Technical Support Overview

We at Netsweeper Inc. value our customers and their requirements for web content management. We are always trying to provide the best web content management and filtering platform, however, at times there may be incidents that require immediate attention. Our technical support department caters to the urgent needs of our customers and partners by providing timely and accurate support. Our goal at Netsweeper is to provide the best in-class web content management solution and to achieve that goal we will always need to provide professional support to our customers / partners.

The Technical Support section is a high-level overview of the support matrix and escalation policies. It is split into four sections:

• About the Support Teams: This is an overview of the role of the Netsweeper Support Teams.
• Netsweeper Support Escalation Matrix:The escalation matrix covers how and when cases are to be escalated. It also defines the technical and managerial notification sequence, priorities, and escalation guidelines.
• Contacting Support:This section provides contact information for Support as well as guidelines on the information Support requires and how to track issues.
• Netsweeper Technical Support Handoff: This section describes the steps Netsweeper proactively takes to ease the Technical Support handoff of all customers from the Systems Engineering to the Technical Support Team.

About the Support Teams

Technical Support Team

Every incident reported comes to this team. They create a ticket for the customer (if not already created) and assign a Priority. The Priority is based on certain parameters which are predefined and have been decided on after taking various parameters into consideration. The maximum time for this team to work on a ticket is 24 hours.

Systems Engineering Team

These engineers are part of the Support Team. This team consists of trained engineers who can diagnose complex problems and arrive at a root cause analysis for resolution. If the Support Team is not able to solve a reported issue, it gets escalated to the Systems Engineers. The maximum time frame for this team to work on a reported issue is 2 business days.

Development Team

This team designed the product. Quality Assurance and Software Engineers work in this team. If a Systems Engineer is not able to resolve a problem, it is escalated to this team. The Development Team tries to recreate the issue and find either a solution or a workaround. They also perform code changes if required for incident resolution. The maximum time frame for this team to work on a reported issue is 2 business days.

The Systems Engineers involved with the design and deployment of the product can be contacted at any time. However, once the product has moved into the production environment, primary contact should be Technical Support Services for tracking, auditing, and response time purposes. This is in accordance with the Netsweeper Technical Support SLA.

Support Escalation Matrix

This Support Escalation Matrix will cover how and when cases are to be escalated. It will also define the technical and managerial notification sequence.

Please see the section ‘About the Support Teams’ for a description of the role of Netsweeper teams.

Priorities

Priority 1 (P1):Your Netsweeper product is "down" or there is a critical impact to your business operations due to an apparent problem with your Netsweeper implementation. You and Netsweeper will commit all necessary resources to resolve the situation.

Priority 2 (P2): Operation of an existing Netsweeper implementation is severely degraded, or significant aspects of your business operation are negatively affected by inadequate performance of Netsweeper products. You and Netsweeper will commit full-time resources during normal business hours to resolve the situation.

Priority 3 (P3): Operational performance of your Netsweeper implementation is impaired, but most business operations remain functional. You and Netsweeper will commit resources during normal business hours to restore service to satisfactory levels.

Priority 4 (P4):You require information or assistance with Netsweeper product capabilities, installation, or basic configuration. There is little or no effect on your business operations.

Priority Matrix

	Severity 1 (Critical)	Severity 2 (High)	Severity 3 (Medium)	Severity 4 (Low)
Business and financial exposure
	The application failure creates a serious business and financial exposure.	The application failure creates a serious business and financial exposure.	The application failure creates a low business and financial exposure.	The application failure creates a minimal business and financial exposure.
Work Outage
	The application failure causes the user to be unable to work or perform some significant portion of their job.	The application failure causes the user to be unable to work or perform some significant portion of their job.	The application failure causes the user to be unable to perform some small portion of their job, but they are still able to complete most other tasks. May also include questions and requests for information.	The application failure causes the user to be unable to perform a minor portion of their job, but they are still able to complete most other tasks.
Number of Clients Affected
	The application failure affects many users.	The application failure affects many users.	The application failure affects a small number of users.	The application failure may only affect one or two users.
Workaround [This bullet carries the heaviest weighting of the characteristics for Severity 1 and 2.]
	There is no acceptable workaround to the problem (i.e., the job cannot be performed in any other way).	There is an acceptable and implemented workaround to the problem (i.e., the job can be performed in some other way).	There may or may not be an acceptable workaround to the problem.	There is likely an acceptable workaround to the problem.
Response Time
	Within one hour.	Within four hours.	Within eight hours or by next business day (EST).	Within eight hours or by next business day (EST).
Resolution Time
	The maximum acceptable resolution time is 24 continuous hours, after initial response time.	The maximum acceptable resolution time is five business days.	The maximum acceptable resolution time is 30 business days.	The maximum acceptable resolution time is 90 calendar days.

