Monday, 14 March 2016

How to prepare a service level agreement or Annual Maintenance Contract agreement for call center solutions

A service level agreement contracted between the the service vendor and service user. Below example of agreement made for call center software solutions like ( IVR , ACD &CTI).

Demo of SLA or AMC for call center software solutions.
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AGREEMENT (No) : xxx xxx xxx xxx

This Annual Maintenance contract ( Hereinafter referred to as ( contract) is made on this day (xx) Month (xx)Year(xxxx) between;

Company A ....  ,  having its head office at ................................................( Hereinafter referred to as ( Purchaser)

and

Company B  ( hereinafter) referred as "Contractor " having its head office ..................................

Company A and Company B are collectively referred to as the "Parties" or individually to as the "Party".

WHERE AS
A. Service contract for the call center solutions ( Hereinafter referred  as Solution) is effective for the period of  MONTH DATE YEAR  to MONTH DATE YEAR.
B. On the basis of the aforesaid proposal company B has agreed to provide call center software maintenance services to company A to maintain call center solutions is a good operating and working conditions of the services to rectify any failure and malfunctions on the call center solutions in the manner of described in Exhibit A ( Exhibit A is attached end of this document) here to.
C. The parties therefore deemed it necessary to enter into these presents to set out the terms of understanding in writing upon which company A will obtain  company B will provide the aforesaid services to company A.
D. All schedules here to shall be constructed in consonance with this agreement.

NOW THEREFORE THIS AGREEMENT WITNESS AND IT IS HEREBY AGREED BY AND BETWEEN THE PARTIES HERETO FOLLOWS

1.Term of this agreement

The contract will remain in force for a period effective from  date : ............... to date ...............or until such time this agreement is terminated in the manner specific here in.

2. Scope of services


1)      Company B shall provide maintenance services as specified in Exhibit A to the customer on normal working days between 9:30am to 5:30pm.
2)      Company B shall depute number of personnel as it feels justified to carry out the required work. Repair and Service of the equipment will be carried out at customer’s request. Whether any defective item or component is to be replaced or repaired, shall be at the sole discretion of Company B. Where any item is to be sent to principal manufacturer for repairs, packing, forwarding, custom duties, insurance, cost of repair, in the event of unfair wear and tear of card, shall be paid by the customer on actual to and fro basis at the prevailing rates.
3)      The defective part/material shall be replaced with a functionally working equivalent material, which need not be a brand new one and may be different to the one originally implemented & installed. The defective part software patch or material shall belong to Company B.
4)      Company B shall maintain the service  of Company A  in accordance with the maintenance criteria contained in Exhibit A so as to ensure that the application are in good operating and working conditions and to rectify any failure and malfunctions.

5)      If Company B determines that engineering changes, such as patch installations including safety changes, are mandatory for any Machine, Company B shall decide to install them after having discussed with Company A and to select the method of installation as part of preventative maintenance procedures at no extra cost to customer.


3.  Maintenance and Support Services 




The maintenance and Support Services to be provided by COMPANY A to COMPANY B under this Agreement shall comprise the following services:-

1)      Error Verification Procedure

If COMPANY B shall discover any error, shortcoming, malfunction or other defect in the equipment COMPANY B shall as soon as practicable notify COMPANY A’s designated help desk of the error, shortcoming, malfunction or other defect as the case may be.

             COMPANY A shall respond to the said notice of COMPANY B in accordance with the time frames described in Exhibit A and shall use it’s best efforts to ascertain the existence of the error, shortcoming, malfunction or other defect as the case may be and determine the cause in order to rectify or remedy the said error shortcoming malfunction or other defect as the case may be in accordance within the time frames.

2)      Corrective Maintenance

COMPANY A shall take all reasonable steps to provide corrective maintenance for the Application to ensure that the said service will operate according to the designated specifications and functions and free of malfunctions, errors, defects or shortcomings.

3)      Maintenance Procedures

·        Each party shall treat as confidential, information which comes into its possession pursuant to or as a result of or in the performance of this Agreement, whether such information relates to the business, and sales, marketing or technical operations of either party or the clientele of either party or otherwise.
·        Neither party shall, without the written permission of the other, disclose such confidential information to a third party unless required by law.
·        The operation of this clause shall survive till the termination notice period of this Agreement.
·        COMPANY A Engineer shall conduct semi-annual remote health check of Application. Each time COMPANY A engineer shall provide a report on health check to Company B along with recommendations for system improvement, if required.
·        If COMPANY A assigned engineer fails to solve a critical problem within agreed time then COMPANY A will provide one month free support service of the same criteria for 8 hrs service down time.
·          A quarterly support performance meeting will be held at the end of each quarter at Customer/ Contractor premises to review the quarterly support performance and propose recommendation for improvement which might be added to this contract as amendment.
·        COMPANY A shall accept the service request over telephone followed by an e-mail. The logging time will be counted from the telephone calls response.
·        COMPANY A will provide and update the telephone numbers, names and e-mail addresses of the support  people/ help desk in the country and abroad quarterly.




4)   Obligations & Covenants of Company A


1.      Single Point of Contact

Company A is responsible for designating a manager (and backup) within the IT/Telecom organization to act as the primary contact support activities.  This manager will be responsible for coordinating the delivery of all services with the appropriate COMPANY A representatives.  This contact will be available to meet with the COMPANY A support team in person or via telephone on a regular basis.

