1. BACKGROUND

SANDSIV VOC HubTM is delivered over the Internet as a Software as a Service solution. This means that its availability is determined by a number of factors, not all of which are under the control of SANDSIV. SANDSIV makes every effort to maximize system availability through both technological redundancy and rigorous software testing prior to production deployment. However, the Internet is inherently imperfect so SANDSIV is not able to guarantee 100% availability at all times.


Authorized registered users of VOC HubTM can review both current and historic availability figures through the SANDSIV Support Center at https://support.sandsiv.com or directly at https://status.sandsiv.com/ns/dashboard.  

2. SANDSIV AVAILABILITY TARGET

SANDSIV aims to achieve 99.9% availability of the overall VOC HubTM solution.

This figure is measured:

• On a calendar month basis
• Excluding planned maintenance
• From a number of Internet backbones
  (VOC HubTM is deemed to be available if it is accessible from at least one backbone)

3. PLANNED MAINTENANCE

SANDSIV and SANDSIV’s hosting and network suppliers undertake planned maintenance from time to time. In most cases this is achieved without impacting system availability. However, there are occasions when this is not possible. In these situations, SANDSIV aims to:

• Keep any planned outage to a maximum of 1 hour
• Not exceed 3 hours in any 1 month
• Provide reasonable notice to users of such planned maintenance

There may be times when it is necessary to undertake major work that takes longer than 1 hour. In these circumstances SANDSIV aims to:

• Not undertake such work more than twice per calendar year
• Not to exceed 12 hours on each occasion
• Minimise disruption through weekend work
• Inform clients at least 10 days in advance of such work

4. SERVICE LEVEL CREDIT

If the Availability percentage of the VOC HubTM solution in a given calendar month is less than 98%, Customer will be provided a credit in accordance with the bands and terms set out below in respect of such failure. This credit is the exclusive and sole remedy available to Customer for any failure of SANDSIV to meet the said Availability target. Service availability is defined as the amount of time the Voc Hub solutions is available to authorized users and capable of performing operations, excluding the matters listed below. 

The “recurring monthly charge for the month of the failure” will be calculated by taking the total licensing fees charged to Customer on an annual basis and dividing those equally by 12. SANDSIV will issue the Service Level Credit to the client within 30 days following the end of the month in which the service failure occurred to be applied against the recurring monthly charges for the immediately following month.

The Availability commitment does not apply to any unavailability, suspension or termination of the services due to non-payment by Customer, or any other performance issues: (i) caused by factors outside of SANDSIV’s reasonable control, including any force majeure event or Internet access; (ii) that result from Customer’s acts or omissions; or (iii) that result from Customer’s equipment, software or other technology.

5. CUSTOMIZED SERVICES

5.1 Purpose and Content

Only if SANDSIV delivers CUSTOMIZED SERVICES (as defined in section 5.2) in agreement with the Customer, the additional agreements in section 5 shall be a binding part of this Standard Service Level Agreement. 

5.2 Definition CUSTOMIZED SERVICE

A detailed description of which CUSTOMIZED SERVICES SANDSIV provides and which Customer dependencies exist as a prerequisite for the provision of this CUSTOMIZED SERVICES is explicitly described in a Transaction Schedule if agreed to be applicable. This Transaction Schedule becomes a contractual part of this SLA as Annex 1. 

5.3 Charges for CUSTOMIZED SERVICES

Any remuneration for the provision of the CUSTOMIZED SERVICES by SANDSIV will also be reflected and agreed in the ANNEX 1. The Transaction Schedule shall also agree whether the provision of the CUSTOMIZED SERVICES is provided as part of other services and is therefore already invoiced or included in the remuneration for such services or whether such CUSTOMIZED SERVICES are are invoiced separately.

5.4 Support Service Levels applicable for CUSTOMIZED SERVICES

Incident responsiveness is based upon the severity that is assigned to the incident. SANDSIV will respond to the incident in accordance with the severity levels detailed as follows:

*During the established maintenance and service period – for details see currently valid support level agreement

Within the “target time to solution*”, the reported incidents are successfully resolved and eliminated to such an extent that the system is at least usable again in the same way as before the incident (“clean running / remedy”).

