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SR Severity Levels & Response Times

All service requests logged with support are assigned a severity level from 1 to 4 based on the impact on your business. The customer determines the initial severity level when placing a request for assistance. Severity levels may be changed after initial contact and assessment of the issue from a Quest Support Engineer, providing the customer is in agreement.

The following table defines the severity levels and the targeted initial response time for Standard Support, 24x7 Support, and Premier Support. It is helpful to clearly explain the business impact of your issue when contacting the Support Center.

Severity Level

Description

Initial Response
Standard Support

Initial Response
24x7 Support

Initial Response
Premier Support

Level 1

Critical business impact
Customer's production use of our products on a primary business service, major application or mission-critical system is stopped or so severely impacted that the customer cannot reasonably continue work.

For Severity Level 1 problems, we will begin work on the problem within one hour of notification and handle as the highest priority until the customer is given a fix or workaround. Customer resources must be made available in Severity Level 1 situations and reasonably cooperate  to help resolve the issue.

Severity Level 1 problems could have the following characteristics:

  • System hangs or crash situations
  • Data loss or data corruption
  • Critical functionality not available

Note: Severity Level 1 service requests cannot be logged through our portal and must be reported via telephone.

Within 1 hourWithin 1 hourWithin 1/2 hour

Level 2

Significant Business Impact:

Important product features are unavailable with no acceptable workaround. Customer's implementation or production use of Quest's products in a primary business service, major applications or mission critical systems are functioning with limited capabilities or are unstable with periodic interruptions. The software may be operating but is severely restricted.

Severity Level 2 problems could have the following characteristics:

  • Product error or failure forcing a restart or recovery
  • Severely degraded performance
  • Functionality unavailable but the system is able to operate in a restricted fashion.
Within 2 hoursWithin 2 hoursWithin 1 hour

Level 3

Minimal Business Impact:

Product features are unavailable but a workaround exists and the majority of software functions are still useable. Minor function/feature failure that the customer can easily circumvent or avoid. Customer's work has minor loss of operational functionality.

Severity Level 3 problems could have the following characteristics:

  • Error message with workaround
  • Minimal performance degradation
  • Incorrect product behavior with minor impact
  • Questions on product functionality or configuration during implementation
Within 4 hoursWithin 4 hoursWithin 2 hours

Level 4

Nominal Business Impact:

Minor problem or question that does not affect the software function such as How To's, documentation, general questions, or enhancement requests. There is no impact to product usage or customer's operations.

Severity Level 4 problems could have the following characteristics:

  • General requests for advice on product usage
  • Clarification on product documentation or release notes
  • Product enhancement request
Within 1
Business Day
Within 1
Business Day
Within 4 hours