Escalation Guidelines

We follow an approach where all the incidents are handled in the most proficient manner.

1. As soon as an incident is reported a ticket is generated (if not already done so by the customer) and the customer / partner are notified of the ticket number.
2. As per the incident reported, Netsweeper will assign a Priority to each incident.
3. The first response to the customer/partner support is sent within 4 Hours of our normal support line hours.
4. By default, every incident is first handled by the Support Team.
5. If the Support Team is not able to resolve the incident, it is escalated to the Systems Engineering Team.
6. In case it is a Priority 2 or higher, it is directly escalated to the Systems Engineering Team.
7. If Systems Engineering Team is not able to resolve the incident in 2 business days, the ticket is escalated to the Development Team.
8. The Development Team works on the issue and either gives a workaround or provides a solution to the customer within 5 business days.
9. Every incident is updated daily.

Incident Matrix

The following matrix shows the different response times and the initial assigned team for various priorities of reported incidents.

Priority	Max Time Allowed for Solution/Workaround	Response Time	Teams Assigned
P1	24 hours after initial response time	1 hour	Systems Engineers
P2	5 Business days	4 hours	Systems Engineers
P3	30 business days	8 hours or next business day EST	Support Team
P4	90 business days	8 hours or next business day EST	Support Team

Escalation Management Notification

Our internal escalation process is intended to notify and brief various levels of management throughout the life cycle of technical issues. This ensures that the appropriate resources within Netsweeper are utilized to resolve outstanding incidents as efficiently as possible. The following schedule shows the manager receiving notification, and the elapsed time at which notification is given, per the Priority Level; escalation continues until the issue has been resolved or a satisfactory workaround has been implemented:

Person Notified	P1 /Hours	P2 /Hours	P3 /Hours	P4 /Hours	Cumulative Hours
					P1	P2	P3	P4
Support Manager	4	24	48	96	4	24	48	96
Engineering Manager	4	24	48	48	8	48	96	144
VP of Technology	4	24	48	-	12	72	144	-
CTO	6	24	-	-	18	96	-	-
CEO	6	24	-	-	24	120	-	-

Security Vulnerabilities and Patches

Exploitation of vulnerabilities typically occur when patches are available but not applied. Exploitation of unknown vulnerabilities are rare. Netsweeper makes security patching a priority. Netsweeper can become aware of potential product vulnerabilities through various channels. They can include but are not limited to customer communications or support tickets, CVE alerts, vulnerability tests, Quality Assurance testing, and through security researchers.

Upon self-discovery or notification of a potential vulnerability, an internal ticket is created and triaged. The security ticket is immediately assessed a severity level of Critical, High, Medium, or Low based on their likelihood of the vulnerability being exploited. Critical and High vulnerabilities are immediately assigned resources for resolution or workaround as soon as commercially feasible. Medium and Low vulnerabilities are prioritized during product sprint planning.

Netsweeper is committed to fix all vulnerabilities and provide these fixes in the latest GA release. This can involve back-porting to the prior GA release or creating a new GA release. Information on the fixes are included in Release Notes and Change Logs. Patches can be distributed as RPMs or scripts but generally are included in official release postings. If a patch is distributed as a script it will also include any relevant instructions on how to apply it. In addition, the instructions will indicate how to revert the patch or update. If the security update is not included in an official release, customers are provided a specific link location on where to acquire the patch along with its instructions.

