Oracle said Monday it is now giving customers more personalized support through a new system that combines the previous MetaLink portal with Oracle Software Configuration Manager.

The updated service, dubbed My Oracle Support, uses the configuration manager tool to connect information about a customer's IT environment with the Oracle support knowledge base.

Oracle is claiming that the new system provides up to 40 percent faster "service request resolution."

In addition, customers receive PowerView, a dashboard for managing and tracking systems.

Forrester Research analyst Ray Wang called the new portal an "incremental improvement" but nonetheless an "improved way of identifying a customer's configuration environment and delivering targeted information, as opposed to having the customer come in and search through all the support information."

It is available at no charge to Oracle's Premier Support customers, but remains a work in progress, with some features not yet working as planned, according to an official FAQ document.

Also, while the service can provide a "patch analysis health check" that will tell customers about missing critical patches applicable to their environments, customers must actually distribute and apply the patches.