Service Level Agreement
Area
Action
Detail
Client Service Client management
Contact reports will be issued within 24 hours of meeting
A weekly status report will be provided on major projects/multiple project accounts
Ensure that all calls and emails are responded to by the end of the day
Keep the client up to date on relevant information re: jobs in progress
Provide alternative solutions for any issues that may occur
Pre-inform client of all team absences, provide detailed handover notes and replacement agency contact (to be introduced at least 12 hours in advance).
Project/account review meeting with Client Management team and client on quarterly basis
Creative Concepts
3+ concepts will be presented, supported with a strategic and creative rationale. Recommendation provided if requested
Creative execution will adhere to client brand (and guidelines where available) where appropriate
Creative team will attend presentation where feasible
A creative review of each client will take place on a quarterly basis
Project management Planning and scheduling
A detailed timing plan will be presented with concepts. This will be updated and redistributed when relevant.
Project and production timing plans will be adhered to and in the event of milestones being missed, a revised timing plan will be provided. Any changes to ultimate delivery will be discussed and agreed with the Client.
About Time will always aim to meet the original deadline. Where this is not possible potential alternative solutions will be provided.
Production Costs
A cost estimate will be presented with concepts.
Production cost estimates will be obtained from 3 suppliers. One cost estimate will be created based on the most appropriate supplier for the job.
About Time will proceed with the relevant action following written approval of costs.
A concept will be delivered on budget, in the event of a concept being over budget, an alternative on-budget alternative solution will be provided.
Finance Billing
Any changes to costs will be discussed with the client and documented via email.
A final cost estimate will be provided at the end of the job.
Following client approval of final costs an invoice will be issued.
Financial review on quarterly basis

Web hosting service level agreement
Service Level Agreement

This agreement describes the standard level of service that all website hosting customers can expect from About Time. It attempts to quantify the levels of service that all hosting customers can expect, and the remedies we offer if we fail to provide service at those levels.

About Time provide a reactive hosting service for all websites and offer a 99% uptime. We do not constantly check the websites we host to ensure they are functioning correctly as routine use, maintenance and software updates can affect website functions. It is therefore the responsibility of the client to ensure their website is opperating as it should. ‘Always on’ and ‘managed hosting services’ support can be provided and can be quoted on on a case-by-case basis.

99.9% Network and Servers Uptime

About Time guarantees that the customer’s website, which is hosted on the About Time network and Servers, will be available 99.9% of the time, excluding maintenance, as defined below. Network downtime is defined as the customer’s hosted website being unable to be viewed or accessed through the Internet, caused by failure of network equipment managed and owned by About Time, excluding scheduled or emergency maintenance.

Maintenance means scheduled maintenance or emergency maintenance. Scheduled Maintenance means any maintenance in the About Time network/servers of which the customer is notified at least 5 days in advance. Emergency maintenance means any maintenance in the About Time network/servers that: (a) in About Time’s sole discretion, is necessary to avoid an immediate threat to the About Time networks/servers or customer’s server and (b) of which customer is notified.

Response times

Support, unless noted otherwise in a supplementary service level agreement, technical support is provided by About Time on a first-come, first-served “best effort” basis. We aim to at least acknowledge, if not fully answer, all emails to our advertised support address (letushelp@abouttimecreative.com) within 4 working hours. We aim to answer the phones during working hours, but under times of high demand or staff sickness, may defer to an answering service where we promise to return all messages as soon as possible.

WordPress

For those websites hosted by About Time which have been built (or part-built) upon the WordPress platform, please be aware that WordPress irregularly makes updates which means that About Time may need to make updates to your site so that your website continues to work upon our servers. It is not known how many times per annum that WordPress makes updates, however, we estimate between 4 – 8 updates per year. The more functionality a WordPress site has the more time needed to make updates to that website.
About Time works reactively for such updates – we respond should we be informed of a critical change (by WordPress) or should the client point out an error in functionality. Please note, About Time cannot be held responsible for any functionality failure caused directly by an update to WordPress or a plug-in of which we were not made aware.
About Time will charge a minimum of £250 per annum for these updates. This cost will be invoiced at the same time as the hosting fee which is yearly in advance. Please note, WordPress updates are not considered to be maintenance of a website.

Plug-ins

On occasion, when budget, time or requested functionality limits the opportunity for a bespoke build, an off-the-shelf solution in the form of a third party plug-in may be implemented.

