What is an WSLA and what does it cover?

An WSLA (Web Service Level Agreement) is like a warranty. It means a Client’s website is covered should any errors or bugs get spotted.

designdough will address such issues under the response times listed below. In addition, designdough will edit text/images/settings on the website that sit outside the control of the Client – e.g. within the footer template of a website.

1.1 The following Service Provider(s) and Client(s) will be used as the basis of the Web Service Level Agreement (“WSLA”) and represent the primary stakeholders associated with this Web Service Level Agreement.

Service Provider: designdough ltd. (“designdough”)

Client: _____________________ (“Client”)

1.2 Hosting Provider Company refers to the specialist companies, such as DigitalOcean from whom designdough contract their Dedicated Web Servers.

1.3 A Project can be a website, database system, search engine optimisation work, or any other service provided by designdough to the Client.

1.4 “Frustrates” is a term used to describe were one party to a contract acts in a way so as to make it unrealistic for the other party to carry out their part of the contract.

1.5 The word “contract” as it appears in these terms and conditions shall mean the contract between designdough and the Client, which will be based on the terms and conditions contained within this Web Service Level Agreement.

2.1 WSLA stands for Web Service Level Agreement.

2.2 ISP stands for Internet Service Provider.

2.3 HPC stands for Hosting Provider Company.

The terms and conditions contained in this WSLA apply to all designdough Clients unless agreed in writing to the contrary. No other contract terms and conditions shall apply unless specifically agreed in writing between designdough and the Client. In the event of any ambiguity between these terms and conditions and any terms agreed in writing between designdough and the Client then these terms and conditions will apply.

4.1 designdough will provide Clients with initial estimates for projects on request. The final project sum may vary from the initial estimate. An estimate as opposed to fixed price quotation is useful when the actual project sum cannot be reasonably or accurately ascertained at the onset.

4.2 Work carried out against estimates will be charged in accordance with clause 8.

4.3 designdough will provide estimates in writing by email to Clients, which will include a hyperlink to this WSLA. Acceptance by a Client of an designdough estimate is subject to acceptance of the terms and conditions in this WSLA, unless specifically agreed in writing between the Client and designdough to the contrary.

4.4 Estimates are valid for 14 days from the date stated on the estimate.

5.1 Whenever possible designdough will provide Clients with a fixed price quotation and detailed specification for a project.

5.2 Items omitted or added to the specification that accompanies a fixed price quotation will be treated as variations in accordance with clause 6.

5.3 designdough will provide quotations in writing by email to Clients, which will include a hyperlink to this WSLA. Acceptance by a Client of an designdough quotation is subject to acceptance of the terms and conditions in this WSLA, unless specifically agreed in writing between the Client and designdough to the contrary.

5.4 Fixed price quotations are valid for 14 days from the date stated on the quotation.

6.1 The value of work included in a fixed price quotation specification that is omitted will be valued and deducted from the final project sum.

6.2 Work that is in addition to that detailed in a fixed price quotation specification will be valued and added to the final project sum.

7.1 The source code of all website web pages remains the intellectual property of designdough and may not be copied and used by any other party without the consent of designdough.

7.2 All scripts, css and include files used within Client websites remains the intellectual property of designdough and may not be copied and used by any other party without the consent of designdough.

7.3 The stored procedures, functions and triggers programmed into SQL Databases remain the intellectual property of designdough and may not be copied and used by any other party without the consent of designdough.

7.4 All Client logo images, images unique to the Client, i.e. of their premises, work force and their business, plus all written copy, belong to the Client and are covered under their copyright. designdough will not reuse Client written content or images without the express permission of the Client.

7.5 designdough reserves the right to use any work we produce for the purpose of self-promotion.

8.1 designdough will charge for services provided that are not included in any quotation or under the terms of clause (9), Hosting. The amount charged will be based on designdough’s standard hourly rate, unless a different hourly rate has otherwise been agreed in writing.

8.2 designdough will review and may increase their standard hourly rate on an annual basis.

8.2 There will be a minimum charge of 15 minutes.

9.1 designdough uses high performance dedicated web servers hosted by first class HPC’s, such as Vultr.

9.2 Our Vultr dedicated server has unlimited bandwidth and an uptime performance of over 99.99%.

9.3 designdough will quote a separate annual price for the hosting and associated technical support for Client websites.

9.4 designdough will use their best endeavours, in conjunction with the HPC, to rectify the cause of any disruption in the hosting service of a Client’s website(s) and to minimise the duration of any such instances.

9.5 designdough will not be liable to the Client for any compensation in respect of any down-time that may occur with the hosting of their website(s).

