Support

• Open – Cases are created in an open status and will stay in an open status while actively being worked.
• On-Hold – Indicates the customer needs additional time for research or testing. Only the customer can direct a case be placed into this status.
• Pending Engineering – Indicates the case is being worked and investigated by the Sustaining Engineering Team.
• Feature Work – Indicates the case is associated with a product enhancement request.
• Ready for Deployment – Indicates the case has a fix available for the customer to utilize.
• Pending Release – Indicates the targeted product release in which the fix will be available.
• Implemented – Pending Verification – Indicates the solution has been deployed and is pending customer verification.

Critical Issue

A critical issue indicates the production system is completely down or a system operations or mission-critical application is down.  This could also include an application that is in final testing, or is facing a critical production use go-live time frame.

Landis+Gyr promptly initiates the following procedures and assumes there is a customer resource(s) available during the contractual service hours to collaborate on a workaround or fix.  We recommend calling Customer Support to ensure an immediate response.

• A specialist(s) is assigned to correct the issue on an expedited basis
• Ongoing communication is provided on the status
• Immediately, a temporary workaround or fix begins

High Issue

A high issue indicates the production system is functioning, but is severely impacted, with limited capabilities or is unstable with major periodic interruptions.  Mission-critical applications, while not being affected, have experienced material system interruptions.  It may also indicate there is a time-sensitive question impacting performance.

A Landis+Gyr specialist is assigned and provides additional, escalated procedures as determined necessary by Landis+Gyr support services staff.  Landis+Gyr exercises commercially reasonable efforts to provide a workaround or include a fix for the issue in the next maintenance release.

Medium Issue

A medium issue indicates the production system is still functioning but capabilities are moderately impacted, the system is unstable with minor periodic interruptions, or there is a minor loss of product functionality.  There is a medium to low impact on the business, business continues to function by using a procedural workaround.

Low Issue

A low issue is a general usage question, request for information, reporting of a documentation error, or recommendation for a future product enhancement or modification.  There is low to no impact on the business or the performance or functionality of the system.

The purpose of Landis+Gyr support is to assist customers with issues related to the use of Landis+Gyr equipment and the software used to manage the equipment.  The Support Team provides guided assistance, advice, and troubleshooting with questions related to products, installation, configuration, and software upgrades.

Landis+Gyr support will assist customers with:

• Specific functionality of products, which are usually available and described in the product documentation.
• Functionality that is not working as outlined in the product documentation, including bugs and hot fixes.
• Software licensed directly from Landis+Gyr.
• Access to the Landis+Gyr knowledge base and product documentation.
• Maintenance releases.
• Firmware updates.
• Enhancement requests.

Customers should be able to demonstrate all issues arising from the above categories in an out-of-the-box or off the shelf installation.  If an issue persists on a non-fully supported technology stack, the customer should be able to demonstrate that the issue can be reproduced on supported stack before raising a support case.  Based on the official product documentation, the Support Team will provide assistance in replicating issues with the product functionality.  If an issue is discovered, the Support Team will collaborate with the Sustaining Engineering team to drive a potential product resolution in the next possible product revision.  If a product enhancement or improvement is requested, the Support Team will ensure the information is provided to Product Management for review.

The following items do not fall under Customer Support and are covered by Landis+Gyr Strategic Services offerings:

• Product usage training.
• Configuration or commissioning of network equipment.
• Systemwide firmware upgrades.
• Installation, training, or support of third-party equipment such as equipment purchased from eBay or from another utility.
• Services or software not purchased from an approved L&G vendor.
• System architecture review or design.
• Validations or health checks of a solution.
• Performance tuning.
• Custom application development, extension, and integration services.

For every support issue presented to Landis+Gyr, the Customer Support Team works to respond per the service level targets.  When critical cases are received, all Support Teams, Support Managers, Escalations Managers, and Executive Leadership are notified and the issue is triaged immediately.  The escalations leader and/or case owner contacts the customer to begin efforts to address the issue.  Landis+Gyr and the customer work together in good faith to address the issue. Critical issues are worked until a resolution or work-around is provided or the customer agrees the case severity is no longer critical and can be changed.

