1 Agreement Overview 

 

1.1 SLA Introduction 

This Agreement represents a Service Level Agreement (“SLA” or “Agreement”) between Service Provider (Sonic Foundry) and Customer for support services required to support Mediasite. This Agreement is applicable for Customers running either a self-hosted on-premises installation of Mediasite, as well as Customers utilizing Sonic Foundry hosted Cloud services. 

 

This Agreement remains valid until superseded by a revised agreement. This Agreement outlines the parameters of all IT services covered as they are mutually understood by the primary stakeholders. In the case of discrepancies between this Agreement and any other Agreement, Terms and Conditions, or End User Licensing Agreement, the terms outlined in this Agreement shall take precedence. 

 

1.2 Goals & Objectives 

The purpose of this Agreement is to ensure that the proper elements and commitments are in place to provide consistent IT service support and delivery to the Customer(s) by the Service Provider. 


The goal of this Agreement is to obtain mutual agreement for IT service provision between the Service Provider and Customer(s). 


The objectives of this Agreement are to: 

 

  • Provide clear reference to service ownership, accountability, roles and/or responsibilities. 
  • Establish agreed service targets 
  • Present a clear, concise, and measurable description of service provision to the customer. 
  • Match perceptions of expected service provision with actual service support & delivery. 
  • Supporting processes, limitations, exclusions, and deviations. 


1.3 Stakeholders 

The following Service Provider(s) and Customer(s) will be used as the basis of the Agreement and represent the primary stakeholders associated with this SLA: 

 

IT Service Provider(s): Sonic Foundry. (“Provider”) 

IT Customer: Customer (“Customer”) 

  

1.4 Periodic Review 

This Agreement is valid from the Effective Date outlined herein and is valid until further notice. This Agreement should be reviewed at a minimum once per fiscal year; however, in lieu of a review during any period specified, the current Agreement will remain in effect. 

 

The Document Owner is responsible for facilitating regular reviews of this document. Contents of this document may be amended as required, provided mutual agreement is obtained from the primary stakeholders and communicated to all affected parties. The Document Owner will incorporate all subsequent revisions and obtain mutual agreements / approvals as required. 

 

 

1.5 Definitions, Conventions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations 

  Term                          Description 

 SLA - Service Level Agreement 

 Accuracy - Degree of conformance between a result specification and standard value. 

 IT Operations Department - A unit of [Customer] responsible for internal IT Operations. 

 Client or End User - The customer organization that has entered into Service Agreement with Sonic Foundry. 

 Customer Care - The collection of the Customer Care team, case management systems, procedures and engineers that work together to seamlessly support customer issues. 

 Case - When Client raises an issue with the Service, a Case is created within Sonic Foundry’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. The Case is assigned a unique number, and is the object used for storing all information relevant to the issue. In the scenario where communication between Client and Service Desk is handled via electronic mail (email), the Case is also the mechanism by which that communication occurs. 

 Impact - Value assigned to Case record, which denotes the impact the issue has to the Client’s organization.  

  • Critical       - Critical production issue affecting all users at Client organization, such as complete system unavailability. No workaround is available. 
  • High - Major impact to functionality or performance which impacts many users at Client organization. No workaround, or only an inconvenient one, exists. 
  • Medium - Potential impact to daily operations for some users, but workaround or alternative solution readily available. 
  • Low - No impact to daily operations for any users. This can include feature requests, documentation issues, minor issues in the application, or general questions. 

 Incident - An issue with a supported product or service reported by the customer. All incidents or issues will be documented with a Case and assigned a unique Case number. 

 Incident Management - The process of processing, managing and resolving incidents. Incident management begins by interpreting and recording the Incident (in the form of a Case) and continues throughout the resolution process until the Incident is concluded (Case is closed). 

 Response Time - The time that elapses between the opening of a Case by the Client and the initial response to the Case by Sonic Foundry. 

 Resolution Time - The time that elapses between the opening of a case by the Client and resolving and closing the case by the Customer or Sonic Foundry. Resolution Time is only incremented when the Case is not waiting for input from Client or placed on Customer Hold by Client.  

 Resolution - Issue is considered Closed by Customer or Sonic Foundry. Cases may be closed with the following resolutions: 

  • Issue resolved 
  • Workaround provided 
  • Software defect or enhancement request filed with the engineering development team 

 KPI Service Level - Percentage of Cases where cases meet the defined goal (e.g., 90%) 

 Availability – Customer Care - Being able to access and use the Customer Care Service. The service is not only live, but also available to the Client during the agreed upon operating hours. 

