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SERVICE REQUEST MANAGEMENT GUIDE

FOR MENTOR PARTNERS


CONTENTS

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................... 4

A well documented SR for every issue makes us all more effective.......................................................................... 4

Even after the SR is closed, it serves two important purposes. ................................................................................ 4

One flow, a choice of two tools ................................................................................................................................. 4

Anatomy of a Service Request ....................................................................................................................................... 5

Contact/Account Information.................................................................................................................................... 5

Problem Description and Solution ............................................................................................................................. 5

State Tracking ............................................................................................................................................................ 6

SR # ........................................................................................................................................................................ 6

Timestamps ........................................................................................................................................................... 6

Priority ................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Status ..................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Reason ................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Links ....................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Other State Tracking Fields .................................................................................................................................... 9

Activities .................................................................................................................................................................. 10

Service Request Workflow ........................................................................................................................................... 11

Using GTS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Getting started......................................................................................................................................................... 12

Logging In and Out ............................................................................................................................................... 12

GTS User Interface basics .................................................................................................................................... 13

Setting User preferences ..................................................................................................................................... 21

Receive incoming SRs .............................................................................................................................................. 23

Create a new SR ....................................................................................................................................................... 24

Opening an SR for an existing Contact ................................................................................................................ 26

Opening an SR for a new contact ........................................................................................................................ 27

Manage workload/backlog ...................................................................................................................................... 28

Manage open SRs .................................................................................................................................................... 28

Change status ...................................................................................................................................................... 28

Add Activity .......................................................................................................................................................... 28

Change SR owner ................................................................................................................................................. 30

Put SR back on the “queue”................................................................................................................................. 31

Request Assistance from Mentor ........................................................................................................................ 32


Change priority .................................................................................................................................................... 34

Maintain SR Short Description ............................................................................................................................. 34

File Attachments .................................................................................................................................................. 35

Close an SR ............................................................................................................................................................... 37

Contact visibility and changing “sold-to” ................................................................................................................. 38

Using Mobile SR ........................................................................................................................................................... 39

Getting started......................................................................................................................................................... 39

Logging in/access ................................................................................................................................................. 39

Receive incoming SRs .............................................................................................................................................. 39

Finding SRs on your queue. ................................................................................................................................. 39

Taking ownership of an SR where you know its number..................................................................................... 40

Create a new SR ....................................................................................................................................................... 41

Manage workload/backlog ...................................................................................................................................... 43

Manage Open SRs .................................................................................................................................................... 44

Change status ...................................................................................................................................................... 44

Add Activity .......................................................................................................................................................... 44

Change SR owner or Put SR back on the “queue” ............................................................................................... 45

Request Assistance from Mentor ........................................................................................................................ 46

Change priority .................................................................................................................................................... 47

Maintain SR Short Description ............................................................................................................................. 47

File Attachments .................................................................................................................................................. 47

Close an SR ............................................................................................................................................................... 48

Glossary ....................................................................................................................................................................... 49

Disclaimer .................................................................................................................................................................... 49


INTRODUCTION

This user guide is for all Mentor partners who provide support to customers. It describes how to use the tools

Mentor has made available to manage customer Service Requests (SRs).

Before we get into the detail, let’s take a moment to review why these tools exist, and the importance of tracking

service requests.

A WELL DOCUMENTED SR FOR EVERY ISSUE MAKES US ALL MORE EFFECTIVE.

Every issue that we work on for a customer should be recorded as a Service Request.

While we are working on the issue the Service Request is the place to track progress, document the problem and

the steps taken to investigate and resolve it. Having this all documented in one place means that the SR becomes a

convenient way to share information with both the customer, through Support Center, and with other engineers at

your organization and Mentor. The SR becomes the heart of a collaborative problem-solving process. If you need

help solving the SR, the person providing assistance can easily see what you have done so far. If the customer

needs to know the status of the SR they can see it online without needing to interrupt you. And if you need to

spend time away from SR work another engineer can pick up from where you left off with no need to ask the

customer to repeat all the debug steps you have already tried.

A well-documented SR makes us all more efficient. This does not mean you have to spend a lot of time writing

long-winded descriptions of everything you have done. In fact, the shorter and more concise you can make your

documentation the more efficient it is for everyone.

EVEN AFTER THE SR IS CLOSED, IT SERVES TWO IMPORTANT PURPOSES.

The problem description and your solution are available to Mentor engineers and partners to help other

customers. And if the issue resolved in the SR is significant enough, we may choose to create a published

knowledgebase article (“KB Article”) from it so that customers having the same question in future will be able to

find a solution for themselves online.

A well-documented SR helps demonstrate the value of support to your customer. Having a record of all the times

through the year that you have provided support and added value to your customer can be invaluable at support

contract negotiation time.

