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Schedule 2 – Service Levels

This schedule applies to these Terms if the Scope of the Project includes Services and Hosting.

1. Definitions

For the purposes of this schedule, the following applies:

Help Desk: the Supplier initial contact for Customer requests for service.

Technical Team: the Supplier team to which requests for service are escalated if the Help Desk is unable to resolve.

Ticket: the Supplier reference given to a Customer request for service.

Weekend Hours: any hours which are not Working Hours.

Working Hours: the hours from 0900 to 1730 on a Business Day other than when a Business Day is a Friday in which case the hours shall be from 0900 to 1700.

2. Charge Rates

2.1. Work required by the Customer outside of any agreed support contract and/or quotation undertaken during Working Hours will be charged at an agreed project cost. This is calculated on an hourly rate of £150 exclusive of VAT unless otherwise negotiated.  

2.2Work required by the Customer outside of any agreed support contract undertaken during Weekend Hours will be charged at an agreed project cost calculated on an hourly rate of £250 exclusive of VAT unless otherwise negotiated. 

3. Ticket Prioritisation

3.1. Tickets shall be categorised as follows:

Category Description

Critical

Server wide downtime affecting websites or domain specific downtime as a result of the service being provided by Supplier. Downtime impacting on core website functionality, resulting in the business being unable to operate.  

This covers but is not limited to: website being unavailable, major functional errors or disruption (including payment gateway being unavailable), data compromise, cyberattack and changes to DNS. 

Priority

Disruptive situation, but core service offering is functioning. This covers but is not limited to: significant functional errors or disruptions as a result of the service being provided.

Defect

A minor issue / error with very minimal impact on a website built by the Supplier. This classification does not apply to issues on the website which are found to be caused by a 3rd party plugin/system or by content or structural changes made by the Customer or their previous Supplier.

Support

This covers but is not limited to: changes to elements of the website outside the control of the user, adding new elements to the website. To be classed as a support request this work will take no more than 4 hours of time to complete, based on assessment by the Supplier. Outside this it will be treated as an additional project. If no support contract is in place or, in the Supplier’s reasonable opinion, a support contract has been overused then a support ticket will be chargeable and/or a modified support contract will be discussed

3.2. Initial categorisation of a Ticket is at the Supplier’s sole discretion. The Supplier reserves the right to reassess and recategorise a Ticket at any time. 

3.3. Categorisation of a ticket as ‘Critical’ or ‘Priority’ will be determined according to the criteria listed. In some instances, prior agreement may be made between the Supplier and the Customer for particular scenarios to be dealt with as unique cases which require this level of turnaround.  

3.4. Descriptions as set out in clause 3.1 of this Schedule are not exhaustive and may be amended by the Supplier from time to time and, in any event, shall not be the sole grounds for the Supplier’s determination of a Ticket category. 

3.5. Please note that where the Customer has multiple active support tickets it is the responsibility of the Customer to inform the Supplier of how these are to be prioritised. The Supplier will then adhere to this prioritisation where possible and in line with best use of resource. 

4. Deployments

4.1. Where sites have multiple environments (e.g. develop, UAT, Staging, Live), any work completed by the Supplier will then be subject to a deployment process before it is live on the Customer’s website. 

4.2. For work categorised as critical or priority this will, where possible, be completed straight into the live environment, subject to a degree of testing.  

4.3. For work categorised as defect or support the Supplier will employ a two-stage deployment process which requires input and sign off from the Customer before it can be deployed to live. 

4.4. Deployments are dependent on all work on the environment being completed and, where appropriate, signed off. In order to avoid deployment delays, the Supplier will try to limit the Customer to 3 open tickets at any one time, with a queuing system being utilised for any additional requests. The priority system outlined in 3.4. above will be applied in these instances 

5. Service Levels

5.1. Ticket Service Levels

Category – Response Time

Critical Supplier will aim to respond within 1 Working Hour and send the Customer an escalated response from the Technical Team if not deployed within 2 Working Hours.

Priority Supplier will aim to respond within 1 Working Hour and send the Customer an escalated response from the Technical Team if not in the deployment cycle within 8 Working Hours.

Defect Supplier will aim to respond within 4 Working hours and place in the deployment cycle, on average, within 5 working days.

Support Supplier will aim to respond within 8 Working hours and place in the deployment cycle, on average, within 8 working days.

5.2. General Service Levels

Service

Incoming Phone Calls to Supplier. Response: within 15 seconds. Target: 90%

Answer Phone Messages. Response: within 4 Working Hours. Target: 90%

6. Customer Responsibilities

6.1. Customer Contact

The Customer shall ensure the availability of a customer contact to (i) provide the information as set out in clause 5.2 of this Schedule below at the creation of the Ticket and (ii) provide any further information as requested by the Supplier and be generally available for Supplier requests and review of any Supplier work.  

6.2. To enable the creation of a Ticket the Customer shall provide the following information:

  • Operating System
  • Application Used (e.g. web browser; Screenshot[s] of problem)
  • URL to area of site
  • The details of the request 

6.3. The Customer agrees that any undue delay in respect of its obligations outlined under clauses 6.1 and 6.2 of this Schedule shall render any relevant service level as not applicable.

7. Reporting

7.1.Upon Customer request and as part of the deliverables that fall within any support contract the Supplier may provide a monthly report on Tickets in a form to be agreed between the Parties. This report will allow both parties to measure adherence to the stated SLA for response. 

7.2.Performance would be measured on an ongoing basis, in a format and frequency agreed between the Supplier and the Customer. Our suggested programme for review meetings is: 

  • A post project review meeting (usually 1 month after launch) 
  • A quarterly review meeting (3 months after the post project review meeting) 
  • 12-month detailed review. 

The following is a typical agenda for a review meeting:  

  • Status update
  • Review of key goals and objectives 
  • SLA Management information report  
  • Any current significant issues 
  • Review of outstanding tasks and requirements 
  • Operational plans between now and next review meeting 
  • Agree any updates to communication plans 

These review meetings will be at no cost to the Customer.   

A regular breach of service levels over a 1-month period (20% of requests missing stated objectives) should be raised to Spindogs for discussion prior to the next quarterly review meeting.  

8. Applying routine software patches to your website/system 

Our customer support team actively monitor upcoming software patches applicable to your website / systems baseline product.  

When a new software patch is officially released our development team review what is being updated and evaluate the likely risk associated with applying the patch vs the importance of what is being patched. Some higher risk patches with low importance (e.g., no major security fixes) will be deliberately held in review to allow for wider community feedback before applying. 

We will then create a linked support ticket to test and apply the patch to your website, seeking approval if applicable. 

9.Hosting, Security and Disaster Recovery plans 

If your website is hosted by Spindogs we can provide a Hosting information document suitable to the platform and product we are hosting which details information on our hosting solution, security measures, uptime & monitoring and disaster recovery plans.  

To find out more, get in touch