Overview
This document details the scope of support for Blackbaud delivered Customizations, including how to contact Customer Support and the type of assistance covered, as well as exclusions and general legal considerations.
Customization Support Availability
Customer Support is available between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Monday through Thursday and between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET on Fridays, excluding holidays. Review our Customer Guide for our holiday closing schedule.
You can contact Customer Support using one of the following methods:
• Case Central: casecentral.blackbaud.com
• Email: [email protected]
Customization Support Services
Customer Support will assist you with questions or issues related to your customization that fall within the following areas:
• Problems with or questions about the installation of Blackbaud customization
• Initial examination of Blackbaud customization to diagnose reported symptoms
• Functional, how-to questions about the operation of the Blackbaud customization
• Troubleshooting error messages that occur when the customization is running in the Blackbaud delivered environment described in the final functional specifications
• Offering direction and\or providing assistance in troubleshooting performance issues with the Blackbaud solution
• Providing original installation files upon request
• Repairing any issues caused by a change made by Blackbaud to the core API unless the change is due to a Planned Obsolescence announced by Product Development
Customization Support
Additionally, support for Business Intelligence provides guidance on reporting off of the Data Marts residing within the Business Intelligence solution. Specifically, Business Intelligence Support can assist with:
• Answer specific questions on how the tables and fields relate to each other in the data warehouse
• Troubleshooting errors in the Integration Services packages during the ETL process
• Troubleshooting errors when processing Analysis Services cubes
• Answer how-to questions about creating pivot reports using Excel
• Troubleshooting reports that are not running properly
• Answer how-to questions about creating a report using Reporting Services within the Reporting Services Scope of Support
Successful installation and use of Business Intelligence require certain third-party products to be installed and running correctly first.
Business Intelligence Support is unable to assist in the installation or troubleshooting of these products, including but not limited to:
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2 or higher
• Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 or higher
• Microsoft Reporting Services 2005 or higher
• Microsoft Office 2007 or higher
In addition, Blackbaud assumes your familiarity with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or higher, Structured Query Language and the tools used to create and modify SQL statements, Analysis Services cubes, Integration Services packages, Reporting Services reports, and Pivot Tables. If your organization does not employ the services of a SQL database administrator, or if your database administrator requires support for SQL administrative operations or other procedures such as adding additional fields or calculations to the solution, Advanced Business Intelligence Services are available on an hourly basis. For more information, or to initiate an Advanced Business Intelligence Services request, email [email protected].
All maintenance and support for customizations performed by Blackbaud Customer Support is provided subject to your Maintenance Agreement. Your Maintenance Agreement is supplemented by the Standard Customization Support Terms and Conditions detailed in Section 2 of this document. These provisions set forth are only obligations of Blackbaud regarding customizations Support. For purposes of this Agreement, “You” or “Your” shall refer to the entity entitled to receive customizations maintenance and support hereunder.
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STANDARD CUSTOMIZATION SUPPORT TERMS AND CONDITIONS General Terms and Conditions
The customization is defined as the features, functionality, documentation, performance, environment, and deliverables covered under the Scope of Work as accepted by You under the Statement of Acceptance.
• The customizations support period begins after the receipt of the signed Statement of Acceptance. Prior to acceptance, customizations will be supported under the terms and conditions of the original Statement of Work (SOW) for the customizations.
• Blackbaud will take all reasonable steps to correct defects in customizations created by Blackbaud that are directly attributable to programming. Blackbaud will take all reasonable steps to have data anomalies repaired and data loss minimized in the customizations directly attributable to programming. This provision is subject to Your performance of scheduled data backups using a prudent method of media rotation.
• Blackbaud supports all customizations for Blackbaud products for future point releases or until a planned obsolescence occurs. A planned obsolescence may consist of newer version of the software, an entirely new software platform or a change to a functional area, application feature, or programming interface that renders an element of the custom solution inoperable. Any future announcement of a change to a new software platform, a functional area, an application feature, or a programming interface that may result in rendering a customization inoperable will be provided at least six (6) months prior to the effective date of that change, and Blackbaud will continue to support the covered element on your current release for a period of six (6) months after the effective date of that change for no additional charge.