ONE FLOW, A CHOICE OF TWO TOOLS

We have explained a few of the “why”s behind our focus on good Service Request management. In the next

chapter, we describe the “how”: what is in an SR, and how it fits into a process. In the remaining chapters we

show how to use the tools we provide to enable you to manage the process.

Two tools are available-

GTS for Partners is essentially the same tool used by Mentor support to manage customer service

requests, with its scope limited to your customers. It is has a powerful user interface and a comprehensive

set of features, but this means it takes some time to learn and use effectively.

Mobile SR Form is a simplified interface into GTS. It is easy and intuitive to use, but its functionality is

limited.


ANATOMY OF A SERVICE REQUEST

It is important to understand the meaning of the fields in a Service Request, and how they are used before we get

into the process of managing an SR.

The fields of an SR may be considered in the following groups or families of related fields:

CONTACT/ACCOUNT INFORMATION

In addition to some basic information about the customer (their name and organization), we capture their contact

details, preferred language, time zone, and location.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION AND SOLUTION

We capture the context of the issue (the product, area, version, operating system) and initial description of the

problem, preferably in the customer’s own words. A copy of the customer’s original description is made by the

system and you should edit it through the life of an SR to create a complete but succinct summary of the problem

or question.


When you have a solution to the issue, it is recorded in the “Solution Details”, together with a title that

summarizes the problem. These solutions are the starting point for sharing knowledge and are key to ensuring we

solve problems once, and avoid reinventing the wheel if the same question is asked again. It is vital that the

solution is documented well. It should be as short, simple and clear as possible. Nobody wants or expects you to

write a work of great literature. Bullet point lists are ideal. Include the cause as well as the solution in the “details”

section where this may help.

STATE TRACKING

While an SR is open, we need an “at-a-glance” view to see the current status of the case- both for you and the

customer.

After the SR is closed we use various timestamps captured through the life of an SR to generate metrics and

reports that help us improve the SR handling process.

SR #

The SR number is used as a reference for this issue. Every issue should have its own SR number. When a customer

adds follow-up questions these should be created as new Service Requests.

TIMESTAMPS

Opened: Automatically captured- the date and time that the SR was first created.

Contacted: You should enter the time that you first make contact with the customer and have an exchange of

technical information regarding this Service Request. Email contact is OK, but it should really be more than a

standard “we got your SR” message.

Closed: The date and time when the SR is changed to “Closed” status. Usually, you will let the system set this time

when you close the SR, but if you are catching up on documenting SRs that were closed in the past, you may set a

different time before closing the SR.


PRIORITY

Indicates the impact of the issue on the customer’s ability to use the tool. Here is how we describe these to

customers on Support Center-

Critical: You are unable to use a tool on your critical path and there is no acceptable workaround

High: You are unable to use a tool that will soon be on your critical path and there is no acceptable

workaround

Medium: Use of the tool is impaired but not prevented. There is an acceptable workaround.

Low: Your productivity may be impacted, but it is a minor inconvenience and an acceptable workaround

exists

STATUS

Use the SR status to indicate where the SR has reached in its lifecycle. An SR may generally be moved from any

status to any other.

Pending: The Service Request owner is actively working on the issue

Pending Defect: A defect has been found in the product and a Defect Report (DR) has been submitted to

fix the problem.

Pending CR: Pending Change Request. Similar to Pending Defect, where the product development group

uses a non-standard defect tracking system (typically recent acquisitions).

Pending Enhancement: The customer would like an enhancement made to the product and an

Enhancement Request (ER) has been submitted. This status is only used for products that do not have an

“Ideas” online site for customers to suggest enhancements.

Pending Release: The Service Request is associated with a defect or enhancement which has been

resolved and assigned to a release which has not yet shipped.

Pending Vendor: The Service Request requires action from a third party.

Monitor: The Service Request owner is waiting for a Mentor resource outside the Global Services and

Support organization, such as a Technical Marketing resource.

Waiting for Customer: The Service Request owner is waiting for the customer- either to provide more

information/data needed to progress the case, or to acknowledge that a provided solution did indeed

answer their question. An email is automatically sent to a customer 10 minutes after a service request is

put into Waiting for Customer status, and again after two weeks if the SR has not changed status in the

meantime.

Closed: The SR owner and customer agree that no further action is needed regarding the issue.

Re-opened: The Service Request was previously closed and has been opened again


REASON

Before closing an SR, you should categorize it into one of these possible reasons. This helps us identify, prioritize,

and address the most common causes for customers to need support.

