Acceptance
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(i) Subject to the terms of this Agreement, Company will use commercially reasonable efforts to provide Customer the Services in accordance with the Service Level Terms attached hereto as Exhibit B. As part of the registration process, Customer will identify an administrative username and password for Customer’s Company account. Company reserves the right to refuse registration of, or cancel passwords it deems inappropriate.
1.2. Subject to the terms hereof, Company will provide Customer with reasonable technical support services in accordance with the terms set forth in Exhibit C.
1.3. RESTRICTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
1.4. Customer will not, directly or indirectly: reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code, object code or underlying structure, ideas, know-how or algorithms relevant to the Services or any software, documentation or data related to the Services (“Software”); modify, translate, or create derivative works based on the Services or any Software (except to the extent expressly permitted by Company or authorized within the Services); use the Services or any Software for time sharing or service bureau purposes or otherwise for the benefit of a third; or remove any proprietary notices or labels. With respect to any Software that is distributed or provided to Customer for use on Customer premises or devices, Company hereby grants Customer a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non- sub licensable license to use such Software during the Term only in connection with the Services.
1.5. Further, Customer may not remove or export from the United States or allow the export or re-export of the Services, Software or anything related thereto, or any direct product thereof in violation of any restrictions, laws or regulations of the United States Department of Commerce, the United States Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control, or any other United States or foreign agency or authority. As defined in FAR section 2.101, the Software and documentation are “commercial items” and according to DFAR section 252.2277014(a)(1) and (5) are deemed to be “commercial computer software” and “commercial computer software documentation.” Consistent with DFAR section 227.7202 and FAR section 12.212, any use modification, reproduction, release, performance, display, or disclosure of such commercial software or commercial software documentation by the U.S. Government will be governed solely by the terms of this Agreement and will be prohibited except to the extent expressly permitted by the terms of this Agreement.
1.6. Customer represents, covenants, and warrants that Customer will use the Services only in compliance with Company’s standard published policies then in effect (the “Policy”) and all applicable laws and regulations. Customer hereby agrees to indemnify and hold harmless
Company against any damages, losses, liabilities, settlements and expenses (including without limitation costs and attorneys’ fees) in connection with any claim or action that arises from an alleged violation of the foregoing or otherwise from Customer’s use of Services. Although Company has no obligation to monitor Customer’s use of the Services, Company may do so and may prohibit any use of the Services it believes may be (or alleged to be) in violation of the foregoing.
1.7. Customer shall be responsible for obtaining and maintaining any equipment and ancillary services needed to connect to, access or otherwise use the Services, including, without limitation, modems, hardware, servers, software, operating systems, networking and the like (collectively, “Equipment”). Customer shall also be responsible for maintaining the security of the Equipment, Customer account, passwords (including but not limited to administrative and user passwords) and files, and for all uses of Customer account or the Equipment with or without Customer’s knowledge or consent.
2. CONFIDENTIALITY; PROPRIETARY RIGHTS
2.1. Each party (the “Receiving Party”) understands that the other party (the “Disclosing Party”) has disclosed or may disclose business, technical or financial information relating to the Disclosing Party’s business (hereinafter referred to as “Proprietary Information” of the Disclosing Party). Proprietary Information of Company includes non-public information regarding features, functionality and performance of the Service. The Receiving Party agrees: (i) to take reasonable precautions to protect such Proprietary Information, and (ii) not to use (except in performance of the Services or as otherwise permitted herein) or divulge to any third person any such Proprietary Information. The Disclosing Party agrees that the foregoing shall not apply with respect to any information after five (5) years following the disclosure thereof or any information that the Receiving Party can document (a) is or becomes generally available to the public, or (b) was in its possession or known by it prior to receipt from the Disclosing Party, or (c) was rightfully disclosed to it without restriction by a third party, or (d) was independently developed without use of any Proprietary Information of the Disclosing Party or (e) is required to be disclosed by law.
2.2. Company shall own and retain all right, title and interest in and to (a) the Services and Software, all improvements, enhancements or modifications thereto, (b) any software, applications, inventions or other technology developed in connection with Implementation Services or support, and (c) all intellectual property rights related to any of the foregoing.
