Professional Services Agreement (PSA)

What is a Professional Services Agreement (PSA)?

All PSA comes initially with 2 hours of technical support included which also gives you priority access to Servers Australia’s team of experienced technical support engineers and system administrators. The agreement also entitles customers to access the priority support queues with faster initial response times and includes a monthly quota of technical support hours which can be used to have our engineers carry out tasks on any products or services hosted with us. By committing to a monthly quota of hours, customers can control costs whilst leveraging our team of experts to assist with managing their services.

For customers with a PSA who are pre-purchasing additional technical support hours for their account, you will receive a 50% discount ($75*/hr). This option is only available for customers who are pre-purchasing. If you go over your allocated hours during the month without purchasing additional hours beforehand, you will be charged at the full rate.

Customers who choose not to enter into a PSA can still access technical support from our team, this work is charged ad-hoc at a standard hourly rate ($150*/hr). Please note; the ad-hoc rate is charged in 15-minute blocks, i.e. you use 35 minutes of additional technical support time, you will be charged for 45 minutes. General accounts, billing & provisioning support is still available during business hours and is included free for all customers.

What is the difference between a PSA and a Monitoring and Maintenance Agreement (MMA)?

A Monitoring and Maintaintenance Agreement (MMA) enables automated monitoring and maintenance of an individual server. Having an MMA alone does not entitle customers to access the priority support queue, and without a PSA, all technical support for the server is charged at the standard ad-hoc rate of $150*/hr ($37.50* per 15 minutes). PSA’s and MMAs are designed to be complementary services, and we recommend that customers purchase both products.

What type of assistance can the technical support team provide?

Our experienced team of technical support engineers and system administrators can provide technical support for the following issues: 

• Resolution for problems detected with servers managed by our ‘Monitoring and Maintenance Agreement’
• General system administration tasks
• Base installation of third-party applications based on technical documentation or requirements. *Please note that Servers Australia cannot provide ongoing assistance or troubleshooting for third-party applications after the installation has been completed
• General advice and recommendations based on current industry best practices to help you successfully manage your services hosted with Servers Australia
• Assistance with Veeam Replication plans purchased with Servers Australia. Failover DR Testing can be scheduled by prior agreement
• Assistance with backup and restoration tasks for backup plans purchased with Servers Australia

Servers Australia can not provide technical support with:

• Code development
• Debugging custom software
• If you are looking for specific technical support that’s not listed here, please contact us and we can confirm if this is covered for you.

How do I see my PSA in the MySAU portal?

When you log into the MySAU portal, go to the Support icon on the left-hand side. Click View Dashboard and you will be taken to your Professional Services Dashboard.

You then have the ability to manage your plan and increase your technical support hours!

What is the monthly technical support hours quota?

When you contact Servers Australia for technical support, the time that we spend resolving your issue is chargeable to you. If you have a PSA, then the time spent working on your issue will accrue against the hourly quota. After your monthly quota has been consumed, you will be charged for any additional time at the standard hourly rate ($150*/hr).

What type of assistance is complimentary for all customers?

All customers are entitled to contact Servers Australia for assistance with the following queries:

• General account and billing enquiries
• Hardware related faults that are determined to be the responsibility of Servers Australia
• Network related faults that are determined to be the responsibility of Servers Australia
• Does the PSA cover smart-hands charges?
• No. Smart-hands are separate and not covered by the PSA technical support hours.

Can I purchase a PSA, use my technical support quota and then cancel?

Servers Australia’s PSA has a minimum contract period of 3 months. You are free to cancel your Agreement at any time, but early termination will attract a contract break fee. Once your contract period has ended, you may cancel your agreement at the end of the billing period for no charge. We reserve the right to refuse a PSA to any customer that repeatedly purchases and then cancels.

How does my ticket get handled under the priority queue under a PSA?

All tickets that are created under a PSA will have a priority support flag assigned to the ticket. The ticket will also be presented to the top of the queue. Once a ticket has been in the queue for 30 mins it will be flagged with an amber icon and then once a ticket has sat in the queue for 60 minutes the helpdesk will have a red alert flagged assigned to the case. At this point, the ticket will be escalated to management for urgent attention and action.

An exact resolution time is difficult to predict as it depends on the specific circumstances. We’ll work closely with you to ensure that your fault is reviewed and actioned as quickly as possible.

How do I determine the right number of technical support hours for my needs?

We strongly recommend that customers purchase at least 1 hour of time per service. This amount will cover small tasks and issues throughout the month. Customers with business-critical services should consider purchasing 2 or more hours per service. Keep in mind that after the monthly quota is used up, you will be charged a higher rate for technical support.

Do unused hours roll over to the next month?

No. Hours unused in the month are not rolled over and do not accrue. 

PSA Pricing examples

Example 1 – no additional charges

A Customer has a PSA with a total of 4 technical support hours (2 hours included with the PSA and 2 additional hours @$75*/hr) with a monthly cost of $349*. The customer opens 3 cases during that month and the following time was accrued on each:

• Case #1 – 45 minutes
• Case #2 – 60 minutes
• Case #3 – 20 minutes

The total cost for that month remains at $349*. The customer only used 125 minutes (45 minutes + 60 minutes + 20 minutes) of technical support time, and this amount is under their 360-minute quota (4 x 60 minutes), so they were not charged for any ad-hoc support hours.

Example 2 – additional charges

A Customer has a PSA with 2 technical support hours with a monthly cost of $199(PSA inc. 2 hours = $199*). The customer opens 4 cases during that month and the following time was accrued on each:

• Case #1 – 15 minutes
• Case #2 – 20 minutes
• Case #4 – 50 minutes
• Case #3 – 60 minutes

The total cost for that month is $274* ($199* PSA + $75* additional time charges). The customer used 145 minutes (15 minutes + 20 minutes + 60 minutes + 50 minutes) of technical support time, and this amount is over their 120-minute quota (2 x 60 minutes). The first 120 minutes was covered by the PSA, and the remaining 25 minutes were charged at the ad-hoc rate but also remember we charge in 15-minute blocks so the total would have been rounded up to 30mins (2 x $37.50 = $75.00*).

* Excluding GST