The attached documents are Confidential, Proprietary and Trade Secret Information (“Confidential Information”) of Apty and are provided solely for the purpose of evaluating Apty with the understanding that such Confidential Information will be disclosed only to those who have a “need to know.” The attached documents constitute Confidential Information as they include information relating to the business and/or products of Apty (including, without limitation, trade secrets, technical, business, and financial information) and are trade secret under the laws of the State of Texas and the United States.
| Document Name | Type | Updated Description | Date Revised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support Policy | CS Policies and Procedures | Created Document | 07/01/2022 |
| Support Policy | CS Policies and Procedures | Updated | 09/20/2022 |
| Support Policy Update | CS Policies and Procedures | Updated Version support | 02/01/23 |
| Support Policy Update | CS Policies and Procedures | Updated Version support | 06/21/24 |
Introduction
Apty offers comprehensive customer support to users of Apty.
This document describes the policies that govern our service level agreements available from Apty. It defines the Customer Support services that are available, the levels of coverage, priorities and response times.
Should you require further information, please contact your Apty Account Executive or Customer Success Manager.
Consulting and Education Policies
Apty Consulting and Education conduct the current service offerings within the following guidelines:
- Site Readiness
Most Consulting and Education services will be conducted remotely. If Services are to be performed on-site at customer’s location, customer will provide Apty with workspace, local telephone, and access to customer’s computer system, software and related equipment as necessary to perform the Services. Apty Consultants will abide by the customer’s reasonable identification and security policies. - Scheduling Policies:
All consulting and education services must be planned and scheduled a week in advance to ensure requested dates can be accommodated. Apty will do its best to accommodate requests in less than one week, but commitment dates will be based on availability and on a first come first serve basis. - Cancellation Policies:
All consulting and education services scheduled and confirmed as onsite services will be under the Apty services requiring an advanced written cancellation notification at least 5 business days prior to scheduled services. If written notification is made after the 5-business day requirement, a penalty fee will be billed to the customer for 50% of the scheduled services plus any prepaid expenses. - Standard Services contract terms:
All services are good for the subscription contract term that is defined on the order agreement. At the contract expiration date, all services will expire. If there are any unused services, they will be forfeited. No refunds or credits will be granted unless approved by Executive management at Apty. If additional services are required, a new services agreement must be signed, and all current services rates will be in effect.
Online Customer Support Center
The Apty Support Center contains our Knowledge Base and Customer Portal where you can access articles, guides, and product information, as well as log and track support requests. The Support Center is accessed online at https://support.apty.io.
Online Customer Portal
The Apty Customer Portal is available at https://support.apty.io/portal. The portal is our online solution for reporting and tracking requests with Customer Support. It includes the ability to enter new requests and track status changes and any updates regarding logged tickets. Two users are recommended from each Apty customer as the primary Core Team members to be registered with our help desk. The Best practices approach would recommend the end users within the organization report issues through the Customer’s Core Team to the Apty Customer Support Center.
Online Knowledge Base
The online knowledge base includes a robust library of User Guides, Help Articles & Videos, and Product Release information. This content is continually updated by our dedicated Education Specialists.
Educational Webinars
We offer educational webinars on new functionality with each product release along with other hot topics requested by our customers.
Overview of Support
An overview of the Apty recommended best practice support model for our customers is described below.
Apty recommends that our customers create an internal Apty committee that will serve as the company’s internal helpdesk or IT support which will provide End User support at the first level. This approach is set out in the above diagram. This group will be responsible for resolving most issues around the application and “How to” within the Apty solution. Users from the internal Apty core team will be provided accounts on the Apty Support Center to report issues to the Apty Support Team.
Support Hours
Response times shall be considered within the standard operating days and hours:
- Monday through Friday, public holidays excluded
- 7:30am GMT to 7:30pm GMT
Submitting a Support Request
Support requests can be logged via the Online Customer Portal at https://support.apty.io/portal.
Ticket Escalation
There are two levels to the process of resolving customer issues:
| Level 1 | First-line support is responsible for gathering the user information and determining the user’s issue by diagnosing and replicating the problem. Once the problem has been diagnosed, alternatives for resolution will be developed, documented and submitted to the user. Level 1 support handles straightforward and simple problems including resolving access problems, verification of proper use of the application, assistance with application navigation and simple diagnostics of application errors. User problems that cannot be resolved at Level 1 are escalated to level 2. |
| Level 2 | Second-Line support is responsible for an in-depth analysis of the problem whereby the issue will be evaluated by Apty engineers and/or consultants, responsible for investigating elevated issues and creating solutions or workarounds to the issue. It will also be determined whether this issue is a bug or enhancement request. The issue will then be put into the process for the next bug release or the product enhancement evaluation process for determination of adding to a future release. Issues will remain at this level until resolved. |
This process applies to SaaS customers. On-premise Customers will be required to grant full access to their systems or a live on-screen session in order to follow these standards for diagnosis and categorization of issues. The SLAs cannot be guaranteed for on-premises or SaaS customers that do not allow Apty full access to their Apty system. Customers can escalate issues for critical business needs through their Customer Success Manager.
Escalation and Bug Fix Process
Apty will take all necessary measures to ensure a timely resolution, in keeping with our current standards for software development, testing, and release.
The following outlines the path for when an Apty related product issue is reported:
- The customer reports issue to Customer Support.
- Customer Support Engineer works with the customer to determine if the issue is a user knowledge, product bug or enhancement request.