Premium plug-ins may in some cases, require a subscription based or one-off licensing fee. Whilst About Time will make every effort to minimise ongoing maintenance costs, premium plug-ins will need to be updated outside of our update agreement, with any additional costs agreed by and passed onto the client.

Invoicing

Website hosting runs annually, paid in advance. An invoice will be sent automatically at the time of renewal. Should a client not wish for About Time to renew the hosting service, we request a notice period of one month in advance of cessation along with details to where you would like the web files sent. If we do not hear such a request, it will be assumed that you do wish the web hosting to be renewed and are in agreement with the terms for the following year.

Should About Time be informed after this months notice period, About Time cannot be held liable for any delays caused in the transfer of hosting of your website to another server.

The Service level agreement runs in conjunction with About Time’s standard terms and conditions.

Exceptions

The customer shall not be entitled to any credit hereunder if the network downtime is caused by: (i) actions of the customer or others authorised by the customer to use the service under the Agreement; (ii) customer application, software, or customer’s operating system failure, (iii) the result of network maintenance activity, (iv) denial of service attack, hacker activity, or other malicious event or code targeted against About Time or a About Time customer, or (v) failure of any network or Internet Infrastructure not owned or managed by About Time (vi) If customer has more than one website hosted on About Time networks or servers, then a claim may be accepted for one hosted website.

Definitions

“About Time”, “we”, “us”, “our” means About Time Ltd  Creative House, Whitsundoles Farm, Salford, Milton Keynes, Bucks. MK17 8BU.
“Service” means any hosting or connectivity service offered by About Time, including but not limited to Hosting Services or Dedicated Hosts, Support and Maintenance Agreements.
“Customer”, “you”, “your” means you, the person or persons in whose name(s) a service is maintained by.
“Technical contact” means a person or persons nominated by the Customer with whom About Time can discuss all matters of a technical nature relating to the Service.
“Working hours” means 30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, excluding English bank holidays.

Terms & Conditions
Definitions:
‘The Company’ is About Time Limited. ‘The Client’ means the party, or any person acting on their behalf with whom the Company contracts.