 Work-Around - A temporary solution so that normal business operations of the Client can continue. 

 Customer Care Service - Includes access to Customer Care agents via telephone and case support, and access to self-help services to assist in management and support of Mediasite at your organization. 

 Telephone Support - Customers with active Customer Care contracts have access to telephone support during the outlined hours. The current list of active phone numbers and hours can be found at: https://support.sonicfoundry.com/contact 

 Customer Care Portal - The online web portal available to customers to create and manage Cases as well as gain access to appropriate KBAs and download. This site is available at https://support.sonicfoundry.com/ 

Customer Hold - When a Customer has requested the Case to be put on hold. When a case status has been updated to Customer Hold, this time will not count toward the SLA. 

Maintenance Window and Excluded Downtime - Company maintains a standing scheduled maintenance window of 12:00am-2:00am (Central Time Zone) every weekday morning for all of its Customer Care related systems (e.g., Customer Care Portal, Phone System, etc.). Company may schedule additional Scheduled Downtimes outside of the standing scheduled maintenance window by providing notification to Customer at least three business days in advance by posting a notice within the Customer Care portal. 

Sonic Foundry Products - Mediasite Recorder hardware (not including any peripherals) and software thereon, the Mediasite Video Platform software, and additional software produced by Sonic Foundry including, but not limited to, Mosaic and Monitor. 

Reseller - Any authorized party who purchases Sonic Foundry Products for resale. 

 

 

2 Service Agreement                                            

The following detailed service parameters are the responsibility of the Service Provider in the ongoing support of this Agreement. 

 

2.1 Service Scope 

The following Customer Care services are covered by this Agreement: 

  • Telephone support 
  • Self-help and Case management using the Customer Care Portal 
  • Extended hardware warranty coverage for Mediasite Recorder hardware 
  • Other Customer Care Services that may be offered by the Service Provider  

 

2.2 Customer Requirements 

Customer responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:   

  • Register for access to the Customer Care Portal by using their Customer Care Contract. 
  • Payment for all support costs at the agreed interval.  
  • Reasonable availability of customer representative(s) when resolving a service-related incident or request. 
  • Provide reasonable access to the Sonic Foundry Product through the Internet so Sonic Foundry Customer Care can diagnose or correct problems remotely. 
  • Customer should provide all necessary information, logs, sample data and assistance that allows Sonic Foundry to meet performance standards outlined in this document. 
  • Use a supported version of software as defined by the Sonic Foundry Product Lifecycle page. 
  • Use the software with supported Operating Systems as defined by the Mediasite documentation. 
  • Retain all original hardware and software configurations unless authorized by Sonic Foundry. 
  • Will inform regarding changing business requirements that may necessitate a review, modification, or amendment of the SLA. 
  • Return any end-of-warranty Recorders to Sonic Foundry within 15 days of receiving a replacement Recorder. (Additional Recorder refresh fees apply.) 
  • Customer designates the primary Customer Care contacts. Typically, these are the Mediasite Application Administrators that manage the application on a day-to-day basis. 

 

2.3 Service Provider Requirements 

Service Provider responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:   

  • Meeting response times associated with service-related incidents.  
  • Appropriate notification to Customer for all scheduled service outages due to maintenance, troubleshooting, disruptions or as otherwise necessary. 
  • Maintain general availability of telephone and case support systems used to communicate with Customer Care team. 
  • Maintain general availability of Mediasite Customer Care Portal which provides access to downloads, online case submission and status tracking, searchable knowledge base, and Customer Care contract details. 
  • Provide access to software maintenance upgrades, updates, and fixes, if any, as released by Sonic Foundry and made available for download from the Customer Care Portal. 
  • Extension of the Mediasite Recorder hardware warranty from the standard 90-day warranty period to 12 months of warranty coverage from the date of purchase on parts and labor for all Recorder hardware and supplied cables. 
  • Advance replacement of failed or defective Sonic Foundry Product(s) with a certified refurbished Recorder or components. Advanced Replacement is only available within the Continental United States following Sonic Foundry approval and determination of Sonic Foundry Product failure. 

 

2.4 Service Assumptions 

Assumptions related to in-scope services and/or components include:  

  • Changes to services will be communicated and documented to all stakeholders. This requires designated customer contacts are registered users of the Customer Care Portal. 

