Service Level Agreement 

1. Web support

1.1. Basic support

For any product under volta's management, we undertake to maintain the Customer's product through the basic support scheme. By management of the product, we mean that:

• the hosting, DNS and domain name are managed by volta or
• for online platforms (including SiteManager, Webflow, Squarespace, ...) the admin user rights or similar are in the exclusive management of volta

This maintenance can be reactive, report-based, preventive or renewal in nature.Reports and malfunctions that fall within basic support arrangements are scaled and handled by volta according to the priority levels described in section 3.2.

Basic support includes all failures and/or reports (service tickets) addressed to our service desk in connection with the use of the product managed by volta and includes:

1. security updates and maintenance of servers and the underlying structure, including:
   • Drupal Core - minor updates (e.g. minor version Drupal 10.XX to minor version Drupal 10.XX.XX)
   • Drupal Module Updates - minor updates (e.g. minor version Drupal 10.XX to minor version Drupal 10.XX.XX)
   • keeping the server OS up-to-date (see article 4 ‘Third-party support’)
   • generation, deployment and timely renewal of SSL certificates
   • GDPR compliance
2. monitoring server performance, including:
   • tuning server package
   • limiting downtime
   • load balancing
3. administrative adjustments, including:
   • implementing changes to user rights and access controls
   • updating contact information and other administrative data for the product
   • managing registrants, hosting packages, domain names, including renewals and DNS changes
4. version management, back-up and restore, including:
   • restoring backups of the database
   • automatic back-ups as provided by our suppliers (see article 4 ‘Third-party support’)
   • restore and version management for the product
5. all activities performed by volta employees that are a consequence of a notification by the Customer, including:
   • additional user instructions
   • failures as a direct consequence of recent modifications

1.1.1. Failure management

Volta makes every effort to prevent failures for the Customer and to minimise the number of failures. Volta itself, in addition to the provider, monitors failures on the servers managed by volta using market-based monitoring tools.

The unavailability of the product due to maintenance cannot give rise to any liability on the part of volta.

1.1.2. Fair Use Policy

Basic support is covered by a ‘Fair Use Policy’. This means that volta assumes that over a 12-month period no more hours are used for basic support than for an average product, based on our own experience. In doing so, we use the following guidelines:

• 30 minutes per year for online platforms (including and not limited to: SiteManager, Webflow and Squarespace, ...)
• 60 minutes per year for volta shared hosting ‘basic'
• 90 minutes per year for volta shared hosting ‘performance'
• 120 minutes per year for managed, dedicated and other customised hostings

Additional work relating to service tickets that exceed these guidelines and/or fall outside the above list of basic support: these service tickets shall be handled in accordance with the ‘Extended Support’ scheme (see section 1.2) and settled either via an optional ‘Service and Support Subscription’ (see section 8.2.1.) or via the ‘pay-per-use’ principle (see section 8.2.2.) in accordance with volta's rates applicable at that time.

Where an order may give rise to the performance of more working hours than agreed within the Fair Use Policy, volta shall limit itself to informing the Customer of the necessity of the order to be performed and the probable additional cost. The Customer and volta must then come to an agreement regarding the planning of the orders to be performed.

If additional work is carried out on a regular basis, the parties shall consult on simple written request in order to find a solution.

1.1.3. Exceptions basic support

Unless otherwise agreed, volta reserves the right to handle service tickets, which fall outside the list described under section 1.1 ‘Basic Support’ appropriately. Either as extended support or via a customised quote.

For service tickets where the product is only partially or not managed by volta, the hours put in by volta employees automatically fall into extended support.

1.2. Extended support

Extended support includes all, Customer-created service tickets performed by volta employees, which fall outside the conditions of basic support. Extended support is a paying option where the Customer has a free choice of 2 settlement systems (see section 8.2.).

Extended support includes, non-restrictively, the following:

1. any service ticket not included in the overview under section 1.1 ‘Basic Support’
2. changes to the basic design of the website/application, including:
   • replacement, modification or removal of logos or images
   • changes related to (theme) colours, typography and the rearrangement of existing sections of the website
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
   • research around and optimisation of content for the product
   • adjustments or improvements to meta-titles and descriptions
   • adding or adjusting relevant keywords and alt tags to images
4. content adjustments, including:
   • rewriting, replacing, removing or improving any form of content managed via the CMS provided by volta
5. updates concerning compatibility of underlying structures, plug-ins or APIs, including:
   • adaptations to links for the product for the benefit of Captchas, Cookie modules, mailing, ticketing, and database systems (see article 4 ‘Third-party support’)
6. training, personal guidance and/or support outside the warranty period, including:
   • use of the CMS or backend system developed by volta
   • personal guidance
   • additional training

1.2.1. Exclusions extended support

Unless otherwise agreed, volta reserves the right to handle service tickets outside any form of basic or extended support. In this case, volta will contact the Customer to work out a customised offer.