Regardless of the case severity, if a customer believes they are not receiving the proper response, they should first escalate the concern by notifying the assigned case owner.

For any critical or escalated issues, the Regional Support Manager is responsible for ensuring the shortest possible resolution time and communicating the agreed-upon action plans to the stakeholders from any of the personnel involved.  They proactively engage the Senior Executives, as appropriate, to demonstrate Landis+Gyr’s customer commitment at the highest levels.

Escalating an Issue:

• Occasionally, an issue requires a faster response, more attention, or a deeper understanding of the impact on the business.  The first step is to verify the current severity level of the support case and ensure that it matches the correct severity level based on the definitions.
• Once the case severity is verified, contact the case owner assigned to the support case and let them know to adjust the severity, if applicable.  A business case should include any financial implication and the impact for users.  The support case owner is responsible for escalating and involving others, as required.
• Participation is a critical aspect of our ability to resolve escalated issues quickly and effectively. Therefore, the Support Team may request assistance from the customer during the resolution of an issue.  The Support Management Team may assign a single point of contact for the duration of the case investigation.  The assigned point of contact will be your advocate within Landis+Gyr to ensure the correct people are engaged at the right time to expedite a resolution.
• Support Management is made aware of all escalations and involved in ensuring the escalation is handled properly.
• If for some reason the issue is still not resolved, the next step is to contact a Customer Advocacy Manager.

• Application Support Analysts
  Application Support Analysts are responsible for providing application maintenance, support, and enhancements to minimize service disruption and aid in day-to-day operations for internal field programs support.  They complete service requests, resolve incidents, investigate problems, and provide expert advice to Support Technicians and Technical Account Managers.
• Customer Account Representative (CAR)
  CAR’s are responsible for managing all customer orders from the moment Landis+Gyr receives a signed contract or purchase order, until the delivery of goods or services.  Their responsibilities include order entry, new part number creation with the Customization Team, working with the Scheduling Team to provide expedited shipping dates, and working with the Logistics Team to ensure orders are delivered as required.  Customer requests such as quotes, inquiries, questions and all other issues that may arise for a customer should be directed to your CAR. 
  
• Customer Advocacy Manager (CAM)
  The Customer Advocacy Managers are responsible for regional quality and customer satisfaction leadership by planning, driving, and executing communications around key issues and high impact/overdue cases.  As a liaison, they ensure customer objectives are clearly communicated into the support organization for successful and timely resolutions.
• Customer Support
  The Customer Support Team is responsible for taking care of external and internal case resolution and customer communication. They are required to document and provide as much detail within the case for successful investigation and resolution to ensure cases are complete. Customer communication points are expected throughout an investigation to resolution process.
• Network Operations Center (NOC) Technicians
  NOC Technicians are responsible for proactive 24/7 monitoring for hosted customers, internal field program support, and after-hours emergency support.  They are also responsible for initial triage and investigation in response to alarms and managing formal incident and event notifications.
• Project Manager (PM)
  Project Managers are responsible for leading and managing projects.
• Technical Account Manager (TAM)
  Technical Account Managers oversee the day-to-day operations of their assigned internal field program accounts to ensure the overall health of all systems and services.  They act as a liaison between Network Operations, the internal field programs and other key stakeholders.  Having a wide range of product knowledge and strong technical background allows them to deliver both reactive and proactive solutions for application, system and service issues.
• Technical Implementation Engineer (TIE)
  Technical Implementation Engineers are responsible for application support to ensure system performance goals and metrics are met.
• Technical Implementation Manager (TIM)
  Technical Implementation  Managers are responsible for end-to-end implementation of technical solutions to meet customer requirements and for consulting on technical domains, including security.

How do I escalate a case?
Call Customer Support and notify the Support Engineer of the escalation request, referencing the case number.

What do I need to add to a case description?
Any additional information to assist the Customer Support Team in reaching a resolution, including the technology that describes the case.

How do I update my contact information and email address?
You can call the Customer Support Team or send an email to support.na@landisgyr.com.