Hardware: Failure, Crash, Hardware issues

Internal: Discontinued product, canceled/duplicate calls, tracking purposes only, priority shipment,

reshipment (Updates), SupportNet issues

Methodology/Process: Methodology, process flow, modeling, customization

Other Non-Technical: Third Party product, Sales and Marketing

Referred to Sales: Field or Support Sales

Referred to Training: User needs training

Setup and Configuration: Environment, installation, licensing, printing, userware issues

Tool Defect/Enhancement: Product defect/enhancement, performance, patch, release request

Tool Usage: User configuration, user error, documentation issues

LINKS

DR#: If the Service Request is found to relate to a product defect, then the Defect Report number will be

recorded here.

KB Article: If the solution to a Service Request is found in a KB article on Support Center, then the article

number is entered here. This helps us understand which articles are most useful so we make sure they are

kept up to date. When the customer looks at the SR on SupportCenter, they will see the KB article

solution, saving you having to rewrite it.

Linked SR: If the solution to this SR was found in another SR then the other SR’s number is entered here.

This helps us understand which SRs are being referred to frequently, so we can identify cases that should

be turned into KB articles.


OTHER STATE TRACKING FIELDS

Owner: For your customers, an engineer at your organization will usually be the SR owner. Even if you need help

from Mentor Support, you will usually continue to own the SR, as the point of contact with the customer. We will

see later how you will track the request for help using an activity, rather than re-assigning the SR.

Direct Access: Used to indicate whether the customer interacted directly with an appropriate engineer in their first

communication. This field was significant when we operated a largely phone-based process and it was used to

differentiate between a direct connection to an engineer (Y) rather than a callback (N). In most cases now the

customer has logged the SR online and this field should be set to N when you first start work on the SR.

Closed in One: If you are able to close the SR on the first communication with the customer then set this flag to Y,

otherwise set it to N. This is another field that was more relevant when most SRs were created over the phone.

Data Sensitive: If you have received a test case or other design data from your customer you use this flag to

indicate if the data is sensitive.

Internal: if this flag is set then the SR is not visible to the customer on Support Center and they will not receive the

usual automated emails on its progress. It should only be used rarely, where you need to track work for a customer

that they will not expect to be logged as a Service Request.


ACTIVITIES

Use activities to track all the events and information gathered through the life of an SR. Activities have a type. You

are unlikely to need to use, or know about, all of them. Some should only be used by Mentor support. The ones

you need are most likely to know about and/or use are:

Assistance Offered: If you can help out on someone else’s SR you can add one of these activities with

suggestions or advice. You may see assistance offered activities added to your SR if a Mentor CAE notices

it and volunteers some useful information.

BCC GTS: Mentor support has the ability to create activities by email. When they do this, you will see

activities of this type on the SR.

Customer Notification: At various points in the life of an SR, automated notifications are sent to the

customer. The system puts a copy of these notifications in the SR as a Customer Notification activity.

Defect Update: Updates relating to a linked defect

Email- Outbound: Record emails you send to the customer

Email Exchange: Record emails received from the customer, or email conversation threads

ITAR Data: If this SR contains ITAR data, record it using this activity

Phone Call: Summarize the exchange of information that took place in a phone call with the customer

Request Assistance: If you need help from Mentor support you will create a “Request Assistance” activity.

See later in this document for more details.

Research Issue: Summarize the results of any research activity you need to do whilst investigating the

problem.

Sales Lead: If you uncover a sales lead in the course of the SR, record it using this activity type.

Services Lead: If you uncover a services opportunity in the course of the SR, record it using this activity

type.

Solution Provided: Use this activity to record the fact that you have proposed a solution to the customer.

The solution itself should be documented in the SR “Solution” field.

Test Case Assist: In general if a test case is needed then it should be provided by the customer. The test

case should be the minimal design/code fragment/environment needed to reproduce the problem and

not include customer sensitive data/IP. It is the customer’s responsibility to provide a suitable test case.

However, at our discretion, we may help with creating a test case. When we do that, we create a “Test

Case Assist” activity to describe the work done and ensure we have a record of the value provided.

To Do: A convenient way to keep a record of next steps you plan to take in resolving the issue.

Training Lead: If you uncover a training lead in the course of the SR, record it using this activity type

Web attachment: If a customer adds an attachment, such as a test case, to an SR then it will appear as an

attachment to an activity of this type.

Web Update: If a customer updates the SR online, an activity of this type will be added, containing the

customer’s request or feedback. If an SR has been closed, customers may request you re-open it using this

activity type.


SERVICE REQUEST WORKFLOW

With a good understanding of the parts that go to make up an SR, the process is actually quite simple. The flow

diagram below shows the lifecycle of a typical SR.


