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Service Level Agreement
Information Technology Services
The University of Texas at Austin
Effective Date: 9/1/2008
Last Edited: 8/27/2008
Score
Overview
The Austin Exchange Messaging Service (AEMS) is a collaborative e-mail, calendaring, and file sharing service based on Microsoft Exchange. AEMS is available to university faculty and staff.
Review Process
This document defines the practices that Information Technology Services (ITS) will use for the Austin Exchange Messaging Service service. The details of this document may be reviewed and amended as required, or at least annually, to accurately reflect business and service needs.
Time Conventions
Unless otherwise indicated, business hours are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays and reduced schedule days.
Scope
The following user communities at the university are the intended recipients for the Austin Exchange Messaging Service: Faculty, Staff.
Service Criticality
This service has been identified as Critical, based on the ITS Critical Services Assessment Criteria. Please refer to the Critical Services Assessment Criteria for more information on the assessment methodology.
Service Description
The table below provides a summary of the base services provided as part of AEMS.
| Service | Description |
|---|---|
| Send and receive e-mail. Each e-mail may be up to 30MB including attachments. | |
| Calendar | Schedule meetings and appointments for self and with others. |
| Tasks | Create and manage personal tasks. |
| Contacts | Access global address list. Create and maintain personal address book. |
| Mailbox Space | 200 MB of mailbox space is provided at no cost. Mailbox size includes e-mail, calendar, personal contacts and tasks. |
| Backup | Conduct regular and periodic backups of AEMS data. Mailbox contents can be restored for up to two weeks after deletion by a user. |
| Mailbox Protection | Provides local anti-virus protection and additionally uses the university mail filtering service for anti-spam and anti-virus protection. |
| Departmental Address | Create unique departmental address. [name]@[department].utexas.edu |
| Role-based Mailbox | Provide mailbox for position (e.g., departmental chair, Vice President). |
| Distribution Group | Create a global distribution group. |
| Forwarding | Create an e-mail forwarding address. |
| Rooms | Set up a room on a calendar for scheduling. |
| Public Folders | Provide disk storage for shared use. |
| Resources | Set up a resource on a calendar for scheduling. |
The following AEMS options are available for an additional cost.
| Service | Description |
|---|---|
| Additional Mailbox Space | Add mailbox space to an existing AEMS mailbox in 100 MB increments, up to 2000 MB total, for $7 per gigabyte per year. |
| BlackBerry Service | Add Austin BlackBerry Service to an AEMS mailbox for $10/month ($120/year). |
Supported Computing Environment
The service and support levels documented in this SLA assume certain minimum configurations in the user desktop environment. The list below does not enumerate all possible operating systems or applications that can access the service, only those that have been tested and shown to provide complete, or near-complete, functionality. The minimum recommended operating system and client software requirements are:
Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003
- Outlook 2003 (Outlook 2007 recommended)
- Outlook Web Access in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6+
- Outlook Web Access Light in Internet Explorer 5.5+ or Mozilla Firefox 1.0+ OS X (10.3+)
- Entourage 2004 SP2 (included with Microsoft Office 2004 SP2 for Mac OS X) (Entourage 2008 recommended)
- Outlook Web Access Light in Safari 2 , Firefox 1.0 Linux (Kernel 2.4+)
- Outlook Web Access Light in Firefox 1.0+
ActiveSync/AirSync-enabled devices
- Smartphones or PocketPCs running Windows Mobile 2003 or later
- Palm Treo 650 or later
BlackBerry devices
- BlackBerry device running BlackBerry OS version 4.0 or later
For the latest information on tested systems and a complete list of supported procedures, refer to the ITS Web site: http://www.utexas.edu/its/messaging.
Technical Support
Technical support, problem report/resolution, and requests for changes to a service for AEMS will be provided through one of two paths, depending upon whether or not a user has a departmental Technical Support Contact (TSC).
Tier 1 Support :
- For users with a departmental TSC, Tier 1 support for end-user problems is provided by the TSC. This is the preferred approach and will aid in resolving the issue in the most efficient manner.
- In cases where a TSC is not available, Tier 1 support for end-user problems is provided by the ITS Help Desk during business hours by e-mail or phone at 512-475-9400
Tier 2 Support :
- Departmental TSCs or the ITS Help Desk may escalate issues to Tier 2 support.
- Tier 2 support is available during normal business hours.
- Routine requests (for example creating a distribution list) are typically addressed within one business day.
ITS provides formal training on Outlook and Entourage. This training should be scheduled in advance, and is available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Please e-mail the ITS Training Team for details.
Additional information and technical support can be found in the AEMS documentation.
Service Availability
This section provides information about the normal schedule of times when the service is available, the times specified for scheduled maintenance, and defines expectations for reporting service problems and changes.
Normal Service Availability
AEMS is designed to be available for customer use 24-hours-per-day, seven days-per-week, 365 days-per-year (24x7x365) excluding scheduled maintenance times.
Scheduled Maintenance
Scheduled maintenance is critical for upgrades and to maintain security, and occurs weekly on Sundays from midnight until 6 a.m. Services may not be available during the scheduled maintenance periods.
Problem Reporting and Change Notification
ITS will notify customers using the ITS Services Status page of service availability and service delivery issues for the Austin Exchange Messaging Service. To the maximum extent possible, installation of service, application, and security updates will be performed during scheduled maintenance.
Key Service Indicators
List of Metrics/Measures
The following provides a description of the key AEMS service level objectives defined by this SLA.
| Measurement | Definition | Performance Target |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Availability [1] | The percent of time that the service is available. | 99% |
| Customer Satisfaction Percent | The percent of positive responses to customer satisfaction questions in the annual ITS survey. | 90% |
Notes:
1. The Overall availability is calculated as the hours that the service is available in the reporting period divided by the total hours in the reporting period. This percentage reflects scheduled and unscheduled downtime.
Dependencies
AEMS is dependent upon Austin Active Directory as well as the network and related systems. The availability of those services will have a direct impact on AEMS availability.
Service Report Card
ITS will publish performance for this service in the public ITS Services Report Card when the data becomes available.
Other Party Responsibilities
In addition to the services provided by ITS, subscribers (users) of the service and identified owners/administrators agree to certain important responsibilities. All parties agree to be aware of and adhere to the university's Acceptable Use Policy.
User/Subscriber Responsibilities
Subscriber agrees to:
- Read the AEMS documentation.
- Patch desktop as recommended by vendor.
- Use supported Exchange client software (see section 2.1)
- Provide critical information to ITS in a timely manner when requested for purposes of resolving subscriber issues.
Departmental IT Support Staff
TSC agrees to:
- Provide ITS with contact information for departmental TSC through your ITS contact, and notify ITS of changes.
- Designate at least one secondary TSC for each department.
- Be familiar with the AEMS documentation
- Maintain knowledge of current Exchange client software releases.
- Provide critical information to ITS in a timely manner when requested for purposes of resolving subscriber issues.
- Provide Tier 1 support for subscribers in the supported department.
Cost of Service
Cost information for this service can be found on the AEMS Web site.
