Current Service Level Agreement (SLA)

© 2021 Net Friends, Inc.

Service Level Agreement

1. Initiating Support Service

Net Friends shall accept only the following methods of contact for support service ticketing and resolution according to the terms of this SLA:

1. Telephone call to a published Net Friends office phone number
2. Telephone call to a number assigned to the Net Friends Support Center
3. Email to request@netfriends.com from an email address already associated with a User in the Net Friends ticketing system
4. Automated notification received from a Technology Platform by a Net Friends centralized event management system

2. Creating Tickets from Automated Notifications

Net Friends is continually updating and optimizing procedures for processing automated notifications; these procedures are not part of the SLA and constitute proprietary information. Notification processing falls under the following broad categories:

1. Non-actionable
   Notifications that do not constitute an actionable problem are filtered out of the review process automatically but are archived for possible forensic use.
2. Backup notifications
   Notifications categorized as backup-related are watched by Net Friends staff to determine whether they self-resolve within a defined time window (1-5 business days depending on the known criticality of the backup source data); errors that fail to resolve are manually transferred to the Net Friends ticketing system within one business day and prioritized as Important.
3. Known Critical
   Customers may inform Net Friends that a particular Technology Platform is "Known Critical" (KC) if the continuous operation of that platform is critical to their business. All KC Platforms must be associated, in Net Friends documentation, with an Emergency Contact telephone number at the Customer. Automated notifications from KC Platforms will be prioritized as Critical, unless they are automatically filtered into categories (1) or (2) above. A Support Center expert will call this number to request approval to investigate within 30 minutes of receiving each Critical notification. If a person fails to answer at the number when called, or if in the course of the investigation the person fails to respond promptly when contacted, the notification will be transferred to the Net Friends ticketing system and prioritized as Important.
4. All other
   Notifications that do not fall under the above categories are reviewed within one business day and, if deemed actionable, manually transferred to the Net Friends ticketing system and prioritized as Medium.

3. Prioritization

Net Friends shall manage responses to events and service requests using a ticketing system. The priority of a request shall be determined by Net Friends. All requests submitted by email are prioritized as Medium. For requests submitted by phone, prioritization guidelines are defined below:

4. Response Windows

The time at which a ticket, in the context of the Net Friends ticketing system, is created, either by automated or manual processes, is the time at which the response window begins. Net Friends shall respond to tickets according to the time windows below:

Initial Response is when a Net Friends IT Expert will attempt to contact the individual who opened the ticket or who is identified as an appropriate Customer contact for the ticket.

Subsequent Responses is the frequency with which the Customer contact is updated on the status of the ticket.

Target for Resolution is the point by which:

• the problem is resolved,
• the problem is determined to be unresolvable (e.g., hardware failure, severe data loss), or
• continuous effort will be applied until a conclusion is reached.

*The schedule for Subsequent Responses and Target for Resolution may be adjusted for individual tickets by mutual agreement of the Customer and Net Friends.

If Net Friends standard operating procedures require that work on a particular ticket be placed on hold in anticipation of a response from (a) a User, (b) a vendor, or (c) a Net Friends employee possessing expertise in a particular Line-of-Business Platform required to resolve the ticket, this delay in response will not be counted toward the response windows described above. If a response is needed from a User, Net Friends will make up to three contact attempts, over a minimum of three and a maximum of seven days. One contact attempt is defined as calling the User's last known phone number and sending a message to the User's last known email address on the same day. If three contact attempts occur, during the time window allotted, and during that time no response is received from the User by Net Friends, then Net Friends will close the ticket. The User will receive an automated email notifying them that the ticket has been closed. Closure of such tickets without resolution will not be deemed a violation of this SLA.

5. Hours of Operation

Net Friends maintains the following office hours:
Monday through Friday, from 08:30 to 17:30 Eastern Time

Offices are closed after-hours and on the following US holidays: New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.

Customers experiencing a Critical-priority support issue after normal business hours may call a published Net Friends office number and choose the option to leave an emergency message. Support personnel will be notified immediately, and the Customer will receive a response within 30 minutes of placing the message.

6. Escalation

Net Friends may, at its discretion, escalate ticket priority levels upon request by the Customer. For tickets associated with a known email address, a confirmation email is sent to the sending address when the ticket is created that includes an option for the sender to request priority escalation. Customers may also call a published Net Friends office number to request escalation of an existing ticket. If a ticket's priority is escalated, the response window will reset; no ticket will be deemed to have exceeded its SLA window if the window is retroactively shortened by escalation.