USING GTS

GETTING STARTED

LOGGING IN AND OUT

To log in:

1. Go to Support Center and sign in to authenticate.

2. Click through the “GTS for Partners” link on Partner Portal

3. Use the credentials supplied when you were set up with an account. Set “Remember my User ID” to save

having to type it every time. You may check that you are using a supported browser, with the correct

settings, using the “HTML Browser Compatibility” link.

4. If you have problems logging in, click the link to request help on Partner Portal

To log out:

Click the person icon at the top right corner of GTS”, then click the “Exit” icon:


GTS USER INTERFACE BASICS

The GTS UI is generally self-explanatory, but it does have some unique quirks that may trip up new users. It is a

good idea to get familiar with using the GTS UI before starting to manage Service Requests. It will make SR

management much easier.

THERE IS NO "SAVE" BUTTON!

The first thing to be aware of is that changes you make in GTS are saved to the system when you “step off” a

record- i.e. when you click in a different part of the screen or move to a new tab. There is no “submit” button. This

can be confusing for new users- changes that you didn’t think you had saved get made to the SR, or (if you close

GTS without stepping off a record) changes don’t get saved at all. Once you get the hang of it, it is very simple, but

to begin with always make sure that you step off a record to save it, and re-open the record again to check.

NAVIGATION

Navigation through the various GTS screens is intuitive, using a tabbed interface to select what you are interested

in working on. You will spend most of your time in the “Service” tab managing your SRs. Customer information is

under the “Accounts” and “Contacts” tabs.

You may use the browser “back” and Forwards” buttons to move through your history in the tool.

If you can’t find a tab or screen of interest, use the “Site Map”:

When you have a list of items (such as a list of SRs in the Service>SR List view), you will notice there is no vertical

scroll bar. To scroll through the list use the icons below the list:


This icon, at the top right of a view:

Allows you to see more: it unhides/hides a number of less frequently used fields in a form.

If you are entering text in a field such as an SR short description, you may expand the size of the displayed field

using the grab icon at the bottom right:

USING QUERIES- CREATING A NEW QUERY

When you have a list open you will frequently want to filter it, searching for a subset of related items. For example,

all the critical, pending SRs or all the SRs assigned to me. Searching in any list is done using a query. The simplest

form of query is to search by example-

Click the query icon above the list:


Enter your search criteria in the column fields-

You may enter criteria in multiple fields. These will be “AND”ed together. Hit the right arrow to submit the search

and see results listed-

This method of searching works well for many situations. But you may find you want more complex queries. This is

done using the advanced query tool. After selecting the query tool, select the “Query Assistant”


This opens a pop-up form that you may complete with the criteria you are looking for. You may choose whether to

AND or OR these criteria together-

If the query is a “one-off” you could press “Go” now and run the query. But if it is a query you are likely to need

again, hit “Save Query”, give the query a name and OK the form.

USING QUERIES- USING A SAVED QUERY

To use a query that you have previously saved, use the pulldown menu at the top-right of the screen. Queries are

saved in the context of a screen, so you will see your queries related to service requests in the SR List tab, but not

the Accounts tab.


USING QUERIES- SETTING A DEFAULT QUERY FOR A VIEW.

You can choose a default query for any view. This query will be run as soon as you open the view. This can be a

handy way to ensure, for example, that you see all the open SRs assigned to you when you first look at the SR list

view. Start by opening Tools>User Preferences:

Select the “Default Queries” tab. Then for each screen view where you want to set up a default query, select the

selector icon at the far right and pick from the list of your saved queries:


ORGANIZING LIST VIEWS- SORTING

After you have run a query in a list, the next thing you are likely to want to do is to re-organize the results into a

more useful display.

If you just need to sort based on one column, click the column heading. Click again to sort in the opposite direction

(ascending<>descending toggle). There is also an “Advanced Sort” if you need to sort on multiple columns. This is

under the “gear” icon. Note that you may need to scroll through the many options under this icon- advanced sort

is towards the end of the list:

Pick the columns you want to sort on, in the order you want them sorted, and select “OK”.


ORGANIZING LIST VIEWS- RE-ORDERING COLUMNS

You may choose which columns you want to be displayed in a list view. This can be useful to get all the information

of interest in one view and to remove information that is not of interest. This is another option under the gear

icon.

As with advanced sort, you may need to scroll down the list to find it:


Look for column name using the first letter of the label (e.g. “S” for Symptoms)

Use the arrows in the middle to move single or multiple items between the “Available Columns” and “Selected

Columns”

Use arrows at the right to change the order columns will be displayed across the screen

Save your settings when you are done to see the results. These changes will be retained for use whenever you look

at this list in future.


SETTING USER PREFERENCES

The first time you use GTS you will need to configure it and set up some basic profile information.

YOUR PROFILE

1 Go to the “User Preferences/User Profile” tab:

Add or correct any information that is missing or wrong.

