This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) forms part of the agreement between Varsuite Media Group Ltd, trading as Varsuite (“Varsuite”), and the Client identified on the applicable account, Quote or Statement of Work, and applies to any Service that includes hosting, a Care Plan, or ongoing support, as identified in the applicable Statement of Work. It supplements, and forms part of, the Varsuite Service Contract, and applies for matters of availability and support in accordance with clause 2 of the Service Contract.
1. Definitions
1.1 “Business Hours” means 9:00am to 5:30pm UK time, Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays in England.
1.2 “Downtime” means any period during which a hosted Service directly provided or managed by Varsuite is unavailable to end users, excluding Planned Maintenance and the Excluded Events in clause 6.
1.3 “Planned Maintenance” means maintenance carried out in accordance with clause 5.
1.4 “Priority Level” means the classification of a support request under clause 3.
1.5 “Response Time” means the time between a support request being raised through an agreed channel and Varsuite providing its first substantive response.
2. Availability target
2.1 Varsuite targets 99.5% availability per calendar month for hosting infrastructure directly provided or managed by Varsuite under an active Care Plan or hosting Service, measured over the calendar month and excluding Planned Maintenance and the Excluded Events in clause 6.
2.2 This availability target applies only to infrastructure directly provided or managed by Varsuite, and does not apply to third-party platforms, AI providers, or other infrastructure outside Varsuite's control, in accordance with clause 14 of the Service Contract.
2.3 A failure to meet the availability target in clause 2.1 is treated as an ordinary breach of this Agreement. It is not accompanied by a separate service credit scheme, and any liability arising from it is subject to the limitation of liability in clause 39 of the Service Contract.
3. Support and priority levels
3.1 Support is available during Business Hours through the channel notified to the Client (which may include a support portal, ticketing system or email address). Critical issues may be raised outside Business Hours where an emergency contact route has been agreed in the applicable Statement of Work.
3.2 Varsuite will use reasonable efforts to respond to and resolve support requests within the following indicative targets, measured in Business Hours unless stated otherwise:
| Priority | Description | Target response | Target resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | The Service is completely unavailable or a core business function is down, with no workaround. | 1 business hour | 4 business hours* |
| High | A major function is significantly impaired, with no reasonable workaround. | 4 business hours | 1 business day* |
| Medium | A minor function is impaired, or a workaround is available. | 1 business day | 3 business days* |
| Low | A cosmetic issue, general question, or minor change request. | 2 business days | Next scheduled release or as agreed |
*Target resolution may include a temporary workaround where a full fix requires more substantial development; these are targets, not guarantees, and do not apply where the delay is caused by an Excluded Event under clause 6.
4. Fair use
4.1 Where the applicable Care Plan includes unlimited changes and development, this SLA operates alongside, and does not override, the fair use provisions in clause 10 of the Service Contract and any equivalent provision in the applicable Statement of Work.
4.2 Where the applicable Care Plan does not include unlimited changes and development, this clause has no effect, and support under this SLA is limited to the Priority Levels in clause 3.
5. Planned and emergency maintenance
5.1 Varsuite may carry out Planned Maintenance on reasonable advance notice, of at least 48 hours where reasonably practicable, normally outside Business Hours.
5.2 Varsuite may carry out emergency maintenance without advance notice where reasonably necessary to protect the security, stability or availability of a Service, in accordance with clause 14 of the Service Contract.
6. Excluded events
6.1 The availability target in clause 2 and the response and resolution targets in clause 3 do not apply to Downtime, delay or degraded performance caused by:
- third-party platforms, infrastructure, APIs, models or AI providers outside Varsuite's direct control, including any rate limiting, throttling, quota, usage cap, queueing, capacity restriction, deprecation, version change, model change, pricing change, suspension, degradation or withdrawal applied by such a provider;
- a third-party provider's own outage, maintenance, incident, policy change or enforcement action, including where it affects only part of a Service;
- the Client's own equipment, network, content, credentials or configuration;
- changes made by the Client or an unauthorised third party;
- force majeure events under clause 42 of the Service Contract;
- a security incident not caused by Varsuite's breach of this Agreement;
- Planned Maintenance carried out in accordance with clause 5.
7. Monitoring and backups
7.1 Varsuite monitors hosted infrastructure on a continuous basis and takes reasonable routine backups in accordance with clause 15 of the Service Contract. Backups are an operational recovery measure and not a guaranteed archival service, as further described in that clause.
8. AI and automation features
8.1 Where a Care Plan includes AI agents or automated features, the availability of those specific features may also depend on the uptime of third-party AI providers, which is an Excluded Event under clause 6 and is not covered by the availability target in this SLA.
8.2 Where a Service depends on a third-party API, model or platform, its performance is bounded by that provider's own availability, rate limits, quotas, queueing and terms of use. Rate limiting and throttling are normal operating characteristics of such providers, not defects in the Service. Where a request is rate limited, queued or rejected by a provider, or where a provider reduces a limit, changes a model, deprecates an endpoint or changes its pricing or policies, the availability target in clause 2 and the targets in clause 3 do not apply to the resulting delay, degradation or failure.
8.3 Varsuite will use reasonable efforts to design around known provider limits, for example by retrying, queueing, caching or batching requests, and to restore normal operation where a provider issue is resolved. Varsuite is not responsible for the cost, delay or lost functionality arising from a third-party provider's limits or changes, and may pass on any increase in third-party usage cost in accordance with clause 25 of the Service Contract.
8.4 Where a third-party provider becomes unavailable, unsuitable, materially more expensive or is withdrawn, Varsuite may substitute a reasonably equivalent provider or model in accordance with clause 4 of the Service Contract. Output from a substituted model may differ.
9. Changes to this SLA
9.1 Varsuite may update this SLA from time to time in accordance with clause 44 of the Service Contract. Varsuite will give reasonable notice of any change that materially reduces the service levels applicable to a live Service.
10. Governing law
10.1 This SLA is governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.
Varsuite Media Group Ltd. Company number 14243978. Registered office: Mentor House, Ainsworth Street, Blackburn, England, BB1 6AY. ICO registration: ZB434970.