Guidelines for SAS® Support for Real-Time
Program Description
SAS® Support for Real-Time is an optional upgrade to the general technical support provided with Customers’ licenses of SAS Software. Customers can purchase SAS Support for Real-Time in the contract licensing the SAS Software or in a separate contract (“Contract”). The Contract identifies the SAS Software supported by SAS Support for Real-Time (“Software”). SAS Support for Real-Time includes an enhanced Service Level Agreement (“SLA”), which provides targeted response times that are shorter than the response times provided under Standard Support. SAS Support for Real-Time may be updated from time to time, and these guidelines may be modified accordingly.
Description of Services and Service Levels
A comparison of the technical-support services that are offered under SAS Standard Support and SAS Support for Real-Time programs is available in Table 1.
Note: Click the links for definitions of Standard Support and Limited Support.
Table 1: Comparison of Technical-Support Services offered under SAS Standard Support and SAS Support for Real-Time
Service | Offering Under Standard Support | Offering Under SAS® Support for Real-Time |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Support Term | Yes | Yes |
| Enhanced Service Levels (see Table 2) | Standard Level | Real-Time level 1 |
| 1 Turnaround times for initial follow-ups are shorter and updates to support requests are more frequent. | ||
SAS Support for Real-Time customers receive faster initial follow-up times, increased frequency of updates, and more benefits. Table 2 compares the Technical Support service levels offered for SAS Standard Support and for SAS Support for Real-Time.
Table 2: Comparison of Technical-Support Service Levels offered under SAS Standard Support and SAS Support for Real-Time
| Standard Support | SAS® Support for Real-Time Solutions | ||||
| Severity Level | Condition | Initial Follow-up* | Frequency of Updates | Initial Follow-up* | Frequency of Updates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 - Critical (Sev1) | Critical problem that causes downtime of production Software, or a production environment that is inoperable. Issue has a critical business impact, with severe loss and degradation of production services and no known workaround. Note: Issues and critical problems that meet the criteria of 1-Critical and are related to going live and operating in production can qualify for Sev1 handling. When Customers identify the issue as Critical (Sev1), they confirm that the issue meets the criteria of Severity Level 1: the issue demands an immediate response, and Customers commit to continuous, daily engagement with the SAS team until resolution. In the absence of such daily engagement, SAS reserves the right to decrease the severity to High (Sev2) at its discretion. Critical (Sev1) qualifies for the SAS follow-the-sun policy. When requested, Customers commit to engage with SAS resources across multiple global regions, 24x7 until the issue priority is resolved, worked around, or lowered. Customers ensure that SAS has their accurate contact information, including a telephone number. Note: To ensure that SAS is aware and able to meet or exceed stated initial response times, qualifying Sev1 issues must be reported by telephone. | 2 hours | Daily | 15 minutes from notification by phone ** † | As agreed upon with the Technical Support Engineer |
2 - High (Sev2) | Critical problem that has significant impact to the Customer's business with loss and degradation of services, but, when available, workarounds enable reasonable, albeit temporary, business continuity. Applies to all production and path-to-production activities. When Customers identify an issue as High (Sev2), they confirm that the issue meets the criteria of Severity Level 2: the issue demands an urgent response, and they commit to daily engagement with the SAS team until resolution. In the absence of such daily engagement, SAS reserves the right to decrease the Severity to Moderate (Sev3) at its discretion. If Customers request follow-the-sun support, they commit to a continuous, 24x7 engagement with SAS resources across multiple global regions until resolution; otherwise, SAS reserves the right to decrease the Severity to Moderate (Sev3) at its discretion. Customers also ensure that SAS has their accurate contact information. Note: To ensure that SAS is aware and able to meet or exceed stated initial response times, qualifying High (Sev2) issues must be reported by telephone. | 4 business hours | Every 2 business days *** | 2 hours† | Every business day |
3 - Moderate (Sev3) | Technical problem or Software bug that can be circumvented or SAS Software that is not performing as documented; there are unexpected results; a circumvention is possible; there is moderate or minor operational impact. If contact by phone is needed for a Moderate (Sev3) issue, SAS will contact Customers during business hours only. Customers also ensure that SAS has their accurate contact information. | 1 business day | Every 3 business days | 6 business hours | Every 2 business days |