Exclusions extended support includes, non-exhaustively, the following:

• any requested adjustments that cause original functionalities of the product to change in such a way that volta cannot guarantee their consequences
• the development of new sections and content types the development of new (Drupal) modules
• Drupal Core - major upgrades (e.g. major version Drupal 7.XX to major version Drupal 10.XX)
• server adaptations due to announced peak loads
• development of new integrations or links with external systems, third-party or otherwise

2. Availability

Our service desk can be reached via support@volta.be, by phone on 03 217 00 00 or via the volta-extranet. Use of the volta-extranet is free of charge and strictly personal.

The priority levels (see section 3.2) are agreed for service tickets created during office hours: working days from Monday to Friday, excluding Belgian national holidays, from 9 am to 5 pm each time. Faults reported at the weekend can only be solved within a response time that is extended by 48 hours each time. Faults reported on Friday or the day before a holiday after 2 p.m. are considered as service tickets made during the weekend.

Announced orders which, given their nature and urgency, must be carried out outside the aforementioned working hours or service tickets classified as critical are considered extended support. Any other service tickets that the Customer expressly wishes to have handled fall outside basic and extended support. For this, we apply an urgency rate as stipulated in the rates applicable at the time.

3. Failure notification, priority levels and escalation

3.1. Failure notification

When faults and/or service requests are reported, Volta determines the priority level according to the Customer's data. Timely announced interventions (e.g. peak load) outside office hours or weekends, are handled according to the ‘during office hours’ arrangement.

In case of failure, the Customer reports it adequately, indicating at least:

• the nature of the failure
• the effects of the malfunction on the operation
• the time of discovery
• the presumed origin of the failure, if known
• any other information that may be useful for clarifying and resolving the failure

Volta shall use all reasonable means to provide suitable solutions. The Customer accepts and understands that volta's service, availability and operation are never 100% guaranteed.

3.2. Prioritity levels

Incoming service tickets are defined according to the levels below whereby volta will always make all reasonable efforts to resolve the faults and handle service requests within the guidelines described below, depending on their severity. Volta will always acknowledge receipt of the report within four hours.

Critical

The full functioning of the entire organisation and/or its services to its own Customers is severely hampered or impossible.
Only for service tickets as defined in section 1.1 ‘Basic Support’.

Solution provided within 2 working hours after receipt of the report. If the service ticket is not resolved within this timeframe, volta will provide a temporary solution and permanently resolve the issue within the ‘Reasonable Effort’ principle.

High

The performance of at least one employee or service of the organisation is affected. The employee or department cannot continue his/her service towards its own customers.

Solution provided within 4 working hours of receiving the notification. If the service ticket is not resolved within this timeframe, volta will provide a temporary solution and permanently resolve the problem within the ‘Reasonable Effort’ principle.

Normal

Inconvenient and a resolution is required. Customer's operation and service is not affected and can still take place.

Solution provided within 4 working days of receipt of notification. If the service ticket does not appear to be immediately resolvable, volta will provide a temporary solution and finalise the service ticket within the Reasonable Effort principle.

Low

A solution or adjustment is desired. Customer operations and services are not affected and can still take place.

For service requests, a delivery deadline is agreed with the Customer and included in volta's overall schedule.

3.2.1. Reasonable Effort

The varying nature of possible failures, whether under the influence of third parties or not, means that volta cannot give any guarantees on resolution or execution times. Volta employees always have the intention to solve service tickets as soon as possible.

Volta freely determines its planning regarding the execution, taking into account the nature and urgency of the service ticket. The Customer and volta can always agree on different response times in individual cases.

In case of an overload of our service desk, volta reserves the right to suspend its obligations under the contract for as long as the overload lasts, in order to guarantee a quality service to all customers. Tickets are handled, as long as this overload lasts, according to the priority levels described above. Within the same level, we apply the first-come-first-served principle.

3.3. Escalation

Every incoming notification or fault will be scaled to the best of our capabilities. This is done to the best of our ability and based on the knowledge we receive from the Customer at the time of notification. If the Customer believes that the estimate made is not correct, this can always be escalated to a higher level via the active service ticket. In case the Customer is of the opinion that an escalation to the very highest level ‘critical’ should take place, this should be additionally confirmed by the Customer by telephone. We always reserve the right to make a different grading depending on the proper functioning of our overall service.

