Service Level Agreement (Sla)

1. PURPOSE

This Service Level Agreement (“SLA“) defines the service availability commitments, support standards, incident management process, maintenance practices, disaster recovery objectives, and service responsibilities applicable to Mera Work provided by AAPNA INFOTHEEK PRIVATE LIMITED (“AAPNA“).

This SLA applies to both:

• Cloud-hosted (SaaS) deployments; and
• Customer-hosted (On-Premise) deployments.

The specific service commitments applicable to each deployment model are described in this SLA.

This SLA establishes the standard service commitments applicable to Mera Work. Customers may have additional service commitments where separately agreed in writing.

2. SCOPE OF SERVICES

Depending on the applicable deployment model, this SLA may apply to:

• Mera Work web application;
• Web Administration Portal;
• Desktop Agents;
• Mobile administration application, where available;
• APIs and standard integrations supplied by AAPNA;
• associated platform services;
• Technical Support;
• Software Maintenance;
• Software Updates;
• Software Upgrades;
• Security Patches;
• Bug Fixes;
• Incident Response and Resolution; and
• Disaster Recovery services for SaaS infrastructure under AAPNA’s operational control.

This SLA applies only to services and systems that are under the operational control or support responsibility of AAPNA.

For On-Premise deployments, this SLA does not apply to Customer infrastructure, including Customer-owned or Customer-managed servers, operating systems, databases, networks, storage, firewalls, internet connectivity, or other components of the Customer Environment.

3. DEPLOYMENT-SPECIFIC SERVICE COMMITMENTS

3.1 SaaS Deployments

For Cloud-hosted SaaS deployments, AAPNA shall use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain:

99% Monthly Service Availability

The availability commitment applies to the production environment of the Mera Work Platform and is measured on a calendar month basis.

Eligible SaaS customers may also receive Service Credits where the applicable Monthly Service Availability falls below the committed level, as described in this SLA.

3.2 On-Premise Deployments

For Customer-hosted On-Premise deployments, the Monthly Service Availability commitment applicable to the Mera Work SaaS Platform does not apply to the Customer Environment.

Service availability, performance, and reliability of the Customer Environment are the responsibility of the Customer.

AAPNA’s service commitments for On-Premise deployments relate to:

• Software Support;
• Software Maintenance;
• Software Updates;
• Software Upgrades;
• Security Patches;
• Bug Fixes;
• Technical Support; and
• other support services applicable to the Licensed Software.

4. SAAS SERVICE AVAILABILITY AND UPTIME

4.1 Definition of Uptime

For SaaS deployments, Uptime means the total time during which the production environment of the Platform is operational and accessible to Authorised Users.

Monthly Service Availability is calculated as:

(Total Available Minutes − Downtime) ÷ Total Available Minutes × 100

Where:

• Total Available Minutes means the total number of minutes in the applicable calendar month.
• Downtime means verified service unavailability attributable solely to AAPNA.

4.2 Downtime

For SaaS deployments, Downtime shall be measured from:

• the time a verified incident is recorded by AAPNA; until
• the time the affected service is restored and made available.

Downtime does not include:

• Scheduled Maintenance;
• Emergency Maintenance;
• Customer network failures;
• Internet Service Provider failures;
• Customer hardware failures;
• Customer configuration issues;
• Customer misuse of the Platform;
• unsupported systems or configurations;
• third-party service interruptions outside AAPNA’s reasonable control; or
• Force Majeure Events.

The availability commitment does not apply to services or components outside AAPNA’s operational control.

5. SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE

AAPNA may perform Scheduled Maintenance to:

• maintain platform stability;
• deploy Updates and Upgrades;
• improve security;
• optimise performance;
• maintain infrastructure; and
• improve overall service reliability.

Where reasonably practicable, AAPNA shall provide prior notice before Scheduled Maintenance.

Scheduled Maintenance may generally be performed during:

• non-business hours;
• weekends; or
• other low-usage periods.

Scheduled Maintenance shall not be considered Downtime for purposes of calculating SaaS Service Availability.

