Question
-
Topic
-
SLA
LockedPlease check this SLA and point out with question in the SAL to be asked with Vendor
Service Level Agreement
1.0. Purpose
The purpose of this Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to formalize an arrangement between NOUR Communications Co, P.O. Box 21557 Riyadh 11485 Saudi Arabia referred herein as Provider or the First Party in this agreement, and Saudi Public Transportation Co ? SAPTCO-. PO Box ( ) Riyadh ( ) Saudi Arabia, referred to herein as Customer or the Second Party in this agreement) to deliver specific support services, at specific levels of support, and at an agreed-upon cost. This document is intended to provide details of the provision of connectivity services to customer through providers existing infrastructure. This SLA will involve over time, with additional knowledge of the customer requirements, as well as the introduction of new applications and services into the support portfolio provided to customer.
2.0. Overview
This agreement is between PROVIDERS and CUSTOMER who uses the service under this SLA. The SLA also covers the performance, reliability and other topics pertinent to this agreement; in particular it l key responsibilities of both PROVIDERS and CUSTOMER.3.0. Scope of Agreement
The scope of this agreement is for PROVIDERS to provide CUSTOMER with decent level of services specified in the Technical Proposal for CUSTOMER. This SLA shall cover all the related quality of services for branches Data connectivity Services used by CUSTOMER.4.0. Definitions
? ?SLA? means Service Level Agreement.
? ?PROVIDER? shall means NOUR COMMUNICATIONS Co. Ltd .
? ?CUSTOMER? shall mean SAPTCO
? ?Service? shall mean Internet services connectivity via designated circuit and/or services provided to the CUSTOMER by PROVIDERS or via PROVIDERS subcontractor, including any other related or Value Added Services specified in this agreement.
? Availability Percentage = ((Total Uptime ? Total Outage)/ Total Uptime ) x 100 . This Percentage shall mean the quality of being available for use when needed. In this agreement shall mean the continuation of provided service(s) for no less than the specified level of service.
? Performance? shall mean the received quality of the provided service(s) in terms of the Round Trip Latency, Error Percentage (Drop Percentage), Response time to service call and service restoring time.
? ?Throughput? shall mean the amount of bits that can be transmitted or received at any given time, exclude the used protocol overhead (such as ATM overhead). This shall be presented in the Utilization Report.
? ?Misuse? in the contents of this agreement shall mean the inappropriate usage of provided services in a manner that can either cause damage, failure, or unauthorized access to others WAN networks elements provided and configured by PROVIDERS. This includes but is not limited to: sending any form of unwanted e-mails (SPAM), hacking or attempting to hack, attempting to block access to specific or generic networks or users, sending viruses or Trojans and any sort of action to this extent.
? ?DSP? shall mean the authorized and licensed Data Service Provider (DSP) in Saudi Arabia that is providing Last Mile Access connectivity services This includes but is not limited to: Saudi DATA, NOURNET Cable Link, Bayanat Al-Oula, ITC , mobile operators and VSAT operators.
? ?IGW? shall mean the authorized and licensed Internet Gateway Service Providers in Saudi Arabia that is providing Internet Gateway connectivity to PROVIDERS, This includes but is not limited to: Saudi DATA, Bayanat Al-Oula, and ITC.
? Local Loop : shall mean the media used to connect CUSTOMER premises with the nearest PROVIDERS PoP. This includes but is not limited to: Land Lines, Wireless, 3G and VSAT.
? PROVIDERS PoP: shall mean the Point of Presence of PROVIDERS network, where CUSTOMER premises shall be connected.
? Virus means any thing or device which may impair or otherwise adversely affect the operation of any computer, prevent or hinder access to any program or data, impair the operation of any program or the reliability of any data (whether by rearranging within the, or any, storage medium or device, altering or erasing the program or data in whole or in part, or otherwise), including computer viruses, Trojan horses, worms and other similar things.
? Response time : The time required from the 1st moment CUSTOMER open a ticket and PROVIDERS help desk respond to this time . This time includes 1st line trouble-shooting and problem investigation.
? Restore time: The time required from PROVIDERS to restore the service after the response time.
? Main Cities: shall mean Riyadh City, Jeddah City, Khobar City, Dammam City and Madinah City .5.0. Term of Agreement
The term of this agreement is (xx) years starting at the start date of activation and billing and ends at the last hour of the billing date. This term is renewable under the same clauses or modified as long as both parties agree and the service(s) under this agreement has been extended for another year.
