Policies

Overview and Applicability

The following process outlines standards for customer problem resolution. Varying according to the severity of the reported problem, this policy defines three categories of issue severity and describes the criteria for each classification. This process applies to released, supported Xecuritas products as opposed to unsupported/discontinued products; beta and field test technology is covered by a separate policy. For the support status of Xecuritas products, click here.

Requests for new functionality will not be considered problems. Customers may submit requests for additional features or updates for Xecuritas products to technical support or sales. The requests will be documented and forwarded to Xecuritas product management.

Support Hours

Technical support is available from 8 AM to 7 PM US Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.

Support for Severity-1 level issues is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via on-call technical staff.

Xecuritas’ observed holidays for 2010 include: Friday, Jan. 1, Monday, Feb. 15, Monday, May 31, Monday, July 5, Monday, Sep. 6, Thursday, Nov. 25, Friday, Nov. 26, Friday, Dec. 24, and Friday, Dec. 31.

Severity Levels

The following criteria will be used in characterizing customer reported problems:

Severity-1: Any ongoing major security breach or email service disruption caused by the product or any problem which affects a large fraction of the user population of the product and is severe enough to cause those users to be unable to perform their normal duties. Problem may be of a functional or performance nature.

Severity-2: Problem affects a small fraction of the user population and significantly reduces their productivity or affects a moderate fraction of the user population and moderately reduces their productivity.

Severity-3: Problem is of an intermittent nature or represents a minor loss of productivity or is merely an inconvenience to the user population.

Customer Communication and Necessary Information

All customer problems will be recorded in the Xecuritas case tracking system by technical support engineers. If a problem is reported by email, a technical support engineer will contact the customer at the earliest reasonable opportunity to obtain any missing information. The recorded information will include, at a minimum:

1. Date and time of first problem report
2. Customer company name and service contract ID
3. Name of Xecuritas engineer handling the issue
4. Name and contact information for the customer submitting the case
5. Software version; hardware and operating system information
6. Nature of problem (symptoms, functional, performance, and circumstances sufficient for
   re-creation on-demand)
7. Customer-defined or Xecuritas-defined work-arounds (if any)
8. Initial recommendation by Xecuritas engineer
9. Severity of problem (using the above criteria)
10. Current status of problem

All unresolved issues will cause the case to remain “open” in the Xecuritas case tracking system. Any severity type that cannot be resolved in prescribed response times (see below) will be escalated to Xecuritas technical support management.

How to Report a Problem

Customers can request technical support in the following ways:

Target Response and Resolution Timeframes by Severity Level

Response time is defined as the length of time from when a case is opened to the time that an Xecuritas technical support engineer contacts the customer.

Resolution time is defined as the period within which the problem is resolved or an acceptable work-around or alternate resolution plan has been delivered.

Troubleshooting and Diagnostics

After a case has been opened, the next step is to begin troubleshooting or researching the specific request, gather as much diagnostic and logging information as possible, and provide resolution to the request.

Xecuritas technical support engineers, when appropriate, will take the following steps upon initial customer contact:

• Review and verify system configuration
• Verify product version and patch levels for all servers
• Document initial symptoms and impacts
• Verify environment and network topology (i.e., SMTP flow, Web server configurations, database versions, etc.)
• Review relevant information (i.e. log files, screen shots, etc.)
• Identify changes made to customer environment prior to manifestation of problem

Generally, cases are not closed until both the customer and the Xecuritas technical support group agree the incident may be closed. However, Xecuritas will close an incident if the customer has not provided a response to requests for information within 10 days, unless other arrangements have been made.

Certain cases require that technical support engineers gain access to customer equipment in order to make configuration changes. In those instances, the customer will be required to sign a modification waiver form.

Problem Escalation

Xecuritas technical support engineers follow the processes necessary to gather information in order to identify and resolve customer issues. They will consult the core necessary resources to resolve the issue and escalate when necessary.

Customer Escalation

At any time customers may escalate an issue through the Xecuritas sales group by contacting their account manager.

Management Escalation

If customers are not satisfied with their level of technical support, they are encouraged to bring this to the attention of technical support management by calling Xecuritas at: 1.888.624.5928 and asking to speak with the technical support director.

Third-Party Software

Should an issue be identified that relates to a third-party software component that is not a part of an Xecuritas product, technical support will still attempt to provide assistance, but no guarantees are made, expressed or implied, that the efforts will be successful. The customer should bring those issues to the attention of the relevant vendor. Should another vendor’s product be identified as the cause of the incident, the standard Xecuritas customer resolution procedures will not apply.

For important information regarding Xecuritas products, including current versions, supported products, and products with end of support dates, click here.