24/7 Case Management

Overview

This document describes a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between 2sms and its qualifying Enterprise customers, in respect to Case Management (Issue resolution). This SLA is in addition to our standard SLA offered to all customers. Customers who have not purchased Enterprise support do not qualify for the benefits of ‘Service Level Agreement (SLA) 2sms Case Management’.

SLA purpose and scope

The purpose of this document is to ensure that proper mechanisms are in place to provide high quality service and support to 2sms customers. This SLA provides clear description of service ownership, roles and responsibilities, service quality metrics, and available support.

This SLA should be read in conjunction with the standard 2sms SLA for supply of SMS services.

The SLA’s scope is limited to services offered by 2sms, and does not cover services outside the span of control of 2sms, except where 2sms has a SLA in place with the downstream supplier.

Roles and responsibilities for supporting 2sms services

2sms staff will be responsible for handling issues related to hardware maintenance and failure.

2sms IT staff will be responsible for handling issues related to server software maintenance and failure (server operating system, application servers, database servers, web servers, etc).

Available support and means of problem reporting (Cases)

  1. 2sms provides a Twitter feed (@2smssupport ) for the purpose of reporting service outages. Customers should note that this feed is RSS enabled, and Twitter can be configured to email or SMS these alerts to the customer’s mobile phone.
  2. 2sms provides 24/7 telephone support.
  3. 2sms provides 24/7 email support.
  4. 2sms provides a document library www.2sms.info

Customer procedure for engaging with 2sms Support

Customer support for resolving service problems such as service interruptions, application response times, software “bugs”, etc. will be as follows:

  • Service Interruptions – While 2sms will be aware of issues related to service outages, the customer is welcome to report these to 2sms. 2sms systems are monitored with automated tools. 2sms staff will be automatically notified via e-mail and SMS of any service interruptions.
  • Customer issues such as access control, message credit purchase or transfer, account management and reporting assistance are supported 24/7.
  • Technical support, e.g. help with software integration, consulting advice, business advice, is offered in UK or US business hours. Customers who have purchased a 24/7 Enhanced support plan can avail of these services at any time
  • Reporting all issues interruptions can be performed by calling 2sms on 1-877-736-3898 or by emailing 24/7support@2sms.com.

Case resolution response time

Initial triage

US business hours, initial triage will be within 2 hours if the issue is raised with 2sms by email, and ‘in call’ if raised by phone.

US business hours, initial triage will be within 4 hours if the issue is raised with 2sms by email, and within 1 hour if raised by phone.

The triage process will identify the issue and classify it with one of the following ratings:

Priority Impact Examples

  1. Critical Service outage or a major application problem making it impossible to use the service. Service is not available and/or messages are not being delivered correctly.
  2. Major Large number of customers impacted and no work around exists. Slow response times of 2sms services partial service interruption, e.g. SMS messages not flowing to a specific range of numbers or geographic location.
  3. Ordinary Impact on a small number of user base or impact on a large number of customers, but a workaround exists Customer sub accounts running out of message credits. Customer users requiring password resets. Customer requests for general support, e.g. web site navigation.
  4. Also, session timeouts, some application functionality is broken.
  5. Low No immediate impact on customers A request for a new feature, help with technical integration. Business development type queries. General support.

SLA response times

The following response times are offered as part of this SLA.

Priority Reported in US working hours Reported outside US working hours

  1. Critical 1 hour from triage 2 hours from triage
  2. Major 2 hours from triage 4 hours from triage
  3. Ordinary 1 working day 1 working day
  4. Low To timeline communicated by 2sms to the customer To timeline communicated by 2sms to the customer

SLA resolution times

The following resolution times are offered as part of this SLA.

Priority Reported in US working hours

  • Critical 12 hours from triage
  • Major 24 hours from triage
  • Ordinary 3 working days from triage
  • Low Timeline to be agreed with the customer

Case resolution process

The following explains the process of Case resolution that 2sms employs to service its customers.