For On-Premise deployments, maintenance activities may be coordinated with the Customer and may require Customer participation, access, or system availability.

6. EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE

AAPNA may perform Emergency Maintenance without prior notice where reasonably necessary to address:

• critical security vulnerabilities;
• infrastructure failures;
• system stability risks;
• data integrity concerns; or
• circumstances that could materially affect the security, availability, or reliability of the Platform or Licensed Software.

Emergency Maintenance shall not be considered Downtime for purposes of calculating SaaS Service Availability.

AAPNA shall use reasonable efforts to minimise service disruption.

For On-Premise deployments, Emergency Maintenance may require Customer cooperation, remote access, or other agreed access to the Customer Environment.

7. SUPPORT AVAILABILITY

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, Technical Support is available during:

Monday to Friday – 08:00 AM to 10:00 PM (IST)

Support may be accessed through:

• Support Portal;
• Email;
• Telephone, where applicable; or
• other authorised support channels communicated by AAPNA.

Support requests received outside Support Hours shall normally be addressed on the next Business Day.

Critical Severity Incidents may be handled in accordance with the applicable incident response commitments.

8. INCIDENT SEVERITY LEVELS

Incidents are categorised based on impact and urgency.

Severity Level 1 – Critical

The Platform or Licensed Software is unavailable, or a critical business function is completely inoperable, and no reasonable workaround is available.

Examples include:

• system or software outage;
• complete application failure;
• login or authentication failure affecting all users;
• complete data processing failure;
• critical database corruption caused by the Licensed Software.

Initial Response Target: Within 1 Hour

Work Commencement: Immediate, where applicable

Target Resolution: Within 6 Hours

For On-Premise deployments, where a permanent resolution requires additional development or depends on Customer infrastructure or Customer action, AAPNA may provide a commercially reasonable workaround while pursuing the permanent resolution.

Severity Level 2 – High

Major functionality is significantly impaired, but the Platform or Licensed Software remains partially operational.

Examples include:

• significant performance degradation;
• major feature malfunction;
• reporting failures;
• integration failures;
• service instability affecting multiple users.

Initial Response Target: Within 2 Hours

Target Resolution: Within 12 Hours

Where immediate resolution is not feasible, AAPNA may provide a reasonable workaround.

Severity Level 3 – Medium

A limited or non-critical function is affected and a reasonable workaround is available.

Examples include:

• feature malfunction;
• isolated performance issue;
• minor functional defect;
• report formatting issue;
• configuration assistance;
• user-specific issue.

Initial Response Target: Within 4 Hours

Target Resolution:

• SaaS: Within 24 Hours
• On-Premise: Within 2 Business Days

Where the issue requires a product change or development effort, the resolution may be addressed through a subsequent Update, maintenance release, or other appropriate resolution.

Severity Level 4 – Low

General enquiries, documentation requests, usability questions, cosmetic defects, or enhancement requests.

Examples include:

• user guidance;
• how-to questions;
• interface issues;
• documentation clarification;
• cosmetic defects;
• feature requests.

Initial Response Target: Within 1 Business Day

Target Resolution: Next planned release or maintenance cycle, product roadmap, or as otherwise communicated by AAPNA, as applicable.

9. ESCALATION PROCESS

Where an incident remains unresolved, the Customer may request escalation through the following levels:

Where applicable, an escalation request should include:

• incident reference number;
• summary of the issue;
• business impact; and
• actions already taken.

Escalation does not change the applicable incident severity or response and resolution targets.

10. SOFTWARE SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE

For On-Premise deployments with active Annual Maintenance & Support (AMS), AAPNA shall provide the following standard Software Support and Maintenance Services:

• Incident logging;
• Technical troubleshooting;
• Product guidance;
• Configuration assistance;
• Bug identification;
• Bug fixes;
• Security Patches;
• Software Updates;
• Software Upgrades;
• Remote installation assistance;
• Product documentation; and
• other support services included in the applicable support offering.

Support shall be provided for supported versions of the Licensed Software.