2.3. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, Company shall have the right collect and analyze data and other information relating to the provision, use and performance of various aspects of the Services and related systems and technologies (including, without limitation, information concerning Customer Data and data derived therefrom), and Company will be free (during and after the term hereof) to (i) use such information and data to improve and enhance the Services and for other development, diagnostic and corrective purposes in connection with the Services and other Company offerings, and (ii) disclose such data solely in aggregate or other de-identified form in connection with its business. No rights or licenses are granted except as expressly set forth herein.
3. PAYMENT OF FEES
3.1. Company may choose to bill through an invoice, in which case, full payment for invoices issued in any given month must be received by Company thirty (30) days after the mailing date of the invoice. Unpaid amounts are subject to a finance charge of 1.5% per month on any outstanding balance, or the maximum permitted by law, whichever is lower, plus all expenses of collection and may result in immediate termination of Service. Customer shall be responsible for all taxes associated with Services other than U.S. taxes based on the Company's net income.
4. TERM AND TERMINATION
4.1. Customer will have the right to unilaterally terminate the contract after providing the Company a 60-day cure notice for non-performance of the contract terms and conditions. After providing the Customer a 60-day cure notice, the Company will have the right to unilaterally terminate access to the software and/or terminate the contract for breach of the payment provisions.
4.2. In addition to any other remedies it may have, either party may also terminate this Agreement upon thirty (60) days’ notice (or without notice in the case of nonpayment), if the other party materially breaches any of the terms or conditions of this Agreement. Customer will pay in full for the Services up to and including the last day on which the Services are provided. All sections of this Agreement which by their nature should survive termination will survive termination, including, without limitation, accrued rights to payment, confidentiality obligations, warranty disclaimers, and limitations of liability.
5. WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER
Company shall use reasonable efforts consistent with prevailing industry standards to maintain the Services in a manner which minimizes errors and interruptions in the Services and shall perform the Implementation Services in a professional and workmanlike manner. Services may be temporarily unavailable for scheduled maintenance or for unscheduled emergency maintenance, either by Company or by third-party providers, or because of other causes beyond Company’s reasonable control, but Company shall use reasonable efforts to provide advance notice in writing or by e-mail of any scheduled service disruption. HOWEVER, COMPANY DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE; NOR DOES IT MAKE ANY WARRANTY AS TO THE RESULTS THAT MAY BE OBTAINED FROM USE OF THE SERVICES. EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH IN THIS SECTION, THE SERVICES AND IMPLEMENTATION SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND COMPANY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.
6. INDEMNITY
Company shall hold Customer harmless from liability to third parties resulting from infringement by the Service of any United States patent or any copyright or misappropriation of any trade secret, provided Company is promptly notified of any and all threats, claims and proceedings related thereto and given reasonable assistance and the opportunity to assume sole control over defense and settlement; Company will not be responsible for any settlement it does not approve in writing. The foregoing obligations do not apply with respect to portions or components of the Service (i) not supplied by Company, (ii) made in whole or in part in accordance with Customer specifications, (iii) that are modified after delivery by Company, (iv) combined with other products, processes or materials where the alleged infringement relates to such combination, (v) where Customer continues allegedly infringing activity after being notified thereof or after being informed of modifications that would have avoided the alleged infringement, or (vi) where Customer’s use of the Service is not strictly in accordance with this Agreement. If, due to a claim of infringement, the Services are held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be or are believed by Company to be infringing, Company may, at its option and expense (a) replace or modify the Service to be non-infringing provided that such modification or replacement contains substantially similar features and functionality, (b) obtain for Customer a license to continue using the Service, or (c) if neither of the foregoing is commercially practicable, terminate this Agreement and Customer’s rights hereunder and provide Customer a refund of any prepaid, unused fees for the Service.
7. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
NOTWITHSTANDING ANYTHING TO THE CONTRARY, EXCEPT FOR BODILY INJURY OF A PERSON, COMPANY AND ITS SUPPLIERS (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ALL EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY SUPPLIERS), OFFICERS, AFFILIATES, REPRESENTATIVES, CONTRACTORS AND EMPLOYEES SHALL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE OR LIABLE WITH RESPECT TO ANY SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AGREEMENT OR TERMS AND CONDITIONS RELATED THERETO UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER THEORY: (A) FOR ERROR OR INTERRUPTION OF USE OR FOR LOSS OR INACCURACY OR CORRUPTION OF DATA OR COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS, SERVICES OR TECHNOLOGY OR LOSS OF BUSINESS; (B) FOR ANY INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES; (C) FOR ANY MATTER BEYOND COMPANY’S REASONABLE CONTROL; OR (D) FOR ANY AMOUNTS THAT, TOGETHER WITH AMOUNTS ASSOCIATED WITH ALL OTHER CLAIMS, EXCEED THE FEES PAID BY CUSTOMER TO COMPANY FOR THE SERVICES UNDER THIS AGREEMENT IN THE 12 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE ACT THAT GAVE RISE TO THE LIABILITY, IN EACH CASE, WHETHER OR NOT COMPANY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
8. MISCELLANEOUS
If any provision of this Agreement is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that this Agreement will otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable. This Agreement is not assignable, transferable or sub licensable by Customer except with Company’s prior written consent. Company may transfer and assign any of its rights and obligations under this Agreement without consent. This Agreement is the complete and exclusive statement of the mutual understanding of the parties and supersedes and cancels all previous written and oral agreements, communications and other understandings relating to the subject matter of this Agreement, and that all waivers and modifications must be in a writing signed by both parties, except as otherwise provided herein. No agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment is created as a result of this Agreement and the Customer does not have any authority of any kind to bind the Company in any respect whatsoever. In any action or proceeding to enforce rights under this Agreement, the prevailing party will be entitled to recover costs and attorneys’ fees. All notices under this Agreement will be in writing and will be deemed to have been duly given when received, if personally delivered; when receipt is electronically confirmed, if transmitted by facsimile or e-mail; the day after it is sent, if sent for next day delivery by recognized overnight delivery service; and upon receipt, if sent by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of New York without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. The parties shall work together in good faith to issue at least one mutually agreed upon press release within 90 days of the Effective Date, and the Customer otherwise agrees to reasonably cooperate with the Company to serve as a reference account upon request.
What is this policy? In order to provide a high-quality solution and be aligned with the current standard procedures across the software industry, UtilizeCore has developed the following policy. This details an in depth explanation of the proper procedures and guidelines required to release an update, fix, or enhance the platform in the production environment.
Following the provided guidelines will ensure that when an update is released to production, the production environment maintains our SLA and operating standards. Our goal is to make sure users don’t experience any issues.
Please read the following guidelines and procedures carefully. We want to ensure that best practices are kept with our users.
Scheduled Releases
All the enhancements and bugs that have been requested and documented during the implementation process, ongoing product meetings, and through the support channels will be categorized into two categories: General Release or Specific Release.
Release Procedures
Specific Release: Can be set up by a client, Monday through Friday.
Pushing to production - UtilizeCore Commit Team will release prior to 9:00 AM EST
User Acceptance Testing - Client Project Management team will do thorough rounds of testing in the sandbox environment, followed by a round of smoke testing on the functionality to be released to production. Users will confirm that the production environment is working and stable
Release Notes - To be readily available in the UtilizeCore application resources section, as well as, sent out in email format to requesting parties
General Release: Will happen on a bi-weekly to monthly schedule.
Pushing to production - UtilizeCore Commit Team will release prior to 9:00 AM EST.
Email Notification - Email will be sent 10-15 days in advance notify to the management team and team members a production general release is on its way
Release Notes - To be readily available in the UtilizeCore application resources section, as well as, sent out in email format to requesting parties
Production Release bug (any bug related to the recent release)
A Core senior developer will review and analyze the bug, then provide a solution to fix it
The client management team or project management team will review the senior developer report and make a decision to approve the immediate fix and release it to production.
Rollback, if there is a negative response from the client’s management team or project management team to approve the immediate fix, then the rollback process will start (see the rollback procedure and policies)
Emergency Releases
Default Criteria: Critical Priority (Severity I)
Definition= All updates, changes, enhancements, and solutions relating to anything that disrupts a company from being able to effectively run their business or threaten a relationship with clients, vendors, or employees. (accounting, invoicing, Work Order flow, vendor management).
Emergency Criteria (priority/severity):
Critical priority - Severity I
Examples
The platform is down
Site page is down
Work Order page is down
Urgent priority - Severity I
Examples
Team members can’t log in to the platform
Work Orders were not generated from an agreement
Vendor/Internal tradesmen are not receiving Work Orders on their mobile application
The reports are not being generated properly
Medium priority - Severity II
Examples
One team member is experiencing an issue with the platform
A group of Work Orders is showing wrong data
Low priority - Severity III
Examples
UI is breaking
Issues are minimally impacting the function/ performance, but team members can still execute the function.