9.6 designdough will keep a separate backup of all Client website files and in the unlikely event of a hard drive failure or other technical failure with the dedicated web server will re-setup the website as quick as possible on a new or repaired web server.

9.7 All SQL Server databases used for Client websites are regularly backed up and in the unlikely event of hard drive or other technical failure with the dedicated web server will be restored and re-connected to Client website(s).

9.8 With regard to any images or download files uploaded to a Client’s website by a Client it is the responsibility of the Client to retain a copy of these on their local PC/LAN. In the unlikely event of hard drive failure or other technical failure with the dedicated web server it will be the responsibility of the Client to re-upload these files.

9.9 designdough utilise various backup processes on their dedicated servers for all website folders and files and may, therefore, be able to avoid Clients having to re-upload files in accordance with clause (9.8). This is not guaranteed by designdough so Clients should observe and be prepared, in the unlikely event, to comply with clause 9.8.

9.10 In the event that a Client wishes to move their website and/or SQL Server Database to another web server supported by another party, then designdough will cooperate fully, subject to all outstanding amounts being paid up in full, in advance, along with a negotiated fee to purchase the intellectual copyright of the source code etc detailed in clause (7).

9.11 The option described under clause (9.10) is not available to Client websites that are linked to a shared SQL Server database. In this situation Clients can pay for their website data to be exported to a standalone SQL Server database, which can then be relocated.

9.12 In the event that the Client requires assistance with remedying a situation with their website that is not a technical fault caused by designdough or the HPC the time expended by designdough will be charged to the Client in accordance with clause (8).

9.13 designdough will invoice for Hosting on an annual basis, yearly in advance. Invoices will be raised approximately 30 days prior to the commencement date.

10.1 In the event that the client wishes designdough to set up mail on their behalf a fixed amount will be charged for doing this. It is recommended that Google’s G-Suite or Office 365 are utilised here.

10.2 designdough will pay the mail service provider annual subscription costs for each mailbox and invoice the Client a fixed amount for each mailbox annually.

10.3 designdough are excluded from any liability to the Client for any interruption or termination in the email service.

10.4 designdough will troubleshoot any problems reported by the Client with their email. If the problem is due to an omission by designdough then no charge will be made to the Client. If the problem is not due to an omission or issue by designdough then the Client will be charged in accordance with clause (8), designdough Hourly Rate Charges.

11.1 designdough will offer to Clients third party services such as those offered by Google to enhance the performance of their websites. designdough may include in quotations the setup and maintenance of such third party services. designdough will not be liable to the Client for any interruption, non-performance, or cancellation of the provision by third parties of any such services.

12.1 Designdough designs and develops websites to perform well with the search engines and will liaise with Clients in trying to achieve high rankings.

12.2 designdough accept no responsibility or liability to the Client for the actual rankings achieved or how such rankings may vary over time.

13.1 Under the terms of the agreement, payment will be made in two parts (a & b) unless stated otherwise at estimate/quote stage, as referred to in clause (13.3):

a. 50% of the estimate/quotation total balance in order to commence work

b. The final balance will be settled in full within 14 days of completion and sign off of a design project. Failure to do so will result in an additional £150 administration fee.

13.2 designdough standard payment terms are 14 days from the date of invoice.

13.3 designdough will specify within estimates or quotes how a project will be invoiced. Large projects may be split into a number of monthly interim invoices plus a final invoice on completion.

13.4 Payment can be made to designdough via cheque, BACS payment or direct debit.

13.5 In special circumstances, where designdough and the Client have agreed credit terms other than those stated in clause (13.1), all invoices are due for payment 14 days from the date stated on the express terms.

13.6 designdough reserves the right to refer any outstanding invoices that have not been settled within 28 days to the debt recovery agency. It is their policy to pursue any outstanding invoices through the civil courts. This course of action will incur significant court costs to the client and many potentially be subject to the Late Payment of Debt Act at the rate of 10% above the current Bank of England base rate.

14.1 designdough will ensure that the specification quoted for the Client works as intended. In the event that the Client reports that some part of the specification is not functioning correctly then designdough will investigate this and take corrective action, which will be at no expense to the Client.

14.2 In the event that the Client reports an issue which is related to a matter that falls outside of the project specification then designdough will investigate this and email the Client a report and, if appropriate, a price to carry out the extra work involved to resolve the issue.

15.1 designdough will agree with the Client the period of the support agreement (WSLA). Normally this will be a 12 month recurring arrangement. The cost and subsequent invoice will be raised for the full period, unless otherwise agreed, and be payable in advance of the period.