For the precise evaluation of the incident, the incident type should be clearly stated when opening a ticket via the ticketing platform interface. The table describing ticket types are provided below.

“Time to first reaction” refers to the targeted response time by which SANDSIV will communicate (by email, online case management system or telephone) with the Client in respect of the reported problem. It does not refer to the time in which the reported problem will be resolved by SANDSIV.

“Target Time to Solution” refers to the time frame in which SANDSIV shall aim, using commercially reasonable endeavours, to rectify the reported problem. Until the necessary information, data and documents are provided to SANDSIV to enable it to reasonably assess and/or replicate the error, and/or having the Client demonstrate the error by showing SANDSIV the error occurring on its systems, the Target Time to Solution shall not commence. In addition, if at any time during error resolution the Client does not deliver on any Client dependencies, the Target Time to Solution shall be paused or suspended.

For Priority 1 problems, SANDSIV shall provide updates on the status of its efforts to fix the problem. These updates, which SANDSIV shall aim to provide at least once every four hours, shall start from the time the Client’s designated support contact logs a problem by email or online case management system to SANDSIV with sufficient information to enable it to replicate the error. Until necessary information, data and documents are provided to SANDSIV, to enable it to replicate the error, the updates shall not commence.

The SLA will not apply where faults arise from:

– misuse, incorrect use of or damage to the Voc Hub application or Services from whatever cause (other than any act or omission by SANDSIV or any party under its control);

– Client’s failure to maintain the necessary environmental conditions for use of the Voc Hub application;

– modification to the Voc Hub application or CUSTOMIZED SERVICES (incl. defined Deliverables or KPIs) by any person other than SANDSIV or any party under its control;

– breach of the Client’s obligations under this agreement; or

– Client’s operator error.

5.5 Conflicts Resolution

In order to support the conflict resolution linked to the SLA Management, SANDSIV will consider the following roles

5.6 Deliverables & KPIs

Where applicable, Deliverables & KPIs shall be detailed in a Transaction Schedule.

5.7 Penalty

In case of breach of warranted SLA for the CUSTOMIZED SERVICES penalties will be set out in the Transactional Schedule (Annex 1). The customer will have to notify SANDSIV in writing and such penalty will be applicable if SANDSIV fails to cure within 10 days of notice.

The sum of the penalties shall not exceed 10% of the total value of the CUSTOMIZED SERVICES provided. The amount of each penalty may be withheld from the amounts payable for any reason by the customer to SANDSIV under the same contract on the date on which the event subject to the penalty is reported.

For any custom processes “Availability Percentage” counts only from the time when SANDSIV was informed about the problem, if constant monitoring on SANDSIV side is not a part of additional contract (i.e. if client doesn’t pay as regularly for some integration controlling process).

5.8 Report

Where applicable, the content and frequency of reports to be provided by SANDSIV shall be detailed in a Transaction Schedule.

6. SUPPORT MODEL

The support model that is currently in place involves a first and second level of support.

6.1 First Level Support

SANDSIV has a Customer Support Center that is responsible for logging and managing Customer related incidents, tracking of all incidents and closing of all incidents using the SANDSIV Support Management System.

The scope of the First level support activities contains

• logging and updating incidents (Faults, Requests, and Problems) in the Trouble Ticketing System
• Resolution of incidents and requests that can be resolved at this level
• Assignment/Re-assignment (where applicable) incidents to relevant teams
• Follow-up on the resolution of the incidents
• Handover/assign incidents to the Second Line Support where applicable.
• User ID and Password support for the applications
• Engage in activities supporting standard processes (e.g. user creation, document sharing, …)
• Performing a routine maintenance

6.2 Second Level Support

The Incidents that cannot be resolved at the First Level, will be assigned to the Second Level. 

The Level-2 support consists of:

• Resolution of all application related incidents that L1 support fails to resolve
• Resolution of incidents within SLA
• Re-allocating of those incidents they are unable to resolve to application vendors
• Reporting back to the management on performance of all applications
• Supporting all related business reporting
• Performing routine application maintenance

ANNEX 1: Transaction Schedule for CUSTOMIZED SERVICES (if agreed to be applicable)