Severity I - 24-36 hours to resolution
Examples
All user’s team members affected
All tradesmen affected
All vendors affected
Severity II - 48-60 hours to resolution
Examples
The Client Management team is impacted
The Operation Management team is impacted
Operation team members are impacted
Severity III - 72-84 hours to resolution
Examples
Only one team member is impacted
The bug/issue is not impacting the functionality performance
Emergency Release Guidelines:
Pushing to production - Need confirmation from the Client Project Management team and Core Project Manager.
Lead Developer Support - Core Senior Developer will provide online support right after the release has been pushed to production so there can be real-time monitoring on the performance in case there is an issue so immediate action can be taken.
User Acceptance Testing - Client Project Management team will test the function released to production to confirm that production is working and stable.
Production Release bugs (any bug related to the recent release)
A Core senior developer will review the bug and analyze the bug to provide a solution or fix.
The client management team or project management team will review the senior developer report and make a decision to approve the immediate fix and release it on production.
Rollback, if there is a negative response on the client’s management team or project management team to approve the immediate fix, then the rollback process will start (see the rollback procedure and policies)
Rollback
When the release to production did not satisfy the client’s User Acceptance Testing or there are bugs that can not be resolved in a short period of time that jeopardize the business operations, the Rollback process will take the platform back to the previous stage before the release to production happened. See below the guidelines in order to proceed with a rollback.
Regular Releases Guidelines:
Rollback approval - Client’s Project Management team will provide request and approval via an email to the UtilizeCore team so the developers can initiate the rollback process.
Lead Developer Support - Core Senior Developer will provide online support during the rollback process to ensure the production environment is stable and satisfactory to the client.
User Acceptance Testing - Client Project Management team will review the system and provide confirmation that the production environment is working to spec and that the platform is not having any issues.
GUARANTEED UPTIME: UPTIME LEVELS 99.9%
Exclusions: This SLA is written in good faith. Vendor will always do everything possible to rectify every issue in a timely manner. However, there are exclusions. This SLA does not apply to:
Any equipment, software, services, third party or otherwise, or any other parts of the System not listed above.
Software, equipment or services not purchased via and managed by Vendor.
Additionally, this SLA does not apply when:
The problem has been caused by using equipment, software or service(s) in a way that is not recommended.
The client has made unauthorized changes to the configuration or set up of affected equipment, software or services.
The client has prevented Vendor from performing required maintenance and update tasks.
The issue has been caused by unsupported mobile devices, equipment, software or other services. This SLA does not apply in circumstances that could be reasonably said to be beyond Vendor’s control. For instance: floods, war, acts of god, civil unrest and so on. This SLA also does not apply if the client is in breach of its contract with Vendor for any reason (e.g. late payment of fees, improper use, violation of terms, etc.).
Vendor responsibilities
Vendor will provide and maintain the System used by the client.
Vendor will make available the System through internet, iOS and Android stores and proprietary client applications.
Additionally, Vendor will:
Ensure relevant software, services and equipment are available to the client where necessary.
Respond to support requests within a reasonable timeframe.
Take steps to escalate and resolve issues in an appropriate, timely manner.
Maintain good communication with the client at all times. Client responsibilities The client will use Vendor-provided system as intended. [The client will be responsible for, and obtain, all consents required under any law or regulation in any jurisdiction, relating to the use of the System on the telephone system, including but not limited to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”).] [The client will insure, indemnify, and hold harmless Vendor for any violations, real or alleged, of any laws or regulations, relating to the use of the System with the client’s consumers and clients. In other words, the client represents that it has the right to send text messages or SMS messages to its clients using the System and promises to indemnify Vendor if it does not.] [The client will provide Vendor with the use of the client’s business phone number for purposes of receiving incoming SMS or text messages.]
Additionally, the client will:
Notify the client of issues or problems in a timely manner.
Provide Vendor with access to equipment, software and services for the purposes of maintenance, updates and fault prevention.
Maintain good communication with Vendor at all times.
Guaranteed uptime: Uptime levels 99.9%
In order to enable the client to do business effectively, Vendor guarantees that certain items will be available for a certain percentage of time.
