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IBM United States Hardware Announcement
110-008
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IBM Electronic Services
Electronic Service Agent and the IBM Electronic Services Web portal comprise the
IBM Electronic Services solution -- dedicated to providing fast, exceptional support
to IBM customers. IBM Electronic Service Agent is a no-charge tool that proactively
monitors and reports hardware events such as system errors, performance issues,
and inventory. Electronic Service Agent can help focus on the customer's company
strategic business initiatives, save time, and spend less effort managing day-to-day
IT maintenance issues.
Integrated in the operating system in addition to the HMC, Electronic Service Agent
is designed to automatically and electronically report system failures and customer-
perceived issues to IBM, which can result in faster problem resolution and increased
availability. System configuration and inventory information collected by Electronic
Service Agent also can be viewed on the secure Electronic Services Web portal and
used to improve problem determination and resolution between the customer and
the IBM support team. As part of an increased focus to provide even better service
to IBM customers, Electronic Service Agent tool configuration and activation comes
standard with the system. In support of this effort, a new HMC External Connectivity
security whitepaper has been published, which describes data exchanges between
the HMC and the IBM Service Delivery Center (SDC) and the methods and protocols
for this exchange. To read the whitepaper and prepare for Electronic Service Agent
installation, go to the "Reference Guide" section of
http://www.ibm.com/support/electronic
Select your country.
Click on "IBM Electronic Service Agent Connectivity Guide."
Benefits
Increased uptime: Electronic Service Agent is designed to enhance the
warranty and maintenance service by providing faster hardware error reporting
and uploading system information to IBM Support. This can optimize the time
monitoring the symptoms, diagnosing the error, and manually calling IBM Support
to open a problem record. And 24 x 7 monitoring and reporting means no more
dependency on human intervention or off-hours customer personnel when errors are
encountered in the middle of the night.
Security: Electronic Service Agent is secure in monitoring, reporting, and storing
the data at IBM. Electronic Service Agent securely transmits via the Internet (HTTPS
or VPN) and can be configured to communicate securely through gateways to
provide customers a single point of exit from their site. Communication between
the customer and IBM only flows one way; activating Service Agent does not enable
IBM to call into a customer's system. System inventory information is stored in a
secure database, which is protected behind IBM firewalls. The customer's business
applications or business data is never transmitted to IBM.
More accurate reporting: Because system information and error logs are
automatically uploaded to the IBM Support Center in conjunction with the service
request, customers are not required to find and send system information, decreasing
the risk of misreported or misdiagnosed errors. Once inside IBM, problem error data
is run through a data knowledge management system and knowledge articles are
appended to the problem record.
Customized support: Using the IBM ID entered during activation, customers can
view system and support information in the "My Systems" and "Premium Search"
sections of the Electronic Services Web site.
The Electronic Services Web portal is a single Internet entry point that replaces the
multiple entry points traditionally used to access IBM Internet services and support.
This Web portal enables you to gain easier access to IBM resources for assistance in
resolving technical problems. The newly improved My Systems and Premium Search