Hitachi Vantara Responsibilities

Field Support

Customer Service and Support (CS&S) or an Authorized Service Partner (ASP) will provide customer service and field technical support directly to customers for all technical hardware problems. CS&S is the local customer interface and first point of contact for Hitachi Vantara customers. GCC will dispatch cases to CS&S when contacted by the customer to resolve break/fix issues. CS&S continues to have ownership of all problems and issues at a customer site even when a call is escalated to support Level 1 or higher.

CS&S opens and updates a Salesforce Case for installations, upgrades, reconfigurations, de-installations and problems requiring immediate attention. CS&S searches initial problem symptoms or customer questions in the Knowledge Base and CMS database of Technical Tips and Alerts for all relevant information prior to escalating an SR. CS&S maintains proper Salesforce Case call severity as it applies to the current customer situation to allow proper call escalation processes based upon business rules.

CS&S will gather customer and service requirement information; escalate the issue to Level 2 Technical Support where necessary; and provide on-site hardware fault diagnosis, repair and part replacement, and data collection under the direction of the geographical ISC/GSC as necessary. CS&S is always the owner of customer issues/problems even after they have been escalated to Hitachi support, the factory or OEM.

Customer Support Center (CSC) will provide technical support to CS&S in EMEA as required.

Pair of Hands (POH)

Means the installation of hardware at the Customer site, hardware updates, and/or replacement of failed parts or units at the Customer site.

Hitachi CS&S and ASP General and Maintenance Responsibilities

Field Support’s general and maintenance responsibilities include the following areas:

• Case Management
  • Opens and updates a Insight case for installations, upgrades, reconfigurations, de-installations, and problems requiring immediate attention. 
  • Maintains proper Insight call severity as it applies to the current customer situation to allow proper call escalation processes based upon Insight business rules.
  • Escalates issues to Remote Support Levels 1 and 2 as necessary and works with Remote Support to troubleshoot issues
• Salesforce Assets
  • Maintains accurate customer installation and service information in Salesforce.
  • Customer entitlement to support depends on the purchased products having been entered into Insight for a customer site. Thus, it is important for Field Support to update Salesforce so it contains an accurate reflection of the products (h/w or s/w) installed at a customer site.
• Research & Use of Support Connect & RightAnswers
  • Subscribe to receive Technical Bulletins (TechTips & TechAlerts) for all maintained and serviced products
  • Searches initial problem symptoms or customer questions in the following systems for all relevant information prior to escalating a case:
    • Search Support Connect
    • Research in Support Connect Knowledge
    • Review Technical Bulletin Archive
• Onsite Work
  • On-site hardware fault diagnosis, repair and part replacement, or data collection under the direction of the geographical ISC/GSC as necessary 
  • Basic Configuration of Hardware
  • Hardware Installation and Installation planning
• Problem Ownership & Management
  • Field Support is always the owner of customer issues/problems even after they have been escalated to Hitachi support, the factory, or OEM.
• Response Time & Distance from Customer Site
  • Refer to section ‎4.3 Maintenance Service Offerings in this document to understand the boundaries of response time and distance from customer sites.

Current Status By Geography

The following provides a synopsis of current field support per geography.

Geography	Hitachi CS&S and ASP Field Support
AMER	Hitachi CS&S: This is the primary approach to field support. ASP: CS&S VP approval required for indirect support.
APAC	Hitachi CS&S or ASP: As planned by CSS management.
EMEA	Hitachi CS&S or ASP: As planned by CSS management.

Remote Support – Levels 0-3

Remote support is available during normal working hours for each geography (Americas, Asia Pacific, and EMEA) and on a standby basis at all other times.

Remote Support – Level 0

Global Customer Care (GCC) personnel will be the first point of contact for Hitachi service personnel and customers requesting technical support.

Email: GCC.Email.Request@hitachivantara.com

Phone: 1-800-446-0744

GCC will check entitlements, set problem severity and route the SR to the appropriate next level of support. GCC also handles emergency software license keys and other license key issues, plus orders for software and parts. GCC is staffed across geographic regions to respond to customer support needs and will initiate and pass the case to the appropriate support organization. 

Remote Support – Level 1

Immediate Support personnel and GSC will perform Level 1 triage, manage case queues, conduct database searches and resolve calls that do not require Engineering Level 2 support. Level 1 support will also be responsible for communicating with the appropriate Level 2 support groups where applicable. It is expected that the majority of technical questions and problems will be isolated and resolved by this level of support resource within Hitachi.  Internal reports will be maintained categorizing and summarizing open and closed problems.

