IONA Customer Services Glossary of Terms

A - E , F - Q , R - Z ,

A
Acknowledgement

The notification of the receipt of the issue by IONA. The service request is logged and the customer provided with a unique tracking number. Immediate acknowledgement is defined as the provision to the customer of a service request confirmation:

  • by phone during the initial call from the customer
  • by an email sent within 5 minutes of receipt of the customer's service request by email or other electronic means of communications.

Architecture

Defines the design of a system or elements of a system so that developers conform to overall characteristics, specifications, principles, and values.

B
Benefits

Direct impact on the Customer business that is realized from the purchase/use of an IONA Customer support offer.

C
Confirmed Bugs

Customer has supplied IONA with sufficient information to work on the problem. This includes but is not limited to: Definition of the issue, Obligation information, Customer Responses, Customer Supplied test case confirmed by IONA Customer Services.

Copyright

A legal mechanism for protecting the original form or expression of unique ideas and designs. For example, software, paintings, symbols, presentations, and so forth.

Craic

The Irish expression for the enjoyment felt in a social gathering involving music, conversation, laughter and story-telling (pronounced "crack").

Customer

Means the person, firm, or company to be supplied with products, services or support by IONA.

Customer Solution

A unique configuration of Support (Customer Service), Service (Global Services) and/or IONA Products that addresses the requirements of a specific customer or market. A Solution is what a customer purchases.

D
Deliverable

Capabilities or tasks that describe what IONA provides to a customer and/or what IONA will do for a customer.

E
Engineering Support

Provides for a Customer specific patch or workaround, if required, on confirmed severity level I and II Service Requests in addition to the latest Product Releases on covered IONA Supported Products. Support effort within the time zone of the supporting engineering team up to five (5) business days per week.

Enhanced Engineering Support

Provides for a Customer specific patch or workaround, if required, on confirmed severity level I and II Service Requests in addition to the latest Product Releases on covered IONA Supported Products. Support effort within the time zone of the supporting engineering team up to seven (7) days per week.

F
Feature

A unique value that IONA identifies as equal to or an advantage over our competitors in providing this support.

Follow the Sun

Methodology that IONA utilizes to provide 24 X 7 coverage within their Technical Support Centers.

M
Major Release

A Product Release that includes new and or changes to Product features and or Product functionality that may require an existing application to be refactored.

Methodology

An overall structured approach for consistently accomplishing similar efforts.

Minor Release

A Product Release of a collection of bug fixes and or enhancements that may require an existing application code to be changed and recompiled as existing interfaces can or may change.

Model

A schematic or diagram that describes a structure, as well as the individual elements and their relationships.

O
Optional Deliverables

Deliverables which may or may not be included when the offer is sold. These are selected to be included at the time of sale.

Options

List of available options for a specific support deliverable.

P
Patch

A Product Release of a combination of bug fixes over a prior period of time, which may also include enhancements, made available to any customer who has purchased an elevated support contract. Also referred to as a temporary or emergency patch release, as IONA would recommend adoption of the next Minor or Service Pack release for continued deployment.

Principles

Statements that express beliefs or very important and basic values for a business and/or group.

Promotional Description

A short description of the Support Offer, including its features and benefits.

R
Response

A notification by IONA Customer Services in response to the Customer on an opened Service Request with either a resolution, disposition, assignment or requesting additional information.

S
Service Pack Release

A Product Release of a combination of bug fixes over a prior period of time, which may also include enhancements that preserve binary compatibility.

Standard

A convention, rule, and/or specification that describes recognizable, measurable features, and observable characteristics.

Support Offer

A set of one or more Deliverables that define a specific Support capability from a customer's and/or market's perspective. It is the smallest unit of Support a customer can purchase. The Support Offer can be customized with options/values and optional Deliverables.

Support Specifications

Description of how the Support Deliverables will be delivered. These are typically documented in an IONA "Support Delivery Plan" (SDP).

Support Window

Determines when IONA is obligated to provide support for a specific deliverable.

T
Technical Account Manager

A named individual responsible for managing the support relationship with Gold Support customers. As the main liaison point for Customer Services on behalf of the Customer, TAM's are responsible for coordinating the resolution of issues across different IONA groups and scheduling regular meetings and status summary reports.

W
Workaround

A way of resolving a problem believed to be caused by a bug in an IONA product by changes to the application, configuration or the mode of operation.