Welcome

Micro Focus® Business Support is purchased with your product license, and protects your software investment by providing you the resources and assistance needed to maintain your Micro Focus software environment.

  • We provide world class online Self-Help resources, such as our extensive knowledge base, detailed documentation, Community forums and blogs, and Marketplace connections.
  • We provide fast, 24-hour access to Customer Support experts who diagnose and resolve issues, as well as give advice on product features.
  • We maximize the value of your software solution by providing Software Updates to improve performance and enhance functionality.

To supplement Business Support, we offer the following add-on services:

  • Premium Support provides direct access to named, senior experts who provide proactive technical guidance to increase the return on your software investment, in-depth and speedy resolution to increase system uptime and performance, and support management to drive effective business outcomes.

  • Flexible Credits provide access to short-term Support, Education or Consulting services.

This Customer Support Handbook will help you get started accessing your Support benefits, and can be used as a reference throughout your journey.


Getting Started

Introducing the Micro Focus Support Portal

The Micro Focus Support Portal is your convenient, one-stop site for the following services:

  • Search the Knowledge Base for helpful articles about your product.
  • Visit Support Home to find all the technical resources for your product – documentation, community forums and blogs, marketplace resources, and more.
  • Open a support case with Customer Support, or with Premium Support.
  • Connect to SLD (Software License & Download) to manage licenses, and download product releases and patches.
  • Subscribe to email notifications for product information.
  • View support entitlements.
  • Redeem Flexible Credits for short-term Support, Education or Consulting services.
  • Chat with a Micro Focus representative.
  • Manage your profile and add users.
  • Start a free product trial.


Create your Micro Focus Credentials and Login

On the Micro Focus Support Portal, click on the Login button (top right corner) to log in to the Support Portal or create an account. If creating an account, fill in the information requested.  If you had an account on a previous Micro Focus portal, use the same email address to tie your account to the contact record in the system.  When complete, click “Create Login”.  You can now log in to the Support Portal using these credentials.

Access your License Entitlements and Software Downloads

Click on the Licenses & Downloads tile to go to the SLD portal (Software License & Downloads).  SLD enables you to manage your license entitlements, activate and re-host your software licenses, perform updates and upgrades, download software and manage user access.  If you have previously been granted access to your license entitlements, simply click on the Search Account button and select your account. Use search parameters such as your Customer Service ID or Order Number if needed.

First time users or users accessing newly purchased products may need to link their credentials to their license entitlements. Go to the Identity Access Management page, Click on Request Access and enter a Customer Service ID or an Order Number. Select the appropriate role for each order that you require access. You will be notified by Email after the administrator of the order approves the request.

Quick Start Guide
Step-by-step videos

View your Support Entitlements

To view the support you have purchased for your products, first login to the Support Portal, then select My Entitlements from the top menu.  After you select your account, you will be presented with a list of support entitlements, including start/end dates and status.  Select “View Details” for additional information, such as support case count.

Subscribe to Email Notifications

To ensure you stay up-to-date on what is happening with your product, you may subscribe to notifications for various events, such as new patches, known problems, manuals, knowledge documents, etc.

To subscribe to notifications from the Support Portal, select “Email Notifications” from the top menu or select the tile “Notifications”.  Select Add Notifications, and type your product name in the Select Product search bar.  Select the items for which you would like to receive notifications, and move them to the Selected box using the center arrows.  Click Save when done.

If you change your mind, you may select My Notifications from the “Notifications” menu, select the notifications you no longer wish to receive, and click delete.

Leveraging Self-Help Resources

Search the Knowledge Base

If you run into a problem or have a question about your product, it is likely we have already solved the problem or answered the question.  Search our extensive knowledge base for immediate access to valuable information and instructions.

On the Support Portal, you may enter your search terms in the top search bar and click the magnify glass, or select “Knowledge Base” from the top menu to go to the search page.

If you choose to go to the search page, enter your search terms in the Concept box on the left of the page, and click the magnify glass.  Below the Concept bar, you will see a Filter box where you can further refine your search.  As you add concepts and filters your search will narrow; to broaden your search remove concepts and filters.  Your search results will display in the middle of the page, and can be sorted by Relevance or Date (a toggle setting).

Select Save Query on the top left to save your common searches; and Get Query to pull them up again.

View Documentation

Micro Focus provides valuable information in its documentation, such as Getting Started guides, Installation and Upgrade instructions, Release Notes and more.  View Micro Focus documentation by clicking on the Documentation tile on the Support Home page, or searching for your product directly from the Documentation site.