Support Availability: Monitored 9:00AM to 5:00PM Monday – Friday (excluding ‘You Days’ 3rd Friday of each month)

Emails received outside of office hours will be collected, however no action can be guaranteed until the next working day. Support Availability is bound by the terms stated in clauses (15.2 – 15.5).

15.2 Clients with an WSLA, will be able to log errors on their website or request updates to content that is not within their control. All requests should be emailed to helpme@designdough.co.uk. Requests logged outside either of these routes will not be subject to the response times set out below. If designdough feel a request is outside what is covered by the support agreement, they will let the Client know and discuss the request as additional development and propose a solution and cost. Work on such a request would not be undertaken until agreement with the Client on the additional cost and approach.

 15.2.1 PLEASE NOTE THAT DESIGNDOUGH SCHEDULE ALL SUPPORT REQUESTS FOR EITHER MONDAY OR FRIDAY 9AM-5PM UNLESS THE SUPPORT REQUEST IS DEEMED ‘URGENT’ OR ‘HIGH’. ALL OTHER SUPPORT REQUESTS WILL BE DEALT WITH ON EITHER A MONDAY OR A FRIDAY WITHIN THE TERMS SET OUT BELOW IN CLAUSE 15.3.

15.2.3 It is important to note that there are numerous reasons why a website could break, become unresponsive or cease to work correctly and that whilst designdough will endeavour to fix or repair the problem there may be third party issue at play. As such designdough cannot be held responsible for all problems. however designdough will always treat the supplier/client relationship with respect and work hard to locate, fix or offer advice on how to repair third party issues, errors or bugs.

15.3 designdough will classify and triage all requests as one of the following and as such will aim to resolve each within the given times:

15.3.1 Urgent: an error which has caused the Website to be offline. E.g, the website is down/unresponsive or there is a clear security floor within the site. Response within 1 hour. Aim to resolve within 1 working day.

15.3.2 High: An error that is causing the site to load incorrectly, slowly. The site is not working correctly, for instance payment gateways or forms are unresponsive. Response within 1 hour. Aim to resolve within 2 working days.

15.3.3 Normal: an error that inhibits typical user experience. E.g Content is overlapping incorrectly, image links are broken, text alignment, third party plugin bugs. Response within 2 hours. Aim to resolve within 4 working days.

15.3.4 Low: An error deemed to be of low priority. Response within 2 hours. Aim to resolve within 5 working days.

15.3.5 designdough understands that client priorities will differ from client to client and as such there may be support requests that may be deemed urgent by one and high by another. Designdough will work with the client and agree on the priority wherever possible.

15.4 Where support requests are received from Clients on work that is not subject to an WSLA, designdough has no responsibility to respond and fix the error reported. However, designdough will always aim to respond to the Client with a resolution route and cost associated with this. All requests outside a support agreement are treated with low priority until agreement on any cost to look at the issue. Requests from Clients with an WSLA will always supersede requests from clients without WSLAs.

16.1 Unless expressly agreed in writing to the contrary designdough does not have any liability to the Client for any delays in completing a project.

16.2 designdough does not have any liability to the Client for the performance of a website, database or any other entity/service developed/setup for the client.

16.3 designdough will not be held responsible or liable for brand damage or loss of earnings due to a website issue or failure.

17.1 In the event that the Client does not pay an invoice within 28 days of the due date, then designdough have the right to suspend all further works for that Client until such time as payment is made in full.

17.2 In the event that the Client does not pay an email subscription invoice within 28 days of the due date, then designdough reserve the right to turn off any email services until such time as the invoice is paid in full.

17.3 In the event that the Client does not pay a hosting subscription invoice within 28 days of the due date, then designdough reserve the right to turn off any website hosting until such time as the invoice is paid in full.

17.4 In the event that the Client becomes insolvent or goes in to liquidation designdough have the right to immediately terminate their contract with the Client and invoice for the full value of project works carried out to that date, plus suspend any email or hosting services.

17.5 In the event that a Client “frustrates” the progress of a project contract with designdough then designdough will be entitled to give 14 days written notice to the Client of the contract being terminated. If the Client does not satisfactorily remedy the cause(s) of the frustration, within the 14 day notice period, then designdough will have the right to terminate the contract. designdough will invoice the Client for the full value of works carried out to-date.

17.6 In the event that designdough becomes insolvent or goes in to liquidation after a project has been completed and paid in full, and on direction from the Client, designdough will package up all necessary web files and backups and will transfer these to either a.) the Client b.) a sister company of designdough’s recommendation or c.) a company of the Client’s choosing.