EA and GA Product Technical Support

Netsweeper Technical Support provides support for all Early Adopters (EA) and Generally Available (GA) releases. The main difference between an Early Adopter release and a General Availability release is that once a GA release is made for a product version, no more features will be added to that specific version of the product. Only stability and security improvements will be back-ported to a GA release. Netsweeper is committed to make sure both EA and GA releases are stable, and all features and fixes have been run through full Quality Assurance.

Customers who find issues or problems in an EA release will be recommended to first upgrade to the latest GA release if available. When no GA release is yet available, these issues can be quickly fixed even if the issue is with the requirements or how the customer wants the feature deployed. Once a release goes to the GA state, only stability and security issues will be resolved. Features and functionality will not be changed to meet or extend the feature to meet new requirements. This means that any customer running a GA release, can easily upgrade to a GA release of the same version with little to no risk. No features or functionality will have been added and as such this greatly reduces any associated risk.

Customers upgrading from an older GA release to a later GA release will need to perform full risk assessment since many features and functionality will have changed. These changes in features and functionality will cause the same risk as upgrading from a GA to an EA release. Netsweeper recommends that customers create a project plan in advance to consider how they plan on upgrading their deployment.

The following items are important for all customers who are considering running an EA release in a production environment:

• Customers planning a Netsweeper deployment should generally deploy a GA release unless they require features from the latest EA release.
• Variances found in an EA release are scheduled into the product release cycle and fixed in the next EA or possibly GA release.
• The EA release cycle is typically 2-4 weeks between releases.
• Variances found in a GA release are provided as a patch to the specific GA release only if the variance is ‘P1 Critical’.
• GA Patches can be provided as soon as the issue has been replicated and resolved by the development team. Typically, this is under 1 week.
• Customers who require EA release features, and must use an EA release in production, should always perform appropriate risk analysis and plan to upgrade to a GA release once it is available as the features and functionality change between EA releases.
• The EA release cycle is used to stabilize features and allow customers to provide feedback during feature development. Customers should take advantage of this release cycle and run EA releases in production environments to work with Netsweeper to deliver the best possible product features.
• From an initial EA release, it takes a minimum of six months to stabilize new features into a GA release.
• Netsweeper historically takes 5-6 EA releases before a specific version becomes GA. Therefore, upgrading to a 2.0.4 EA release is likely a better choice than installing a 1.0.7 GA and waiting for the 2.0 GA release to be made. The risk associated with the upgrade from 1.0.7 GA to 2.0.5 GA is higher than the risk of installing 2.0.4 EA and upgrading to 2.0.5 GA.
• If you are uncertain what release to use or need assistance with the risk assessment related to what release to use, please contact Netsweeper Technical Support for assistance.

Submitting Support Requests

Email: Email is the preferred method of contacting Netsweeper Support. Send an email to support@netsweeper.com. The Netsweeper ticketing system allows us to communicate issues and respond to questions. This method alerts numerous staff here at Netsweeper and allows multiple members to address your issue. It provides a single point of contact.

Telephone: You may contact Netsweeper Support in our Waterloo office from 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Standard Time. Our telephone number is 519 772-0889.

Gather the following information before contacting Support:

• Your Name and your Organization
• Your Contract Information
• Your Email Address and Phone Number
• Your Netsweeper Serial
• Your Netsweeper Version Number
• Supporting documentation for incident

Technical Support Hand-off

Our goal at Netsweeper is to provide the best in-class web content management solution and to achieve that goal we will always provide professional support to our customers / partners. This technical support hand-off best practices section describes the steps Netsweeper proactively takes to ease the Technical Support hand off of all customers from the Systems Engineering to the Technical Support Team.

Teams

The Netsweeper Technical Support team relies on the knowledge and expertise of the Systems Engineering and Development Teams. The escalation process involves the System Engineers as well as the Development Team. Please see ‘About the Support Teams’ for more information.

Refer to the Netsweeper Technical Support Escalation Matrix for more details on the process and escalation of technical support related issues.