6.0. Use of Services
CUSTOMER agrees NOT to use the provided services for anything prohibited by the laws of Saudi Arabia. CUSTOMER also agrees NOT to resell the provided services to any third party other than its own staff without written approval from PROVIDERS. Any misuse of the provided services may cause termination of service without refund. CUSTOMER also agrees to be responsible for the actions of its users and staff using the provided services and agrees to do its best effort to prevent misuse.7.0. Circuit Provisioning
Acceptance and provision of Services guideline:
Following installation, configuration and connection of the Service, prior to commencing Service delivery, CUSTOMER may conduct acceptance tests and quality assurance assessments to ensure that the Service will operate in accordance with any applicable specifications and the requirements of this Agreement.
If CUSTOMER is satisfied with its acceptance testing, CUSTOMER shall sign the Service Acceptance delivery note provided by PROVIDERS to confirm commencement of the Services.
If, in the opinion of CUSTOMER, the Services have not passed the agreed acceptance tests or quality assurance assessments, then PROVIDERS shall, at its own cost, promptly do all things necessary to ensure that the Services comply with any applicable specifications and the requirements of this Agreement.
PROVIDERS shall provide CUSTOMER with high quality of Service and committed level of Service for the Internet link(s) (Dedicated Connectivity). PROVIDERS shall provide the Services in accordance with the agreed performance levels set out in clauses 3 and 4 of this Agreement, with all reasonable care and diligence expected in the internet services industry, and in compliance with all applicable laws. PROVIDERS shall provide an on-line access for the monitoring tool to monitor the link status and performance (MRTG) of the Service. In providing the Services, PROVIDERS shall comply with CUSTOMER IT, security and usage policies notified to it from time to time. In addition PROVIDERS shall provide On-Line access for the ticketing system.8.0. Support Procedure
8.1 Standard Support
PROVIDERS will provide service availability to CUSTOMER with a reliability as shown below – PROVIDERS technical support staff will be reachable on a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year basis.o Respond to Service call within 30 Minutes during the working hours and 4 Hours during non-working hours.:
o Restore services within 2 hours unless a major failure caused by DSP?s and/or IGW.
o Replacement or repair of faulty equipment within 4hours.
o New Configuration or adding new service elements : to be scheduled 24Hrs prior to implementation time.The mean time to reach the PROVIDERS Support Engineer is guaranteed to be no more than 20 minutes from the time of logging the service call by CUSTOMER during the working hours.
PROVIDERS shall provide the 1st feedback to CUSTOMER about the problem nature and expected time to restore the service within 1Hours from the time of logging the service call.
8.2 Standard WAN Links Performance
PROVIDERS committed to deliver a free of error service links as follow:
Link latency (Round-Trip time) for local loop connections from CUSTOMER HQ ROUTER to PROVIDERS premises should be on average less than 90 msec with 50% load on Monthly basis.
Link latency (Round-Trip time) For Internet connections from CUSTOMER HQ ROUTER to KSA Internet Gateway (IGW) should be on average less than 120 msec with 50% load on Monthly basis.
The Link error should not exceed 1% for all provided local loops on average on monthly basis.
Any violation from Providers side for above measurements shall cause a penalty of not less than 2% and not more than 5% from the current service fees for each incident caused by PROVIDERS and will be deducted automatically for PROVIDERS next due payment date.
8.3 Premier Support
PROVIDERS will ensure a dedicated team of support engineers named as Account Engineers (one from each parties of the PROVIDERS) who will be available 24 hours to CUSTOMER calls either via land line and/or mobile. A back-end escalation engineer to solve problems of critical nature. In addition to this, the Standard Support features will be provided as explained above.
Providers shall maintain a 2nd backup local loop by using Point-To-Point wireless in order to provide backup for the primary local loop provided by STC.
8.4 Availability & Minim Up-time
8.5 Support Availability
PROVIDERS shall provide 24x7x365 help desk.
8.6 Fault Reporting
Upon any failure, CUSTOMER should report the fault to PROVIDERS help desk through any available means way of communication (Phone, Email, Fax and On-Line Ticketing). PROVIDERS shall also provide 24x7x365 monitoring for CUSTOMER Internet services resources (ROUTER, MODEM, Local loop). PROVIDERS shall provide CUSTOMER with following sample Report.
