Service Level Agreement – CommunityForce

CommunityForce is committed to providing you with superior service and support throughout your experience with our staff and products. Our Service Level Agreement (SLA) enforces this commitment by providing a high level of standard security, service, support, uptime, and performance targets for instances when the system has errors that aren’t the fault of the Client. CommunityForce diligently works toward the prompt resolution of defects and errors in our services and responds by using a dedicated for each of these instances needing support.

The solution offered by CommunityForce is offered as a hosted solution, sometimes called “Cloud Computing” or “Software as a Service” (S.a.a.S). Our technical support staff is available Monday – Friday from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Eastern via ticket and phone (703) 665-4555 and will respond to support requests within 24 business hours of submission based upon the priority. CommunityForce will comply with the technical support terms stated in the below service level agreement. Please review these terms carefully.

Uptime Guarantee

The software application services operated by CommunityForce will have at least 99.9% uptime, measured monthly. This downtime excludes planned downtime or any downtime due to causes not within Licensor’s reasonable control, e.g., power outages due to storms or natural disasters. The portion of our software application services operated by CommunityForce shall not experience more than two outages (unscheduled downtime) of more than three hours in any month.

If a downtime period has not been scheduled in advance, CommunityForce will notify the Client within three hours of any known and/or verified unscheduled downtime of our services. We will also make every effort to provide periodic status updates until the service is back up. Once service is restored, CommunityForce will immediately notify affected clients.

Communication protocol followed during a system downtime:

Key registered client users are notified via Email
System down message is posted on the Zendesk Client Support Portal Key registered client users are notified via Email upon system restoration

CommunityForce monitors and maintains the hardware, software, and network, which shall be accessible in accordance with industry standards. The only exception in accessibility is during a period of scheduled maintenance and/or required repairs. CommunityForce will provide clients with their individual monthly usage and uptime reports no later than the 5th day of the following month.

For the greatest possible security, all service data is backed up every day (Mon-Sun) to best prepare for a partial or full system recovery. If a system fault ever occurs, and recovery is necessary, the most recent day’s backup will be used during restoration. For catastrophic events, recovery of the system will include a restore using data no older than twelve hours.

Error Correction Completion

The following protocol is expected from the Client if they encounter an issue while using the CommunityForce application or features within the application:

Notify CommunityForce by submitting a ticket via the Zendesk Client Support Portal.
Include sufficient detail in the ticket in order for CommunityForce to understand your issue and best to reproduce the error and resolve your issue.
For Clients who have premium Support: If expedited service is required because of critical/adverse impact, after creating a ticket with urgent category, the Client will also need to notify its CommunityForce account manager directly using provided email and phone contact details.

Basic Support

Training with a live trainer - Unlimited (should not exceed 4 hours in one month)
Relationship management between our customers and our support team
Make sure support requests are moving well
Helping with general requests

Premium Support

Account Manager
On call support
Managing critical situations and escalations
Facilitating knowledge transfer
Coordinating activities
Providing guidance on support-related matters
Doing periodic Support Business Reviews with customers
Periodical Review of the process and best practice recommendation

Issue Categorization

CommunityForce uses the following issue categorization and resolution methodologies:

Category	Brief	Resolution
1	CommunityForce Side, Application or Interface related Issue	Any time spent on resolving this issue will be done at no cost to the Client. CommunityForce guarantees the performance of the application and will not charge the Client for any issue resolution related to the product's expected working capability.
2	Client-Side, Coded Interface related Issue	Any issue caused due to client usage of the product, or to a service maintained by the Client, will be assessed and reported to the Client for Client internal resolution. At the Client’s request, CommunityForce can take an active part in resolving the issue. The Client understands that any effort put into resolving these issues by CommunityForce will be billed to the Client on a time and material basis.
3	Application Setup Related Issue (Without CommunityForce Implementation)	If the Client has not purchased a CommunityForce Implementation Contract, then any issue found to be due to Client usage or incorrect setup will be assessed and reported to the Client for internal resolution. In this case, any effort put into resolving the issue will be billed to the Client on a time and material basis. If the Client purchased a CommunityForce Implementation Contract, then this will be covered under that allocated support block.
4	Application Setup Related Issue (With CommunityForce Implementation)	If the client makes changes to the application setup after implementation is complete, then any issue found to be due to Client usage or incorrect setup will be assessed and reported to the Client for internal resolution. CommunityForce can take an active part in resolving the issue. In this case, any effort put into resolving the issue will be billed to the Client on a time and material basis. To ensure timely resolution of the issue, the reported issue will be categorized based on the severity of the issue. CommunityForce will respond to and complete the correction of errors, defects and malfunctions, in accordance with the following Severity & Response Schedule:
5	Integration Related Issues	Some clients will have integration enabled between CommunityForce and their internal systems. If the issue is deemed to be related to an interface that is not supported by CommunityForce, then CommunityForce will request the Client-appointed contact to engage their internal IT staff and create an incident in their internal support system. If CommunityForce finds the issue related to a client interface, or due to a client user implementation flaw that is outside the scope of CommunityForce Software, we will inform the Client to resolve this issue internally with their internal staff. If CommunityForce time is utilized to support/resolve activities that are outside the scope for CommunityForce product support, the Client will be billed using a CommunityForce change request work order form.

Ticket Priorities

The following are the level of business importance CommunityForce assigns to the Zendesk Client Portal tickets.

Priority	Description	Response	Resolution
Urgent	Causes Data Corruption. Application Site Not Loading. System Not Retrieving Data. Users Cannot log in. Users Cannot Effectively Use CommunityForce Services.	Respond within two (2) hours after receipt of issues.	Resolve, using reasonable efforts to provide a fix, workaround, or patch, within a goal time of twenty-four (24) hours.
High	Feature/Functionality does not work as documented reasonable workaround exists. The client has a critical need of the feature.	Respond to the ticket within four (4) hours of receipt.	Resolve, by providing a fix or reasonable workaround, within a goal time of three (3) business days of receipt.
Normal	The feature does not work as documented reasonable workaround exists. Help in understanding system functionalities.	Respond to the ticket within twenty-four (24) hours of receipt.	Resolve within a goal time of thirty (30) days of receipt. Incorporate fix in next upcoming release of the product.
Low	Product Enhancement Request. Help in building a new application cycle. Application logs.	Respond within a goal time of twenty-four (24) hours of receipt.	Resolve using a case-by-case basis in order of severity and receipt.

Clients Point of Contact

The client will appoint two people as principal points of contact for the communication of bugs and errors to CommunityForce if any. The client may appoint another person as a backup of the principal contact.

Upon reporting of an issue by the Client, CommunityForce will request additional documentation (if required) or suggest process improvements and workarounds, as appropriate, to resolve the issue. If the feature development requires expedited service, the Client will provide additional documentation requested with expedited due diligence.

Request for New feature

If the Client request or resolution requires a feature to be developed or programmed, CommunityForce will review the documentation. CommunityForce will also provide advice on alternatives for the Client to develop enhancement/changes to the Client's web services.

Note: Unless otherwise specified within the Severity Level guidelines below, normal hours for support requests are Monday through Friday, between the hours of 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM, EDT. Technical Staff are available to review and gauge all incoming client issues in order to determine the severity of the issue and how the issue will be handled. The issue will first be reviewed, then the attempt will be made by CommunityForce to replicate the issue, then CommunityForce will determine if the issue is a defect of the system or Client produced issue.

Related articles