- Once verified, the Customer Support Engineer provides an answer or resolution. If a resolution is not easily attained the issue will be escalated (with steps for duplication) to our Tier II team.
- Our Tier II team verifies if the issue is a software bug or enhancement request. If it is determined as a bug, the team will verify the issue can be replicated and document the software issue to escalate to the Product team.
- Upon re-verification by the Product team and determination of the root cause, the Product team will schedule a fix based on the priority. If the issue cannot be reproduced, the Product team will set up a session with the customer team to review the issue within the customer’s environment to determine other causes. (This may require full access to the customer’s Apty system to investigate and document root cause to determine an appropriate resolution).
- The issue will stay with the Product team until a root cause is identified. Once a root cause is known, the fix can be scheduled.
Upon verification of root cause, the bug is scheduled into an upcoming release, or a hot fix release depending on priority and assigned to development for resolution. - Development resolves the software defect and assigns it to quality assurance to verify the fix.
- Quality assurance verifies the fix and confirms the release date for the specified bug.
- On the determined release date, the Product team deploys the newly verified release, and the product team notifies the internal stakeholders about the bug fixes or enhancements.
Business Impact and Response Time Agreement
Each support request is assigned a priority based on severity of the support request. The severity is determined by:
The End Users ability to use the software to execute the intended business function; and the extent to which the End User is unable to perform that function; and the impact on the business of not being able to perform that function as well as the standard use of the function as designed by Apty.
Priorities, descriptions, and response times are set out in the following table.
First Response Time is defined as the time from when an issue is logged with the Customer Support Center until an assignment to a specific Engineer is made, and that Engineer has acknowledged receipt of issue with a ticket number assigned.
| Priority | Description | First Response Time |
|---|---|---|
| Critical |
|
2 Business Hours |
| High |
|
4 Business Hours |
| Medium |
|
1 Business Day |
| Low |
|
3 Business Days |
The SLAs cannot be guaranteed for on-premise or SaaS customers that do not allow Apty full access to their Apty system.
Support Requests & Resolutions
- The End User advises that the Support Request is resolved or can be closed.
- The issue is found not to be due to any error in the Apty software.
- Information is provided to the End User on how to correctly use the Apty software.
- A workaround to achieve similar results is provided and accepted by the End User.
- The End User is informed that a version release that contains the required correction is scheduled.
- The Support Request is a feature request or enhancement and has been documented and forwarded to the Product team for consideration in a future release. If the enhancement request is considered Production critical, the Product team will review as a high priority and evaluate if the request can be delivered in a shorter time frame than a future planned release.
- The Support Request is identified as a third-party vendor problem and the End User agrees that the Support Request can be re-assigned to the third-party for resolution.
- It is determined that the End User would benefit from additional training and education on the Apty software and recommendations are made accordingly.
- The issue cannot be reproduced in a standard environment and has been referred to Apty Consulting Experts to assess End User local and/or environmental issues in partnership with the product team. Once an issue with root cause can be identified a new issue can be logged for the product team to provide a fix.
- The Support Request has been open for more than 10 consecutive business days awaiting a response from the End User.
Scope of Support
Support is provided whereby the End User identified problem or issue is a reproducible problem and the issue or symptom relating to the Apty software requires assistance to resolve.
Examples of support requests that are included within a Support Plan:
- The Apty software does not perform substantially in accordance with the current documentation.
- The End User is unable to make the Apty software perform substantially in accordance with the current documentation.
- The End User is unable to gain access to the Apty software.
- The Apty software does not appear to be operational.
Examples of support requests that are NOT included within a Support Plan include (but not limited to):
- Issues arising from the completeness, accuracy or quality of data created by the customer.
- Changes to the physical environment that are not supported by the Apty software.
- Customer or third-party changes to the infrastructure (hardware or software), including upgrades or new versions that are not within the Apty Qualification Framework thereof.
- Changes to the Apty system that would normally relate to implementation activities, such as modifications to business rules, set-up, or configuration.
For support requests not included within a support plan, Apty may respond to such requests by referring the customer to the Apty Consulting team to schedule a consulting session.
Additional components of your Support Plan:
- New Releases: Features new capabilities, new supported environments, and improvements in scalability and performance.
- Maintenance Releases: Incremental changes that address any issues with the software that have been reported by customers or through Apty‘s own investigations.
- New features and updates to features and functionality of Apty introduced for on-demand may not be made available for on-premise. Apty Inc. reserves the right to determine when and if these features and/or changes in functionality will be released to Apty on-premise customers.
Support of Earlier Versions
For SaaS Customers:
The Apty product will be updated on a regular basis, currently estimated to provide monthly product releases. This is a SaaS product and therefore is updated with proper notification via our online Apty Support Center website. Apty will provide support for the resolution of issues arising from up to two previous releases from the current GA release. In the event that an issue occurs with an older version beyond two GA releases, the customer will be required to upgrade to the current version. Should the issue persist, Apty’s support team will conduct a review and provide an appropriate resolution in accordance with their standard procedures. If feasible, Apty may offer a reasonable workaround solution to allow the customer additional time to upgrade.
For On-Premise Customers:
On-premise customers with a critical issue may receive a patch fix for up to 2 major releases prior to the current. This fix may be delivered privately to the customer and not made publicly available. Apty will support customers on the current version and up to two versions back for on-premise and SaaS customers.
