02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

Out of the Blue: A visit to the AS/400's Support C

Commentary
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

When last we saw our hero, he was wandering the frozen tundra of Rochester, Minnesota, speaking truth to power, and amassing a sizable stash of AS/400 marketing goodies.

For those who did not ply the pages of last month's installment, I had been invited by Gary Brun, manager of AS/400 Product Readiness, to tour IBM's Rochester facility and give a modest presentation to the people who put "support" in AS/400 Support Family (IBM's technical service offerings). Firmly in the tow of my capable guide, we were traversing the Rochester plant's 3.7 million square feet of opportunity to get lost, on our way to the Support Center, when my story was interrupted by my editor (who is exceedingly stingy with magazine space, but who is always, always right).

So (a month later) we arrive, winded, at the confluence of two nondescript corridors. This is the Support Center. They fooled me again. I had imagined a raucous, bullpen setting, with phones ringing, manual pages flying and guys yelling over the partitions: "Hey, Barb-you know anything about...?" Not so. The 42 people who staff the phones in the Support Center work out of individual or shared offices. They are grouped by area of expertise, bound together only by a web of technology.

Customers will be glad to know that IBM uses some of the same technology it hopes to sell to you. (Of course, they have the people who can make it work.) For example, the Support Center is experimenting with CallPath/400 to screen incoming calls and automatically route them to the appropriate group for resolution.

I watched a young man named David field a customer call. As the call came in, CallPath logged the originating number and checked it against a database of phone numbers of customers who had previously called the center. Before David actually answered the phone, his computer screen already displayed the company name, problem history, any pending or unresolved questions, and the probable name of the caller. Without having to ask protractive (and annoying) screening questions, he simply picked up the phone and asked, "Hello, is this Charlie at Acme Widget?" It was.

The system is elegant, but not simple. If, for example, the customer uses a telephony switch, a call made from the same handset can go out over any one of 40 different trunk lines. As a result, the Support Center's computer may not recognize the originating number. Also, CallPath first answers the phone with a recording that explains the call is being routed automatically. For those of us leery of recorded assurances of superior customer service, having a real human being answer the phone would be an improvement.

Allan Hansen, SupportLine Project Manager, points out that the SupportLine concept is a work in progress and will continue to evolve based on customer feedback and technological innovation. He begs a measure of indulgence and invites customer participation.

There are nearly 5,000 participating users of the Support Center, which fields about 400 queries each day. By far, the most popular Support Family offering is SupportLine with 1,350 subscribers, followed by Performance Management for the AS/400 (PM400) with 525. (Explanations of these and other Support Family services appeared in Significa's "A Smorgasbord of Services," MC, September 1992.)

SupportLine users seem most confused about PC Support and communications issues, which may be an indicator for Judy Kinsey, the manager responsible for user documentation, that improvements are in order. It would be an interesting exercise to link technical writers with Support Center staffers. (Kinsey has already married her writers with AS/400 developers.) Such an alliance would give those responsible for user documentation a much better understanding of where customers need help.

The SupportLine team is in turn supported by three AS/400s. Ironically, they reside in an old-style, raised-floor data center, hermetically clean, with air conditioning and backup power--all the amenities supposedly made unnecessary by less-demanding midrange systems. The center is run by Sue Johnson, an electric wire of a woman; pure energy recast in the form of a model data center manager.

An AS/400 E60 houses the online help desk database used by the technical reps. PM400 has its own D80 which uploads the customer's system usage and efficiency data, chews on it a while, then spits out graphs and reports for analysis. These two systems also act as mutual backups. Users of AS/400 Forum, the online user bulletin board, are assigned to a separate E60.

The technical reps are also connected to IBM's worldwide Virtual Machine (VM) network, giving them access to the monstrous HONE system (sales and marketing data, configurators, pricing information and just about a billion other things); E-mail through PROFS (Professional Office Systems); and RETAIN, a database that contains hardware and software problems. Often, usage issues are first erroneously reported as defects and logged in RETAIN. SupportLine reps can access a history of these items as needed.

No trip to Rochester would be complete without a pilgrimage to see the Holy Grail of American manufacturing prizes, the Malcolm Baldrige award. It sits on a revolving pedestal, in a glass case, in the center of a foyer, under appropriately reverent lighting. It is a representational piece, not in the artistic sense, but as the embodiment of IBM's commitment to excellence as expressed in the AS/400. It is valuable because it was earned.

If you are considering subscribing to the AS/400 Support Family and I could share just one golden nugget that I unearthed in Rochester, it would be this: Everyone I spoke with-- from the people on the manufacturing floor to those in user documentation; from the technical reps in the Support Center to managers- -all seemed genuinely and vitally invested in the welfare of their customers and in perfecting the products and services that comprise the AS/400 family. Conversations seldom strayed from what customers wanted and how IBM could best provide it.

I had gone to Rochester to argue for the power of human connection in customer service and discovered that the AS/400 Support Family is more than a grouping of services. It is a collection of people who, daily, tackle complex and demanding tasks and are determined to execute them to your satisfaction. They're on your side, and they want to help. (Did I do good, Gary?)

The notion of "being a customer" is a great leveler. We are all customers, and we all have customers. The more honest among us may even confess that customers can sometimes be overbearing, demanding, whiny and slow to pay their bills. Since MC readers obviously do not fall into that category, they will likely make a fine addition to Support Family's customer family. So, give Gary, Jodi, Allan, Sue, David and the gang a call.

One last thing: some unsolicited advice for Judy Kinsey. Don't quit your job and go into the candy-mint business. Remember those AS/400 marketing mints you tried to co-opt me with? Well, there's still a bowlful of 'em on my kitchen counter. Even Mikey didn't like them.

Victor Rozek has 17 years of experience in the data processing industry, including seven years with IBM in the Operations Management and Systems Engineering areas.

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: