Gold Support Services

Scope and Objectives
To provide to Clients with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for DCE (Distributed Computing Environment) support for the IBM AIX platform delivering remote technical support. This support is limited to technical assistance, workarounds and fixes since the IBM DCE software is not being maintained by IBM and periodic maintenance releases or fixes to address new problems is not provided.

Service Levels and Deliverables
For the period of one-year eCube Systems will provide DCE based systems and applications technical support and assistance . This support and assistance consists of the following:

• Problem Resolution
• Minimum response time of no more than four-hour is guaranteed during the hours of operation (see hours of operation under Assumptions).
• Senior level DCE engineers will be assigned ownership of the problems.
• Problem severity categorization and frameworks.
• Escalation procedures.
• Actions responsibility matrix
• Full-time support person for DCE problems/issues
• Consulting services for application problems available for additional charge
• Support Procedures
• After case is entered into the problem database, confirmation email will be sent;
• eCube engineers will review the description and contact information of the case and determine applicability, duplication, severity and information in the reported problem.
• eCube engineer will update the problem as appropriate .
• eCube will request additional information as needed.
• Defect Management
• No product fixes to DCE products will be provided by eCube Systems.
• Operational Assistance
• Workarounds not requiring product modifications;
• Access to senior DCE Systems Engineering and Development personnel to implement new operating systems as required.
• Escalation procedures.

• Based upon severity, Critical, Major and Medium problems can be escalated after the following time periods:
• Critical: 24 hours.
• Major: 2 days.
• Medium: 7 days.
• Escalation can be requested via email: Please click here to email eCube Support.
• If no response is received in 4 hours, assistance with problem escalation should be referred to PSO at: 936-582-3088.

Resources Requirements
In orderto provide expertise and support the following resources must be allocated by eCube Systems and Clients:

• Clients: Named Contacts
• Client will complete support contact authorization form;
• Client will provide up to three contact names must be provided by Clients per support contract, with one designated as primary.
• Each client contact requesting assistance must have sufficient technical knowledge of the problem, environment and have access to provide sufficient information to eCube.
• Support web site to be used only by authorized contacts;

• Client Responsibilities:
• Problem cases must be submitted to the eCube Support web site: http://www.ecubesystems.com/Support.html

• Perform due diligence in problem determination to ascertain whether a problem is DCE or Operating System related;

• Work with the appropriate operating system vendor for problem support if a problem is determined to be in the operating system. If OS vendor determines that the problem is in the operating system, the problem will be closed;

• Must be able to provide all relevant and available diagnostic information related to the software problem being reported;

• Provide eCube with appropriate remote access to Client’s system to assist in determining the software problem cause. Client will remain responsible for adequately protecting its system and all data contained therein whenever eCube remotely accesses it with Client’s permission;

• eCube will be relieved of its performance under this SLA if Client fails to follow requirements set out under Client Responsibilities.
• eCube Responsibilities:
• Will proved support contact authorization form;
• Support Web site access: http://www.ecubesystems.com/Support.html
• A designated single point of contact for Clients; (Named Contact)
• Provide Technical Support and coverage as indicated in Assumptions;

 

Assumptions
The following assumptions govern this offering:

• Technical Support and Coverage
• Contracts are for one-year time periods;
• Technical support covers the software and operating systems listed in Schedule 1 only;
• Support for operating systems and platforms not listed in Schedule 1 shall be supported under an additional statement of work for consulting services;
• Technical support hours of operation are 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM CST Monday through Friday;
• Four-hour response is guaranteed during the hours of operation.
• The majority of the services provided under this proposal will be performed on eCube-designated premises.

 

Criteria for Gold Support

Severity	Criteria
Critical	-- DCE system outage -- Customer’s ability to access their data is impacted.
High	-- DCE system or major function has significant that impact restricting functionality or usage.
Medium	-- DCE system or function has a minor restriction that the customer or user can easily work around without ongoing help from eCube. Or any restriction in functionality or usage that impacts Test Systems development systems.
Low	-- Minor problem or annoyance but does not functionally hinder the customer.

Problem Severity and Response Matrix

Severity	Response / Acknowledgement Goal within support hours	Resolution / Work Around Goal	Permanent Resolution Goal
Critical	2 hours	24 hours	At eCube Discretion
High	4 hours	4 days	At eCube Discretion
Medium	24 hours	In next release / version	At eCube Discretion
Low	At eCube Discretion	At eCube Discretion	At eCube Discretion