SureCloud Service Level Agreement (SLA)

1. Reason for policy 

This document has been produced to outline the expectations of the SureCloud services with financial backing to our commitment to these service levels.  

The policy ensures fairness in understanding by making clear: 

  • The method by which we prioritize issues. 
  • The expected service levels for activity related to issues.
  • The credit available where we do not meet our obligations.  

2. Policy statement

The goal of this policy is to establish service expectations and informing customers of the prioritization and service levels. SureCloud’s Customer Success goal is for all customers to have a valuable and well running platform.  

This policy applies to the service desk as well as platform service availability.  

3. Service level commitment

 

3.a Types of service  

 

3.a.1 Platform availability / uptime 

 

The platform availability or uptime is our commitment to ensure that the platform is available for use.  

 

Platform availability is calculated as follows: Total number of minutes in a month – Downtime / Total number of minutes in a month  

 

The figure is expressed as a percentage.  

 

Monthly Platform Availability / Uptime percentage  Service Credit 
< 99.9%  2.5% 
< 99.0%  5.0% 
< 98.0%  7.5%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Downtime” is defined as the total minutes per month during which the SureCloud service is unavailable, excluding planned downtime.

 

“Planned Downtime” is defined as any period of downtime which is communicated and planned by SureCloud in advance. SureCloud will endeavour to ensure that these periods occur out of business hours, but emergency planned downtime may be unavoidable in some rare instances.

 

 

3.a.2 Platform recovery 

 

In the event that SureCloud’s primary data center suffers a catastrophic failure, the backup data center will be brought online with the following targets.  

 

Objective  Target  Service Credit 
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)  1 minute  2.5% 
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)  4 hours   2.5% 
Data Recovery from Backup  2 days  2.5%
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.a.3 Technical support

 

Issues raised through SureCloud’s service desk will be categorized as follows.

 

Priority   
Urgent 
  • SureCloud solution not available for all users within an organization
  • No viable workarounds in place or possible
High 
  • SureCloud solution not available for a number of users within an organization.
  • SureCloud solution disruption where users are blocked or prevented from continuing work.
  • SureCloud solution change request which is causing significant or un-due usability issues
  • Workaround possible but not sustainable long term.
Normal    
  • SureCloud solution disruption affecting one or more users where the designed use of the system is impeded.
  • Workaround possible and viable long term.
  • User Administration
  • SureCloud solution change request
Low 
  • Non-production issues of any type.
  • Documentation updates
  • SureCloud solution issues which can be reasonably be worked around.
  • Changes which have no or low business impact.
N/A
  • SureCloud solution change request which requires a platform enhancement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SureCloud provide the following service levels against issues raised.  

 

 

  Definition   
First Reply Time  The time between a ticket submitted to the service desk and the first response to the originator of the ticket from a Customer Success consultant.  
Next Reply Time  The time between any additional comment or question and the response from the Customer Success consultant.  
Periodic Update  The time between each Customer Success consultant update. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SureCloud will provide the following service levels in relation to technical support (all timings are within contracted support hours):

 

 

 

  Urgent   High   Normal  Low 
First Reply Time  1 hour 1 hour 4 hours 8 hours
Next Reply Time  1 hour 2 hours 4 hours 16 hours
Periodic Update  4 hours 8 hours 2 days 5 days
Resolution 24 hours 2 days 7 days 14 days

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.a.4 Assist or Product Plus subscription

 

For change requests submitted via the support desk.

 

The SLA has been provided per scoped area and is measured in working days once the request has been received by SureCloud’s Customer Success Team and the scope of the change (and commencement date) has been agreed:

 

Scoped Area SLA (request resolution)
Data Import Determined as part of change request
Configuration changes to responses and layouts 5 days
Configuration changes to notifications 10 days
Configuration changes to formulas 5 days
Configuration changes to reports and dashboards 5 days
Creation of reference data forms 5 days
Creation or modification of references 5 days
Creation or modification of simple workflows 10 days
Modification of complex workflows 20 days
Testing and deployment changes Determined as part of change request

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See Fair Usage policy for subscription change request entitlement.

 

3.b Service credit claim 

If SureCloud fails to meet our service levels, you may submit a claim for a service credit.  

Claims may not be made: 

 

  • When using trial or non-production instances of the platform.  
  • When no current license subscription is running, or there are outstanding unpaid debts. 

 You must submit a claim by email through SureCloud’s service desk that includes: 

 

  • A detailed description of the issue/incident, including references where known  
  • Information regarding the claimed breach, dates and times.  
  • The number and location(s) of affected users 
  • Descriptions of your attempts to resolve the issue/incident at the time of occurrence  

 Claims must be received by SureCloud, with all required information, by the end of the calendar month following the month in which the issue/incident occurred. For example, an incident on the 15th February would need to be claimed by 31st March.  

 

SureCloud evaluates all information reasonably available and makes a good faith judgment on whether a Service Credit is owed. If SureCloud determines that a Service Credit is owed to you, we will apply owed service credit either in the form of a credit against the renewal of licenses or against future consulting services.  

 

3.c Claim exclusions 

SureCloud evaluates all claims fairly but may exclude claims for the following reasons: 

 

  • Claims related to any cause which is beyond SureCloud’s reasonable control which shall include, without limiting the generality of the phrase, any act of God, act of any government or other authority or statutory undertaking, industrial dispute, fire, explosion, accident, power failure, flood, riot or war (declared or undeclared). 
  • Claims which result from the use of service, hardware or software which has not been approved by SureCloud.   
  • Claims where the cause is related to a failure to follow SureCloud’s advice.  
  • Client initiated data destruction.  
  • During pre-release, beta, and trial services (as determined by SureCloud).  
  • Any unauthorized action or inaction or from your employees, agents, contractors, or vendors, or anyone gaining access to our network by means of your passwords or equipment; that result from your failure to adhere to any required configurations, use supported platforms, and follow any policies for acceptable use.