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Example Service Level Agreement
Section 1: Purpose
Section2: Background
Section3: Scope Of Agreement
Section 4: System Availability
Section 5: Disaster Recovery
Section 6: Requests For Support
Section 7: Automatic Services
Section 8: Requests For Services Not Covered
Under This Agreement
Section 9: Changes To Service Level Agreement
Termination Of Agreement
Amendment To Agreement
Renewal Of Agreement
Section 10: General Terms And Conditions
Term Of Agreement
Organizations
Section 11: Appendix A Definitions
Support Request
Work Order
Support
Availability
Severity Codes
Section 12: Appendix B Roles And Responsibilities
The Client
Bsl
Purpose
The purpose of this Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to formalize
an arrangement between Building Software Limited (BSL) and
the Client to deliver specific services in respect of the
eContrack Access Charge. This document is intended to provide
details of the provision of these services to the Client.
Background
eContrack is a fully hosted solution where BSL is responsible
for the installation, configuration, and IT support issues
at the web server; the Client purchases access to the service
for an annual fee (the access charge).
BSL hosts the eContrack software on BSL's web servers, and
the Client's users access it remotely via the internet.
Clients have their own separate SQL Server 2000 database with
full transaction logging and security enabled.
Scope of Agreement
This agreement provides the Client with access to their own
eContrack database, the following guaranteed services, and
support in response to requests from the Client to BSL.
System Availability
eContrack is a 24/7 application with minimum availability
levels of 99.9% per month.
This figure does not include scheduled downtime where notice
is given to clients, or where the client's database is taken
offline due to client requested work (e.g. carrying out a
bespoke data conversion).
Scheduled downtime where a server is taken offline (e.g. for
a quarterly system upgrade or for hardware maintenance) is
normally less than 2 hours per month and would usually take
place over the weekend.
In all circumstances, the Client is given as much notice as
possible of any scheduled downtime.
Disaster Recovery
For disaster recovery, BSL have web servers hosted by 2 organizations
with data centres in different parts of the country. Our primary
servers are located in London with Hostway, alternative servers
are in Exeter with South West Telecom.
In the event of a disaster occurring at one data centre (i.e.
the servers located at that data centre will be unavailable
for more than 24 hours), BSL will restore the Client's database
to a server on the other data centre within 24 hours. The
restore will use the last offsite copy of the daily backup.
Requests For Support
A request for support will require the client to either call
or email the BSL Help Desk. The following services are provided
in response:
Corrective maintenance
Defined as activities associated with root-cause analysis
and bug-fix isolation and resolution:
Root-cause analysis
Analysis of the root causes of problems. Problems
will be reviewed to determine their root causes, measures
will be taken to correct the sources of the problems, and
reports will be prepared and distributed in a timely fashion.
Bug fixes
Defined as the emergency repair of any eContrack operation
that does not comply with expected system operation. This
includes system errors, "hung" or halted screens, or unexpected
results within the system that render it unusable for the
purpose for which it was designed.
Assistance with application usage
and configuration
Advice about or education on how to use eContrack.
Assistance with application environment
support
Advice on the browser environment required by eContrack
(installing ActiveX components, security settings etc).
Recording requests for system enhancements
Ideas and requests for system enhancements will be formally
logged and noted for consideration by BSL for inclusion in
a future release.
Automatic Services
Backups
Daily backups and offsite copies of the Clients SQL Server
database will be taken and archived (10 generations of backups
are kept at any one time).
Application monitoring
Every effort will be made to conduct periodic monitoring
of eContrack to assess application availability.
Web servers
All software infrastructure and hardware upgrades required
to web servers running eContrack will be performed when required.
Knowledge management
Recording, storing, and retrieval of information to assist
in the resolution of problems will be established and maintained.
Requests for Services NOT Covered Under
This Agreement
This agreement does not cover the following requests. However,
BSL would be pleased to provide a separate statement of work
in proposing services to address any of the following:
Training
BSL provide standard and bespoke training on eContrack,
but this is not included within this SLA.
