Service level agreement (SLA)

Last updated: 19 December 2023

Ans Exam B.V., (hereinafter “Ans Exam”) provides ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) to [Institution] otherwise known as [X] (hereinafter “Customer”). Parties wish to specify and determine the applicable service levels and co-operation. 

1. Scope and purpose

The purpose of this Service Level Agreement (hereinafter: “SLA”) is to define service levels relating to Ans Exams’ online assessment platform named Ans (hereinafter: “Ans”). This SLA is indistinguishably intertwined with the SaaS-agreement between the parties.

This SLA covers:

• Availability
• Backup management
• Maintenance window
• Service window 
• Incident management
• Change management
• Release management
• Security
• Reporting

The terms and conditions contained in the Agreement will be fully applicable to this SLA. In the event of discrepancies or ambiguities, the Agreement will prevail unless a clause in the Agreement is specifically put aside by any of the terms and conditions of this SLA.

2. Term 

This SLA comes into effect on the date of signature by both parties of the Agreement and will remain in effect for the duration of the Agreement. 

3. Exclusions

Ans Exam is not responsible for Incidents relating to the accessibility, interaction with externally hosted applications or security and privacy protection, as a result of causes that cannot be attributed to Ans Exam, such as:

• User errors;
• External causes (including force majeure).

4. Consultation

Consultation will take place at least once a year. During the consultation, SLA, work agreements and procedures will be discussed and evaluated. Additional consultations will take place if this is requested by a party.

5. Availability

Ans Exam guarantees the Availability as shown in the table below on a monthly basis. The Availability window is 24 hours a day, seven (7) days a week. The Availability window is only interrupted for maintenance.

Availability is measured as follows:

Availability = 100% - (t/T)*100%

t = number of minutes that Ans was Unavailable during a month

T = total number of minutes in that month

Unavailability: Ans is Unavailable to all users following an unplanned event. If Ans is Unavailable to only certain users or if Ans only functions incorrectly, Ans itself is considered available. 

Unavailability will not be counted if:

• Periodic and corrective maintenance is carried out;
• The submitted Incident cannot be attributed to Ans Exam;
• Unavailability is caused by the Customer;
• Force majeure. 

6. Backup management

The backup and recovery of the data will be managed and monitored by Ans Exam as follows:

7. Maintenance window

Ans Exam uses two types of maintenance: periodic and corrective maintenance. 

Periodic maintenance 

Periodic maintenance involves implementing necessary changes to ensure the long-term continuity of Ans. Periodic maintenance will occur within the designated Maintenance window. The time and duration of this maintenance will, if possible and necessary, be announced at least seven (7) days in advance. Maintenance activities that will not affect the functionalities of Ans and/or with a very limited risk will be performed without prior announcement. Ans Exam will strive to conduct periodic maintenance outside regular business hours to minimise any noticeable impact on users. Ans Exam may temporarily put all or part of Ans out of operation for the maintenance. 

Corrective maintenance 

Corrective maintenance involves implementing necessary changes (for example bug fixes) to ensure the short-term continuity of Ans. Corrective maintenance may be required when circumstances require immediate intervention. In such a situation, the Customer will be informed as soon as possible.

The following times apply for the Maintenance window:

8. Service window

The Service window is intended to provide services to the Customer of a technical, administrative and supporting nature. This includes giving advice, answering questions, analysing data, programming, adapting tested code and implementing design and content changes. Ans Exam will provide the Customer a Service window from Mondays until Fridays between 09:00 and 17:00 (CET), except for public holidays in The Netherlands.

9. Incident management

Incident management describes the way Ans Exam handles Incidents. An Incident is a demonstrable and reproducible defect in Ans which leads to a substantial deviation of the functionality of Ans from the description in the Documentation. The Documentation can be found at https://support.ans.app.

Reporting of Incidents

Incidents can be reported to Ans Exam via email (support@ans.app) by the Customer. A correct report of an Incident needs to contain the following information: 

1. Sender’s name and email address;
2. The date (and time period if possible) on which the Incident took place;
3. Satisfactory description making it possible to determine the cause and impact of the Incident;
   1. Steps to reproduce or a description of how the Incident occurred;
   2. Description of the expected result in Ans (URL) on which the Incident is found;
   3. Screenshot or screen recording of the Incident as a graphic reference; 
4. What has been done so far by the Customer to solve the Incident; 
5. An estimated priority according to the Customer, which uses the table below.
   
   

If Ans Exam determines that corrective maintenance is required, which falls within the scope of this SLA, Ans Exam will carry out the essential activities. 

Response times 

Response time is measured by recording the time between the correct report of an Incident by the Customer and the first response by Ans Exam. In its response, Ans Exam will give a forecast, stating the Priority as determined by Ans Exam and if possible, an expected resolution time of the Incident. Ans Exam may request further information. If further information is needed rendering the first report incorrect or incomplete, the response time is reset. 

Resolutions 

The recovery time may be influenced by various factors and will depend on the nature of the Incident (Priority). Ans Exam will use commercially reasonable efforts to implement a solution for an Incident. The Customer understands and accepts that this should not be understood as a guarantee for a resolution to an Incident by such date and that recovery time cannot be stated due to dependency on circumstances beyond Ans Exams’ control. 

The following recovery times are agreed upon by the Parties. These times are an indication. If recovery of the Incident takes longer than these recovery times, the contact person will be notified.

Business hours are the same as the Service Window. 

Escalation

The support team of Ans Exam monitors the progress of the resolution of the Incident and contacts the contact person of the Customer if the recovery time of the Incident is exceeded. The support team will inform the contact person about the progress and the expected recovery time. 

If the Customer is not satisfied with the chosen solution or with the Priority of the Incident, the Customer has the right to escalate. When escalated, the parties will discuss the situation and come to a consensus on how to proceed.

Escalation can take place according to the following schedule:

10. Change management

If the Customer wishes to hand in a feature request, they can email support@ans.app. The feature request process applicable for Change management can be found on https://support.ans.app. 

11. Release Management

Release Management ensures the quality of the production environment when implementing new software versions and monitoring similar versions by using formal procedures and controls during planning, design, building, configuring and testing. All releases are performed without downtime unless a maintenance window has been announced in which the release takes place.

Releases are made up of one or more Changes. Releases can be classified into the following categories:

12. Security

Ans Exam recognises the importance of a secure environment. Ans contains privacy-sensitive information. Ans Exam describes the most important measures taken to safeguard the confidentiality of the data on its website: https://ans.app/security.

13. Reporting

For the purpose of evaluation and continuous improvement, Customer can request a quarterly report, describing the services performed under this SLA. Quarterly reports will be sent to a contact person by email.

This SLA report provides insight into:

• Availability: An overview of the Availability of Ans over the last period;
• Incident management: The number of Incidents reported per Priority.

14. Other provisions

Changes and additions to any provision of this SLA are only valid if they are agreed upon in writing by both parties.