Service Level Agreement (SLA)

Service Level Agreement for customers on FileCare

FileHold Cloud is a fully supported environment where FileHold maintains responsibility for all of the IT infrastructure and support activities.  This includes system back-up and all future upgrades and ensures a customer is on always on the most current release of the document management software. Download the FileHold Cloud SLA.

For on-premise or private cloud environments where the FileHold software has been installed on a customer supported environment. In this case all IT infrastructure, including system back up, is the responsibility of the customer. FileHold fully supports the FileHold software with technical support and upgrades. Download the on-premise / private cloud SLA.

Software support methodology

Customers are supported in English using remote support services including e-mail and web based meeting tools. Support is available from 12:00 am to 4:00 pm Pacific time Monday to Friday excluding certain local holidays. Additional support can be scheduled on weekends or evenings by prior arrangement.

The support process starts when a software user contacts their internal help desk, IT support department, or FileHold reseller. If the customer's internal support or reseller determines the problem is related to the document management software and cannot help they will register the issue with [email protected]. Emails to FileHold support are monitored by FileHold technical staff over 16 hours per day, Monday to Friday.

Issue Severity Definitions

Following are the levels of issue severity:

• Level 1 Global severity - All or most production users affected by an outage of functionality.
• Level 2 User severity - One or a small number of production users affected by an outage of functionality.
• Level 3 Non-critical Severity - A non-production or cosmetic issue, no significant effect on users or workaround available, or a product question.

FileHold Support response times

All support issues registered with FileHold support are assigned a unique support case number. The email will be responded to by a technical support team member by no later than noon of the next business day. In the response it will be determined if the problem is related to the document management software or a third-party application and a Severity level will be established.

If the source of the problem is outside the control of FileHold the customer will be advised accordingly and best efforts will be made to notify the party / parties responsible and cooperate with them to resolve such problem.

If the problem is within the control of FileHold the following responses are made:

• Level 1 Global severity - Technical email communication will be initiated with the customer within 4 hours of severity determination. Continuous best efforts will be made to resolve the problem or until service is restored or until an interim remedy is implemented. The resolution objective is 1 business day.
• Level 2 User severity - The source email communication will be initiated with the customer within 8 hours of severity determination. Best efforts to resolve the problem will be made with a resolution objective of 3 business days.
• Level 3 Non-critical severity - Email communication will be initiated with the customer within 16 hours of severity determination. Communication of the request will be made clear to the customers but resolution may wait until a future product release. If it is a product enhancement / future feature request the customer will be referred to Suggest a Feature.

Support escalation policy

If a customer feels the support response times are not being met or the problem is not being addressed they may initiate direct contact with the head of customer services at [email protected].

Other features of the FileCare subscription support program

Knowledge Base: Is available to customers on FileCare 24 hours per day 7 days per week. It serves as a knowledge base of common support incidents that may help you quickly solve a problem or for our customers who want technical information that is not available in other places.

Software Upgrades: Customers on FileCare have access to any released hot-fixes, service packs, and major or minor new versions of software while under contract. If there are no changes to the existing server or operating system the technical support for upgrades is provided at no additional charge.

Reporting: FileCare maintains a status report of open and past support issues including; issue number, problem category, severity, status, and problem description. A customer may ask for a review of their support incidences including our response at any time.

Addition of licenses: Customers on FileCare can add new licensed features to the system at any time at no administration charge other than the cost of the license. For registered user licenses, there is a minimum of 5. The cost of the FileCare contract is pro-rated on new licensing to the FileCare agreement anniversary date.

Custom solution coverage: FileHold developed reports, plug-ins, connectors, or other custom software is also covered by FileCare. In addition to unlimited break-fix support, this also includes changes needed to accommodate FileHold product upgrades, configuration changes, and upgrades in third-party interfaces. It does not include changes to the original custom solution requirements or new third-party interfaces. The rate for custom solution FileCare is different from the standard product FileCare.

No charge disaster recovery assessment: FileHold will provide a free assessment of what activities will need to be completed to bring the FileHold software back to normal operation following a hardware failure or other IT disaster. FileHold technicians can assist with some of these activities for a professional services fee.

FileHold expertise: There may be situations where FileHold is not performing normally, but the cause is not FileHold. Your FileCare agreements includes our technicians working with your experts to collaboratively find a solution to the problem. For example, if you are concerned about Microsoft SQL performance, we will work with your database administrator to find the best optimizations for your server and databases.

Annual system review: FileHold contacts all FileCare customers annually to make sure they are getting the best value out of their purchase and to perform a preventative maintenance check of their system.

FileCare software subscription terms and conditions

Term: The FileCare subscription runs for 12 months from the day the FileHold server software is installed and the license is issued. The contract start and end date will be clearly stated on the FileCare subscription invoice. Licenses added in the middle of a FileCare agreement term will have their FileCare fees prorated to the normal term renewal date.

Termination of support services: The FileCare contract may only be terminated by FileHold in advance of the contract expiry in which case FileHold will refund a prorated portion of the annual service contract. The customer may terminate by declining the annual contract renewal.

Active Directory Synchronization and other third-party components may not be covered by FileCare: Microsoft Active Directory is a third-party component and if a customer makes changes to user roles or schemas the synchronization can be thrown off. In order to repair this synchronization FileHold will have to re-run their synchronization tools, there may be extra charge for these services. Support for the supplied document scanning software, other third-party scanning products, third-party components and customer developed interfaces to third-party applications are not be covered under FileCare and are not eligible for the Level 1 severity SLA.

Eligibility: In order to remain on FileCare customers must remain no more than one major release behind the most current major release of FileHold. All installed FileHold servers, optional modules, and custom solutions must be covered by FileCare. When servers, optional modules, or custom solutions are decommissioned FileCare can be correspondingly reduced at the next renewal. FileCare is not required for one-time-use migration or conversion software.

Server and Operating Systems Upgrades: FileCare does not cover the re-installation of FileHold as a result of customer server or operating system upgrades or catastrophic failure. There will be a professional services fee for assistance with a re-installation.

API: All standard clients use the FileHold web services that make up the FileHold API. As such, support for the FileHold API is included with FileCare, but support for a custom application you build using the API is not included. If you have an issue with your custom application, send details of the error you are encountering from the FileHold event log or replicate the issue using a standard FileHold client. Do not send screen shots or related materials from your custom application as the FileCare team has no way to diagnose issues with this information. If you are developing an application and you are unable to find the documentation for a specific scenario, the FileCare team may be able to help. All issues or questions related to your custom application are treated as level 3 priority. If you need more help to create or debug your custom application see the API Terms of Use for full details.

Understandings that bind FileHold that are not expressly stated: Notwithstanding any other provisions our total and exclusive liability is no more than the unused portion for the annual FileCare contract. The program is provided on an as-is-basis, we do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error free, or completely secure. This includes effects resulting from actions or in-actions of third-parties including hosting partners.

If you have any questions or concerns about FileCare, forward your comments to [email protected]. FileHold management will receive your message and respond.