Remote Support – Level 2

If the problem is not resolved with CS&S on-site and Level 1 Technical Support resources, it is assigned to a GSO resource and escalated to Engineering Level 2 Global Support Center (GSC) colleagues by Level 1 Support.  It is expected that the majority of technical questions and problems not resolved at Level 1 will be isolated and resolved by the GSC, which is based in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Remote Support – Level 3

If Hitachi is not able to resolve the problem with Level 1 or Level 2 resources, escalation to Level 3 Sustaining Engineering (vendor) is available at the discretion of the Level 2 GSC specialists. This escalation is not intended for hardware or other third-party software problems or conflicts that may arise in a multi-vendor environment. GSC will work in conjunction with other vendors to resolve issues in this environment.

Hitachi Distribution Centers (ISCC/EDC/ADC)

The Hitachi Distribution Centers are as follows:

• ISCC (International Supply Chain Center - USA, Located in Norman, OK)
• EDC (European Distribution Center - Netherlands)
• ADC (Asian Distribution Center - Singapore)

Please refer to the Product Support Plan for the respective solution for further details.

Support Systems

Salesforce is the system used to maintain records of all support activities performed by CS&S and all levels of Remote Technical Support. It is also used to communicate with Hitachi Vantara personnel to inform them of pending maintenance activities at a customer site. 

Hitachi Vantara uses the following systems for facilitating product support

Salesforce

Salesforce is the system used to maintain records of all support activities performed by Field Support and Remote Support. It is also used to page Field Support to inform them of new or pending maintenance activities at a customer site.

Problem Tracking

Salesforce is the system used by Hitachi for problem tracking and case management. A Case will be opened in Salesforce for any incident resulting in any customer impact and/or any machine incident.

Customer Entitlement to Support

Salesforce is used to identify if a customer is entitled support for a product.  This requires that all products purchased by a customer be entered in Salesforce for the applicable customer site.  This happens as follows:

1. All hardware and software sold and shipped to Hitachi customers are electronically entered into Salesforce when shipped to the site and waiting for installation. 
2. Field Support subsequently logs in to Salesforce to verify that all the product data is complete for the applicable customer site.   For anything that is not accurate or not complete in Salesforce, Field Support is responsible for completing and or correcting.  See subsection section ‎Roles and Responsibilities for related details.

Knowledge Base

RightAnswers is an online system available to Hitachi Employees, Partners and Customers. It is the focus point for all Hitachi product related technical information. Product manuals and maintenance content can be found in RightAnswers as well as information from support used to solve product issues, questions and more. 

Technical Bulletins on Support Connect

Technical Bulletins (TechTips & TechAlerts) contain important product information and can be found on Support Connect. 

• Subscribe to Technical Bulletins by product
• Technical Bulletin Archive

 

Documents

All documents for this product can be found on docs.hitachivantara.com

Technical Bulletins, Software releases

Using Support Connect, customer get automatic notifications of Technical Bulletins, and microcode release notifications. They need to subscribe on Support Connect but once that’s done, they get the automatic email notifications.

1. High severity alerts are published to customers who have subscribed to receive them.
2. Customers with dedicated support managers typically receive this information directly during regular service meetings
3. In rare cases a problem may be so critical that GSC proactively contact each affected customer

Hitachi Vantara Support Connect

On Support Connect customers can find a listing of their products and sites as well as open Service Requests. Product Downloads, Product Documentation, Technical Bulletins, ECNs, Interoperability, and End of Life Policy Matrix can all be found on Support Connect.

Error Log Collection for Replaced Parts

Spare parts returns require the customer engineer to collect the log on their maintenance PC and then upload it at a later time to a central server. See “LogistPREP/Parts Return” for more details.

Customer Scenarios and Maintenance Strategies 

There are several scenarios identified below that might occur at customer sites that will affect how the maintenance console is supplied, configured and utilized.

Performing Maintenance and Security Restrictions

In some cases, due to security or data integrity reasons, customers will not permit maintenance personnel to connect their laptop to the Ethernet ports (public/private) on the SVP.  In these restricted environments the customer must supply a laptop to be used as the maintenance console by the CE whenever he is to access the VSP 5x00 for status or for maintenance. This laptop must have the minimum maintenance console requirements outlined previously.

Direct Access Maintenance Requirements

When performing maintenance or upgrades on internal components the maintenance personnel is  advised to connect directly into the system that he will be performing the maintenance on. Some maintenance procedures require extensive interaction and coordination between the micro-program, the CE and the maintenance activity.  This will require the appropriate work area and power requirements for extended maintenance activities and may include directly connecting a monitor/keyboard/mouse to the SVP.

Conducting the PREP testing and reporting

This step includes completing the actual testing, and reporting the status and results to the PREP team. The PREP Program Team will estimate the schedule and time required to complete the testing.  This time may differ by product and/or feature.  It is estimated that the PREP program will run between 60 and 75 days.

PREP Problem Escalation & Resolution

In the event of defects or problems that may occur during the PREP, please send an email to the account PREP d-list set up for each PREP site. The same Salesforce Case reference number created for the installation will be used for problem escalations. The standard CS&S escalation process will be employed.  Requests for special assistance will be routed through the Global Support Center.

For PREP program details, please contact the Product Manager and request the PREP program overview document.