Tyler support and service levels are part of what a client buys with a SaaS subscription rather than a separately priced maintenance contract. In the Public Administration SaaS Agreement, “SaaS Fees” cover the right to use the software together with maintenance and support, downtime resolution under the SLA, and data storage and archiving.[1] The practical rules are in two attachments to the agreement: Exhibit C, the Service Level Agreement, and the Support Call Process, which is Schedule 1 to that exhibit and is linked from the agreement as the document that sets support hours and procedures.[2] This article summarises both and the release-currency duty that conditions them.
What maintenance and support covers
For the duration of the agreement Tyler undertakes, consistent with the then-current Support Call Process, to:[1]
- perform maintenance and support “in a professional and workmanlike manner” and resolve Defects, subject to any applicable release life cycle policy;
- provide telephone support during established support hours;
- maintain personnel trained on the Tyler Software and any Third-Party Software; and
- provide releases, including updates and enhancements, that Tyler makes generally available “without additional charge to customers with a current SaaS Agreement”.
The SaaS Fees do not include onsite support, application design, other consulting services or telephone support outside normal business hours. Tyler will use reasonable efforts to support remotely, may use secure third-party connectivity tools, and reserves the right to collect telemetry for product evaluation, quality assurance and security purposes. Its warranty, support and service-level obligations are “contingent upon receiving reasonable access to your Data and systems”. These carve-outs matter when a client expects a service-level credit: the exclusions are in the agreement, not in the SLA exhibit.
Support Call Process
The Support Call Process (last updated August 4, 2023) describes three channels for authorised users: an online portal, email and telephone, with channel availability limited for certain applications. Resources include the Tyler website, a search tool, Tyler Community (for clients with current maintenance agreements) and Tyler University training.[2]
Support is available “during the local business hours of 8 AM to 5 PM (Monday – Friday) across four US time zones”, with no coverage on listed holidays. Teams that provide after-hours service give procedures for Priority Level 1 defects only, and Tyler will make commercially reasonable efforts to be available for one pre-scheduled Saturday each month to help IT staff apply patches and release upgrades.
Priority levels and targets
| Priority | Characteristics | Initial response | Resolution target (after confirmation) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Critical | Complete application failure or unavailability, failure in a remote location, or systemic loss of several essential functions | One business hour | Resolve or circumvent within one business day |
| 2 High | Repeated failure of essential functionality affecting more than one user, or loss or corruption of data | Four business hours | Within ten business days |
| 3 Medium | Priority 1 incident with a circumvention procedure, or Priority 2 affecting one user or with a circumvention | One business day | Next published maintenance update or service pack, at least quarterly |
| 4 Noncritical | Failure of non-essential functionality, cosmetic issues | Two business days | A future version release |
The targets are “commercially reasonable efforts”, they apply to production environments, and “Response and Resolution Targets may differ by product or business need”.[2] For non-hosted customers Tyler’s responsibility for lost or corrupted data is limited to helping the client restore its last available database. If a Priority 1 or 2 defect is not resolved the client may escalate to the resource defined by the product support team. Tyler may use an industry-standard remote support tool to connect to the client’s system when diagnosis requires it.
Service Level Agreement
Exhibit C defines the SaaS availability measure and relief. The key terms are:[1]
- Actual Attainment is the percentage of time the software is available in a calendar month: (Service Availability minus Downtime) divided by Service Availability.
- Downtime is minutes in which all users cannot launch, log in, search or save primary data; instances where only a Defect is present are excluded.
- Service Availability excludes Planned Downtime, Client Error Incidents, denial-of-service attacks and force majeure, and applies only to the production environment.
- Standard Maintenance is “limited to five (5) hours per week”; emergency maintenance covers critical security patches, prevention of imminent outage or mutually agreed work.
- The SLA does not apply to third-party SaaS services.
Tyler’s targeted attainment goal is 100%. Client Relief is calculated as a percentage of the SaaS Fees paid for the month:
| Actual Attainment | Client Relief |
|---|---|
| 99.99% to 99.70% | Remedial action will be taken |
| 99.69% to 98.50% | 2% of SaaS Fees paid for the month |
| 98.49% to 97.50% | 4% |
| 97.49% to 96.50% | 6% |
| 96.49% to 95.50% | 8% |
| Below 95.50% | 10% |
To receive credits the client must submit a request through a Support Call Process channel within fifteen days of the end of the month. Tyler responds within thirty days and applies confirmed credits to the next billing cycle. Credits “are only payable when Actual Attainment results in eligibility for credits in consecutive months and only for such consecutive months”. A credit does not relieve Tyler of its duty to fix the underlying problem.[1] Maximum relief is therefore capped at 10% of a month’s fees.
Business continuity and security
Data centres used to deliver SaaS Services have redundant telecommunications, power and hardware, and Tyler tests its disaster recovery plan annually. After a data centre failure Tyler commits to a Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective of 24 hours each in the body of the agreement, although the SLA exhibit states that “Recovery Point Objective is one (1) hour” notwithstanding contrary language in the agreement. Tyler restores data and brings the SaaS Services online, and the client is responsible for validating its data and integrations.[1]
Tyler states that its SaaS Services are audited at least yearly under SSAE No. 21, that it holds and will maintain SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliance or equivalents “for so long as you are timely paying for SaaS Services”, and that scope varies by product. It supplies a summary of current compliance reports on request and may require an NDA before sending reports to a third-party auditor. The client’s data is stated to be inaccessible to other customers. Tyler conducts annual penetration testing, and prohibits client scanning of its systems.
Release currency
The duty that most affects licence managers is currency. “Your use of Tyler Software or SaaS Services requires that you remain current with supported releases of Tyler Software as indicated in any applicable release lifecycle policy”, and warranty and support commitments are contingent on a supported version. Tyler “may require you to update to a current version” to address a critical issue such as a security vulnerability, using commercially reasonable efforts to limit the number of such instances and to give notice.[1] The template refers to a release lifecycle policy but does not reproduce it; a client should obtain the policy for each product. The Support Call Process refers to maintenance updates and service packs published “at least quarterly” for Priority 3 fixes and to future version releases for lower-priority issues.
Comparison with Data & Insights
Tyler’s Data & Insights agreement uses a different support policy hosted on its own support site, and a different credit schedule: 3% of the monthly fee for each full hour of an outage that adversely affected access, with a maximum credit of the lesser of 100% of the prorated monthly fee or USD 1,800 and a minimum of USD 100. See Tyler Data & Insights, AI and cybersecurity terms.[3]
Practical points
- Keep the current Support Call Process revision and the release lifecycle policy with the contract file.
- Log downtime events with timestamps; credits require a request within fifteen days of month end.
- Track supported-release status per product, because warranty and support depend on it.
- Check whether the SLA applies at all to each product, including third-party SaaS that the SLA excludes.
Out of scope
This article does not cover the Terms of Use for Tyler’s online services, security questionnaires, individual state amendments or hosting arrangements negotiated outside the template.