SETTING UP YOUR STARTUP VIEW

GTS has multiple screens or “views”. You will likely find that you need to go to one particular view most often

when you open GTS. You can tell GTS to always open on your favorite view:


Under User Preferences>Behavior select the pick icon as shown above and select the view you want GTS to start

with whenever you open it. A good suggestion to start with would be to use the Service Requests – SR Home or

Service Requests - >SR List as a startup view. If you do not see “User Preferences” in your tabs, find it using the site

map as described previously.

Whilst in this tab, set Navigation Control to “Tab”, and theme to “Aurora”. Leave everything else at its default

setting.

You are now all set to start managing SRs!


RECEIVE INCOMING SRS

Customers should be encouraged to use Mentor Support Center whenever they have a question or problem using

Mentor tools. This gives them access to documentation and knowledgebase articles that will frequently resolve

their question without the need to log an SR. But if the customer can’t find a satisfactory answer on Support

Center then they will create an SR. SRs from customers that you support will be routed to you.

One or more contacts at your organization will receive an email when a new SR arrives in the queue.

To find new SRs waiting for attention in GTS, use a predefined “Unassigned SRs” query that should be the default

in your Service/SR List view. If you do not have such a query, follow the process described earlier to set up a query

and set it as the default for this view. This query looks for SRs where the Owner is “UNASSIGNED_XXXX”, and

where XXXX is your organization’s “Sold-to” number. Since you only have visibility to your sold-to’s customer

issues, you can simplify the query to look for Owner Like “UNASSIGNED*”.

This will show you all SRs on your queue.

Before doing any work on the SR you should pick it from the queue and take ownership. Do this by selecting the SR

from the list, and hitting the “QuickAssign” button:


When you get back to the customer, make sure you set the “Contacted” date.

CREATE A NEW SR

Despite encouraging customers to go online before logging an SR, you will likely still find it necessary to create new

SRs directly in GTS when, for example, you visit the customer and pick up a number of questions; or when the

customer calls with a problem.

Start by finding the customer contact in GTS:

Either run a simple query from the Contacts Home Page-


Or go to the Contacts List and query from there as explained earlier. Either way, you will get a list of possible

matches for your contact. Scroll through the list and look for the contact you are working with at the customer

site.


OPENING AN SR FOR AN EXISTING CONTACT

Select the row for the contact in the contact list, highlighting it, then select the “Service Request” tab below the

list:

Select the “+” icon in the Service Request tab, and the system will create a new SR, copying the customer details

into it and assigning it to you.

Add the SR symptoms and context information. Defaults from the customer profile will be entered into some

fields- you will need to check these are correct and change them as necessary.

Step off the record (i.e. click in the contact list view after working in the Service Request view) to save your

changes.


OPENING AN SR FOR A NEW CONTACT

If your search for a contact did not find the customer, then you will first need to add them. Go back to the Contact

detail view. Instead of Querying, hit the “+” to add a new contact:

Complete the form. Make sure that all required data is entered- denoted by an asterisk. The contact must be

created at the correct account/site!

After creating the contact, search for them again and proceed as in the previous section.


MANAGE WORKLOAD/BACKLOG

When you contact the customer for the first time, remember to set the “First Contact” date/timestamp.

As you work on more issues you will naturally start to build up a list of “work in progress” open SRs.

Use a query to find all your open SRs (Status is Not Closed, assigned to=your login). Regularly review your open

cases and keep them updated with progress.

Try not to let cases “stagnate” or allow the documented status drift away from reality through forgetting to keep

the SR documented. In the ideal case, if anyone wanted to see what is happening with an open case they could

find this out through a quick scan of the SR in GTS (or online) and they would not need to come to you for further

explanation.

MANAGE OPEN SRS

CHANGE STATUS

Keep the SR Status up to date to reflect the true status of the case as it moves through its lifecycle, in particular

swapping between your responsibility (pending), the customer’s (“waiting for customer”) and other people at your

organization or Mentor (monitor).

To change the status, in the SR Detail view, just select the appropriate status from the pulldown and remember to

step off the SR Detail record to save your change.

ADD ACTIVITY

Use activities to record significant new information and progress with resolving the issue. See the earlier section

for a description of each of the activity types and when you would use them.


Simply hit the new (“+”) icon in the Activities view, enter the details (short summary in “Comments”, a longer

description in “Description”) and select the correct activity type.


CHANGE SR OWNER

If you need to reassign the SR to someone else in your organization, click the select icon next to the current owner

(usually you), then use the query to find the new owner and click “OK”:

This method should not be used for getting help from Mentor. See the later section describing how to do that.


