System information

VMware Technical Support Guide
T E C H N I C A L S U P P O R T G U I D E – F E B R U R A R Y 2 0 1 0 / 1
Introduction
Building an Effective Support Relationship
The effectiveness of any support interaction depends upon the technical knowledge, problem
solving skills and communication skills of both your administrators and our Technical Support
Engineers (TSE). In addition, a good understanding by both parties of their roles and
responsibilities is crucial to effective communication. In order to ensure that your experience
with VMware Technical Support is as effective and efficient as possible, we would like to
define these roles and share some best practices that can accelerate the problem-solving
process and enhance your customer service experience.
Roles and Responsibilities
Customer Roles and Responsibilities
VMware can work more effectively with your organization by collaborating with a regular set of
contacts for technical as well as contractual issues. We define two types of customer contacts
for every agreement:
Support Administrator
Support administrators are responsible for submitting support requests and working with
VMware Support representatives. The level of support you choose determines the number of
individuals that can be designated as support administrators. If a designated support
administrator changes, a request must come from your primary license administrator to make
this change. For complimentary support, only the customer to whom the product is registered
can submit support requests.
Primary and Secondary License Administrators
License administrators are responsible for receiving and administering software product
licenses, updates and upgrades from VMware and operate as the point of contact for renewing
support agreements.
Primary license administrators can go online and add, edit or remove support or license
administrators tied to existing contracts. A flash demo can be found online and an FAQ is
available to assist your primary license administrator with this process.
VMware Support Roles and Responsibilities
There are two types of support professionals working in the VMware Support organization.
Your understanding of which group you are talking to, and what their responsibilities are, goes
a long way to minimize any frustration.
Customer Service Representative
These individuals are your first contact when submitting a support request by phone. Their
responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Accurately and thoroughly logging your support requests into our call tracking system
Giving you the tracking number used to identify your support request
Setting appropriate expectations regarding initial response times based on your support agreement
Creating and/or maintaining accurate customer profiles