PO = Purchase Order / VAT = Value Added Tax

All charges & prices for services carried out by the Company are subject to VAT (where applicable) at the prevalent rate.
All estimated prices quoted, whether written or verbal, are for the listed and mentioned services only. Any additional services required to complete a project will be quoted for in advance and charged accordingly. Deliveries and couriers are additional.
A signed purchase order (preferably with a PO number and project value) will need to be raised for the full quoted and agreed amount before work can commence on any job. A separate PO may need to be raised for any extras such as distribution, storage, deliveries or mailing.
All work is billed either monthly or on completion of project stage, or the relevant hourly charge as previously agreed.
All estimates are based on expected or agreed design time and include two sets of authors corrections where alterations are called for by the Client, or if additional changes are required by client.
Where there is a change of brief, the Company will inform the Client in advance of any extra costs likely to be incurred.
All projects are planned to an agreed schedule. Non-adherence to this schedule by the Client may result in compromising final delivery deadlines. If this is likely to occur, the Company will advise the Client as soon as this becomes evident and suggest an alternative solution where feasible. This may incur additional costs.
Whilst every effort will be made to achieve agreed delivery, the Company cannot accept liability or be held financially responsible for any targets or deadlines being missed for delivery of any work which is outside of the Company’s control.
For all new clients payment for the full or part amount + VAT may be requested in advance of commencement, as agreed between parties. For any subsequent invoiced work, the Company must receive full payment not later than 30 days after the date of Invoice. The Company reserves the right to make a surcharge of 2% per month interest to accounts that are not paid by this time. Client credit screening may affect any subsequent credit agreement.
Once a client has agreed to the Company’s current Terms and Conditions on a credit account with the company, About Time shall invoice in project stages e.g. Stage 1 Conceptual Design, Stage 2 Detailed Design and Design Development etc. Upon stage completion unless where exceptional terms have been agreed with the client.
About Time reserves the right to invoice for any disbursements for part works carried out including third party costs incurred on a project should the project be unable to be completed for any reason or has been delayed/put on hold by the Client for a period of 4 weeks or more then stage invoicing will occur.
In good faith, About Time would hold any supplied files, originals and materials for a period of up to 12 months. Resumption of works on the project would be completed according to the original schedule of costs so long as the project specification remained unaltered.
Disbursements on behalf of any client may result in a request for payment in advance from the Client.
All creative work produced and devised during a project(s), creative, digital, software files and related correspondence remain the property – physically, intellectually and in copyright, of the Company until full payment has been made on the Client’s account, and all project costs have been cleared.
Once final proofs/materials have been signed off, the Company cannot be held responsible financially or otherwise for any errors relating to print, programming or any end product.
It is the responsibility of the Client that all materials (including, but not limited to images, diagrams, logos, videos, data, as well as intellectual property in other media) supplied to About Time by the client will have the relevant copyrights, licenses and permissions for use in the commissioned project. About Time will not accept responsibility/liability for infringements caused by any wrongly supplied materials.
The Company reserves the right to commission freelance support or outsource any job if it is felt it is in the best interests of the Client. Any outsourced job remains the property/responsibility of the company and such services are deemed to be carried out ‘indirectly’ by the Company.
As part of larger projects which involve 3rd parties commissioned directly by the client, the Company will not be held responsible in any way for services not carried out/managed directly or indirectly by the Company.
Advice of any loss, quality or damage issues must be reported to the Company within five clear working days of delivery and receipt (whether be printed or digital) and and any claim in respect thereof must be made in writing to the Company within 3 working days thereafter. The Company shall not be liable in respect of any claim unless the aforementioned requirements have been complied with.
In the event of any bona fide dispute or difference arising between the parties in connection with the Contract (excluding any dispute relating to non payment of the Charges, for whatever reason), the parties shall attempt to resolve such dispute or difference in good faith or by mediation. It is the responsibility of the Client to inform the Company immediately of any issue that may lead to a dispute (including but not limited to quality, service, cost, deadline), without such information, no disputes will be entered into.
Every endeavor will be made to deliver the correct printed quantity ordered, but estimates are conditional upon margins of 5%. The Company reserves the right to change/alter ordered amounts in the Clients best interest.
Whilst taking every care to protect all media and correspondence supplied, the Company cannot accept liability or be held responsible financially or otherwise for any loss. Disputes will not be entered into.
The Company cannot guarantee the Client exclusivity of any marketing concept, strategy, design or other intellectual property provided. Therefore the Company will not accept liability for any alleged claim from the Client or any Third Party as the result of unintentional similarity in part or whole of a Third Party’s copyright protected or registered trademark or brand, identity, strapline, colour usage, image style and content, product or otherwise.
It remains the Client’s responsibility to seek copyright protection if desired for any creative/intellectual property provided to the Client by the Company.
In accordance with GDPR, should the Client wish for About Time to handle/process any of their customer data or to provide systems to process personal data (eg web-based databases), it is the Client’s legal responsibility to ensure the processes requested of us are data-compliant and to have a written contract in place with us to carry out such processes. Furthermore, it is the Client’s responsibility to ensure they have obtained consent from the individuals for the personal data they pass over to us for processing.
If at any point during the design or development cycle a client wishes to cancel, they may do so but will be invoiced an amount that About Time judges to be proportional to the amount of work completed on the commission and further compensatory charges for booked design time or printing press time or any other supply costs accruing.
The Company reserves the right to the addition of our Company credit on printed or digital projects unless instructed otherwise by the Client and, to the use for self-promotion any work carried out for the Client.
The Company reserves the right to use both initial creative concepts and final approved design work for the purposes of the Company’s marketing activities (both online and offline) unless otherwise requested/agreed with the Client.
Terms and Conditions may be changed at any time without prior notice to its clients. Notification will be sent to all clients at the time of the Terms and Conditions alterations.
The company shall be under no liability if it should be unable to carry out any provision of the contract for any reason beyond it’s control including (without limiting the foregoing), Act of God, Legislation, War, Act of terrorism, Fire, Flood, Drought, Failure of power supply, Lock out, Strike by employee’s in contemplation of furtherance of dispute or inability to procure materials required for the performance of the contract. During the continuance of such a contingency the Customer may, by written notice, elect to terminate the contract and pay for work done and materials used, but subject thereto, shall otherwise accept delivery when available.
About Time will have a lien over any product, data or materials if all payments due from you have not been paid and cleared in full within 1 month from the date of the invoice. We reserve the right to withhold supply of goods and, in the case of web services, this includes recalling services including the hosting of websites.
The Client is agreeing fully to the Company’s trading Terms and Conditions by commissioning our services.