For SaaS deployments, AAPNA manages the applicable Software Updates, Software Upgrades, Security Patches, and maintenance activities as part of the SaaS service.

11. SOFTWARE UPDATES, UPGRADES AND SECURITY PATCHES

AAPNA may periodically release:

• Software Updates;
• Security Patches;
• Bug Fixes;
• performance improvements;
• compatibility updates;
• minor enhancements; and
• Software Upgrades.

For On-Premise deployments, the Customer’s entitlement to Updates and Upgrades is subject to the Customer maintaining applicable Annual Maintenance & Support (AMS), unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Critical Security Patches shall be released as soon as reasonably practicable following identification, verification, and testing.

For On-Premise deployments, the Customer shall implement recommended Updates and Security Patches within a reasonable period.

AAPNA shall not be responsible for issues arising from the Customer’s unreasonable delay in implementing critical Security Patches or supported software versions.

12. SERVICE CREDITS FOR SAAS

Service Credits are applicable only to eligible Cloud-hosted SaaS subscriptions.

If Monthly Service Availability falls below the committed 99% level, the Customer may be eligible for Service Credits as follows:

Monthly Service Availability

Service Credit

Service Credits:

• apply only to the affected monthly billing period;
• must be requested by the Customer in writing within thirty (30) days after the end of the affected month;
• shall be verified by AAPNA before approval;
• shall be applied as a credit against future invoices; and
• cannot be exchanged for cash or refunded.

The total Service Credit issued during any calendar month shall not exceed:

25% of the monthly Subscription Fees.

Service Credits constitute the Customer’s sole and exclusive remedy for SaaS service availability failures covered under this SLA.

Service Credits do not apply to Customer-hosted On-Premise deployments.

13. BACKUP AND DATA PROTECTION

13.1 SaaS Deployments

AAPNA performs periodic backups of the production environment to support business continuity and disaster recovery.

Backup practices may include:

• automated system backups;
• secure storage of backup data;
• periodic validation of backup integrity; and
• operational monitoring of backup processes.

Backup schedules and retention practices are managed in accordance with AAPNA’s operational and security policies.

13.2 On-Premise Deployments

For On-Premise deployments, the Customer is responsible for:

• regular backups;
• backup storage;
• restoration procedures;
• disaster recovery arrangements; and
• retention of Customer Data within the Customer Environment.

AAPNA may provide reasonable technical guidance relating to the Licensed Software but is not responsible for Customer infrastructure backups unless expressly agreed in writing.

14. DISASTER RECOVERY OBJECTIVES

For SaaS deployments, AAPNA shall use commercially reasonable efforts to achieve the following operational objectives in the event of a service disruption:

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

Target restoration of service within: 24 Hours

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

Maximum targeted data loss: 24 Hours

These objectives represent operational targets and are not guaranteed outcomes.

For On-Premise deployments, disaster recovery of the Customer Environment is the responsibility of the Customer. AAPNA’s responsibility is limited to reasonable support for restoration of the Licensed Software, subject to the Customer maintaining supported infrastructure, backups, and required access.

15. CUSTOMER RESPONSIBILITIES

The Customer shall:

• maintain compatible devices, operating systems, and supported browsers;
• maintain stable internet connectivity;
• properly configure the Platform or Licensed Software;
• promptly report incidents through authorised support channels;
• provide sufficient information to enable investigation;
• cooperate with troubleshooting activities;
• designate authorised support contacts;
• maintain appropriate access controls;
• maintain backups where applicable; and
• comply with applicable technical requirements communicated by AAPNA.

For On-Premise deployments, the Customer shall additionally:

• maintain supported servers and infrastructure;
• maintain supported operating systems and databases;
• maintain network and security infrastructure;
• maintain disaster recovery arrangements;
• provide required logs and diagnostic information;
• provide timely and secure remote access where required;
• implement recommended Updates and Security Patches; and
• maintain appropriate security controls within the Customer Environment.

AAPNA shall not be responsible for delays, failures, or service issues resulting from the Customer’s failure to fulfil these responsibilities.

