On 09/19/99 21:35:17 you wrote:
Steve, I can see how the "proactive" response to a disk failure autosupport would leave you rather unimpressed when the call back is after you have already acted on it yourself! Fact of the matter is, that is indeed the way it is today. Autosupport is filtered by a script and the ones needing attention (eg DISK_FAIL) are forwarded to CSRs for attention. A call is logged and the customer is contacted. Now, the info in the autosupport is not very CS-friendly because the info that we need to locate the customer is not mandatory. So, often it slows down the process of logging the call, finding the contact information, etc.
In other words, Network Appliance implemented autosupport without committing to the staffing necessary to support all of the events generated. The solution then is either to ditch autosupport, or increase staffing. Productivity enhancements to the process (i.e. automation) are fine, but are not enough by themselves in the long term unless the fundamental issue is resolved.
We are looking at correcting these bottleencks by proposing changes to Engineering that would make contact and customer information mandatory in autosupport.
So your solution is to shift more work off to the customer? Not a good strategy. You should keep it optional so that customers can still get *some* benefit out of autosupport if they chose, even if it means Netapp won't be able to respond their quickest. A simple note in the documentation making it clear that the more information the better would be sufficient.
Furthermore, the customer information is not going to be kept up to date by many sites. IT professionals have too much to do as it is; one reason why *you* are paid for *support* is so that *you* do some of that work. It is not unreasonable for support to try to keep their records updated.
We also have a team engaged right now to scope out automation around autosupport. If, for example, locating a customer record in our database was simple and guaranteed (programatically) then a script could field the DISK_FAIL autosupport, log a call, check the customer's service level, issue the RMA and email you back the call log number and the shipment info. (Know anyone that could help us with this project? :-).
This sort of automation should have been done years ago. Doing it now depends a lot on your choice of customer database and may require a new one if your old one was not properly planned. As to who can help you, you're in the heart of Silicon Valley... look out the window and wave some stock options around. Or consider offer existing personnel additional incentives to do the task. (Why do we have to tell you this?)
We are also thinking about automating the analysis of a crash - I think we should be able to suggest patches just based on info in autosupport ... at least some percent of the cases. Not sure how successful this will be. But it would be really cool even if we were able to auto-analyze and propose upgrades for 25% of the cases!
This is a good idea. The wording will have to be careful to distinguish between "This looks like a known bug and we think this upgrade may fix the problem" and "We don't know specifically about this problem, but it may be fixed by going to the latest recommended version" and also catching those cases where the latter advice might actually be unwise. This can help in the response time but in many cases you will ultimately need some actual human intervention to follow-up.
This should be possible. Autosupport has a lot of untapped benefits that we can take advantage of. It is not straightforward - but you should see some changes in the future - for the better.
Look, I know this message sounded harsh. No need to respond. But I recognize corporate PR song and dance when I see it and it pushes one of my hot buttons to see it on this list. Looking at resolving the problem? It's been around for a long time. Considering more automation? I bet you would have said the same thing 5 years ago. Explanations are fine, but excuses are just excuses. Customers want to see results.
Bruce