Participate in the Community and Marketplace

Micro Focus has an expansive, global community and marketplace.

The Community provides resources you need to stay up to speed on the latest technical developments of your product.  Inside this technical network, IT practitioners showcase their knowledge, you connect with peers to exchange ideas, and get access to advice, downloads, demos, and discussions with fellow experts. The Community also offers blog articles, software downloads, information about upcoming events, and more.

In the Marketplace, you can explore apps, add-ons and more to expand your product’s functionality.

Videos and Training & Education

Micro Focus regularly posts How-To videos on YouTube channels.  Search for your product on YouTube, or check your product page or Community page from Support Home.

Micro Focus offers a full range of training and education solutions to ensure you have the knowledge needed to use, install, configure and administer Micro Focus products. View the digital learning, certifications, instructor-led trainings and consultancy services available on the Training Portal.

Contacting Customer Support

If you cannot resolve your issue using Self-Help resources, and you have an active Business Support agreement for your product, you may open a support case with Customer Support.  For low and medium severity issues, open the case on the Support Portal.  For high severity issues, call us at the telephone numbers referenced in the section below.

Submit or Manage Support Cases on the Support Portal

After logging into the Support Portal, select “Cases” from the top menu top open a new support case, or to manage existing cases.  For new product questions or issues, select “Technical Issue”.  When reviewing existing support cases, you can use settings and filters to adjust how your lists of support cases are displayed.

Telephone Numbers

Go to the Contact Support page and select your product to see the local telephone numbers for Customer Support. 

Chat

Chat is offered in English and Japanese 24/7; and offered in Chinese, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish during local business hours

To start a Chat session, first login to the Support Portal, click on the blue button “Chat with an Agent” at the bottom right of the portal, and click “Start Chatting”.  Your name and email will be auto populated, and you will be asked to select your language.  If it’s determined that you need to speak with a technical expert to resolve your support question, the Micro Focus agent will assist in opening a new support case.  When your session is complete and you close the Chat, you will have the option to save a copy of the Chat transcript.

Upload and Share Files with Customer Support

Micro Focus uses an in-house application called Micro Focus – File Transfer System (MF-FTS).  MF-FTS is a secure and encrypted site protecting your data while it is available to Micro Focus support personnel.  Each time you open a case with Micro Focus a new MF-FTS account is opened, dedicated to this support case.  Content is removed from the location 45 days after the close of a case.

To upload a file to Customer Support, login to the Support Portal, select “Cases” and then “My Open Cases” from the top menu, click on the Case Number for which the file is needed, scroll down and make note of the Account Name and Account Password, then click on the FTS link to load the secure site, and enter the Account Name and Account Password to login and upload your file.  Logout when you are done.

Report a Software Defect or Security Vulnerability, or Request a Product Enhancement

Software Defects

Defects are features or functions that do not work as documented. You can report what you consider to be a product defect by opening a support case. We will accept and record defects reported against currently supported versions of Micro Focus products and investigate them based on priority.

Product Enhancement Requests

Your ideas are important to us and we take them seriously.  You can suggest a change, improvement, or new feature for the Micro Focus product you are using by submitting your suggestion on the Idea Exchange. 

Every idea has merit – we’ll endeavor to review ideas in a timely manner and put it through the paces to determine community and customer value, viability, and fit.  Read about submission guidelines, idea definitions and the review process here.

We will evaluate all product enhancement requests as candidates for future product releases. All product enhancement requests become the property of Micro Focus.

Security Vulnerabilities

Micro Focus is committed to providing secure enterprise software to its customers. While we employ secure product development practices in our engineering process, we recognize that not all vulnerabilities may be avoided.

We are committed to providing a quick response for potential vulnerabilities. View your options for reporting a potential security vulnerability here.

View information on our ISO certificates, privacy controls and governance and other efforts to ensure our products are secure here.

You can view the latest security vulnerability bulletins and subscribe to alerts here.

Manage Support Contacts

Micro Focus allows Admin Users to add and remove other Users on the account, change a User’s role, and assign Users rights to specific entitlements.  Users can open support cases against entitlements which have been assigned to them.  Admins may also assign Admin rights to another User to provide a backup when they are out of the office.

To manage Users, login to the Support Portal and select “Users” from the top menu or the tile.  When a new User is created, they will receive an email inviting them to create a login on the Support Portal.

