SAINT CUSTOMER TECHNICAL SUPPORT
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
DEFINITIONS:
Customer – Company or individual that is licensed to use SAINT products under a current evaluation, paid license
or as a Partner of SAINT Corporation.
Business Day – The Business Day for general SAINT Customer Technical Support is defined by the hours of the
day; days of the week; geographic time; and excluded SAINT recognized holidays. For example, 8:30am-6pm,
Monday-Friday; Eastern Standard Time; excluded holidays. Officially defined “business days” and recognized
holidays are posted on the SAINT Corporation website and customer backend portal. Any exceptions to posted
support business hours/days must be defined in an official Service Level Agreement (SLA) between SAINT
Corporation and the Customer.
Response Time – SAINT Corporation’s goal is to provide the most responsive and professional customer support
in the industry. As an internal performance metric, SAINT strives for a 4-hour response time – from the date/time
of receipt of an inquiry until first contact to the customer. This metric is based on response time within posted
business hours. For example, a customer submits a ticket a 4pm (EST) on Friday. Our internal performance metric
is to provide 1st contact no later than 11am (EST) on Monday for a routine call.
Escalation and Prioritization - SAINT also maintains an internal escalation and prioritization process based on the
technical complexity of a support case and criticality or impact to our customers if a problem is due to a flaw in
SAINT software. These processes ensure we bring the right resources to a case and ensure inquiries are responded
to in a timely and accurate manner.
SUPPORT LEVELS
SAINT Customer Technical Support processes, resources and staffing is based on a tiered approach – escalating
the types of resources and processes executed based on case-by-case assessment of an inquiry and what is
required to successfully respond to an issue. A general description of each Tier is described as follows:
“Level 1 Support” means (i) the provision to Customers of general product information and configuration
support, (ii) the collection of relevant technical problem identification information, and (iii) the filtering of nontechnical problems from actual technical problems. Level 1 Support includes the following:
a) Providing phone support during defined business hours;
b) Processing of all initial incoming technical queries from Customers, including by phone and our on-line
support ticketing system, and routing calls appropriately;
c) Providing basic networking troubleshooting expertise and support on the standard protocols and product
features;
d) Providing configuration support, to resolve most product issues;
e) Assisting Customers in resolving software issues through updates; and
f) Assisting Customers in resolving hardware issues.
g) Providing Customer access to on-line help documentation; how-to instruction videos; knowledge-base
articles; and other pertinent product content via a web-based customer portal.
“Level 2 Support” means escalation of Customer inquiry to a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for additional
diagnostics and investigation of product-related issue affecting a customer environment. Level 2 Support includes
the following:
a) Troubleshooting and resolving complex configuration problems;
b) Providing advanced support on all protocols and features;
c) Assisting Customers in troubleshooting and isolating Software and hardware problems, including
through the return material authorization process as necessary;
d) Operational knowledge of the features, behaviors and bugs identified in provided documentation and
release notes; and
e) Correction of defective Documentation
“Level 3 Support” means escalation of Customer inquiry to a Product Engineer to investigation product design,
logic, architecture and methodologies if issue resolution cannot be determined via Tier 1 and Tier 2. Prior to
escalation to Level 3 support, the following information may be requested from the Customer:
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Problem Description; Problem severity;
Log files;
Network Traces;
Configuration files;
Network diagrams;
A description of how to duplicate the condition;
System description including hardware and software versions; and
A list of troubleshooting actions performed
Level 3 Support provided by SAINT may include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
Troubleshooting that requires direct access to customer environment;
Managing escalated cases to resolution;
Troubleshooting, trace analysis, and re-creation of customer issue;
Providing failure analysis in conjunction with SAINT’s quality assurance process;
Providing error corrections via updates and/or upgrades for distribution to Customers;
Correcting defective Documentation
ADDITIONAL SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS (SLAS)
Basic SAINT Customer Technical Support is provided to each Customer within the basic annual maintenance
agreement. No other support or resources are implied or guaranteed within the scope of this agreement.
However, Customers may receive additional support and resources, based on a negotiated, signed, Service Level
Agreement (SLA). Additional SLA provisions may include, but are not limited to:
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Specification of Performance Metric targets and service hours (response time; 24x5; 24x7; etc.)
Specification of defined Prioritization levels;
After-hours access to Technical Support (phone support); and
On-sight Technical Support – billed based on time, travel and materials, per visit