Support Services

Last updated January 1, 2023

CLEARSPAN CLOUD SUPPORT SERVICES 

Remote Technical Support

Clearspan Cloud Services Technical Support Overview

Technical support for the Cloud Services is provided remotely by Clearspan’s Customer Technical Support (“ACTS”) organization. ACTS is the single point of contact for problem notification, escalation, and resolution for Customer for those services provided by Clearspan. The ACTS operational center is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by fully trained Support Engineers. ACTS can be accessed via a toll-free number, as provided by Clearspan (“Clearspan Toll-Free Number”) or the Clearspan ACTs web portal (“Web Portal”).

For non-critical support issues, services are provided Monday through Friday between 8:00am and 6:00pm Central Time, excluding Clearspan corporate holidays. If immediate response is not required, requests for non-critical support can submitted via the Web Portal.

Support for critical issues is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, however, Customer shall report all critical issues via the Clearspan Toll-Free Number for immediate attention, rather than through the Web Portal.

The ACTS operation center also facilitates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year monitoring of the Cloud Services.  Access to the Web Portal requires an account to be created, which shall be facilitated by Clearspan, as applicable.

Customer Site Technical Support Preparation

As part of the process to add a Customer Site to the Cloud Services platform, the following actions are executed in order to prepare the Customer and ACTS.

The customer site is assigned a Clearspan Identification Number (AIN). This number will be used by ACTS to identify the specifics of Customer site. This includes:

  • Address of Customer’s physical site location
  • Primary and secondary contact information (Enterprise Customer Administrator)
  • Clearspan provided equipment located on Enterprise Customer’s site
  • ACTS stores the AIN and all pertinent site information into a database that is utilized for trouble ticket tracking and for “IVR” trouble ticket skills based call treatment into the ACTS call center.

Customer Administrator (primary and backup) are provided the following information:

  • The site’s AIN
  • The Clearspan Toll-Free Number to directly contact the ACTS call center (requires the site’s AIN)
  • A user ID and password for access to the Web Portal trouble ticket system.


Customer Reported Issues

  • Customer Issues can be reported to ACTS by the Customer Administrator for a site using the Clearspan Toll-Free Number. Non-critical support requests can be submitted by the Customer Administrator by creating an Incident Report (“IR”) in the Web Portal. All support requests are documented by a Clearspan Support Engineer into the ACTS database and assigned an IR number. When the IR is documented, the designated Customer Administrator will receive a confirmation e-mail indicating the problem description and IR number. Upon update to or closure of an IR, a secondary e-mail notification with details of the problem resolution and/or corrective action is sent to the designated Customer Administrator. The Customer Administrator will have access to view both open and closed IRs related to their site, including all the resolution notes pertaining to each IR ticket.

 

Database Change Support

  • Clearspan Customer Technical Support (ACTS) will provide assistance to Group Administrators for technical consultation as defined in Schedule D. Enterprise Customer may self-administer MACDs without a fee. If Clearspan performs any MACD per Enterprise Customer request that are available to be self-administered, it will result in a fee.


Monitoring Notification

  • ACTS monitors all components of Clearspan, including the Core and edge devices for all remote locations. This includes Clearspan provided and maintained equipment, Customer owned CPE purchased through Clearspan with a current maintenance agreement or Customer owned CPE purchased through Clearspan or other with current monitoring agreement.
  • The monitoring process is staffed 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, and 365 days per ye All of Clearspan’s hardware and software components are self-diagnostic and designed for automatic fault recovery. Clearspan includes a suite of management tools called OpEasy installed on its redundant Element Management Servers (EMS’s). From passive monitoring via SNMP and/or email to proactive troubleshooting, Clearspan provides a complete set of tools for managing the entire system end-to-end. If an issue is detected, it is documented by Clearspan’s Support Engineer into the ACTS database and assigned an Incident Report (IR) number. The same Documentation, processed as Customer Reported issues, will be emailed to the Customer Administrator.


