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ISV Partners' Guide

# About BEA Partner Support

This chapter includes the following topics:

- Partner Support Resources
- Installing Maintenance Updates

# Partner Support Resources

BEA provides a rich set of resources to support members of our Partner Program. These resources are organized in the following categories:

- Partner Enablement Resources
- Software Development Resources
- Sales and Marketing Resources
- Support Resources

For comprehensive information about all partner resources and benefits, enrolled partners can access the BEA Partner Program Guide at the following URL:

ftp://pdownload:BUY_ME@ftpna2.bea.com/pub/program/BEA_Partner_Program_Guide.pdf

## Partner Enablement Resources

Partner enablement resources are designed to help new partners get started in their relationship with BEA, and to remain connected with the variety of tools, training, news, and partner events that BEA makes available. Resources include the following:

- Welcome kit
- Product sales training—Specially designed classes, including the partner Webinar series that encompasses technical, business development, sales, and marketing topics.
- PartnerNet—BEA's portal to partner services. This password-protected, partners-only site, available at the following URL, contains the latest information about BEA's Partner Program:

http://partnernet.bea.com

- Partner Response Center—A comprehensive partner information and business support hotline, offering direct 5x9 telephone or email assistance. Response Center staff direct callers to the BEA professional who can answer questions or provide information. The Center also serves as a conduit for technical support.
- Training discounts—Reduced fees for instructor-led, open-enrollment, technical education courses
- PartnerFlash, a monthly email newsletter that delivers partner updates and other news, such as how BEA is engaging its partners in successful businesses
- Partner sales toolkit

## Software Development Resources

BEA's software development resources for partners include the software bundle and support described in Using the Partner Software Bundle, and also the following:

- Validation program—A framework for verifying the technical readiness of partner solutions that complement BEA's platform. The BEA Validation Program verifies that partner applications meet a well-defined set of BEA-approved integration requirements, and that the partner applications have been tested against these requirements.
- BEA Download Center—Unlimited access to the BEA Download Center, where you can download the latest BEA products for evaluation purposes. During your membership term, you can also download BEA product updates. You can access the Download Center directly from PartnerNet or from eSupport.

## Sales and Marketing Resources

The Partner Program's sales and marketing resources provide the tools and resources to help partners gain access to new markets and develop new business opportunities, and develop new business opportunities. Resources include:

- BEA Partner Solutions Catalog, an online partner locator tool where customers, prospects and BEA sales can learn about BEA partners and their solutions.
- BEA Partner Program logo, for branding usage with partner software products
- Marketing toolkit
- Relationship managers, lead registration, and sales incentive programs

## Support Resources

The support resources available to partners include the following:

- Telephone Hotline—Technical support hotline provides 5x9 developer-level help with technical problems encountered while using or implementing BEA products, or while developing your own product with BEA products.
- BEA eSupport—BEA's online technical support Web site. Within the eSupport Web site, partners can submit online support requests, find the answers to the most commonly asked technical support questions, and can search the BEA support knowledge base using AskBEA, BEA's natural language search engine. The eSupport Web site is located at http://support.bea.com/.
- Newsgroups—Local user groups and online discussion forms, led by BEA developer relations engineers and BEA WebLogic developers world-wide, are available to partners to answer questions and provide advice and support. To join an online discussion forum, visit the following URL:

http://forums.bea.com/bea/index.jspa

- BEA e-docs—BEA's comprehensive online product documentation site for all BEA products. Documentation includes release notes, reference information about supported hardware/software ocnfigurations, and detailed instructions for the installation, configuration, development, and administration of all products. The e-docs Web site is located at the following URL:

http://e-docs.bea.com

- BEA dev2dev Online Portal—Developer-centric site that offers development tips and tools, sample code, newsgroups, and a host of Java community services to help with your development efforts and shorten the time it takes to learn and use the latest BEA technologies. The dev2dev online portal is available at the following URL:

http://dev2dev.bea.com

# Installing Maintenance Updates

Periodically, BEA releases a service pack or a maintenance patch for WebLogic Server:

- A service pack is an update to an existing release that provides bug fixes and minor product enhancements. Typically, a service pack does not replace an installation of WebLogic Server; instead, it changes and expands the installation.
- A maintenance patch is an update to an existing release that provides bug fixes between service packs.

Note: For the purposes of this document, we assume that your customers have valid BEA support contracts.

When you distribute software that is either bundled with WebLogic Server or layered on top of it, you need to provide a mechanism for keeping your customers informed about the various versions of WebLogic Server, including service packs and maintenance patches, for which your software is supported.

Before you establish customer support policies for your software, make sure you have the answers to the following questions about WebLogic Server:

- Are all service packs and maintenance patches for the current release of WebLogic Server supported by your software product? Make sure you clearly identify the versions of WebLogic Server for which you certify your product.
- Which service packs or maintenance patches of WebLogic Server do your customers need in order to use your product? How do you communicate this information to your customers? For example, do you send customers email or post the information to a Web site?
- When you distribute software that includes a specific version of WebLogic Server or one of its components:

- Do you include all the service packs or maintenance patches required by your customers in the WebLogic Server distribution that is part of your product?
- Do you know how you will handle future service packs and maintenance patches that will need to be added to your customers' installations?
- Do you know whether it is likely that your customers may encounter a conflict when applying a patch? Do you have instructions ready to help your customers resolve conflicts?

One way of answering these questions is to simply redistribute your software, along with the latest version of WebLogic Server. Another approach is to include, in your software package, instructions for upgrading the WebLogic Server software. Find the solution that works best for you and your customers.

Note: The `license.bea` file that you generate and distribute, as described in Using an ISV Redistribution License, will continue to be valid for any customers who later use the Upgrade Installer to update their installations with service packs for WebLogic Server. As a result, customers who install your distribution of the initial release of WebLogic Server 9.0 can later use the Upgrade Installer to install a service pack without obtaining a new license.

If, however, you provide an upgrade to your existing customers by supplying a whole new version of WebLogic Server that includes a service pack, then you must generate a new `license.bea` file and include it in your distribution.