Service Level Agreement

Technical Support - Service Level Agreement

Blue Cube Procedures

For each specific support request, Blue Cube Technical Support creates a technical support case and assigns the case a Technical Support Case Ticket No. If you call or email with several different issues, we may create different numbers to track each issue. Be sure to make a note of the service request number, and provide it on any subsequent contact regarding the issue.

Support Response Times

A response means that we answer your call or email request and acknowledge your issue, then assign the issue a Technical Support Case Ticket No. In some cases, we may need to obtain additional information from you in order to resolve the issue.

Response times depend on the severity level of the issue. The support technician will determine your problem's severity level based on guidelines listed below:

• During Business Hours (08:00 – 18:00 GMT)
  Calls and emails will be routed directly to the Technical Support Engineers on duty.
• 24X7 Support
  Customers with 24X7 support contracts are provided with a specific number to contact should they require assistance outside of normal Business Hours

Required Information for Logging a Support Call

When submitting a service request, please provide the following information:

•         Company name and Customer Support ID
•         Contact's name, phone number (including extension), and email address
•         Brief description of the problem (in the email subject line)
•         Service request number if this is a continuation of an existing request (in the email subject line)
•         Level of severity (see page 3 for details)
•         Product name, product version number, and details of any service packs applied
•         Operating system version number and applied service packs
•         Name, version, and service pack of any affected third-party application
•         Detailed description of the problem, including any steps required to reproduce the problem
•         In any subsequent communication with technical support about an active case, please include the case number. Include it in the web form, your voice mail message, or have it ready to provide the support engineer.

Severity Levels

The table below outlines the different severity levels of service requests, the recommended method of contact for each severity level and the associated targeted initial response time. These response times apply to all support requests submitted irrespective of the customer support agreement (9x5 or 24x7) but in the case of a 9x5 agreement the response time is measured only within normal support hours..

Severity Level	Description	Recommended Contact Method	Response Times
Critical	System is inoperable, not functioning; data is lost or Business outage or significant impact threatening productivity.	Phone	1 hour
High	Problem impact is high; production is proceeding but in an impaired fashion. Workarounds are available.	Phone or E-Mail or Web	4 Hours
Normal	Issue does not have significant current productivity impact. Examples: product enhancements, usage questions, and cosmetic problems.	E-Mail or Web	8 hours

Note:   If at any time the customer feels the severity level assigned does not correctly represent the problem, the customer may reasonably request the severity level to be increased.  Blue Cube Technical Support reserves the right to determine the severity level of any call received after consultation with the customer.

Escalation Procedure

Blue Cube Support will endeavour to provide a fix for your problem, however at times it may be necessary to escalate your problem to the Vendor.  The following table highlights the Vendor escalation times as well as our commitment to you, in respect to keeping you up to date with the status of your problem.

Severity Level	Vendor Escalation	Customer Update	Internal Escalation
Critical	4 hours	4 hours	5 days
High	8 hours	2 Days	10 days
Normal	48 hours	5 Days	N/A

These escalation times represent our commitment to you.  Once it is deemed necessary to escalate the problem to the vendor we are then dependant on their service delivery responsibilities.

Once a call has been passed to the Vendor, Blue Cube will continue to keep you informed of the status of your call, even if there is nothing to report.

Dependant on the severity of the call, if no progress is being shown by the vendor then Blue Cube support will escalate the issue internally to the Technical Support Manager and to your Account Manager.  Once your call has been escalated internally the Technical Support Manager and Account Manager will determine the delay in resolution and inform you of the situation. 

At any time you are entitled to ask for your outstanding call to be reviewed by the Technical Support Manager.

Satisfaction Levels

Blue Cube Support is committed to maintaining the following service levels:

• 95% of calls will have a first response within the time listed for the appropriate severity level
• 90% of calls will be escalated to the Vendor and the customer notified, where deemed necessary, within the time listed for the appropriate severity level

Blue Cube Support will contact the customer after each call is closed to request feedback on the level of the Support received.  This is voluntary but the information received will be used to measure the performance of the Support Team.

Service Level Agreement

The response times defined within this document form the basis of the Service Level Agreement between Blue Cube Security Ltd and the customer. Blue Cube Security Ltd reserves the right to amend any part of this Service Level Agreement without prior notification of the customer.

Technical Support Levels

The following list describes the skill sets and responsibilities of each of the support levels used to identify and correct problems with Blue Cube supplied products. Note that the second and third levels are provided by the product vendor; however Blue Cube will manage the problem on the customer's behalf through these levels.

Level 1

•       Is multi-product oriented.
•       Collects customer information.
•       Logs all Customer issues into the Customer Relationship Management Application (CRM) and gives the customer their issue number.
•       Searches Knowledge Base for the customer problem.
•       Sends out fixes when calls come in that are known problems.
•       Communicates with Tech Support Level 2 on issues not found in the Knowledge Base.
•       Makes an initial assessment of Severity Level for internal use.
•       Escalates to Tech Support level 2 according to assumed Severity Level.
•       Either closes or escalates all issues.

Level 2

•       Product Specific.
•       Examines program settings.
•       Examines systems settings.
•       Reviews job logs.
•       Attempts to duplicate problem here.
•       Attempts to isolate to a program problem.
•       Owns the communication with the Customer.
•       Logs program problem into Problem Tracking system.
•       Establishes the Severity Level, enters it into CRM and informs the Customer.
•       Communicates with Level 3 on issues not resolved in agreed to times according to Severity Level.
•       Escalates programming problems to Level 3.
•       Disseminates fixes made by Level 3 to all customers who reported the problem.
•       Updates entries in the Knowledge Base with new issues.
•       Closes all issues touched.

Level 3

•       Is a member of the Development Programming group for the product.
•       Is the gatekeeper for all issues introduced through Tech Support.
•       Has a method to distribute problems to members of the development group.
•       Communicates with Level 2 Tech Support.
•       Originates or updates the Test Track entries for issues introduced by Tech Support.
•       Responsible for fixing the programming problems.