OpEasy consists of the following system monitoring tools:

  • Aggregates SNMP traps from Clearspan Applications, Core equipment and Customer premise equipment provided as part of the Clearspan Cloud Services;
  • “Phone home” to Clearspan (if enabled, allows Clearspan (in addition to customer staff) to get SNMP alarms and server alerts);
  • Local notification via email (additional method of being notified of server alarms. Clearspan feels this is necessary due to the characteristics of SNMP alarming (UDP)).

 

Change Control

Clearspan’s Change Control process facilitates the necessary technical and operational coordination, planning, and execution of potentially service impacting activity for both Clearspan and Customer. The process automatically archives every request into the ACTS database for future reference.

The Change Control may require a Method of Operations and Procedures (MOP) to document maintenance activity relevant to components and connectivity of the Cloud Services solution.

When a Change Control request is opened, email notification to the Customer Representative is initiated by the Clearspan Support personnel scheduling the work. If required, Clearspan reviews the Change Control and MOP with Customer Representatives to answer any questions and make adjustments prior to Change Control approval. Clearspan requires timely review and approval from the Customer Representatives to proceed with any Change Control activities. Upon Change Control approval, Clearspan distributes notifications via email to the appropriate customer representatives, if applicable.


Device Support

All terminals must be running the firmware revision specified by Clearspan.  Device support shall be provided by Clearspan in accordance with Clearspan’s certified device list as updated by Clearspan from time to time and available upon request.

Service Exceptions

With respect to the Support Services, the following exceptions apply to Clearspan’s Services. They are defined at two levels. Terminal Support and the Clearspan Customer Premise SBC and PSTN Gateways.

 Terminal Support

Clearspan terminal support is limited to terminals listed on the approved ‘Clearspan Certified Terminals’, as updated by Clearspan from time to time and available upon request.

SIP 2.0 compliant terminals and devices not included in the Clearspan supported device list may be connected to the Cloud Service following operational testing by the Customer.  Ongoing support for such terminals and devices which pass that evaluation are the responsibility of the Customer.  Upon Customer request, a professional services engagement can be coordinated with Clearspan to provide support services to complete this operational testing in Clearspan lab environments for a fee and expectations of the parties documented in a SOW to be agreed by the parties prior to commencing such activity.  Engagements would be scheduled based on resource availability.  Devices to be tested Upon successful completion of the validation, responsibility for ongoing support for such terminals and devices would be shared by the Customer and Clearspan.

Service and support for any terminal equipment that is on the approved Clearspan Certified Terminals equipment list but not purchased from Clearspan will have the limitation of no hardware replacement service from Clearspan. A Non-Clearspan Provided Endpoint Provisioning Service fee per device is required if provisioned by Clearspan. Also, additional potential limitations include, but are not limited to, firmware upgrades and isolating/resolving device firmware issues.  If a problem is isolated as related to a non-Clearspan provided terminal, Clearspan will not be responsible for repair or replacement of the device. Clearspan will refer the customer to the device vendor for device replacement or resolution. The customer will also be given an Incident Report (IR) number that can be referenced by the vendor if additional information or consultation is required. If the CPE is not purchased from Clearspan but has a valid maintenance contract with the vendor, Clearspan will support firmware upgrades based on the process defined in Device Support.

 

Clearspan Customer Premise SBC and PSTN Gateways

Clearspan Customer Premise SBC and PSTN Gateway support is limited to those devices listed on the approved ‘Clearspan Certified SBC & Gateways’ equipment list, available upon request, which list will be updated as necessary to include additional equipment when applicable.

Service and support for any Customer Premise SBC device or PSTN gateway equipment that is on the approved Clearspan Certified Customer Premise SBC and PSTN Gateway equipment list but not purchased from Clearspan will not have hardware replacement service from Clearspan. An Appliance Remote Implementation and Provisioning Service fee for each non-Clearspan provided SBC or Gateway and a monthly Appliance Management Service fee for Non-Clearspan provided equipment will apply. Clearspan will not monitor and support customer provided SBC’s or Gateway that are not covered by a current Clearspan maintenance agreement or the monthly Appliance Management Service fee.  Also, additional potential limitations include, but are not limited to, firmware upgrades and isolating/resolving device firmware/software/configuration issues.  If a problem is isolated as related to a non-Clearspan provided site SBC or gateway, Clearspan will not be responsible for repair or replacement of the device.