The UtilizeCore Service Business Automation System is guaranteed to have a 99.9% uptime.
The Weather Monitoring System is guaranteed to have a 99.9% uptime.
The Field Tech Mobile app is guaranteed to have a 99.9% uptime.
Back-off Requirements" means, when an error occurs, the devices are responsible for waiting for a period of time before issuing another request. This means that after the first error, there is a minimum back-off interval of 30 seconds and for each consecutive error, the back-off interval increases exponentially up to 5 mins.
"Downtime" means more than a 15% Error Rate for the UtilizeCore Service Business Automation component, Weather Monitoring Module component and Field Tech Connect mobile application component. Downtime is measured based on server-side Error Rate.
"Downtime Period" means a period of 30 mins or more consecutive minutes of Downtime. Partial minutes will not be counted towards any Downtime Periods.
"Error Rate" means: for the UtilizeCore Website (HTTP) component, the number of Valid Requests that result in a response with HTTP Status 50x and Code "Internal Error" divided by the total number of Valid Requests during that period; and for the UtilizeCore, the number of Valid Requests that result in device disconnections as reported in UtilizeCore Stackdriver metrics (or other similar metrics made available to Client), divided by the total number of Valid Requests during that period. Repeated identical requests do not count toward the Error Rate unless they conform to the Back-off Requirements.
Measurement and penalties
Uptime is measured over each calendar month. It is calculated to the nearest minute, based on the number of minutes in the given month (for instance, a 31-day month contains 44,640 minutes).
If uptime for any item drops below the relevant threshold, 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 for which the service was unavailable, minus the downtime permitted by the SLA:
Important notes:
Uptime penalties in any month are capped at 25% of the total monthly fee.
Uptime measurements exclude periods of routine maintenance. These must be agreed between Vendor and client in advance.
Uptime measurements will start in 180 days after agreement signing, as the road map has heavy development early in product deployment.
Uptime measurements are excluded for 24 hours after a planned production release of the clients development requirements.
Financial Credit
Client Must Request: To receive any of the Financial Credits described above, Client must notify UtilizeCore technical support within 15 days from the time Client becomes eligible to receive a Financial Credit. Client must also provide UtilizeCore with identifying information (e.g., project ID and device registry IDs) and the date and time those errors occurred. If Client does not comply with these requirements, Client will forfeit its right to receive a Financial Credit. If a dispute arises with respect to this SLA, UtilizeCore will make a determination in good faith based on its system logs, monitoring reports, configuration records, and other available information, which UtilizeCore will make available to Client at Client's request.
Maximum Financial Credit: The total maximum number of Financial Credits to be issued by UtilizeCore to Client for any and all Downtime Periods that occur in a single billing month will not exceed 25% of the amount due by Client for the Covered Service for the applicable month. Financial Credits will be made in the form of a monetary credit applied to future use of the Service and will be applied within 60 days after the Financial Credit was requested.
Guaranteed response times
Response times
The response time measures how long it takes Vendor to respond to a support request raised via Vendor’s support system. Vendor is deemed to have responded when it has replied to the client’s initial request. This may be in the form of an email or telephone call, to either provide a solution or request further information. Response times are measured from the moment the client submits a support request via Vendor’s online support system.
Response times apply during standard working hours (9am — 5.30pm) only, unless the contract between the client and supplier specifically includes provisions for out of hours support.
Subject to the above limitations, Vendor promises to respond to support requests within forty-eight (48) hours.
Resolution times
Vendor will always endeavor to resolve problems as swiftly as possible. It recognizes that the client’s use of the System is key to its business and that any downtime can cost money. However, Vendor 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, Vendor will make its best efforts to resolve problems as quickly as possible. It will also provide frequent progress reports to the client.
SLA Exclusions
The SLA does not apply to any: (a) features or services designated Alpha or Beta (unless otherwise stated in the associated Documentation), (b) features or services excluded from the SLA (in the associated Documentation), or (c) errors: (i) caused by factors outside of UtilizeCore's reasonable control; (ii) that resulted from Client's software or hardware or third party software or hardware, or both; (iii) that resulted from abuses or other behaviors that violate the Agreement; (iv) that resulted from quotas applied by the system or listed in the Admin Console; or (v) that resulted from Client use of the Covered Service in a way which is inconsistent with the Documentation, including invalid request fields, unauthorized users, or inaccessible data.