Milestones

During the deployment, implementation, and operation of the Netsweeper products, key milestones are met at which time different teams become involved. Each customer project may be different; however, the following milestones are usually involved. These milestones require technical information to be exchanged between Netsweeper Systems Engineering and the Netsweeper Technical Support Services.

During the transition to each phase, the Netsweeper Technical Support Team is briefed about the deployment and can query the information and status, documentation, and the assembled customer artifacts related to the specific deployment.

The Systems Engineers involved with the design and deployment of the product can be contacted at any time. However, once the product has moved into the production environment, primary contact should be Technical Support Services for tracking, auditing, and response time purposes. This is in accordance with the Netsweeper Technical Support SLA.

Design Phase

During this phase of the project the customer is in contact with the Netsweeper Project Manager, or Netsweeper Systems Engineer. The primary contact at Netsweeper generally is a member of the Systems Engineering team. The Technical Support Team is often queried during this process for various types of information including:

• Documentation
• Software
• License and Serial Key generation
• Best Practices
• Supporting Information
• Variance and Feature Requests
• Knowledge Transfers

Usually, the point of contact for the customer is the Systems Engineer and Project Manager during this phase. The above requests to the Technical Support Team are often made by the Systems Engineers and other Netsweeper team members.

Proof of Concept Phase

This phase indicates a shift from the design phase to an in-network deployment for proof of concept and possible acceptance testing. During this phase, the Netsweeper Technical Support Team is briefed on the design and associated Netsweeper deployment information.

The Netsweeper Technical Support Team should be the first point of contract for 24x7 technical support. All communications should also be sent to the Systems Engineer and Sales staff during this phase since all incidents may change the design or documentation associated with the deployment.

Netsweeper Technical Support will always attempt to attach the Systems Engineer to the associated ticket and responses to always keep them informed of events and tickets reported by customers they have worked on. These tickets are discussed daily, and Systems Engineers are updated on a weekly basis.

Production Phase

Once the product has moved into the production operation phase, generally the Systems Engineer is no longer involved with the deployment. The Systems Engineer is generally responsible for the design and successful integration and deployment of the Netsweeper Filtering Platform. During this final phase, the primary contact should be the Technical Support Department for operational and technical support related incidents.

Please refer to the Netsweeper Technical Support Escalation Matrix for more information about operational technical support services.

Hand-off Process

The following outlines the general process involved with most deployments. This can be incorporated into any project plans. Generally, once a design moves into a production environment, the Technical Support Services should be the first point of contact, and all support related queries should be logged with Technical Support Services. Netsweeper Systems Engineers are instructed to perform this action if contacted directly.

1. The Netsweeper Sales Team creates a contact which identifies the customer and project specifications. This creates the base repository of both Sales and Technical information.
2. Technical discussions are held between the Customer, Netsweeper Systems Engineering, and Netsweeper Sales. Usually, this also involves the Netsweeper Product Managers, and associated teams. Technical Support Services will be unaware of the customer at this time.
3. Netsweeper Systems Engineers design and document a solution known as a “Solution Document”. Technical Support will be made aware of the customer and associated project now.
4. Netsweeper Technical Support is now aware of the contact, design, and customer related information. Tickets emailed into the Technical Support Team are referenced back to this document repository.
5. Design moves into a Proof of Concept phase which may be in a production network or in a test environment. 24x7 Technical Support should be directed to the Technical Support Services. Systems Engineers and Technical Support work to solve any issues together.
6. The Design moves into a Production environment based on the project plan and proper sign-off from all parties. Technical Support Services should be the primary contact from this point forward. Systems Engineers are involved during the regular Support Escalation procedures.

For 24x7 Technical Support services please refer to the Netsweeper Technical Support Escalation Matrix for contact information.

Disclaimer

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Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this document. However, Netsweeper Inc. makes no warranties with respect to this documentation and disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Netsweeper Inc. shall not be liable for any error or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this document or the examples herein. The information in this documentation is subject to change without notice.

Netsweeper and Netsweeper Inc. are trademarks or registered trademarks of Netsweeper Incorporated in Canada and/or in other countries. Other product names mentioned in this document may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are the sole property of their respective manufacturers.