PUT SR BACK ON THE “QUEUE”

If you own an SR and need to re-queue it for someone else in your organization to pick up, click the “Unassign”

button when you are looking at the SR in the SR list (usually as the result of a query):

This will set the owner to “UNASSIGED_XXX” where XXX is your organization’s “sold to” number. The SR will now

appear when anyone in your organization uses the “unassigned SRs” query to look for incoming requests.

This method should not be used for getting help from Mentor. See the later section describing how to do that.


REQUEST ASSISTANCE FROM MENTOR

To request help from Mentor, use the “Request help from MGC CAE” button in the activities section of the SR

Detail view:

This will create an activity attached to the SR. You should describe what assistance you need so that Mentor

Support has the information they will need to assist you. Mentor support will be able to see the SR so there is no

need to repeat information that is already documented, but you should note any particularly relevant information

that may help get the support person up to speed quickly. The activity description is intended to be an at-a-glance

summary of the issue and your need for help. Add more details in the “comments” section.

The activity is automatically routed to the most appropriate Mentor engineer. You should not modify the activity

owner as this would likely cause the activity to be mis-routed, delaying or preventing you from getting the help you

are asking for.

Mentor support engineers (“Customer Application Engineers” or CAEs) with the appropriate product knowledge

will see the activity on their queue and will respond to you, either within the body of the activity itself or through

the addition of new activities. You continue to own the SR throughout this process, as you are expected to

maintain ownership of the end customer relationship.


One reason for requesting assistance might be that you believe the customer has encountered a defect in the

software. The Mentor CAE will work with you to verify that this is a bug and check to see if it has been logged

before. If this is the first time this issue has been encountered the CAE will log a defect and link the SR to it,

otherwise they will link to the existing defect report. You will see the Defect Report (DR) number in the

State/Linking area of the SR detail form, and additional information on the status of the DR is also visible. This

information is also shared with customers on Support Center. When the defect is closed, you will be informed so

that you can make sure the customer has the resolution they need.


CHANGE PRIORITY

As the SR progresses through its life you may find the original priority setting no longer applies- you provide a

workaround so a critical issue is now high, or an issue that was not on the customer critical path is now, so the

priority needs to be elevated. You do this in the Service>SR Detail view, selecting the picklist in the “Status” field

and choosing the most appropriate level. This should be done with the customer’s knowledge and agreement.

Customers may see this value on Support Center. We keep a record of the first Priority setting of an SR, for future

reference. This is in a read-only field in the “additional info” section (Original Priority).

MAINTAIN SR SHORT DESCRIPTION

The SR Short Description is intended to be a short summary of the problem (not the solution) as it would be

described by a customer. You should edit the short description and as you make progress solving the issue you will

keep it updated with any new information such as

symptoms,

steps to reproduce,

context- relevant details about the user environment

what changed before the problem occurred


To edit the short description, place your cursor in the field and make the desired changes. Remember to step off

the record to save it. We keep a copy of the original short description (“Customer Short Description”) for

reference, as a read-only field in the “Additional Info” section:

FILE ATTACHMENTS

Customers may attach files to an SR on Support Center. These files appear as attachments to activities on the SR in

GTS, indicated by a paperclip symbol in the “Attachment Flag” column:


To download the attachment, click on the activity number (to the left of the paperclip) to open the activity in more

detail. At the foot of the activity, you see a list of attachments. Click the attachment name link (1) to download or

open the file. One activity may contain multiple files.

You may also attach files to an SR in a similar way. Open a new activity of an appropriate type, then use the “New

File” button (2) to attach your files.


CLOSE AN SR

When the issue has been resolved and the customer informed, you should close the SR.

1. Add a Solution to the SR. Use the “++” symbol to create a new solution.

The Solution Title should be a one-line summary of the problem. The Solution Details should contain a

description of the steps needed to resolve the problem or answer the customer question. This should be

brief but sufficiently detailed to enable another engineer to re-use the solution, or for the customer to

come back to it in the future and get their answer without needing to refer to the SR activity history or

(worse) log another SR. Never enter an empty solution or one that says something like “told customer the

answer”!

The “+” symbol is to re-use an existing Solution. This is not generally used. Instead, if you are re-using a

solution we would expect you to link to the appropriate KB Article or SR (see earlier).

An SR may have multiple solutions, but generally, most have just one. An example case where you might

want to have multiple solutions would be where you provide a workaround to a problem (first solution),

continue working it, then find a fix (resolved defect- second solution).