4. Third-party support

The product and data under volta's management are stored and hosted by third parties. If a malfunction occurs or the product does not function properly and the cause is attributable to a third party, volta will notify the Customer.

For faults attributable to third parties, volta will make reasonable efforts to provide a solution for any malfunction.

If no solution can be obtained from the third party within the set deadlines, volta will immediately notify the Customer and the Customer will be offered an alternative interim solution until the problem can be definitively resolved.

5. Exclusion from SLA

The following causes are explicitly excluded from the scope of this SLA:

• errors in use
• incorrect or unauthorised use
• data integrity
• errors in front and/or backend that were not caused by volta
• errors in hardware
• errors due to force majeure

In these cases, volta will always try to solve the problem, but this support will be handled and invoiced on a pay-per-use basis.

6. Volta's obligations

Volta guarantees through its professional experience and extensive knowledge that every operation is finished to a high quality. The execution shall always take place in accordance with the generally accepted standards and practices of the sector and using recent insights and technologies. Each assignment is always a best-efforts obligation.

Unless expressly agreed otherwise, volta may call upon the services of specialised third parties if this proves necessary for the proper performance of the obligations under this agreement.

7. Obligations of the Customer

The fluent cooperation of the Customer is necessary to successfully complete an order. This means taking all reasonably necessary actions required for the proper execution of the agreement. The Customer understands and accepts that a lack of cooperation may have consequences for the predetermined timing and costs. Any consequences of this are entirely the responsibility of the Customer.

In order to enable volta to fulfil its obligations under this SLA, the Customer undertakes:

• always provide volta and its representatives and employees with adequate access to the buildings, systems, software, hardware and other infrastructure, both physical and remote, and grant the necessary permissions, visas and user rights to this end
• appoint competent persons as contact persons for volta, in order to have the contacts during support run as smoothly as possible, and in any case within the set response times
• report immediately, correctly and completely any malfunction that manifests itself to volta, in accordance with section 3.1 ‘Reporting malfunctions’
• make its own reasonable efforts to prevent (further) damage

In the event that, in any form or capacity, the state of the product would pose a potential risk to volta, its services or the integrity of other products under volta's management, the Customer is obliged to accept the solutions offered by volta. These solutions may include, among others and non-limitatively, suspension of management by volta or paying solutions. Possible solutions will always be discussed with the Customer.

8. Rates

Unless otherwise agreed, our currently applicable rates always apply. These can be consulted via www.volta.be/en/currrent-rates.

Invoices by volta are subject to the general terms and conditions applicable at the time, as reflected on all our invoices. Additional costs, which are the direct result of a notification made by the Customer, always fall outside the basic or extended support and are entirely for the Customer's account.

Volta has the right to adjust its tariffs annually. If the tariff for the next billing year is adjusted during the current agreement, the Customer will receive notification of the new tariff via the relevant electronic means of communication at the latest 15 calendar days before the annual billing. In this case, the Customer has the right to terminate the agreement by means of a registered letter no later than one month after becoming aware of the change in the rates.

8.1. Basic support

Basic support, which is inherently part of the hosting or online packages offered by volta, is settled via the invoicing of these respective services and is offered for a period of one year unless otherwise agreed.

8.2. Extended support

For additional work and/or service tickets exceeding the ‘Fair Use’ guidelines of basic support, the Customer has the choice between two settlement systems as described below.

8.2.1. Service- and support subscription

The Customer can opt to settle the additional work and/or service tickets that fall within extended support via an optional ‘Service and support subscription’ whereby the Customer purchases a personal service and support budget at a discount compared to the currently applicable rates.

Initially, volta determines the size of the service and support budget based on available data for the product in question and/or knowledge gained from similar products in the past. Prior to the agreement concluded within this subscription, the Customer has the right to request adjustments to the size of the budget.

During an active period, the Customer always retains the right to request an adjustment to the budget once per period. The adjustment can never exceed half of the total budget of the period in question.

If the service ticket exceeds the available budget, all additional work is automatically settled via the pay-per-use principle. 

Unused service and support budgets are neither transferable to the next period nor entitle to reimbursement. Service and support subscriptions are subject to the conditions described in article 10 ‘Duration and termination’. Invoicing of these shall take place prior to the subscription period.

8.2.2. Pay-per-use

Additional work and/or service tickets are performed on a pay-per-use basis at the rates applicable at the time, with a minimum of 15 minutes per intervention. Invoicing shall take place after the services have been provided, with a summary statement of the services provided being available on request. Volta always makes an estimate for each report. If it exceeds a workload of 5 working hours, we will inform the Customer.