Ticket No. Problem Start Time Reported by Site Name DSP
070808 08/08/08 09:15AMPROVIDERS HD HQ DC STC
Initial Problem description Actual Problem Action Taken Restoring Date Restoring Time
Link Instability CRC error on the LLL Contact STC and Clear the CRC 11:30 AM 12/08/20079.0. Problem Types, Severity Levels and Response Time
Problem types and their severity will be described as follows:
1. Circuit/Service is completely down from both parties (Level 1).
2. Circuit/Service is completely down from one party (Level 2)
3. Circuit/Service is unstable (Level 3).
4. Circuit/Service is up but internal network problems cause loss of service (Level 4).
5. Circuit/Service is up but performance seems to be less than normal traffic( Level 5).9.1 Mean Response Time
The mean response time for any Level 1 or Level 2 service request will be within thirty (30) minute of PROVIDERS being informed by the CUSTOMER or PROVIDERS notice it by PROVIDERS network operation center (NOC) of a problem in any circuit provisioned. All service requests must be made to PROVIDERS assign engineer via any of the methods explained in 8.6 above, and backed by a Ticket number. The mean response time for any Level 3 and Level 4 will be within 1 hour maximum. The mean response time for any Level 5 will be within 2 hours maximum.Any violation from Providers side for above response time shall cause a penalty of not less than 1 days for each 30 minutes delay caused by PROVIDERS and will be deducted automatically for PROVIDERS next due payment date.
9.2 Trouble Tickets
Upon CUSTOMER report of a problem, the problem will be ranked as per the severity and if the problem is not solved at once, then a Trouble Ticket will be issued to the CUSTOMER. The ticket # will be the CUSTOMER reference later on for this problem. The ticket will be escalated internally to the appropriate support staff.
10.0. Availability and Compensation
These connectivity services may be critical to the CUSTOMER. A high degree of availability is necessary for the CUSTOMER to achieve their purpose. The network shall be available 24 hours per day, except for scheduled weekly maintenance . Scheduled maintenance should be done within CUSTOMER off-Peak Time and shouldn?t cause business interruption for CUSTOMER. In case the scheduled maintenance will over-lap with CUSTOMER business hours, PROVIDERS shall provide alternative connection media by utilizing Premier Support tool (8.3).
The maintenance schedule that will cause general outage should be notified to CUSTOMER with minimum 2 weeks prior to actual maintenance date.
10.1 Boundaries of Responsibility:
General Faults, down times (scheduled or otherwise) and problems or interruptions caused by STC and/or any other DSP?s, other than PROVIDERS may not be included into this SLA. Such faults are outside the controls of PROVIDERS and therefore, PROVIDERS can not be held responsible for them. Such possible problems include, but are not limited to: down time and problems from IGW centers, down times and problems from STC as primary Local Loop Providers , network, Kingdom wide and general slowness reported by DSP?s (PROVIDERS will provide the documented evidence for such cases). Furthermore, problems or down times attributed to CUSTOMER misuse of equipment, configuration changes and network alterations without prior written approval of PROVIDERS are outside this SLA.10.2 Responsibility Decision:
PROVIDERS and CUSTOMER mutually responsible to decide the source or cause of the problem/down time. The CUSTOMER agrees to uphold PROVIDERS as a trusted partner whose main interest is the CUSTOMER satisfaction and uptime. Our interest is not to deviate or mislead CUSTOMER. PROVIDERS is always frank and clear with CUSTOMER.10.3 Unavailability & Liability:
Will be calculated and reported as follows: If in any calendar month PROVIDERS does not meet the specified availability (Clause 8.4), PROVIDERS will compensate the CUSTOMER. The amount of compensation will be determined in accordance with the rules set in clause 10.6.
10.4 Calculation of Down Time:
Downtime is calculated from the time of notification of a fault by CUSTOMER and ends when the service is restored to full working order as determined and verified by PROVIDERS and also verified by CUSTOMER.
Down Time = Actual Restore Time ? Problem Reporting Time10.5 Planned Outage:
Planned Outages by PROVIDERS, local loop operators, IGWs or any future third party that may be involved in the delivery of the services contracted for will be made public to all CUSTOMER through PROVIDERS web site. Wherever possible, PROVIDERS will ensure that Planned Outages each month are at a minimum. Planned outages are not refundable and not calculated as part of the availability.10.6 Compensation Calculation:
If availability falls below the guaranteed levels in any particular month then PROVIDERS shall credit the CUSTOMER by reference to the following table.
Monthly Network Availability Reimbursement of Monthly Service Fee
99.5% and Above 0
99% – 99.499% 2%
95% – 98.999% 5%
Less Than 95% 10%10.7 Change of Agreement
At any point of time both parties can modify or change the agreement terms and conditions by mutual understanding.11.0. Price Revision
PROVIDERS agree that in case of any price reduction announced by official authorities via formal way?s related to the services provided to the CUSTOMER, then PROVIDERS shall be liable to adjust the service fees within the next payment due date.
12.0. Main Contractor Responsibilities
One of the PROVIDERS parties which is NOUR Communications Co. (NOURNET) will act as main contractor in front of CUSTOMER. NOURNET will be fully responsible in front of CUSTOMER to ensure the other party performance and executing his duties and responsibilities as stated in this agreement.
