SLA-EN | libi

1. General

The purpose of this document is to describe the services that are provided under the service level agreement (SLA) of LiBi Software Technology Ltd.

LiBi Software Technology is authorized by IBM International to be the Support Provider for IBM Cognos customers in Israel.

As a customer supported by LiBi SLA agreement you are entitled to:

Opening support requests at LiBi support call center via email or phone.
Response within 4 hours from submitting your support request.
An answer from the qualified Cognos supporter linked to IBM international support, to ensure you get a high quality support.
All of IBM Cognos updates which will be supplied by IBM without any further charge, allowing your Cognos software to be up to date.
IBM Knowledge Base – you will get access to over 20,000 informative articles and interactive presentations on technical issues.
Product Enhancement Program – you will get the opportunity to influence how future Cognos updates will look like.

2. The Service Levels

2.1 LiBi's Support Call Center (First Line of Support)

The purpose of first line support is to help and find solutions for issues that do not entail a visit to the customer site in order to define and solve the problem. Providing a solution to product malfunctions by using LiBi's knowledge and expertise, or directing the support request to the IBM International Support.

LiBi's first line of support operates from Sunday to Thursday between 9am to 6pm (excluding weekends and holidays).

The call center is responsible for:

Receiving the customer's call/fax/e-mail request.
Understanding the request and the problem.
Documenting the support request in LiBi's customer service systems.
Examining the request and defining it as:
Product Malfunction – Issues that are defined as basic processes the software should support.
Product Changes – Help with requests for the software enhancement.
Basic “How to?” – Basic support for “how to” requests which are no longer than 10 minutes of phone support.
Advanced “How to?” - Requests that involve the process of designing specific reports, installing software components, requests derived from lack of knowledge or other requests demanding knowledge of the customer's environment. For Advanced "How to?" cases- the customers has to purchase services as describes in "second line support" (please refer to paragraph 2.2)

2.2 Application Support (Second Line Support)

The purpose of second line support is to answer advanced / complicated "How to?" issues. The second line support provides solution to customers that has complex application problems during implementing the software and developing IBM Cognos Reports.

Second line support will be provided at customer premises, and will provide the following services:

Deep understanding of customer's needs
Examination of the needs and consulting in order to implement the solution
Promoting the solution in the time scope and needs of the customer
Assisting with skills that are not available to the customer

Second Line support will be charged according to LiBi & Customer work agreement

2.3 Technology Manager – professional services (Third line of Support)

The Technology Manager will be familiar with the customer project and application implementation. The Technology manager will be IBM Cognos expert with the ability to consult the customer using his expertise and knowledge from other projects.

The Technology Manager will accompany the customer with his application implementation and system procedures. He will also be in charge on the development work that will be performed by him or by any other LiBi employee with the suitable skills.

The Technology Manager will work at the customer site in a time frame that will be defined under a work contract, but not less than one day every two weeks. The Time frame of the services provided will be changeable according to the customer's needs and projects and according to the availability of the Technology Manager. The Technology manager will assist the customer with all the upgrades and updates of the IBM Cognos Software and with all the problems or issues that the customer encounters in their daily work with the software.

Third Line support will be charged according to LiBi & Customer work agreement

3. Support Request Types

The Support Request Types described in this chapter are only for production environment problems:

4. Service Level Agreement for open Support Requests

Response time to production problems will be according to the service level agreement that the customer purchased in advance and according to the support request type as describes at chapter 3.

LiBi Software Technology provides 2 levels of support (under the first line support) for malfunctions of the production environment:

Basic Package:

According to the services described at chapter 2.1
Providing support under the opening hours only, Sun.-Thu. 09:00am-18:00pm
The treatment will be done by web control and does not include arriving to the customer premise
Arriving at the customer site will be done under work agreement and availability of technology representative

Extended Package (24*7 service):

24*7 service for production environment malfunctions
On call technology worker that will receive critical calls after the regular working hours
Support Requests during the working hours will be accepted at the call center. Requests after working hours will be received at a dedicated phone number
Creating the Support request will be accompanied by email that describes the issue and the working environment details.
Arriving to the customer in order to take care of critical missions is subjected to a work agreement with a bank of hours that was purchased ahead
Continuous treatment of critical problems until resolving it/down scaling the Support Request from "critical" level definition- in case the Support request is not solved within 4 hours from the first call, LiBi's worker is obligated to arrive to customer's premise.

5. Basic Assumptions/clarifications

Entitled to Service: the first line support services are included in the software support & maintenance agreement of the licenses purchase contract, and will be provided only if the customer pays the annual maintenance & support fees. The second and third line of support is not included in the license agreement and will be provided under separate payment. Tasks at the second and third line support will be performed only after receiving a detailed purchase order or purchasing a bank of hours in advance.
Supported versions: forwarding Support requests to IBM Cognos international support center will be only for supported IBM Cognos versions. The list of supported versions is published on the IBM website and updated from time to time. A customer, under support & maintenance agreement that does not upgrade as requested will be able to receive support; however the support will be limited - LiBi will not be able to escalate the problem to the IBM support center and there may be a need to recreate the problem on a supported version of the software.
Arriving at the customer site:
- Any on site work under any of the service levels will be charged
- LiBi recommends purchasing a bank of hours in advance in order to avoid any delays.
Customer's liability:
- Support requests will only be placed by users who graduated the Cognos BI Course. Only trained customers can expect technical support
- Support request will be done by phone call to the support center accompanied with a detailed email that describes the Support Request.
- The contact person will provide all the information and details required by the call center in order to solve the problem during the working day of the support request first call
- The customer will provide the ability for remote connection to his system over the web
A support request will be closed if one or more of these conditions occur:
- The customer asked to close the request.
- The request was solved and the solution is agreed by both the supporter and the customer.
- The problem is not caused by the Cognos software.
- The problem is caused by a third-party (the customer should turn to them for support).
- The solution can be an upgrade of the customer's IBM Cognos software.
- A customer request for a change in the software was declined by IBM Cognos development team.
- The Solution demands guidance or professional consulting outside the SLA guidelines, or prior acquaintance with the customer's systems environment – mainly when the problem cannot be reconstructed using a sample data base.
- A support request is open for more than 10 days without a customer response to a supporter request.