16. SERVICE LIMITATIONS AND EXCLUSIONS

This SLA does not apply to issues arising from:

• Customer hardware failures;
• Customer infrastructure failures;
• Customer network failures;
• internet connectivity issues;
• Internet Service Provider failures;
• operating system failures;
• database failures within the Customer Environment;
• firewall or VPN issues;
• antivirus or endpoint security conflicts;
• third-party software not supplied by AAPNA;
• third-party service provider failures outside AAPNA’s reasonable control;
• unsupported operating systems, browsers, or software versions;
• unsupported customisations;
• unauthorised modifications to the Platform or Licensed Software;
• Customer configuration errors;
• misuse of the Platform or Licensed Software;
• Customer’s unreasonable delay in implementing recommended Updates or Security Patches;
• cyber incidents outside AAPNA’s reasonable control; or
• Force Majeure Events.

For On-Premise deployments, this SLA does not provide a Monthly Service Availability commitment for the Customer Environment.

17. REMOTE SUPPORT FOR ON-PREMISE DEPLOYMENTS

Where required, AAPNA may provide remote support using a mutually agreed secure remote access method.

The Customer shall:

• provide secure remote connectivity;
• obtain all required internal approvals;
• supervise remote sessions where required by its internal policies; and
• revoke remote access when no longer required.

AAPNA shall use remote access solely for providing support and maintenance services.

18. SOFTWARE VERSION SUPPORT

For On-Premise deployments, AAPNA shall generally support:

• the current major version; and
• the immediately preceding major version,

unless otherwise notified by AAPNA.

Customers may be required to upgrade to a supported version before certain issues can be investigated or resolved.

AAPNA may discontinue support for obsolete software versions by providing at least one (1) month’s prior written notice.

Customers wishing to continue receiving standard support shall upgrade to a supported version.

For SaaS deployments, AAPNA manages the supported production version as part of the SaaS service.

19. SERVICE MODIFICATION

AAPNA may modify Mera Work features, infrastructure, software components, support processes, maintenance practices, or operational procedures to improve:

• performance;
• reliability;
• security;
• compatibility;
• functionality; or
• overall service quality.

For SaaS deployments, AAPNA shall not materially reduce the committed service levels during an active service period except where required for security, legal, regulatory, or other legitimate operational reasons.

For On-Premise deployments, AAPNA may update supported software versions, maintenance practices, and technical requirements from time to time. Where an update materially affects active support entitlements, AAPNA shall provide reasonable prior notice.

20. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

This SLA establishes standard service commitments for Mera Work.

Nothing in this SLA shall be interpreted as expanding AAPNA’s liability beyond the limitations applicable under the relevant contractual terms, where such terms apply.

For SaaS deployments, Service Credits described in this SLA constitute the Customer’s sole and exclusive remedy for service availability issues covered under this SLA.

21. FORCE MAJEURE

AAPNA shall not be liable for any delay or failure in performance caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including:

• natural disasters;
• war;
• power failures;
• internet or telecommunications outages;
• government actions;
• labour disputes;
• cyber incidents outside AAPNA’s reasonable control;
• pandemics;
• failures of public utilities; or
• other Force Majeure Events.

22. CHANGES TO THIS SLA

AAPNA may update this SLA from time to time to reflect:

• improvements to Mera Work;
• changes in operational processes;
• changes in security practices;
• changes in support processes;
• changes in technology;
• changes in applicable legal or regulatory requirements; or
• other operational requirements.

Updated versions will be published on the official Mera Work website.

Where a Customer has a valid written agreement containing specific provisions regarding amendments to the SLA, those provisions shall govern the applicable Customer relationship.

23. CONTACT AND SUPPORT

Customers may contact AAPNA through the support channels communicated by AAPNA, including:

• Support Portal;
• Email;
• Telephone, where applicable; or
• other authorised support channels.

For general information regarding Mera Work and its services:

AAPNA INFOTHEEK PRIVATE LIMITED
Website: https://mera.work