The CUSTOMER shall issue all the payments related to the services provided by the PROVIDERS to be paid to main contractor against main contractor invoices.
13.0. Payments
The payment terms will be quarterly on advance. CUSTOMER commit to clear PROVIDERS invoices related to the services provided to him within 30 days from the date of invoice submission.14.0. Performance: Data & Internet Network Performance Indicators
The following criteria shall be used by CUSTOMER to evaluate the services provided by PROVIDERS in general (Quality of Service)
– No. of Problems reported every Quarter per link ( Average Up-Time percentage)
– Respond time average compliance with the SLA.15.0. Force Majeure
In all cases, PROVIDERS will abide by time durations and levels of service mentioned in each clause except for any delays resulting from Force Majeure such as strikes, riots, arson, floods, any other irrepressible circumstances, and acts of Nature or due to events beyond the normal control of PROVIDERS.16.0. CUSTOMER Responsibilities
CUSTOMER is responsible for protecting all accounts and passwords and for any unauthorized use made on CUSTOMER account. CUSTOMER agrees to comply with the rules appropriate to any network to which CUSTOMER may gain access via the services of PROVIDERS. CUSTOMER acknowledges that PROVIDERS shall not be liable for any loss, theft, misuse of any of the proprietary or confidential information that is kept on CUSTOMER PCs/Servers that are connected to the Internet or transferred through the Internet. The security of such transactions is the responsibility of the CUSTOMER. CUSTOMER will not transmit or make available to the internet any material that is illegal, libelous, torturous or likely to result in action against PROVIDERS or its CUSTOMERs. CUSTOMER agrees that under no circumstances will the electronic mail services be used in sending unsolicited electronic mail messages, commercial or otherwise, including, but not limited to the sending of unsolicited mass mailings from another service which in any way implicates the use of PROVIDERS service(s), equipment, or any PROVIDERS electronic mail addresses. The CUSTOMER is also responsible to:
16.1 Acquire and maintain the connectivity and hardware as deemed appropriate.
16.2 Provide and update an Antivirus package to all PCs, users and servers.
16.3 Consult PROVIDERS before changing, installing any equipment connected to the Network. Quality of installation has a great deal to do with performance, reliability and availability.
16.4 Provide an appropriate installation site for PROVIDERS employees and equipment coming into the CUSTOMER premises. Provide PROVIDERS with Network ports and relevant equipment not listed in the contract with PROVIDERS.
16.5 Provide support to his users including all their requirements such as relevant skills, knowledge and hands on training.
16.6 Establish an appropriate ?Acceptable Use Policy? and inform and educate users about it and how to avoid network and systems security violations.
16.7 Provide the necessary cooling, electrical supply (according to required loads), electrical backups (as necessary), clean environment (as required by manufacturers of supplied equipment) and physical security.17.0. Disclaimer of Liability
CUSTOMER acknowledges that all services are provided on an ?As is? basis and that PROVIDERS makes no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, regarding the reliability or suitability for particular proposes. No oral advice or written information given by PROVIDERS, its employees, directors, agents or other representatives, shall create or expand any representation or warranty nor shall CUSTOMER be entitled to rely on any such information or advice. CUSTOMER acknowledges that connectivity service may be temporarily unavailable for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance, and for other reasons within or/and outside the control of PROVIDERS. Under no circumstances shall any errors, delay, loss of information/data or interruptions in service nullify or modify agreement or any other agreements or contract by PROVIDERS and CUSTOMER. Butt PROVIDERS will inform AQES before any suspension or for any maintenance.18.0. Notices
All notices given by any party under this agreement shall be in writing and addressed to the relevant parties. The CUSTOMER shall fully indemnify PROVIDERS in case of any direct or indirect action by the CUSTOMER or persons acting on the CUSTOMER?s behalf that causes damage to PROVIDERS or third parties claiming damages from PROVIDERS.19.0. Choice of Law
This agreement shall be construed in accordance with, and governed by, the laws of Saudi Arabia. Any legal action or other proceeding relating to this agreement or the enforcement of any provision of this agreement shall be brought or otherwise commenced in courts located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia only.
20.0. Acceptance of Terms and Conditions
The signing implies and confirms that the CUSTOMER has read and understood all the contents of terms and conditions carefully and agrees to act in accordance with this agreement.On Behalf of CUSTOMER On Behalf of PROVIDER
By : ————————————- ; By : ————————————-
Name :———————————- ; Name : Amjad A. Hafez
Title :————————————- ; Title : General Manager