What can I expect as a typical response time?
Refer to the Severity Definitions and Service Level Targets.

Why aren’t we receiving email event/issue notifications and customer communication letters?
Your email address is not in our contact list database and needs to be updated or the email is filtering to your junk folder.

Why can’t I speak to the same Customer Support Engineer each time I call Customer Support?
Customer Support provides assistance to all customers on a first come, first serve basis. A dedicated resource can be made available by purchasing a Premium Service Agreement.

What is the link to download firmware and hardware updates?
With an active Command Center License you can login to Smart Grid Solutions.  If you do not have login credentials, contact your Customer Account Representative at 1-800-926-6254.

Where can I find the most recent Command Center release documentation?
Currently this is not available to customers, however, you can call Customer Support and request a copy.

Who do I contact if I want to add a service?
 Contact your Area Sales Manager or Distributor.

What is the link to login to InSite?
https://www.landisgyr.com/customer-login/

On Hold: Cases can be placed into an “On Hold” status.  This state is usually used to provide additional time for testing, validation, or holiday/vacation time. Only the customer or distributor can direct the case to be placed into “On Hold” status. A customer or distributor can add a public comment to the case at any time to take the case out of “On Hold” status. Cases can remain in “On Hold” status for up to 60 days. Once this time limit is exceeded, the case owner will notify the customer or distributor to continue to work the case to closure.

Case Closure: A customer or distributor can close a case at any time during the case lifecycle. The Landis+Gyr case owner always attempts to gain agreement from the customer or distributor prior to any case closure.

Re-Open Closed Case: A case can be re-opened within 30 calendar days of being closed.  If a customer or distributor adds a comment to a closed case, the case is considered re-opened for further work.   If the case has been closed more than 30 calendar days, you will be asked to open a new case.   If needed, the new case can be related to a closed case.

Change Severity: The severity of a case can be changed, but only with the customer’s agreement. The situation/issue may change, causing the need or reason for the severity of a case to be altered. Reference the severity level definitions to better understand which severity level is appropriate for the situation. This action is mostly used to alter case severities between critical and high.

Training or Consulting: There are situations where a case issue and/or question become more of a training or consulting exercise.  The Customer Support Team will work to address all issues and questions and provide best practices approaches. If the case becomes a consulting and/or training need (versus support), the Support Team will make the appropriate personnel aware of the possibility of additional services for the case contact. Then the case will be closed per the normal case management policy.

Issue/Question Addressed

When a support case, issue, or question has been addressed, the customer is informed and provided resolution details and/or troubleshooting results via case notes.  Customer confirmation will be requested, with the case owner addressing any further clarifications needed.  If no response is received after 20 days, the case owner will request if more time is needed.  If no answer is received within one business day, the support case will be transferred to the close confirmation process.

No cases are ever deleted.  If an additional or similar issue is uncovered, a new support case will be created and related to the previous or similar case.  There is a significant chance we need to re-start the investigation and troubleshooting effort, as variables may have changed.  Some examples include underlying data, operating environment, and technology stack to name a few.

InSite is an online portal for our customers and distributors that brings together all the information and tools needed in one convenient location.  Through InSite, customers can place order requests, check the status of orders, view a delivery status, initiate a return request, check the status of returns, and access other key portals that include technical documentation and support cases.

Order submittal and management is simple and easy to use. Through “Order Request” an order can be populated in the order cart by manually entering items, selecting items from previous orders, uploading a purchase order document, or making selections through the online digital product catalog.  The digital product catalog provides a comprehensive list of all Landis+Gyr products actively available to order.  Once an order is submitted, your Landis+Gyr Customer Account Representative will review the order request and advise acceptance through an automated sales order acknowledgment.  An order can be managed and tracked through InSite using “View Orders.” “View Orders” allows you to track the status of each order from acceptance, to shipping, to delivery at your facility.

Return Material Authorization (RMA) and warranty administration is online for all products.  Your RMA requests can be easily submitted, tracked, and managed from request to analysis of product, to delivery applicable replacement items.

