Guidelines for SAS^® Premium Support

Program Description

SAS Premium Support is an optional upgrade to the standard technical support provided with customer’s license of SAS software. Customer can purchase Premium Support in the contract licensing the SAS Software or in a separate contract (“Contract”). The Contract will identify the SAS software supported by Premium Support (“Software”). Premium Support includes direct access to a named SAS Technical Support Account Manager (“TSAM”). The TSAM is customer’s direct liaison with SAS Technical Support and a primary point of contact for escalated technical support issues. Customer can designate up to five (5) named customer employees who can contact the TSAM anytime during normal business hours for technical support issues related to the Software. Premium Support may be updated from time to time, and these guidelines may be modified accordingly.

SAS Premium Support also includes the following components:

• Enhanced Service-Level Agreements (SLA): SAS will provide targeted response times that are shorter than the response times provided under Standard Technical Support. The enhanced SLAs are provided in Table 2.
• Enhanced Support Case Dashboard: SAS will provide access to a portal hosted by SAS. This dashboard enables customers to visualize and analyze support case data.
• Premium Support Workshops: SAS will design and conduct Premium Support Workshops to address customer needs and concerns. Topics may include an overview of SAS online services, effective management with SAS support, and problem-investigation techniques.
• Premium Support Reports: SAS will provide information reports about your SAS technical support activity available only to SAS Premium Support customers.

Description of Services and Service Levels

The services that are offered under SAS Standard Technical Support and Premium Support programs are listed here in Table 1.

Table 1: Comparison of Technical-Support Services offered under SAS Standard Technical Support and SAS Premium Support

Service	Offering Under Standard Technical Support	Offering Under Premium Support
Annual Support Term	Yes	Yes
Direct Access to a Named Technical Support Account Manager A primary point-of-contact for technical-support issues	No	Yes1
Premium Support Workshops Customer-specific workshops about technical-support policies, online resources, troubleshooting, and problem resolution	No	Quarterly4
Premium Support Reports Access to customized and customer-specific information and reports	No	Yes
Access to a Menu of Optional Services Services may include onsite/remote technical support, or planned support during non-business hours.	No	Yes2
Access to the SAS Enhanced Support Case Dashboard Customer-specific, case history data that is surfaced in a portal for visualization and analysis	No	Yes
Enhanced Service Levels (see Table 2)	Standard level	Premium level3
1  Access is available for to up to five (5) designated customer employees during normal business hours.  2   Services availability varies by country and region.  3  Turnaround times for initial follow-ups are shorter and updates to support requests are more frequent. 4   The schedule and frequency of workshops are negotiated with the TSAM.

Premium Support customers receive faster initial follow-up times, increased frequency of updates, and more. Table 2 compares the support service levels offered for SAS Standard Technical Support and Premium Support. 

Table 2: Comparison of Technical-Support Service Levels offered under SAS Standard Technical Support and SAS Premium Support

		Standard Technical Support		Premium Support
Severity Level	Condition	Initial  Follow-up*	Frequency of Updates	Initial Follow-up*	Frequency of Updates
1	A critical SAS production system is down or does not function at all, and there is no circumvention for the problem. A significant number of users are affected, and a production business system is inoperable.** †	2 hours	Daily	1 hour †	As agreed upon with the TSAM
2	A component of SAS technology is not performing, which creates a significant operational impact.**	4 business hours	Every 2 business days**	2 business hours	Every business day
3	A component of SAS technology is not performing as documented. There are unexpected results. Problems are circumventable, and operational impact is moderate or minor.	1 business day	Every 3 business days	8 business hours	Every 2 business days
4	Questions pertain to usage or clarification of documentation.	1 business day	Every 10 business days	8 business hours	Every 5 business days
5	Customer offers suggestions or requests for new product features and enhancements.	1 business day	Every 30 business days	8 business hours	Every 15 business days
* For problems that are assigned to a Technical Support consultant, initial follow-up is defined as the time between when the problem is initially reported and the specialist contacts the customer. For problems that require further research by the consultant who initially received the problem, initial follow-up is defined as the time between the initial contact with the consultant and a follow-up call.  ** Follow-up is as agreed upon by customer management and SAS Technical Support Management. † Note: Includes weekend or other non-business hours, during which support is provided via the standard support process.

Optional Services

Customers can purchase additional support services as part of their SAS Premium Support Contract. Specific service availability might vary by country. The Contract will identify any additional support services purchased by customer.

Program Fees and Conditions

Fees for the initial Premium Support period are set forth in the Contract. Fees for subsequent periods may vary. Travel costs and any expenses for on-site visits related to Premium Support may be billed separately in accordance with SAS Travel Guidelines. Payment of the Premium Support fees (and any applicable travel costs and expenses) entitles customer to the benefits described herein for the Software identified in the Contract. 

Customer Responsibilities

To ensure timely and efficient responses to customer’s technical support requests, customer will:

• Establish 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 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 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 on SAS’ recommendations and close cases logged with SAS Technical Support when resolved;
• Install Software release 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, may 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 Customer’s SAS software moves to limited support during the Annual Support Term for SAS Premium Support, Customer must notify SAS. If Customer wants to qualify for Severity Level 1 or Severity Level 2 critical support requests, Customer must upgrade to a more current version of the SAS Software that is not in limited support or purchase SAS Extended Technical Support;
• Install and maintain Software in non-production environment mirroring corresponding production environment, including similar data input; test Software and planned Software changes in non-production environment and confirm stable, and operating as expected by customer, prior to promotion to production environment;
• Document planned changes to the production environment and other major Software upgrades/implementation and review with TSAM;
• Implement reasonable measures to prevent SAS’ inadvertent access to any Confidential Information not necessary for SAS’ performance;
• Utilize remote support sessions per instructions provided by SAS; standard SAS remote sharing platforms are WebEx or Zoom; 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 customer’s 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.