Authorizations in SAP BW?
Authorizations are very important, for example you don't want the important financial report to all the users. so, you can have authorization in Object level if you want to keep the authorization for specific in object for this you have to check the Object as an authorization relevent in RSD1 and RSSM tcodes. Similarly you set up the authorization for certain users by giving that users certain auth. in PFCG tcode. Similarly you create a role and include the tcodes, BEx reports etc into the role and assign this role to the userid.
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