4 - Low (Sev4) | Support requests pertain to usage or clarification of documentation. If contact by phone is needed for a Low (Sev4) problem, SAS will contact Customers during business hours only. Customers are encouraged to address "How to" questions to SAS Support Community. | 1 business day | Every 10 business days | 12 business hours | Every 5 business days |
5 - New Feature (Sev5) | This is not a function that requires SAS Technical Support assistance. Request new features at SAS Product Suggestions. Sev5 has been deprecated. | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
* For support requests opened via the SAS Customer Support Center, Initial Follow-up is defined as the time between when the request is initially received and when a Technical Support team member contacts the Customer. For Sev1 support requests opened by telephone that are not immediately resolved, Initial Follow-up is defined as the time between when SAS receives the Customer's call and when a Technical Support team member responds. ** Phone numbers for notification can be found at https://support.sas.com/en/technical-support.html#contact. | |||||
Program Fees and Conditions
Fees for the initial SAS Support for Real-Time period are set forth in the Contract. Fees for subsequent periods may vary. Travel costs and any expenses for on-site visits related to SAS Support for Real-Time may be billed separately in accordance with SAS Travel Guidelines. Payment of the SAS Support for Real-Time fees (and any applicable travel costs and expenses) entitle Customers to the benefits described herein for the Software identified in the Contract.
Customer Responsibilities
To ensure timely and efficient responses to Customers’ technical support requests, Customers will do the following:
- Establish a Customer in-house support team responsible for: (a) troubleshooting issues by evaluating hardware issues, verifying hardware and Software set up, and researching product documentation and online knowledge bases; (b) gathering information needed to resolve errors, such as the computer system name, error or warning messages that are displayed, logs files, screen shots, data used by the end user or sequence of steps used by the end user; and (c) escalating issues to SAS;
- Provide access to personnel who are skilled in investigating and triaging Software issues and capable of implementing SAS recommendations;
- Make available facilities and equipment reasonably required for SAS to perform;
- Back up all systems, data or Software being supported by SAS and restore backups as needed;
- Review any Work Product as SAS reasonably requests;
- Obtain assistance from its third-party vendor(s) with problem resolution when necessary;
- Provide timely feedback about SAS recommendations and close cases logged with SAS Technical Support when resolved;
- Install the Software releases required for SAS to maintain Standard Support as documented at support.sas.com and install maintenance and security hot fixes within a commercially reasonable time period following release (installation of the most current Software release, including maintenance and hot fixes, might be required by SAS to provide support);
- Run a fully supported version of the SAS Software. Some SAS® 9.4 and earlier releases of SAS Software move to Limited Support in accordance with SAS Technical Support policies and do not qualify for Severity Level 1 or Severity Level 2 critical support requests as shown in Table 2. If the Customers’ SAS Software moves to Limited Support during the Annual Support Term for SAS Support for Real-Time, Customers must notify SAS. If Customers want to qualify for Severity Level 1 or Severity Level 2 critical support requests, Customers must upgrade to a more current version of the SAS Software that is not in Limited Support;
- Install and maintain the following:
- Software in a non-production environment that mirrors the corresponding production environment, including similar data input;
- test Software and planned Software changes in the non-production environment;
- confirm that the Software is stable and operating as expected prior to promotion to the production environment;
- Document planned changes to the production environment and other major Software upgrades/implementation;
- Implement reasonable measures to prevent SAS having inadvertent access to any Confidential Information not necessary for the performance of the Software;
- Use remote support sessions per instructions provided by SAS on standard SAS remote sharing platforms, and if requested by SAS, provide and use a connectivity tool to limit and control SAS access to the systems and data required for SAS to perform under the Contract.
SAS is not liable for any performance delays caused by Customers’ failure or delay to perform these responsibilities.
Any capitalized terms used in these Guidelines and not otherwise defined will have the meanings set forth in the Contract.