InSite can be accessed here: https://www.landisgyr.com/customer-login/

MDMS Patch and Hot Fix Policy

MDMS patches are delivered in a zip format. Patches for version 3.8 and greater include Java artifacts, DB artifacts, release notes and deployment guides. The issues in the patch cycle are scheduled by priority and the patch release cycle.  Critical production down issues are treated separately as part of an emergency review process, with updates being delivered as soon as possible.  All reported issues that are candidates for a patch are reviewed by a Change Control Board (CCB), which includes key members from Product Management, Deployment and Engineering.   In the CCB meetings, all issues are reviewed for scheduling priorities and a fix version will be assigned.  Upon review, it will be determined if the update needs to be applied to other supported versions.

The purpose of the MDMS CCB review is to review support issues resulting in a delivery request, including defects, configuration changes and clones. Questions and enhancements do not go through the CCB review, although a request initiated as a defect or configuration may be changed to an enhancement due to the CCB review.  Issues are reviewed to ensure understanding of the client issue, determination of which release will fix the issue and understanding the priority of the issue for the client.

The scope of the CCB should match the purpose of the CCB. The following issues/topics are in scope for the CCB Review meeting:

• Evaluating if an issue is a defect or an enhancement
• Reviewing if there is need for a fix
• Reviewing the release version to complete the fix
• Communication of future large influx of CCB review configuration changes

Chair of CCB
Role: Primary Decision Maker/Owner
The Chair of the CCB represents the business and is the ultimate decision maker for CCB issues.

CCB Members
Role: Secondary Decision Makers
The CCB members are the primary advisors for the CCB Chair and are the active decision makers in the absence of the CCB Chair. A majority of those present shall provide the direction of the CCB in the absence of the CCB Chair.

Current Decision Makers:
Role: CCB Process Coordinator
The CCB Process Coordinator is responsible for coordinating all CCB activities and processes, running the CCB meeting, documenting decisions from the CCB meetings, assigning items based on CCB decisions and providing a central point of communication for CCB process questions.

CCB Advisors
Role: Advisors to CCB Members and Chair
The CCB Advisors provide advice related to their areas of expertise/ownership including testing, development, packaging and delivery.

Patch Fix Policy for Command Center, TS1/TS2/PLX/PLC, RF, RF Mesh IP

Command Center patches are delivered in a zip format, depending on the resolution.  Patches can include C# artifacts (DLL’s), database artifacts, release notes and Patch Deployer Tool user guides.   All reported issues that are candidates for a patch are reviewed by a Change Control Board (CCB), which includes key members from Product Management, Deployment and Engineering. These patch requests are also reviewed by a Patch Review Board to ensure that the issue is critical and needs a patch. The patch is issued only on the requested version.  Patch requests are prioritized on a FIFO basis, unless it is a critical production down issue, in which case the Patch Review Board reschedules patch priorities.  Patches are issued up to a weekly basis, as required.

Advanced Load Management (ALM/(Demand Response) Patch Policy

Advanced Load Management (ALM) patches are delivered in java artifacts and release notes.  All reported issues that are candidates for a patch are reviewed by a Change Control Board (CCB).  The CCB includes key members from Product Management, Deployment and Engineering.  A fix version is applied based on priorities and required timelines; the issue could either be scheduled with the ongoing development release or the MR release, whichever is earliest.  The patches are issued up to a bi-weekly basis as required.

Patches released after July 2019:

• Release Patches as a Package: Patches will include multiple patch fixes on a specific version of Command Center in a single patch package. Patch packages will typically be released at the end of each month.
• Support Centralized Installer (CIN) Patch Format: For Command Center 7.3 and higher, the patch package will now support the Standard, using PatchDeployer tool, and Centralized Installer (CIN) format. Patch packages for Command Center 7.2 and lower will only be in Standard using PatchDeployer tool format.

Landis+Gyr observes the following holidays, at which time there is reduced technical support staff.   For critical issues, emergency access to on-call personnel is available 24 hours per day on holidays.

• New Year’s Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Thanksgiving Friday
• Christmas Eve
• Christmas Day