The reality of the Support Center Consultant
At any given customer site, it is commonplace to find a significant number of tightly integrated products and technologies, from the application to the storage platform.
A typical configuration may include the following: Oracle™ 11i running on Microsoft™ Windows on a Dell™ Server under Vmware™ with Veritas™ Volume Manager, EMC™ Power Path, an Emulex™ HBA and FC drivers via a Cisco™ Switch through an ISL WDM Fiber link to a Brocade™ switch connected to a remote EMC Storage Array connected via a second SRDF remote WAN Storage Array. And that’s just one example from one customer!
When additional complexities are considered (such as virtualization, intelligent switches, IP storage, and grid computing) the immense cross-over between multiple vendors’ hardware and software products clearly adds significant challenges for support organizations.
The goal for the support center consultant is to quickly condense operational and environmental factors into a singular, relevant analysis and practical resolution for any given customer situation. In most cases, this requires a significant level of cross-functional team collaboration to identify key points of a solution.
Technical information utilized by support center consultants is derived from many sources including product training, engineering manuals, and vendor-published books (in our case, EMC Uncovered Books), product technical manuals, white papers, vendor knowledge base references, internet research, and experienced industry contacts.
While each is a rich source of information in its own right, they do not typically address the complex integration and interoperability issues that are inherent in multi-vendor environments. Additionally, these resources often reside at either end of a technical spectrum that can often leave out the vast “middle-ground” knowledge that is essential to supporting the customer environment.
The Missing Link
From the perspective of the support center consultant, the piece of the puzzle that is often missing is a mid-level, five-thousand foot view that provides both a technical understanding and the “fuzzy logic” of integrated customer environments. The checks and balances that come along with this understanding are key for validating problem solving methodologies and analysis.
Although there are various organizations that offer problem solving strategies that focus on the esoteric methodology of structured problem analysis, what adds an additional layer of value in today’s complex technical environment is to holistically understand generic technical detail as it applies to the analysis model.
To address these challenges in a very practical, scalable and repeatable way, EMC has recently launched the “Gray Paper Program” to help support center staff understand technical detail across multiple products, technologies and platforms. The program is a joint venture between the divisions of customer service, subject matter experts (SME), and the regional field technical support specialists.
The groups collectively form Communities of Practice within their areas of expertise, and review pertinent technical issues that require supplementary information to widen the understanding of technical scenarios. The end-result is a standardized format “Gray Paper” that includes no more than two to four pages of detail on a particular subject. Each Gray Paper synthesizes the collective knowledge and experience of the community members, taking it from gray matter that resides in the heads of individuals and capturing it in a documented format that can be easily shared.
The Gray Papers reside on a custom knowledge database called the “Gray Paper Repository” with integrated access control lists to ensure managed authorization to various levels of information. The Gray Paper Repository has a rating system that allows users to rate the quality of the Gray Paper being accessed. Automatic tabulation compiles the ratings and awards are presented to individuals for the top three papers on a quarterly basis.
Utilization metrics are collected for each paper, and a feedback field is provided to solicit comments, questions, and suggestions for improvements. The author of each Gray Paper maintains ownership within the SME group and provides updates and maintenance to the associated work, resulting in a truly live repository.
EMC encourages organizations to leverage off their experience and skills by reviewing complex scenarios that require technical clarification. Porting this information into relevant Gray Papers enhances the expertise and productivity of the support and service organizations and their consultants.
In essence, the Gray Paper program provides a solid technical resource focused on cultivating live, relevant information at just the right depth. As a result, the collaborative skills of support and service personnel are greatly enhanced by providing a reference medium to compare across their functional groups and areas of expertise.
Comments? Suggestions? We would like to hear from you. Please email the editor at sspanews@thesspa.com.
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