2.      Communication of Changes to Environment

Company A will maintain a robust change management program that includes a communication path to the COMPANY A support team for pending hardware, software or network changes affecting Company A supported IT environment.

3.      24 x 7 Support of all Support Providers

Company A will maintain appropriate levels of support with all external and internal vendors that have support responsibility for equipment that is critical to the computing environment supported by COMPANY A.  This support may be provided by COMPANY A, third parties, or Company A.

Company A will not directly or indirectly open alters, modify, reengineer or tamper with the system hardware, software or layout arrangement without prior written approval of COMPANY A. In case it is done, the customer shall bear the cost of additional repaired required and COMPANY A shall hold the right to terminate the present contract.

Company A will not use any agency directly or indirectly for the maintenance of the system unless approved by COMPANY A in advance.

4.      Remote Support Access

 Company A will provide a method for remote support access to all systems maintained in the Critical Systems environment.  This method must be available during support coverage hours and will be mutually agreed upon by COMPANY A and Company A. It will         Provide Internet mail access to facilitate easy written communication.and will provide the capability to upload files to our ftp site.

5.      Defined Escalation Process

       Company A will establish an internal communication plan for critical problems to ensure rapid resolution and clear communication on a peer-to-peer basis between COMPANY A and Company A.

6.      Technical Staff Access

      Company A will provide COMPANY A’s technical staff access to Company A building facilities, as needed, during normal business hours as well as after hours, if necessary.

7.      Notify COMPANY A of Changes to Authorized Callers

Company A will notify COMPANY A of changes to their authorized list of Response Center callers.

8.      Installation of Software Patches

Company A is responsible for reviewing patch documentation included with distributed patches and the installation of software patches. Schedule regular maintenance periods for your systems to apply recommended software patches.

9.      Data

Company A is responsible for backup and recovery of all data and software controlled by their backend system and staff.
Company A will maintain a current back-up copy of the operating system and other applicable software programs and data.

10.  Maintenance of Security and Environment in the Server room

Company A is responsible for temperature and humidity control, to enable all servers operating in the optimum condition. Cleanliness must be maintained.
Company A will ensure all cablings are properly routed and secured.
Company A will ensure sufficient open space around each server, to enable good airflow to cool the servers and easy maintenance or service repair.
Company A is responsible to secure the server room, with access rights to limited number of person.




5)  Obligations of COMPANY B

 

COMPANY B agrees to provide maintenance service to keep the Application in good working order. Under this contract COMPANY B shall provide a minimum of 2 (two) servicing in one year at CUSTOMER’S site. The Maintenance Schedule will be prepared as per mutual understanding between COMPANY B and Company A

1)     COMPANY B shall provide ON CALL REMEDIAL SERVICE.  In this case, COMPANY B will ensure response and resolution time as agreed in this contract. In addition to this, COMPANY B will ensure that a call is escalated to COMPANY B support engineers so that within 2 hours troubleshooting work starts at site and also Company A will get a notification of it. CUSTOMER will have access to support technical information (via email or web) related to a problem.

2)   COMPANY B shall provide all necessary labor and technical know-how as required for the maintenance work.

3)   COMPANY B will take responsibility to restore the operating system from tape backup cartridges or available documents of system configuration provided by Company A, in case re installation of operating system is required.

4)    If the assigned engineer fails to solve a critical problem within 16 hours, COMPANY B shall immediately provide onsite support at no additional cost to Company A, and resolve the problem

5)  In case of non fulfillment of the agreed Resolution time mentioned for critical problems in Exhibit B by COMPANY B, additional one week Service period will be added for each 8 hours downtime/out of production in every contractual year.

6)  A dedicated contact point
      Name:
      Email address:
      Phone number
     
       Will be available as per the terms
      for Company A Ltd. for getting faster support. 







EXHIBIT B

SEVERITY DEFINITION:

Severity classes are defined as described below and when a problem is logged, it will be assigned to a particular category/ severity by mutual agreement with COMPANY A based on the following guidelines:

Severity
Definition
Critical
Complete loss of product or service i.e. a service-affecting problem.  A problem is deemed to be Critical affecting services due to H/W or anything relates to business critical.
This class requires immediate action by the support group.
Major
Partial loss of product service  i.e.,
This class of problem is service affecting and is deemed an emergency; it requires immediate action by the support group. This type of failure could involve loss of redundancy due to component failure or the inability to operate and maintain the platform due to system malfunction of HW.
Minor
Functional degradation of system component – non-service affecting.  Examples include incorrect operation of minor functionality or system components that are infrequently used.  The condition does not severely restrict such operations.

 



RESPONSE TIME:

Priority
Response Time
Critical
Telephone and Online support: Transfer to next available engineer of all support request – 24/7.

On site support : 2 hours response- 24/7

Major
Telephone and Online support: Transfer to next available engineer of all support request – 24/7.

On site support:  6 hours response- 24/7

Minor
Telephone and Online support: Transfer to next available engineer of all support request – 24/7.

On site support:  One business day or mutually convenient time.


RESOLUTION TIME:

Class
Acknowledged*
Status Response
Target Service Restoration
(No software required)
Critical
30 Minutes
Daily, on request.
4 hours
Major
60 Minutes
Daily
12 hours
Minor
2 Hours
Weekly
 1week







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