Assistance with application usage
when unsupported or non-standard hardware or software is involved
Use of unsupported or non-standard hardware or software
often results in unexpected behaviour of otherwise reliable
systems.
New development
Any change in a database or system that involves functionality
not within the current release, even if the new functionality
would seem to be an improvement over the old one.
Data conversion
Any data conversion or data import that cannot be carried
out by the standard facilities available within eContrack.
Changes to Service Level Agreement
Termination of Agreement
In the event that the Client wishes to terminate this agreement,
a csv format data file will be created and sent to the Client
containing all performance data recorded in their database.
All client access to eContrack will be revoked on termination
of this agreement.
Amendment to Agreement
Any amendment to the Terms and Conditions of this agreement
would require the approval of the Client and BSL management.
The amendment of the agreement would take place through an
addendum to this agreement and the recording of that addendum
in Appendix A of this agreement.
Renewal of Agreement
The Client and BSL will renegotiate this agreement at the
end of the term of this contract for the following year.
General Terms and Conditions
Term of Agreement
This agreement is in effect upon the date of acceptance of
this agreement and ends one calendar year after the date of
acceptance.
Organizations
This agreement is between BSL and the Client, as named on
the cover of this agreement.
Appendix A Definitions
Support Request
For the purposes of this agreement, a Support Request is generally
defined as a request for support to fix a defect in existing
application code or a request for support that involves no
modifications to application code, such as a question.
Work Order
For the purposes of this agreement, a Work Order is generally
defined as any request to make modifications to the functionality
of eContrack or any request to add functionality to eContrack.
Such requests are not covered under this agreement.
Support
The BSL Help Desk is manned between 9am and 5pm, Monday to
Friday (excluding Bank Holidays).
Availability
Outside of these hours, voice messages may be left on the
Help Desk answer phone for a return call the following business
day.
The Client may also email requests for support to support@buildsoft.co.uk.
Severity Codes
The following characteristics are used to identify the severity
of a problem report:
* Business and financial exposure
* Work outage
* Number of clients affected
* Workaround
*Acceptable resolution time
It is not necessary (nor is it likely) to have perfect match
of each characteristic to categorize a problem report at a
particular severity level. A given problem must be judged
against each of the characteristics to make an overall assessment
of which severity level best describes the problem. The Client
and BSL will jointly determine the initial severity rating
for a call. BSL management may then negotiate with the Client
to modify this severity after the report is elevated to them.
The characteristics below do not cover work requests. Severity
levels for work requests may carry a different set of characteristics
and weightings. Work requests are not covered as part of this
service level agreement.
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Severity 1
(Critical) |
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Severity 2
(High) |
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Severity 3
(Medium) |
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Severity 4
(Low) |
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| Business/financial
exposure |
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The application failure
creates a serious business and financial exposure. |
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The application failure
creates a serious business and financial exposure. |
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The application failure
creates a low business and financial exposure. |
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The application failure
creates a minimal business and financial exposure. |
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| Work Outage |
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The application failure
causes the client to be unable to work or perform some
significant portion of their job. |
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The application failure
causes the client to be unable to work or perform some
significant portion of their job. |
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The application failure
causes the client to be unable to perform some small
portion of their job, but they are still able to complete
most other tasks. May also include questions and requests
for information. |
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The application failure
causes the client to be unable to perform a minor portion
of their job, but they are still able to complete most
other tasks. |
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| Number of Clients Affected |
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The application failure
affects a large number of clients. |
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The application failure
affects a large number of clients. |
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The application failure
affects a small number of clients. |
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The application failure
may only affect one or two clients. |
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Workaround
(carries the heaviest weighting of the characteristics
for Severity 1 and 2) |
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There is no acceptable
workaround to the problem (i.e., the job cannot be performed
in any other way). |
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There is an acceptable
and implemented workaround to the problem (i.e., the
job can be performed in some other way). |
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There may or may not
be an acceptable workaround to the problem. |
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There is likely an acceptable
workaround to the problem. |
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| Response Time |
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Within one hour. |
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Within four hours. |
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Within eight hours or
by next business day (EST). |
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Within eight hours or
by next business day (EST). |
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| Resolution Time |
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The maximum acceptable
resolution time is 24 continuous hours, after initial
response time. |
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The maximum acceptable
resolution time is five business days. |
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The maximum acceptable
resolution time is 30 business days. |
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The maximum acceptable
resolution time is 90 calendar days. |
Appendix B Roles and Responsibilities
The Client
The Client has the following general responsibilities under
this agreement:
- The Client will conduct business in a courteous and professional
manner with BSL.
