Common use of Fatal Clause in Contracts

Fatal. Complete degradation — all users and critical functions affected. Item or service completely unavailable. Severe: Significant degradation — large number of users or critical functions affected. Medium: Limited degradation — limited number of users or functions affected. Business processes can continue. Minor: Small degradation — few users or one user affected. Business processes can continue. Response times are measured using the supplier’s support ticketing system, which tracks all issues from initial reporting to resolution. It is vital the client raises every issue via this system. If an issue is not raised in this way, the guaranteed response time does not apply to that issue. If the supplier fails to meet a guaranteed response, a penalty will be applied in the form of a credit for the client. This means the following month’s fee payable by the client will be reduced on a sliding scale. The level of penalty will be calculated depending on the number of hours by which the supplier missed the response time, minus the downtime permitted by the SLA: Priority level Penalty per hour (Pro-rated to nearest minute) Response time penalties in any month are capped at 50% of the total monthly fee Response times are measured during working hours (9am — 5.30pm). For instance, if an issue is reported at 5.00pm with a response time of 60 minutes, the supplier has until 9.30am the following day to respond. The supplier will always endeavour to resolve problems as swiftly as possible. It recognises that the client’s computer systems are key to its business and that any downtime can cost money. However, the supplier is unable to provide guaranteed resolution times. This is because the nature and causes of problems can vary enormously. For instance, it may be possible to resolve a fatal server issue in minutes, simply by restarting the server. But if a server fails due to disk error or a hardware fault (also classed as a fatal issue) it may take much longer to get back up and running. In all cases, the supplier will make its best efforts to resolve problems as quickly as possible. It will also provide frequent progress reports to the client. The supplier recognises that it provides services that are critical to the client’s business. If the supplier consistently fails to meet the service levels described in this document, the client may terminate its entire contract with the supplier, with no penalty. This right is available to the client if the supplier fails to meet these service levels more than five times in any single calendar month.

Fatal. Complete degradation — all users and critical functions affected. Item or service completely unavailable. Severe: Significant degradation — large number of users or critical functions affected. Medium: Limited degradation — limited number of users or functions affected. Business processes can continue. Minor: Small degradation — few users or one user affected. Business processes can continue. Response times are measured using the supplier’s support ticketing system, which tracks all issues from initial reporting to resolution. It is vital the client raises every issue via this system. If an issue is not raised in this way, the guaranteed response time does not apply to that issue. If the supplier fails to meet a guaranteed response, a penalty will be applied in the form of a credit for the client. This means the following month’s fee payable by the client will be reduced on a sliding scale. The level of penalty will be calculated depending on the number of hours by which the supplier missed the response time, minus the downtime permitted by the SLA: Priority level Penalty per hour (Pro-rated to nearest minute) Response time penalties in any month are capped at 50% of the total monthly fee fee. Response times are measured during working hours (9am — 5.30pm). For instance, if an issue is reported at 5.00pm with a response time of 60 minutes, the supplier has until 9.30am the following day to respond. The supplier will always endeavour to resolve problems as swiftly as possible. It recognises that the client’s computer systems are key to its business and that any downtime can cost money. However, the supplier is unable to provide guaranteed resolution times. This is because the nature and causes of problems can vary enormously. For instance, it may be possible to resolve a fatal server issue in minutes, simply by restarting the server. But if a server fails due to disk error or a hardware fault (also classed as a fatal issue) it may take much longer to get back up and running. In all cases, the supplier will make its best efforts to resolve problems as quickly as possible. It will also provide frequent progress reports to the client. The supplier recognises that it provides services that are critical to the client’s business. If the supplier consistently fails to meet the service levels described in this document, the client may terminate its entire contract with the supplier, with no penalty. This right is available to the client if the supplier fails to meet these service levels more than five times in any single calendar month.