9. Liability

Volta shall only be liable for intentional or serious fault attributable to it in the execution of its obligations under this agreement. This liability shall be limited to the direct damage resulting from the faults. The liability of volta, in relation to services provided to the Customer, shall always be limited to either the reimbursement of the price paid by the Customer or the re-performance of the services, at volta's discretion. The total liability of volta, can never exceed the amount paid by the Customer to volta for the services that gave rise to the claim.

Under no circumstances shall Volta be liable for any form of indirect damage resulting from the above default. By indirect damages, at least the following damages must be understood: any form of consequential damages, lost profits, financial or commercial losses, increase in general costs, increased personnel costs and damages due to loss of clients.

Volta is not obliged to fulfil its obligations in case of force majeure. Force majeure is the debtor's unaccountable inability to fulfil its obligation.

If unforeseen and unaccountable circumstances arise after the conclusion of the contract that upset the balance that existed when the contract was concluded to such an extent that volta's performance is unreasonably aggravated, volta may ask for the contract to be renegotiated with a view to adjustment or termination.

For certain services, volta cooperates with partners (e.g. Combell, Amazon, SiteManager, Webflow, Squarespace, ...). A description of the guarantees and liability of these partners can be requested from volta. Volta cannot be held responsible for possible downtime or other forms of force majeure of the products or services purchased by volta since volta itself has no control over the proper functioning thereof and only the partner can be held responsible for this. Volta will always take care of all communication and is and remains the direct point of contact for the Customer. If the Customer asks volta to manage a product, services or other software provided or developed by a third party, volta cannot be held responsible or liable for any errors committed by this third party.

In the event of an acquisition, this limited liability shall continue to apply until volta confirms in writing to the Customer that the product has been delivered. From then on, the Customer shall benefit from the standard warranty period as provided in the offer.

If volta links its solutions at the Customer's request to other systems, managed by the Customer or third parties, volta shall not be responsible or liable for the unavailability of or for the errors, direct or indirect, caused by such external systems. For third party services, volta does not accept any liability beyond the liability that the third parties themselves are willing to accept for their products or services.

Volta is not liable for errors or delays in the execution of the order due to insufficient or wrong input or information from the Customer, or when the Customer delivers his input later than agreed.

Volta cannot be held liable when the Customer illegally uses copyright protected material such as texts, images, music, articles, ... Should the Customer's liability be affected by a contractual or extra-contractual breach, the Customer must take all necessary measures to indemnify volta against any damage it may incur as a result.

For products older than 5 years, counting from the delivery of the product, volta reserves the right to no longer be liable. This applies to all failures not caused by volta and includes, non-exhaustively, among others, obsolescence, changes or disappearance of technology, whether or not offered by third parties, as well as the lack of necessary technological know-how at volta or third parties.

For the product managed by volta, we always retain final control via (super) admin user rights or similar. These rights can only be opened at the express request of the Customer or by third parties, subject to the necessary and unambiguous consent of the Customer. In this case, any liability of volta shall be temporarily suspended. Service tickets, which are notified during this period, volta will always treat and settle as described in section 8.2. ‘Extended Support’. This suspension lasts as long as no explicit notification has been made by the Customer that the requested user rights are no longer required by the customer.

10. Duration and termination

Both the basic support, which is an inherent part of the hosting packages offered by volta, and the optional ‘Service and Support’ subscriptions are offered for a period of one year, unless agreed otherwise. They take effect on the date of signing. This period is automatically extended by a period of one year on its expiry unless terminated in writing. The notice of termination must be given in writing at the latest 30 days before the expiry of the term of this agreement. In the absence of proper notice of termination, this agreement shall be tacitly renewed each time for a new term of one year.

Each party is entitled to terminate the agreement immediately, without prior notice of default and without prior judicial intervention, in the event of bankruptcy, judicial composition or cessation of payment by the other party or any other cause that seriously compromises its rights. The termination in this case implies the immediate cessation of the service without this being able to affect volta's liability in case of lack of availability and/or integrity of the website as a result of this cessation.

If, for any reason, this agreement ends prematurely at the Customer's expense, the monthly billing shall remain due for the initial remaining term of the agreement, without prejudice to any additional compensation for damages suffered by volta.

11. Complaints

Complaints must be sufficiently substantiated and reported to Steven Bruyneel (steven@volta.be) within 15 days of the discovery of a shortcoming by the Customer.

12. General

If one of the provisions of this Service Level Agreement should prove to be invalid, this invalidity shall in no way affect the validity of the other provisions. The parties are obliged to replace the invalid clause by the valid clause that, to the extent possible, corresponds to the original intention of the parties.

Any dispute in connection with the execution or interpretation of the Service Level Agreement shall fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Antwerp, Antwerp division.

Belgian law is applicable.