SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT
Maintenance & Support Maintenance & Support Packages Service Level Agreement
Purpose
The purpose of this Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to formalize an arrangement between ALT N and the CLIENT to deliver specific services in respect to the PROJECT developed. This document is intended to provide details of the provision of these services to the CLIENT.

Background
Application is a fully hosted solution where ALT N is responsible for the installation and configuration at the web server; the CLIENT purchases the server from the data centre to host the PROJECT

ALT N hosts the PROJECT on the data centre web servers, and the CLIENT users access it remotely via the internet.

CLIENT has their own separate Mysql Database with access logging and security enabled.

Scope of Agreement
This agreement provides the CLIENT with access to their own PROJECT database, the following guaranteed services, and support in response to requests from the CLIENT to ALT N.

Disaster Recovery
For disaster recovery, ALT N have web servers hosted by 2 organizations with data centres in different countries. Our primary servers are located in UK with 1&1; alternative servers are in India with VSNL.

In the event of a disaster occurring at the data centre hosting the PROJECT (i.e. the servers located at that data centre will be unavailable for more than 24 hours), ALT N will restore the CLIENT 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 ALT N 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 PROJECT 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 the PROJECT.

Assistance with application environment support
Advice on the browser environment required by PROJECT (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 ALT N for inclusion in a future release.

Automatic Services

Backups
Daily backups and offsite copies of the CLIENT Mysql database will be taken and archived (10 versions of backups are kept at any one time).

Application monitoring
Every effort will be made to conduct periodic monitoring of PROJECT to assess application availability.

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, ALT N would be pleased to provide a separate statement of work in proposing services to address any of the following:

Training
ALT N provide standard and bespoke training on PROJECT, 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 PROJECT.

General Terms and Conditions

Term of Agreement
This agreement is in effect upon the date of acceptance of this agreement and continuous till the CLIENT or ALT N terminates this contract with a written request.

Organizations
This agreement is between ALT N and the CLIENT, as named on the top page 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 PROJECT or any request to add functionality to PROJECT. Such requests are not covered under this agreement.

Support
The ALT N Help Desk is manned between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Friday (excluding Bank Holidays).
Online chat facility will also be available during operating hours to chat with the help desk assistant directly to explain about any problems you might be facing. This facility will be available from our website www.altnsolutions.co.uk
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@altnsolutions.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 ALT N will jointly determine the initial severity rating for a call. ALT N 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.
Severity 1 (Critical)
Severity 2 (High)
Severity 3 (Medium)
Severity 4 (Low)
Business/financial exposure The application failure creates a serious business and financial exposure. The application failure creates a serious business and financial exposure. The application failure creates a low business and financial exposure. The application failure creates a minimal business and financial exposure.
Work Outage The application failure causes the CLIENT to be unable to work or perform some significant portion of their job. The application failure causes the CLIENT to be unable to work or perform some significant portion of their job. 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. 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.
Number of Users Affected The application failure affects a large number of users. The application failure affects a large number of users. The application failure affects a small number of users. The application failure may only affect one or two users.
Workaround (carries the heaviest weighting of the characteristics for Severity 1 and 2) There is no acceptable workaround to the problem (i.e., the job cannot be performed in any other way). There is an acceptable and implemented workaround to the problem (i.e., the job can be performed in some other way). There may or may not be an acceptable workaround to the problem. There is likely an acceptable workaround to the problem.
Response Time Within one hour. Within four hours. Within eight hours or by next business day (EST). Within eight hours or by next business day (EST).
Resolution Time The maximum acceptable resolution time is 24 continuous hours, after initial response time. The maximum acceptable resolution time is five business days. The maximum acceptable resolution time is 30 business days. 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 ALT N.
  • The CLIENT users and/or suppliers using PROJECT 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 ALT N 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 them available to work with the ALT N support resource assigned to the support request.

Company
ALT N has the following general responsibilities under this agreement:
  • ALT N will conduct business in a courteous and professional manner with the CLIENT.
  • ALT N 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).
  • ALT N will attempt to resolve problems over the phone on first call.
  • ALT N will escalate support request to next level of internal support within ALT N upon approach of established resolution targets.
  • ALT N will obtain the CLIENT's approval before closing a support call.
There are several roles deployed within ALT N that are integral to the provision of support services to the CLIENT.
These roles include the following:

Technical Support Manager
The ALT N 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 ALT N 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 ALT N groups.
  • Assessing the workload for each support request and assigning work to the team member having the appropriate technical knowledge.

Technical Support Assistant
The ALT N Technical Support Assistants work as a dynamic team of support professionals who provide PROJECT application support. Reporting to the ALT N 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 ALT N 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 ALT N backup support specialists work as a dynamic team of support professionals who provide PROJECT application support. Reporting to the ALT N 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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