  1. Identify a request for assistance
  2. Scanning the support email account.
  3. 24/7 telephone routing to the Sales Support team in office hours or to the 2sms Duty Manager outside office hours.
  4. 2sms support team enter the Case into the 2sms CRM case management system.
  5. 2sms support team triage the Case
  6. If 2sms support are able, they will assign the case a rating.
  7. If 2sms Support are not able to assign a rating, they will contact one or more of : IT Support / Operations Management / CEO to gain assistance on rating. The Case will then be rated.
  8. Communication back to the customer by phone with email back up of:
  9. The Case ID.
    1. The Rating assigned to the Case.
      1. Resolution if able to resolve instantly.
    2. The likely estimated resolution time if immediate resolution not possible.
    3. Escalation if required to :
    4. 2nd line IT Technical Support
    5. 3rd line Management Support
  10. The 2sms Support team retains ownership of the Case, so that only the task is escalated not the responsibility.
  11. 2sms Support will communicate back to the customer at the following events
    1. Initial call, if received by email.
    2. Identification of root cause of the problem.
    3. Identification of the problem resolution pathway.
    4. Escalation to 2nd or 3rd line support.
    5. Progress report at appropriate time intervals.
    6. Confirmation of problem resolution.
  12. All customer interactions are recorded as notes to the customer account on the 2sms CRM systems.
  13. The Cases will be managed to the resolution time goals set out in this SLA, with review by 2sms Management.
    1. If resolution timelines set within the SLA are not likely to be met, the case will be raised to Operations Management and the CEO at the earliest opportunity.
  14. All email communication is linked to the customer account on CRM systems.
  15. All phone calls are logged (time, duration, but not voice recording) on 2sms Management Information systems.
  16. 2sms Support staff and the Management team have access to the CRM based records so where handover takes place owing to staff working hour expiry, 2sms is able to communicate in a seamless manner back to the customer.
  17. 2sms Management review Cases as part of the ISO27001:2005 process, and Case Management metrics form part drivers of the 2sms incentive compensation plan.

Management process

The following table explains the involvement of 2sms Management in Case management.

Management involvement in Case resolution

  1. Critical
    1. CEO
    2. COO
    3. CTO
  2. Sales Support Management
    1. Major
    2. COO
    3. CTO
  3. Sales Support Management
    1. Ordinary
    2. Sales Support Management
  4. Low
    1. Sales Support

Exemptions from the SLA measurements

There are a number of items that are beyond the span of control of 2sms, and therefore fall outside the scope of this SLA.

  1. Customers own ability to connect to the internet, or if using the 2sms mobile Apps, to gain a working data connection on their mobile device.
  2. Customers action that blocks internal users from accessing 2sms systems, e.g. internal firewall configurations or user permission restrictions.
  3. System outage by a mobile phone operator. If a mobile phone operator is not able to accept SMS messages from any of the 2sms suppliers, then 2sms will queue the messages until operator services is restored. Occurrence: infrequent, normally one incidence per operator per year.
  4. The mobile phone mast / cellular coverage in the location of the recipient phone is down.
  5. The mobile phone of the message recipient is inoperative, out of range or otherwise unable to receive a text message.
  6. The mobile phone of the message recipient has been ‘ghosted’. This is a situation where the mobile phone operator cannot ‘see’ the device. Normally a phone reboot (power off, power on) solves the issue, but occasionally the network operator has to engage with the mobile subscriber to resolve the issue.
  7. The mobile phone of the message recipient has not been available for message delivery for a contiguous 72 hour period since the message was transmitted.
  8. Force majeure.
  9. Regulatory instruction by relevant authorities, e.g. a Government bars all SMS message delivery.

Sanction for failure to meet SLA targets

  1. The customer can at its option cancel its contract with 2sms, in line with the cancellation terms of the contract, with specific reference to the failure of 2sms to meet the SLA.
  2. The customer may alternatively elect to waive the cancellation rights on refund of 10% of the message credit costs incurred by the customer in the calendar month (starting on the 1st of the calendar month) in which the SLA breach was experienced.

Changes to SLA

This SLA is subject to ISO27001:2013 certified change control. 2sms reserves the right to change this SLA following a customer notice period of 30 days.

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