Case severity and initial response times
How quickly your support cases are addressed depends on the assigned severity. You assign the severity of the issue when you open the case. With your agreement, the support team adjusts the assigned severity if an incorrect severity level is selected. For more information about support plans, see Basic, Advanced, and Premium support plans.
The following table lists some common examples of support issues, suggested severity levels, and the initial response time objectives. The initial response time objectives are used to describe IBM goals only, and don't represent a performance guarantee.
Initial response Service Level Objectives (SLO) do not apply to any billing, invoice, or sales-related inquiry or cases.
| Severity | Business impact | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Minimal | An inquiry or non-technical request. |
| 3 | Some | The product, service, or functions are usable, and the issue doesn't represent a significant impact on operations. |
| 2 | Significant | A product, service, business feature, or function of the product or service is severely restricted in its use, or you are in jeopardy of missing business deadlines. |
| 1 | Critical | System or Service Down Business-critical functions are inoperable or a critical interface has failed. This usually applies to a production environment and indicates an inability to access products or services that results in a critical impact on operations. This condition requires an immediate solution. |
| Severity | Premium | Advanced | Basic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Within 4 hours | Within 8 hours | No SLO, can only open severity 4 cases |
| 3 | Within 2 hours | Within 4 hours | No SLO, can't open severity 3 cases |
| 2 | Within 1 hour | Within 2 hours | No SLO, can't open severity 2 cases |
| 1 | Less than 15 minutes | Within 1 hour | No SLO, can't open severity 1 cases |
We work with you 24 hours a day and seven days a week to resolve Severity 1 problems if you have a technical resource available to work during those hours. You must reasonably assist with any problem diagnosis and resolution.