Technical Support Policies

"You" and "your" refers to the individual or entity that has ordered technical support from DEX.

To receive technical support as provided by DEX Systems (DEX) and described in the DEX Technical Support Levels section below, all programs must be properly licensed.

Technical support is provided for issues (including problems created by you) that are demonstrable in the currently supported release(s) of an DEX licensed program, running unaltered, and on an appropriate hardware, database and operating system configuration, as specified in your order or program documentation.

These Technical Support Policies are subject to change at DEX's discretion, however the services provided will not be materially reduced during the support period (as defined below).

SUPPORT TERMS

Technical Support Fees Technical support fees are due and payable annually in advance of a support period, unless otherwise stated in the relevant license or payment contract with DEX. Your commitment to pay is required to process your technical support order with DEX (e.g., purchase order, actual payment, or other approved method of payment). An invoice will be issued only upon receipt of your commitment to pay, and will be sent to a single billing address as designated by you. Failure to submit payment may result in the termination of support.

Support Period Technical support is effective upon the effective date of your license or contract “ordering document”) unless otherwise stated in your ordering document. Unless otherwise stated in the ordering document, DEX technical support terms, including pricing, reflect a 12 month support period (the "support period"). All technical support services ordered for a support period and the related fees are non-cancelable and non-refundable. DEX is not obligated to provide technical support beyond the end of the support period unless your technical support contract is renewed on or before the service expiration date.

Reinstatement of DEX Technical Support In the event that technical support lapses or was not originally purchased, upon the commencement of technical support a reinstatement fee will be assessed. The reinstatement fee is equal to 150% of the last-paid support fee, or 150% of the last-published list technical support price for the licensed program. Once the reinstatement fee has been assessed, technical support for the year following the reinstatement period may be purchased for an additional technical support fee as calculated based on how long the licensed program has been unsupported (“go-forward support fee”). If the lapsed support period is less than 6 months, the go-forward support fee is calculated based on the last-published list technical support price. If the lapsed support period is 6 months or greater, the go-forward support fee is calculated based on the last-paid support fee.

Unsupported Programs Customers with unsupported programs do not receive updates, maintenance releases, patches, telephone assistance, or any other technical support services for the unsupported programs. CD packs or programs purchased or downloaded for trial use, use with other supported programs, or purchased or downloaded as replacement media may not be used to update any unsupported programs.

Technical Contacts It is the recommended standard that your technical contacts are trained representatives of your company. Such training shall include initial basic product training and, as needed, supplemental training appropriate for specific role or implementation phase, specialized product usage, and/or migration. Your technical contacts are the sole liaisons between you and DEX for technical support of programs. To avoid interruptions in support services, you must notify DEX whenever technical contact responsibilities are transferred to another individual.

With the order of Software Update License & Support, you may designate one primary and four backup individuals ("technical contact") per license. Your primary technical contact shall be responsible for (i) overseeing your support case activity, and (ii) developing and deploying troubleshooting processes within your organization. The backup technical contacts shall be responsible for resolving user issues. You may be charged a fee to designate additional technical contacts.  DEX may review service requests logged by your technical contacts, and may recommend specific training to help avoid service requests that would be prevented by such training.

Program Updates "Update" means a subsequent release of the program which DEX generally makes available for program licenses to its supported customers at no additional license fee, other than shipping charges if applicable, provided you have ordered a technical support offering that includes software updates for such licenses for the relevant time period. Updates do not include any release, option or future program that DEX licenses separately. Updates are provided when available, and DEX is under no obligation to develop any future programs or functionality. Any updates made available will be delivered to you, or made available to you for download. If delivered, you will receive one update copy for each supported operating system for which your program licenses were ordered. You shall be responsible for copying and installing the updates.

Support Duration Support consists of the following service levels:

• Basic Support which refers to the first 5 years of basic technical support services
• Extended Support (if offered)
• Sustaining Support

Basic Support for SAAS products is available throughout the term of the Agreement. Basic Support for other products will be available for five years from the date a release of the DEX program becomes generally available, except as noted below.

Based on availability, support may be extended for an additional three years with Extended Support for specific releases.

Once Extended Support expires, or for releases for which the Extended Support option was not available, Sustaining Support will be available for as long as you maintain technical support for your DEX licenses.

Right to Desupport It may become necessary as a part of DEX's product lifecycle to desupport certain programs and, therefore, DEX reserves the right to desupport certain programs. If a program is desupported, you will be notified of such desupport directly by DEX.

First and Second Line Support It is the recommended standard that you establish and maintain the organization and processes to provide “First Line Support” for the supported programs directly to your users. First Line Support shall include but not be limited to (i) a direct response to users with respect to inquiries concerning the performance, functionality or operation of the supported programs, (ii) a direct response to users with respect to problems or issues with the supported programs, (iii) a diagnosis of problems or issues of the supported program, and (iv) a resolution of problems or issues of the supported programs. If after reasonable commercial efforts you are unable to diagnose or resolve problems or issues of the supported programs, you shall contact DEX for “Second Line Support”. You shall use commercially reasonable efforts to provide DEX with the necessary access (e.g., access to repository files, log files, or database extracts) required to provide Second Line Support. DEX does not ensure its performance of the technical support described herein if such access is not provided by you when requested by DEX.

