Service Level Commitments

The service level agreements following are standard for Southland Benefit Solutions. However, additional service level agreements may be defined per customer and outlined in individual administrative agreements.

A. Client Support

Southland currently has the following classifications of issues.

1) Support Request: Support requests typically resolve a specific problem or a trivial change to existing functionality.

2) Work Request: Work requests typically enhance existing functionality or implement new functionality without major effort and with minimal coordination of resources.

3) Project Request: Project requests are typically used when significant non-labor expense is likely, when the work effort will be coordinated among multiple departments or third parties, and/or when significant effort will be required to complete the request definition, development, testing, and implementation.

Southland shall resolve all issues and will have information of each logged item from clients stored within the ticketing system. The issue shall be submitted through email, telephone, or web submission. Southland shall provide an issue tracking number at the time of submission or within one business day for email submission.

B. Categorization of Issues

Southland incidents and requests will be categorized according to the following severity priorities. Project and Work requests are prioritized according to client or company need rather than severity.

Critical
A critical issue represents that a system or application is not functional or accessible, data corruption has occurred, or such corruption could result from the continued use of effected system(s). As many resources as necessary should be working on this issue until it is resolved.

During normal business hours, if a member of system support is not immediately available to take the call, then a Southland member will return the call within one (1) hour following receipt of the initial request.

Resolution: Southland associate(s) with the appropriate subject matter expertise shall immediately be assigned to resolve the issue. Executive management will be immediately notified of all critical issues. Communications will generally be sent every two hours throughout the duration of the incident until resolution is achieved. Southland will commit the appropriate subject matter expert(s) to the issue exclusively until the issue is either resolved or an acceptable workaround solution has been implemented. If a temporary workaround solution is implemented, Southland will continue to track the issue to point of final resolution.

High

A high issue represents that a system or application is functioning sporadically but the problem affects a user’s ability to effectively perform essential job functions, functionality is down and there is a limited or no workaround available, or a client has requested immediate attention. This request should take priority over any other non-critical request.

High requests will be processed after critical requests. Requests prioritized as high are escalated every four hours until work begins at which point escalations continue every eight hours until resolved.

Resolution: At least one Support member will be assigned to work the issue until resolved. Status updates should be provided on a daily basis while the issue is outstanding. Given the amount of time physically required to resolve the issue, the customer and support will work together in good faith to determine a mutually agreeable delivery date.

Medium

A medium request represents that a system or application functionality is impaired but it is not significantly hindering essential job functions.  If not addressed in a timely manner, this could become a high priority request.

Medium requests are processed on an “as soon as practical” basis. Support members should provide acknowledgement of these requests within one business day following receipt of the initial request.

Resolution: Resolution of medium priority requests is based on availability of resources and prioritization among other medium requests, projects, and work requests. Management may override priority so that task will be given immediate attention.

Low

A low request is used when essential job functions are not significantly impacted and it is not anticipated that they will be in the near future. The request will be worked when convenient.

Resolution: Low priority requests are typically resolved when able to be combined with related higher priority requests or resources become available.

C. Monitoring

Issues are monitored on a daily basis and issue reports can be provided to the customer upon request. Outstanding request tickets are reported to management on a weekly basis and reviewed for prioritization. Customers may be able to track issues via the tracking number provided in email generated from ticketing system.

D. Remediation

In the event client is dissatisfied with the level of service provided by Southland, Southland will facilitate a meeting with client in an effort to resolve satisfaction issues and continue the current relationship. If a resolution cannot be reached, Southland and the client will determine, on a case by case basis, the best course of action.