 

2.5 Exclusions 

Sonic Foundry is not obligated to provide technical support related to the following: 

  • Any customization of, or labor to install, software. 
  • Electrical or site work external to the Sonic Foundry Product. 
  • Support or replacement of the Sonic Foundry Product that is altered, modified, mishandled, destroyed or damaged by one or more of the following: (i) natural causes; (ii) environmental effects; (iii) failure to take any required actions; (iv) misuse of the product or use other than as specified in the applicable Sonic Foundry-supplied documentation; (v) an act or omission of a third party; or (vi) installation of third-party hardware or software or modification of existing hardware. 
  • Services to resolve software or hardware problems resulting from third party products or causes beyond Sonic Foundry control. 
  • Services for non-Sonic Foundry software or hardware. 
  • Services for any personal computer hardware, software, or related components whether or not Sonic Foundry software is installed. 
  • Any hardware and/or memory upgrade required to run new or updated software. 
  • Major, minor and maintenance release of Microsoft® operating system, middleware, or application software platforms. End User should contact their Microsoft software provider directly to obtain information on acquiring releases and/or bug fixes related to Microsoft software platforms. 
  • Sonic Foundry Products for which the End User is unable to provide a valid and applicable serial number. If you are unable to provide a valid and applicable serial number(s) and Sonic Foundry agrees to provide services, the fees payable by the End User shall be Sonic Foundry’s then-current time and materials rates. 
  • Sonic Foundry Product for which Customer Care support has lapsed. Continuation of support services are subject to Sonic Foundry’s then current reinstatement fees. 
  • Custom applications developed by Sonic Foundry. Custom support policies must be purchased for any custom applications. 

 

3 Service Management 

Effective support of in-scope services is a result of maintaining consistent service levels. The following sections provide relevant details on service availability, monitoring of in-scope services and related components. 

 

3.1 Service Availability 

Cases can be opened by the Customer via telephone or online via the Customer Care Portal website. Once a Case has been -opened, the Customer receives confirmation which includes the assigned Case number and instructions for updating the Case. 

 

To receive assistance with the Case, the Customer may work with the Customer Care over the Telephone or by using the Customer Care Portal to add Case Comments. 


Monday - Friday from 7AM GMT - 11PM GMT (During months where Daylight Savings is observed in US and EU, available hours shift to 8AM GMT - 12AM GMT)

  • Telephone Support for Low, Medium, High and Critical impact Cases
  • Case Monitoring and Response for Low, Medium, High and Critical impact Cases 

Every Day, 24x7x365

  • Telephone Support for Critical impact Cases only 


Telephone Support 

  • Monday – Friday – 7AM GMT and ending at 11PM GMT during standard time, and 8AM GMT to 12AM GMT during Daylight Savings time (typically between early November and early March). Between these hours, calls are answered directly by Sonic Foundry Customer Care agents. 
  • Calls received outside of these hours are routed to a third-party answering service for initial screening. If the issue noted by the caller meets the criteria of a Critical Impact, as defined above, a Sonic Foundry on-call technician will contact the Client. This contact is expected within 30 minutes of the message being left with the answering service. 

 

Case Monitoring and Response 

  • Monday – Friday – 7AM GMT and ending at 11PM GMT during standard time, and 8AM GMT to 12AM GMT during Daylight Savings time (typically between early November and early March).  
  • Case comments received outside of these hours will be reviewed on the next business day. 
  • For issues with Critical Impact, it is recommended that the Customer calls the Customer Care telephone line. 

 

On-Site Support 

If on-site support is required, Sonic Foundry has field engineering resources and authorized Resellers available to assist End Users with Sonic Foundry Product support issues. These field engineering resources are deployed by Sonic Foundry on a case-by-case basis for an additional fee. 

 

3.2 Service Requests 

In support of services outlined in this Agreement, the Service Provider will make every effort to respond to service-related incidents and/or requests submitted by the Customer within the following time frames:  

 

Service Window                                           Case Impact   Initial Response Time  Target Resolution Time 


24/7*                                                             Critical            < 1 hour                      < 24 hours 

 

Monday – Friday 

Start: 7AM GMT* 

End: 11PM GMT*                                            High                < 4 hours                    < 4 business days 

 

Monday – Friday 

Start: 7AM GMT* 

End: 11PM GMT*                                            Medium          < 6 hours                    < 10 business days 

 

Monday – Friday 

Start: 7AM GMT* 

End: 11PM GMT*                                            Low                 < 8 hours                    < 20 business days 

 

 

* Refer to Section 3.1 - Service Availability for contact details for after-hours support for Critical Impact incidents. GMT times listed are during months where Standard time is observed. During Daylight Savings time (typically between early November and early March), the hours of availability are between 8AM GMT and 12AM GMT.