- The Client users, clients, and/or suppliers using eContrack
will use the appropriate help desk to request support.
- The Client will use their own appropriate help desk to provide
initial support, including raising support calls with the
BSL Help Desk.
- The Client will provide all information required to open
a support request.
- The Client will assign severity codes adhering to the correct
usage of these codes as defined in this SLA.
- Once a support request has been submitted, the Client will
make themselves available to work with the BSL support resource
assigned to the support request.
BSL
BSL has the following general responsibilities under this
agreement:
- BSL will conduct business in a courteous and professional
manner with the Client.
- BSL will log all information from the Client required to
establish contact information, document the nature of the
problem and the Client's hardware/network environment (as
applicable).
- BSL will attempt to resolve problems over the phone on first
call.
- BSL will escalate support request to next level of internal
support within BSL upon approach of established resolution
targets.
- BSL will obtain the Client's approval before closing a support
call.
There are several roles deployed within BSL that are integral
to the provision of support services to the Client. These
roles include the following:
Technical Support Manager
The BSL Technical Support Manager will provide the overall
direction of the activities of the support specialists, participate
directly in the production of the associated deliverables,
and will negotiate with the Client's support manager regarding
the classification of enhancements and the scheduling of tasks.
This individual will report to the BSL Technical Director.
His or her duties will include:
- Ensuring SLA targets are met (coordinating all activities
to ensure all tasks are performed in a consistent manner and
on schedule).
- Ensuring all work is performed according to terms of this
SLA.
- Acting as point of escalation for issues beyond usual scope.
- Participating directly in the production of the associated
deliverables.
- Liaising with client managers (negotiating with client's
support managers regarding the classification of enhancements
and the scheduling of tasks, and coordinating the presentation
of deliverables to the Client).
- Performing resource management and scheduling, including
provision of overall direction of the activities of the support
specialists.
- Creating and implementing standard training program for
all support resources.
- Conducting continuous process improvements.
- Liaising with other BSL groups.
- Assessing the workload for each support request and assigning
work to the team member having the appropriate technical knowledge.
Technical Support Assistant
The BSL Technical Support Assistants work as a dynamic team
of support professionals who provide eContrack application
support. Reporting to the BSL Technical Support Manager, they
are responsible for the timely submission of all deliverables.
Their duties include:
- Dedicated help desk personnel.
- Conducting all root-cause analysis and bug fix isolation
and resolution activities, and associated documentation for
the individual tasks, as assigned by the BSL Technical Support
Manager.
- Acting as a point of contact for all application issues
(bugs and enhancements).
- Identifying all tasks associated with each support request
and deriving estimates for the completion of each task.
- Responsibility for responding to and updating support requests.
- Conducting testing.
- Participating in the acceptance testing and implementation
activities.
- Providing knowledge transfer to backup support specialist
on regular basis.
- Preparing status reports.
Backup Support Specialist/Developer
The BSL backup support specialists work as a dynamic team
of support professionals who provide eContrack application
support. Reporting to the BSL Technical Manager, they are
responsible for the timely submission of all deliverables.
Their duties include:
- Dedicating 25 percent of their time, if required, to support
issues.
- Providing advice and assistance to Technical Support Assistants
on complicated fixes or unusual types of support requests
(e.g., bespoke data imports).
- Investigating reported system errors.
- Developing or amending code to correct system errors.
- Testing all system changes.
- Providing knowledge transfer to Technical Support Assistants
on regular basis. |
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