• If it is discovered during the analysis that a change in the Blackbaud core application programming interface (API) made during a standard Blackbaud software upgrade was the only cause for the issue(s) with the customization, You will not be charged for the effort required by Blackbaud to return the application to the original working state or to create a suitable workaround.
Customization Modifications Made by You
Any modifications that You make, through the use the Extensibility features of the API or Infinity platform, including any modifications to any third party licensed software included with or embedded in the custom solutions, will become Client created custom solutions and will be handled as such.
Any modifications that You make to the custom solutions, made by You through the use the Extensibility features of the API or Infinity platform and/or those made pursuant to the Scope of Work, including any modifications to any third party licensed software included with or embedded in the custom solutions, will be the responsibility of You and render any Maintenance or Warranty obligations contained in this Scope of Support null and void. Blackbaud will not be liable, in any respect, for any such modifications or any errors, losses or damage resulting from such modifications. Blackbaud has no other responsibilities with respect to Maintenance of custom software modifications other than those specified in this Section and will not be responsible for maintaining other than the most current, unaltered release of the custom solutions.
Exclusions from Blackbaud Customizations Support Services
The following is expressly excluded from the terms of this Agreement:
• Provision, installation, and/or support of new versions and/or enhancements to current versions of non-Blackbaud software.
Non-Blackbaud software includes but shall not be limited to, operating system software, word processing, spreadsheet, reporting, and/or database software.
• Installation of major updates including planned obsolescence to Blackbaud core software other than the customization
• Upgrading any hardware and memory on the system on which You use the customization
• If You are using Blackbaud products that require a common database, You must remain current on maintenance for all products for as long as the customization is in use in order to assure the integrity of Your customization.
• Cancellation of maintenance on any one system may cause incompatibilities with related products, and performance of all customizations could be adversely affected.
• Repair of the customization and data if Blackbaud determines the failure is related to:
• The equipment or supplies You are using
• Misuse or neglect of the customization including, but not limited to, failure to perform scheduled data backups using a prudent method of media rotation
• Anyone other than a member of Blackbaud’s staff making any alteration to the customization or to the system files which may affect the customization
• Environmental conditions, including, but not limited to, insufficient, excessive, or irregular electrical power, failure of air conditioning, excessive heat or humidity, flood, water, wind or lightning
• Use of the customization for purposes other than those for which it was expressly designed
• The use of any software other than the customization
• Testing of customizations throughout the lifecycle of the version for which the solution was delivered (but support is provided if the solution stops functioning as originally delivered)
• Providing or creating a testing and\or quality assurance environment
• Fixes to any programming errors made by Client
• New functional customizations or functional enhancements to existing client developed customizations.
• Training of new staff on the customization
Blackbaud reserves the right to charge additional support fees at its then standard rates for services performed in connection with reported incidents that are later determined to have been due to hardware or software not supplied by Blackbaud. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Blackbaud has no obligation to perform support services in connection with issues resulting from hardware or software not supplied by Blackbaud.
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General Legal Considerations
• The delivery of any customization support service to You by Blackbaud is subject to conditions beyond the control of Blackbaud or its agents, including but not limited to, Acts of God, acts of any public enemy, fire, flood, epidemic or quarantine restrictions, strikes, riots or civil commotion, freight or other embargoes, weather conditions, or any failures by Blackbaud’s subcontractors or suppliers, any of which events may cause Blackbaud to limit or suspend support. Subcontractors and suppliers include, but shall not be limited to, 3rd party vendors for the Blackbaud website, datacenter, ISP, etc.
• You may not sub-license, sell, rent, lend, or lease any portion of the customization. You may not translate or create derivative works based on the customization.
• You must be an active Blackbaud customer in good standing and covered under a Blackbaud software maintenance plan to receive services herein related to customization support and services provided by Blackbaud to You.
• All provisions of this agreement shall be governed by the laws of South Carolina.
• If You choose not to install the latest version of the customization, Blackbaud reserves the right to limit the scope of the support services provided.