2. Make sure the SR Short Description is a good summary of the problem or question.

3. Complete any remaining required fields (indicated with red asterisks) correctly

4. Add a “Reason” to categorize the type of question.

5. Set the Status to “Closed”. This will automatically fill the “Closed” date to the current date/time. If you

need to set a different time, do this before you set the status to closed, by clicking the calendar icon in the

“Closed” field:


CONTACT VISIBILITY AND CHANGING “SOLD-TO”

You will only see customer details and SRs for customers that you are responsible for supporting in GTS. Customers

are grouped by “sold-to”. Your organization may be responsible for more than one “sold-to” group. You may only

see customers for one sold-to at a time in GTS. To change the group of customers you see at any time, in GTS go to

the “Tools>User Preferences > Change Position” view:

You will see all your sold-to organizations. One is flagged as “primary”. You will only see customer data associated

with the primary sold-to (ending in 27, above).

If you want to see customer data associated with a different sold-to group, highlight the desired group, then click

the “Change Position” button. This changes the primary organization, but for this to change what you see in GTS

you need to log out of GTS and then log back in again. The Primary setting is remembered until you change it

again.


USING MOBILE SR

The mobile SR form is a simplified interface into GTS. Like GTS, it is a web-based tool but the functionality has been

reduced to the minimum set of features needed to manage SRs online.

GETTING STARTED

LOGGING IN/ACCESS

Go to Partner Portal and click the “Mobile SR” link. When prompted, use your Support Center credentials to log in.

(Mentor Employees may use their Mentor network login). The user interface will open at the “New SR” form by

default.

RECEIVE INCOMING SRS

FINDING SRS ON YOUR QUEUE.

Use the “All Unassigned SRs” tab to find SRs from your customers that are waiting to be picked up in your “queue”.

Sort the list using the column headers.

Drill down to the SR of interest by clicking its number. Scroll down through the SR detail to review its contents then

when you are ready to pick it from the queue, use the Update This SR section of the SR detail-


QuickAssign will assign the SR to you. Unassign might be used later to put the SR back in the queue for someone

else to pick up. You may also enter a new Owner Name if you wish to assign the SR to a colleague.

If you have made contact with the customer to let them know that the SR has an owner then choose “Yes” for “Set

First Contact Date”.

Do not use this method to request help from Mentor (covered in a later section).

TAKING OWNERSHIP OF AN SR WHERE YOU KNOW ITS NUMBER

When a new SR is created for one of your customers, you will receive an alert email that includes the SR number.

So instead of looking through the queue of unassigned SRs, you can jump straight from the home page to assign

the SR:


Open the “Update SR” tab, and select pulldown to the right of “Update SR Owner?”

Pick “QuickAssign” to take ownership of the SR yourself. If you wish to assign the SR to someone else in your

organization, enter the new owner’s name. Later, you may need to put the SR back in the queue. You would use

“Unassign” for this.

If you have made contact with the customer to let them know that the SR has an owner then choose “Yes” for “Set

First Contact Date”.

This method should not be used to request assistance from Mentor- see the later section.

CREATE A NEW SR

Note that the customer must have a valid Support Center account for you to be able to use the mobile SR form

to log SRs for them. If a customer has more than one site in their profile, the SR will be created at their primary

site by default.

Enter the required details in the New SR tab. The product list will narrow down as you type. Only the fields marked

with a red asterisk are required, but clearly, the more relevant information you can capture about the issue, the

quicker you are likely to resolve it.


Click the “Submit SR” button to enter the SR. You and the customer will receive a confirmation email that includes

the SR number. To update the SR or attach files you may reply to the confirmation email. You may also choose to

continue using the mobile SR form, or work in GTS.

If a customer has multi-site access, do not use the default “New SR” form. Instead:

1. Type the customer email address in the “Open SR” box and hit the blue arrow to its left.

2. Choose the selected site from the returned list.

3. Continue as before

If an SR cannot be created then you will receive an email notification. This usually happens if the customer does

not have an active SupportNet account, or if their site is not on active support. You should resolve the issue before

attempting to log further SRs. Use GTS for Partners to investigate the customer details.

MANAGE WORKLOAD/BACKLOG

When you contact the customer for the first time, remember to set the “First Contact” date/timestamp.

As you work on more issues you will naturally start to build up a list of “work in progress” open SRs.

Use the “My Open SRs” tab to find all your open SRs. Regularly review your open cases and keep them updated

with progress.

Try not to let cases “stagnate” or allow the documented status drift away from reality through forgetting to keep

the SR documented. In the ideal case, if anyone wanted to see what is happening with an open case they could

find this out through a quick scan of the SR and they would not need to come to you for further explanation.


MANAGE OPEN SRS

CHANGE STATUS

It is not possible currently to change the SR status using the mobile SR form. Some changes will happen

automatically (Pending ->Closed, Pending ->Pending Defect). But if you need to change the status to reflect the

true state of the SR you will need to use GTS or request assistance from Mentor Support (described later).

