Service Level Agreements
Master Edition
Software
Availability
Sidekick uses Third Parties to provide its Services. You may review all Third Parties used and their respective privacy commitments in Privacy, Data, & Cookies.
Sidekick uses Microsoft Azure technical infrastructure-as-a-service platform to operate the Sidekick Service. We work hard to commit to the same service levels agreed to by Microsoft for our software based on the services used. You may review these service level agreements in Microsoft's Service Level Agreements.
Occasionally, we use other Third Parties to provide the Service. Sidekick guarantees 98% availability for software using other Third Parties.
Security
Sidekick fully commits to your privacy and the security of your services and data. Please refer to Privacy, Data, & Cookies for our software security commitments.
Support
Support SLAs control school success, general support, and Human Sidekick support SLAs.
School success support refers to engagements with point person dedicated to your customer relationship with Sidekick
General support refers to general support tickets such as administrative IT requests
Human Sidekick support refers to the one-on-one virtual coaching and coordination provided by a dedicated team member for each active project.
General Response Times
Sidekick representatives will deliver an initial response to email support requests within 24 hours.
General Resolution Times
Sidekick commits to resolve any issues in a reasonable amount of time not to exceed:
General Issue Type | Definition | Resolution Time |
Feature Request | A customer issue that requires a resolution outside of the existing set of features and services, requiring the development of new features and services | n/a |
Standard | Material issues that do not block the use of functionality or services considered critical vendor promises with the school for which there is a reasonable workaround | 30 days |
Priority | Material issues that may block the use of functionality or services considered critical vendor promises with the school but for which there is a reasonable workaround | 14 days |
Emergency | Material issues that block the use of functionality or services considered critical vendor promises with the school for which there is no reasonable workaround. Emergency issues largely include (without precluding other potential circumstances that fit this definition): data breaches, a compromise to student or staff or safety, a risk of severe financial loss to the school, or a risk of our service causing physical or mental harm to any person. | 2 days |
We want you to be successful and are committed to earning your trust and championship. Special issues will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Additional services
Custom Projects
Sidekick will deliver custom projects as quickly as possible from the moment we receive a request from a teacher. The more lead time provided, however, the more likely you will receive multiple project options to choose from. We cannot guarantee a project will be ready when given less than 3 weeks lead time.
Provided lead time | Guaranteed project options |
Less than 3 weeks | 0 |
Less than 6 weeks | 1 |
6 weeks or more | 2 |
Custom Project Delivery includes the recruitment and setup of Live Mentor Sessions and is beholden to the same SLAs.
Partners
As a mission-driven organization, it matters to us whom your students interact with. Our partner recruitment process includes screening for partners that can most effectively have a positive impact the students of the relevant class. Among other criteria, that means professionals who: understand how to work with your student age group; can relate credibly with the students around the chosen topic or learning goal; and can serve as positive role models or longer-term mentors as representatives of the student body.
We will connect your class with partners that match all criteria whenever possible. At this time, however, we cannot guarantee that partners will fulfill all criteria, except those meant to ensure the safety of everyone involved.
Live Sessions
Sidekick will facilitate live and/or recorded interactions between partners and students via in-person meetings as much as possible and video sessions when it is not. Sidekick cannot guarantee in-person connection with any partner.
When educators like teachers make a live session request, they should provide availability slots, which are options when they are available for a live session. Sidekick will fill availability slots within the guaranteed amount of lead time based on the number of slots provided. Sidekick will often fulfill scheduling requests far within the guaranteed lead times.
Number of available 1-hour slots | Guaranteed lead time |
1 | 6 weeks |
2 | 5 weeks |
3 | 4 weeks |
4 or more | 3 weeks |
If a scheduled session must move, Sidekick must know within 1 week prior to the scheduled slot to ensure the partner can be re-secured. Sidekick will make every effort to reschedule with the original partner but cannot guarantee a reschedule faster than the guaranteed lead times for any given number of availability slots.
Partner Attendance
Sidekick recognizes that unforeseen circumstances do arise for both educators and scheduled partners. We will make every available effort to hold scheduled times but we cannot guarantee the attendance of any partner to a scheduled commitment.
To prevent missed appointments, we will:
Attempt to confirm "reserve" professionals with the chosen partner organization as well as a reserve partner organization during the recruitment phase of the project.
Screen projects for partner availability before offering these projects
Include the importance of attendance during partner training
Send a calendar invite using the partner's provide contact information
Send a reminder prior to the day of the live session to the partner using the partner's provided contact information
Attempt to reach the educator and partner by phone, text message, and email if they have not joined the live session by the scheduled time.
If a partner misses a session for no known reason, we will:
Cancel the session and inform the educators immediately.
Ask the educators whether they would like to release the partner and request new availability slots as part of the notification.
If the educators prefer to keep the partner, request that the partner reschedule within the new availability slots.
If the educators prefer to release the partner, inform the partner of the outcome and begin the onboarding process of a reserve partner.
If a partner will miss or misses a session due to unexpected circumstances, we will:
Cancel the session and inform the educators immediately.
Request new availability slots from the educators in the cancellation notification.
Request that the partner reschedule within the new availability slots.
If a teacher cancels or misses a scheduled session within 1 week of the session, we will:
Inform the teacher there is no reschedule guarantee as explained in the SLA for Live Sessions.
Request new availability slots as part of the notification to the teacher.
Notify the partner of the cancellation.
Request that the partner reschedule while informing them there is no obligation to do so.
Your commitments
To support Sidekick's effort to comply with applicable laws and communicate with students, schools must designate required information as "directory information."
For schools
To support Sidekick’s effort to provide students and staff safe and secure options for connecting with partners, schools must ensure student and staff devices can access certain servers and communication services that use WebRTC technology. These technologies and services are detailed in the Administrator's How-to Guide on Technology Requirements.
In the event the school cannot grant access to these platforms on school-provided devices, they agree to provide a suitable alternative. If a suitable alternative cannot be provided, Sidekick can no longer guarantee the described service levels.
For all customers
In the case when a customer hosts the Service themselves, it is hard for Sidekick to have direct insight into the current nuances that may exist with how the software application is installed, performing and being used. Therefore, customers commit to help troubleshoot and meet the turnaround timeframes for support responses and resolutions by providing the following:
Direct remote access to the software application – this request should be reviewed by your Information Security and Risk Management team and their policy regarding remote access;
Copies of issue logs from Buyer’s application support team (commonly referred to as Infrastructure Production Support – IPS);
Confirmation of the current version and any patches and customizations that have been applied.
Additionally, since we may not fully know all of the integration points used by the customer regarding the software application, we may seek to disclaim its SLA obligations if Errors are caused by items the customer introduced into a software application or by the customer's unacceptable use of the Service as defined in Acceptable Conduct.
Material Breach
You may consider 3 or more Emergency issues during any calendar month, not counting those issues covered under Force Majeure, a material breach of your agreement with us and act on any clause within your agreement with us regarding a material breach.
Force Majeure
No delay, failure, or default, other than a failure to pay fees when due, will constitute a breach of this Agreement to the extent caused by acts of war, terrorism, hurricanes, earthquakes, other acts of God or of nature, strikes or other labor disputes, riots or other acts of civil disorder, embargoes, or other causes beyond the performing party’s reasonable control.
Last updated