Service Level Agreement

A Better OutlookSM guarantees 99.9% Exchange Server availability. This guaranty is calculated on a monthly basis, and applies 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, except as noted below.

Exchange Server Availability is defined as the ability of a user on your Exchange account to (a) access and retrieve information from the Exchange server, and (b) send and receive messages via the Exchange server, provided that your hosting account is active and enabled. Rarely, the system may be functioning in some areas and not functioning in others (e.g., the email function may be available but data in Public Folders may be unavailable). This time of diminished functioning is not considered downtime and is excluded from the calculations.

The following conditions are specifically excluded from the calculation of system availability:

  • A problem with Subscriber's network, Internet connection, or a private network connection to the Service, which prevents Subscriber's users from reaching their mailboxes or data in Public Folders.
  • A problem connecting to the service due to any action on the part of Subscriber or its users that triggers a security response (e.g., port scanning on A Better OutlookSM systems triggers a shut-down of the ports used by Subscriber).
  • Scheduled maintenance. A Better OutlookSM will provide three (3) days of notice prior to maintenance periods for Exchange.
  • Installation of urgent "hot fixes" from Microsoft will be scheduled as quickly as possible after testing, with notification sent to client; the three day notification above is waived for urgent hot fixes. A Better OutlookSM also reserves a one (1) hour window on weekends, from 12:01 AM (Sunday) to 1:00 AM Sunday (GMT -5), during which the servers may be offline for urgent fixes; usage of this maintenance window is excluded from downtime calculations.
  • Software "bugs" or problems within Microsoft products that create service interruptions. Bugs must be acknowledged by Microsoft respectively to be excluded from calculations.
  • Problems connecting to the Service due to the addition of 3rd party (i.e., non-Microsoft) software installed on a user's PC or network, e.g., Outlook plug-ins and add-ons.
  • A Better OutlookSM reserves the right to move mailboxes within the Service among the different servers used to provide the Service to Subscriber. A Better OutlookSM makes no guarantee of notification to users for these moves, which normally will not affect users whose software is installed and configured correctly. Incorrect configuration of the user's software that results in the inability to connect to the Service is not considered downtime, and is excluded from the calculation of system availability.

A Better OutlookSM calculates uptime as a percentage of the time during a month (30 days X 24 hours X 60 minutes) that the system is available, excluding the conditions above.

Penalty for Non-compliance

For subscribers within a single organization for each month in which the Exchange Server Availability is below an average of 99.9% as calculated above, A Better OutlookSM will reduce the amounts due and payable to it relating to such application service by 5%. For every additional 1% loss of Exchange Server Availability below 99.9% average availability during the same calendar month, A Better OutlookSM will further reduce the amounts due and payable to it relating to such application service by another 5% of the original price charged to Subscriber. The maximum credit for downtime will be 25%.

Note: Because of the architecture that A Better OutlookSM has created to provide the Service, users within Subscriber may be spread across separate and distinct servers. In the case where one server suffers downtime exceeding the service level guarantees, Subscriber will be compensated only for those users with accounts on the non-complying server.