ADD ACTIVITY

During the lifetime of an SR, you will use activities to keep track of significant information relating to its resolution.

To add an activity to an SR, open the “Update SR” tab and complete the appropriate fields:


Make sure you choose the appropriate activity type.

Do not use this method to create a “Request Assistance” activity unless you also set the Activity Owner to

“UNASSIGNED”, since by default the activity created through this method will be assigned to you and is invisible to

Mentor support. There is an easier way to get help from Mentor, described later.

CHANGE SR OWNER OR PUT SR BACK ON THE “QUEUE”

Under the “Update SR” tab, enter the SR Number and select a new SR Owner. You use this method to assign the SR

to someone else in your organization by name or to unassign the SR so that it re-appears on the “unassigned SRs”

list (i.e. back on the “queue”).


REQUEST ASSISTANCE FROM MENTOR

The simplest way to request assistance is to click “Need help from Mentor CAE” under the “Update SR” tab:

Type the SR number you need help with. (Cut-and-paste it from your SR list to save typing and avoid the risk of

mistypes).

Enter a short description summarizing what help you need.

In the “Details” section describe the help needed and why. There is no need to repeat details already in the SR, but

it may help to summarize the issue, steps tried so far, and customer impact if these are not immediately obvious in

the SR history.


Behind the scenes, this creates a new activity on the SR and puts it on the queue for Mentor support (sets the

owner to Unassigned). You continue to own the SR and the communication with the end customer.

Mentor support will follow up with you directly and will document their input by adding notes to the activity or

creating new activities on the SR.

One reason for requesting assistance might be that you believe the customer has encountered a defect in the

software. The Mentor CAE will work with you to verify that this is a bug and check to see if it has been logged

before. If this is the first time this issue has been encountered the CAE will log a defect and link the SR to it,

otherwise they will link to the existing defect report. You will see the Defect Report (DR) number in the

CHANGE PRIORITY

It is not possible, currently, to change the priority of an SR using the mobile SR form. If you need to do this you

should use GTS or request assistance from Mentor Support. The customer may also request a change in priority

through Support Center.

MAINTAIN SR SHORT DESCRIPTION

The SR Short Description is intended to be a short summary of the problem (not the solution) as it would be

described by a customer. You should edit the short description and as you make progress solving the issue you will

keep it updated with any new information such as

symptoms,

steps to reproduce,

context- relevant details about the user environment

what changed before the problem occurred

To update the short description, first locate the SR in your “My Open SRs” list, and click the SR number.

On the Service Request detail form that is then displayed, scroll down until you reach the “Update This SR” section.

Add your new short description in the “Cust. Short Desc” field. This will over-write the existing short description, so

if you intend to edit the current wording, copy and paste it from the “Symptoms” section earlier in the SR and then

make your changes. Remember to hit “Update SR” to save your changes.

FILE ATTACHMENTS

It is not possible to attach files to an SR using the mobile SR tool. Clicking “How to attach a file/email from

customer” link in the “Update SR” tab opens instructions on using the “bcc_gts” email address to email

information into GTS. Note that this email address only works for authorized accounts and it will not work for

customers, so it should not be shared with them.

It is not possible to download files attached to SRs/activities using the mobile SR tool- you will need to use GTS to

do this.


CLOSE AN SR

To close an SR, under the “Close SR” tab,

enter the appropriate SR number,

select the appropriate reason

usually, set the solution visible to customers (you will very rarely need to hide the solution)

create a title that summarizes the SR problem

describe the steps needed to resolve the problem/answer the question in the details section. The solution

needs to be brief but complete. This section may also include an explanation or description of the cause.

Click “Close SR”


GLOSSARY

CAE: Customer Application Engineer- Mentor Support Engineers.

GSS- Mentor’s Global Support and Services Division

GTS-“Global Tracking System”. The Oracle/Siebel SR tracking system used by Mentor Graphics. A custom version

for Partners called “GTS for Partners” is largely the same tool with some customization and with scope limited to

the Partner’s customers. For brevity’ “GTS for Partners” has been shortened to “GTS” in this document, and only

referred to with its full name where this is necessary to differentiate it from the version used by Mentor GSS.

DR- Defect Report

ER- Enhancement Request

SR- Service Request

RA/RAA- Request Assistance (Activity)

KB Article- Knowledgebase Article- a document published on Mentor Support Center and available for customers

to resolve issues.

DISCLAIMER

Please note that we are continuously improving Support Center, GTS, and the Mobile SR form. We take every

effort to keep this document up-to-date, but there may be minor differences between screenshots in this

document and the latest version that you are using.

Please let us know if anything is so far from what you are seeing that it makes it difficult to follow the instructions

in this guide, or if you have suggestions for improvement. Contact details are on Partner Portal.

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