Support Delivery Information

Hours of Coverage, Severity Levels and Response Time Objectives

Micro Focus provides support 24x7x365 for Business Support, with the exception of select agreements in Japan, and select excluded products. 

Except for SoftwareGrp products (software previously provided by the former software business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and now provided by Micro Focus), any 24x7x365 support will only be provided for Severity 1 issues opened by telephone.  Once the severity of the issue has been downgraded, work will continue the next business day.

See the table below for target maximum response times which indicate how quickly we will respond to you when you open an incident. A response is defined as the time between creation of the Incident and the initial communication between the assigned engineer and your company.

Severity Level

1

Critical

2

High

3

Medium

4

Low

Severity Level Description

Production system is down. The product is inoperable, resulting in a total disruption of work. No workaround is available.

Major functionality failure. Operations are severely restricted, although work can continue in a limited fashion. A workaround is available.

Minor functionality failure. Product does not operate as designed, resulting in a minor loss of usage. A workaround may be available.

There is no loss of service. For example, this may be a request for documentation, general information, or a Software enhancement request.

Business Support

1 hour

3 hours

6 hours

1 business day

Standard Care for Japan (local business hours, local business days)

NA

NA

NA

NA

 

Product Support Lifecycle and Extended Support Plus

The Product Support Lifecycle defines the duration and level of support customers can expect to receive as a product matures.  Providing predictable and consistent support guidance helps you plan your timeline for deploying newer product versions.

If your product has reached the Extended Support phase of the Lifecycle, and you still need engineering support for severity 1 issues and critical security updates, Extended Support Plus may be available for select products.  Check availability for your product on the Product Support Lifecycle table.

Resolving Multi-Vendor Issues

Micro Focus is an active member of the Technical Support Alliance Network (TSANet)—a global, vendor-neutral, not-for-profit industry support alliance. This organization creates an industry infrastructure, allowing members to collaborate and work on multi-vendor customer issues without “finger pointing.” TSANet follows industry-standard support policies and obligates members to collaborate on issues to isolation or resolution (or both). This process gives the customer a seamless interface in solving complex multi-vendor problems among two or more vendors. TSANet allows the assigned engineer to work directly with an engineer from another vendor to solve support issues. Think of it as a behind-the-scenes mechanism that expedites resolution, often without the customer even being aware of it being engaged. TSANet is a direct vendor-to-vendor contact; however, customers should have appropriate support entitlements with both vendors prior to the interaction. TSANet allows its members to work on your behalf and not waste time duplicating support incidents with multiple vendors. More information on TSANet, including a list of participating members, is available at: www.tsanet.org

Managing your Support Experience

Request Support Manager Assistance

If the support process is not working to your expectation, the most effective way to engage a manager is to ask your technical support engineer or Chat agent to escalate your case. Please have your support case ID ready so we can expedite your request.

If you have Premium Support, contact your Support Account Manager (SAM), Enterprise Support Manager (ESM) or Strategic Support Manager (SSM).

Customer Satisfaction Surveys

We value your thoughts and ideas regarding your overall support experience. At the end of each service request, please take advantage of the opportunity to tell us how we did. You may also email us at softwaresatisfaction@microfocus.com any time, to share your comments.

Premium Support

Premium Support augments the underlying Business Support purchased with your product license, by providing direct access to named and dedicated support experts that understand your business – helping you to optimize even the most complex hybrid software environments and resolve issues quickly if they arise.

If you have a Premium Support engineer, you may contact them directly for critical issues, or you may open a support case on the Support Portal.  When you open your support case, select your Premium Support entitlement, and the case will route directly to your engineer.  When you first purchase Premium Support, an onboarding session will be scheduled with you to provide you with contact methods and information.

Engage a sales representative if you are interested in finding out more about how we can help your business maximize your software investment, or visit our Premium Support page.

Flexible Credits

Need help with an upgrade, training on a new product, or a health check on your environment? Flexible Credits are a service currency you can redeem for short-term support, education or consulting services anytime during the year. Augment your Business Support by building some Flexible Credits into your license purchase or renewal, or add them at any time throughout the life of your support contract.

When you are ready to redeem your Flexible Credits for services, login to the Support Portal, and select Flexible Credits from the top menu.  You can submit a request to cash in some Credits for a service, or you can view your Credit purchases, outstanding balance and status.

Refer to the Flexible Credits Guide for ideas of how to spend your credits and guidelines around credit quantities needed.