Second Line Support shall include but not be limited to (i) a diagnosis of problems or issues of the supported programs and (ii) reasonable commercial efforts to resolve reported and verifiable errors in supported programs so that such programs perform in all material respects the functions described in the associated documentation.  DEX may review service requests logged by your technical contacts, and may recommend specific organization and process changes to assist you with the above recommended standard practices.

DEX TECHNICAL SUPPORT LEVELS

Software Update License & Support Programs in the Basic Support phase of DEX’s product support lifecycle will receive Software Update License & Support. Software Update License & Support is the standard level for all DEX support services and consists of:

• Program updates, fixes, security alerts, and critical patch updates
• Upgrade scripts
• Certification with new third-party products/versions
• Major product and technology releases, which includes general maintenance releases, selected functionality releases, and documentation updates
• Assistance with service requests during normal business hours
• Non-technical customer service during normal business hours
• Program updates and fixes

Priority Service
Priority Service is available for programs in the Basic, Extended, or Sustaining Support phases of DEX’s product support lifecycle. Priority Service consists of:

• Prioritization of Service Requests: Service requests will be prioritized above service requests of the same severity level submitted by Premier Support customers
• Service Request Response Guidelines: Reasonable efforts will be made to respond to service requests per the following guidelines:
o 90% of Severity 1 service requests submitted by you will be responded to within 1 hour  
   (available 24x7)
o 90% of Severity 2 service requests submitted by you will be responded to within the next local
   business day
o 90% of Severity 3 service requests submitted by you will be responded to within the next local  
   business day
• Time-based internal escalations for Severity 1 service requests
• Designated DEX service manager who is responsible for assisting in the management of service requests, and providing service reviews

In order to acquire Priority Service for a license, you must acquire Software Update License & Support for that license. If you have maintained Software Update License & Support and want to purchase Priority Service for a license, the licenses do not need to be migrated to current license metrics to do so. 

Extended Support Extended Support may be available for certain DEX programs after Basic Support expires. When Extended Support is offered, it is generally available for three years following the expiration of Basic Support and only for certain releases of a program.   Extended Support (if offered) must be purchased for all licenses of the version of the DEX program for which Basic Support has expired, unless stated otherwise in the relevant ordering document. Programs in the Extended Support phase of DEX’s product support lifecycle will receive Software Update License & Support limited to the following:

• Program updates, fixes, security alerts, and critical patch updates
• Upgrade scripts
• Major product and technology releases, which includes general maintenance releases, selected functionality releases, and documentation updates
• Assistance with service requests during normal business hours
• Non-technical customer service during normal business hours

Sustaining Support Once Extended Support has expired, DEX will make available Sustaining Support for all DEX programs. For releases that do not have an Extended Support option, Sustaining Support will be available upon the expiration of Basic Support. Programs in the Sustaining Support phase of DEX’s product support lifecycle will receive Software Update License & Support limited to the following:

• Existing program updates, fixes, security alerts, and critical patch updates
• Existing upgrade scripts
• Major product and technology releases, which includes general maintenance releases, selected functionality releases, and documentation updates
• Assistance with service requests, on a commercially reasonable basis, during normal business hours
• Non-technical customer service during normal business hours

Sustaining Support does not include:

• New program updates, fixes, security alerts, and critical patch updates

Customer-specific fixes to correct new issues may be purchased for an additional time- and materials-based fee.

SEVERITY DEFINITIONS

Service requests may be submitted by you by telephone or email. The service request severity level is selected by you and DEX and should be based on the following severity definitions:

Severity 1 Your production use of the programs is stopped or so severely impacted that you cannot reasonably continue work. You experience a complete loss of service. The operation is mission critical to the business and the situation is an emergency. A Severity 1 service request has one or more of the following characteristics:

• Data corrupted
• A critical documented function is not available
• System hangs indefinitely, causing unacceptable or indefinite delays for resources or response
• System crashes, and crashes repeatedly after restart attempts

Reasonable efforts will be made to respond to Severity 1 service requests within one hour.
24 Hour Commitment to Severity 1 Service Requests: DEX will work 24x7 until the issue is resolved or as long as useful progress can be made. You must provide DEX with a contact during this 24x7 period, either on site or by pager, to assist with data gathering, testing, and applying fixes. You are requested to propose this severity classification with great care, so that valid Severity 1 situations obtain the necessary resource allocation from DEX.

Severity 2 You experience a disruption of service. The impact is an inconvenience, which may require a workaround to restore functionality.

Severity 3 You request information, an enhancement, or documentation clarification regarding your software but there is no impact on the operation of the software. You experience no interruption of service. The result does not impede the operation of a system.