IBM Support Offerings

IBM Support Offerings

Empowering you, our clients, to be successful is at the heart of everything we do at IBM Support.

Our Commitment to You

IBM Support is committed to help you become successful with your IBM products and services – across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid cloud platforms. Our team of experts helps ensure your success by consistently providing positive outcomes to your support experience and needs.

Cognitive
  • We employ predictive, Watson-infused learning features into our support tools to maximize efficiency and continually improve.
Collaborative
  • We connect across boundaries and streamline communication to provide you with a seamless support experience.
Proactive
  • We enable problem avoidance by arming you with the information you need, when you need it.
Mission-Critical
  • We provide enterprise support solutions at the speed your business requires.

IBM Product Support Options

Whether you are running a solution with IBM Cloud services, on-premises software, systems, appliances, hybrid environments, or non-IBM products, IBM Support is enterprise-ready and flexible - available around the clock and around the world - to help you keep your cognitive businesses running smoothly. Our support options are categorized as follows:

IBM Support site

IBM Support Site

IBM Support site is the cognitive foundation where our support offerings are built on. It is available for FREE by all clients.

IBM Support site features

IBM Watson is at the heart of our IBM Support site. Watson is:

  1. Embedded into our innovative search and chat tools to give you faster and more effective results to find the answers you need.
  2. Infused into our case management tools to ensure issues get opened with the right information, and routed to the right skills to resolve your complex issues.
  3. Evolving every day

Note: You may require IBM Base or IBM Advanced Support to access certain content and features.

IBM Base Support

IBM Base Support

IBM Base Support offerings provide the foundation for production workloads. They focus on four key areas to help make you successful:

  1. Preventive support: unlock the business value of our products through comprehensive fixes and innovative product updates
  2. Production support: solve your business problems by accessing the right skills quickly and efficiently, and collaborating with our deeply skilled support professionals 24x7
  3. Cognitive support: optimize your support experience with the next-generation AI abilities of IBM Watson
  4. Omni-channel support: simplify your experience by choosing your desired support medium
    1. IBM Support site with integrated web, chat and forum options, or
    2. Phone – particularly for critical incidents
IBM Advanced Support

IBM Advanced Support

IBM Advanced Support offering provides additional benefits on top of Enterprise Support for a fee.

  • Increased Responsiveness
  • Higher Support Case Prioritization
  • Priority Access to Senior Technical Support Professionals
  • Mutually agreed Critical Severity 2's will be worked 24x7 if Customer agrees to work 24x7 as well
  • Single Software Support Executive Sponsor for Hyper-care situations
IBM Expertise Connect

IBM Expertise Connect

IBM Expert Lab Services Expertise Connect helps you optimize your IBM Technology.

  1. Dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM) for post-deployment operations
  2. Best Practices/Proactive Technical Guidance
  3. On-demand Collaboration and assistance with:
    • Architecture reviews
    • Health checks
    • Performance optimizations
    • Upgrades
    • Migrations

Comparing IBM Product Support Options

Let's help you make the right choice

IBM Support Site IBM Base Support IBM Advanced Support IBM Expertise Connect
Web and Self-Help Support

Access to the IBM Support site

Yes Yes Yes -
Cognitive Support

Next-generation support experience with IBM Watson

Yes Yes Yes -
Knowledge Base

Technical and support articles

Yes * Yes * Yes -
Community of Experts

Community engagements in discussion forums

Yes Yes Yes -
Preventive Support

Fixes and product updates

- Yes Yes -
Production Support

24/7 collaboration with support professionals

- Yes Yes -
Phone Support

Access to phone support

- Yes Yes -
Faster Response Times - - Yes -
Higher Support Case Prioritization - - Yes -
Mutually agreed Critical Support Sev 2 cases will be worked 24x7 if customer agrees to work 24x7 - - Yes -
Single Software Support Executive Sponsor for Hyper-care Support situations - - Yes -
Priority access to Senior Technical Support Professionals - - Yes -
Dedicated Technical Account Manager as on-demand product expert - - - Yes
Accelerated business value through on-going hands-on collaboration - - - Yes
Enhanced outcomes with technical orchestration, capacity reviews, architecture signoff, health reviews, performance recommendations - - - Yes
Knowledge Sharing to increase client self-sufficiency - - - Yes
Proactive Health Assessments to drive operational improvements - - - Yes
Access to Best Practices on upgrade/migration, event readiness, new product features and more - - - Yes
* Additional charge required for IBM Z software

Discover which IBM product support options are available to you

Select a product area to find out which support offerings are available to you, and who to contact if you would like to learn more or to make a purchase:

Selected Support

Non-IBM Product Support

When you buy IBM Selected Support, IBM will provide technical expertise for "select" non-IBM based offerings as well as non-warranted IBM offerings.

For non-IBM based offerings, IBM will make available selected program defect corrections, if any, that IBM develops and non-IBM product fixes, if any, provided by the third party providers.

Support for Developers

Support for Developers

The IBM Developer site provides code samples and content for developers.

You can join the IBM Developer community to:

  • Grow your skills and reputation
  • Get help from peer developers
  • Explore guided learning paths

If you need dedicated assistance from IBM developers and experts to help you code your applications or build solutions, check out our On Demand Consulting offerings for options.

Additional resources:

Support for Business Partners

Support for Business Partners

We pay about $2,500 annually for the Value Package, and we were able to close a $500,000 deal because of it — that's a pretty amazing ROI from just one deal.

Tom Hughes, Alliance Manager, Ciber

IBM Partner Plus™ offers true partnership, built on mutual success, and the belief that we can make greater progress together. Our partner program delivers a simple, easy-to-use experience that puts you in control of your earnings and gives you access to premium expertise.
Collaboration is the key to innovation, so we’ll work together to build a relationship that grows with your business. You’ll get insider access to all the tech and resources IBMers get, along with the enhanced incentives and comprehensive support needed to start winning on day one.

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