Purpose

This document is an agreement between the Minfos database team and the customer, outlining what constitutes acceptable database support service, in quantifiable and measurable terms.

The intent of this service agreement is to ensure that proper understanding and commitments are in place for effective database support, measurement of that support, and resource planning in the provision of database services. This document details the database service objectives, how those objectives will be measured, and the schedule of distribution for the measurements.

In scope

The service includes database support for Minfos software products, and limited database support for the information technology infrastructure of the customer.

All Minfos customer sites that we have recorded in our service management system are covered by this service level agreement.

Out of scope

The service will not include database support for:

  • Requests from personnel who are not on the list of authorised employees provided by the customer
  • Pharmacy IT infrastructure—for example, networks, devices, servers, workstations, operating systems, and third-party applications that are not specific to Minfos
  • Incidents or requests from pharmacies or individuals not listed in our service management system

Overview

The sections in this document detail how the service is to be measured and evaluated, as agreed by both parties. These sections are:

  • Participants, which lists all the stakeholders involved in the acceptance and maintenance of this agreement, and it defines their roles and responsibilities
  • Service objectives and measurements, which details the agreed service levels, including how they are measured
  • Additional Considerations, which lists the Minfos signatories to this agreement, and provides a glossary of terms

Participants

The key participants in the process of negotiating and managing the Minfos Database Service Level Agreement are:

  • The Head of Minfos
  • The Minfos Customer Service Desk Manager
  • The Minfos Database Team Lead
  • Minfos Customer Database Analysts
  • The Customer


Contacts

Name

Position

Angela Lapthorn

Head of Minfos

Anna Lamberti

Customer Service Desk Manager


Responsibilities

Role

Responsibilities

Head of Minfos
  • Provides a managed level of service at a budgeted cost to all users
  • Approves a service plan (including cost and resources forecast) for services and improvements
  • Forecasts medium-term volumes for services managed, in terms of service demand from all sources and capacity units
  • Acquires/manages capacity in line with policy to balance utilisation and responsiveness to new demands; allocates workload across different geographic capacity pools to meet customer needs and utilisation requirements
  • Forecasts service demand and resource needs within cost budget; manages directly assigned workforce (customised service) within budget; provides input on customer satisfaction needs and issues with competency development

Customer Service Desk Manager

  • Identifies service level requirements
  • Negotiates and formalises the requirements in this document, and other Service Level Agreements, with the customer

Customer Service Desk Manager

  • Negotiates and finalises any operational level agreement required within the service provider for supporting the service
  • Negotiates and agrees with the customer any service level requirement for any proposed new or developing services
  • Analyses and reviews service performance against this Service Level Agreement, and continuously works to improve it
  • Organises regular service level reviews with the customer, covering:
    • Follow-up on outstanding actions from previous reviews
    • Current performance
    • Appropriate actions to maintain or improve service levels
    • Review of service levels and targets (where necessary)
  • Coordinates any temporary changes required to service levels (e.g. extra database hours required by the customer or reduced levels of service over a maintenance period). Ensures that changes are assessed for their impact on service levels
  • Ensures that service levels are meeting customer needs and ensures that appropriate action is taken when they are not
  • Monitors the established performance indicators, and regularly reviews and adjusts them accordingly
  • Facilitates the identification and resolution of customer satisfaction issues
  • Operates and maintains the service
  • Ensures that database services operate within service level targets.
  • Reports on the performance of service components
  • Maintains operational logs and operational knowledge bases

Database Team Leader

  • Communicates the Service Level Agreements to the customer
  • Together with the Customer Service Desk Manager, negotiates and agrees with the customer any requirements for proposed new or developing services
  • On behalf of the customer, coordinates any temporary changes required to service levels with the Minfos Customer Service Desk Manager
  • Monitors the service and service levels
  • Communicates with the customer, to report on any performance of service components that the customer reports
  • Requests and shares feedback from customers

Customer Database Analyst

  • Performs daily operations tasks
  • Ensures all Service Level Agreements are met at all times
  • Provides data on the execution of services
  • Records all incidents and assists the customer with issues
  • Records completed work

Customer Database Analyst

  • Performs routine maintenance tasks on Minfos databases
  • Advises on maintaining up to date software upgrades
  • Strives to ensure customer satisfaction
  • Implements approved internal operational software changes
  • Performs analysis of issues

Customer

  • Provides detailed information regarding service requirements
  • Provides evidence to assist the Database Analyst in determining the causes of any issues—for example, screenshots, detailed reports, or audit logs
  • Provides detailed accounts of customer requests
  • Communicates with the database analyst to resolve database issues
  • Provides consent for the Minfos Customer Database Analyst to access their computers remotely, when requested
  • Allows access to computers for the duration required to resolve an issue
  • Notifies the Minfos database team in advance of any pre-determined required assistance
  • Ensures that all processes and procedures are followed as instructed by the Minfos Database Analyst


Service objectives and measurements

Database services are provided by the Minfos database team. This Minfos department is committed to delivering quality customer service to ensure the best possible database service to our customers.

Service management reports will be provided monthly to determine whether the service level objectives are meeting defined service level commitments between the database team and the customer. We regularly review these reports, which we believe reinforces our commitment to provide optimal service, based on the service objectives defined in this section.

Service objectives

Service hours

Standard database support hours

Weekdays

8:00am to 5:00pm (AEST)

 All database calls are logged and managed by the Minfos database team during our standard support hours.

Service request methods

Minfos database requests can be requested using one of the following four methods.

Minfos Help Centre

This is the preferred contact method, and is available to all customers. Each pharmacy is provided with a log in to the Minfos Help Centre. They can submit a help ticket after logging in. 

Telephone

Customers may contact Minfos by phone at any time, on the hotline: 1300 887 418.

  • During standard database hours, calls are answered by the Minfos support team
  • Calls received outside of the Minfos database business hours are answered by a third-party call centre. These calls are logged in the Minfos Help Centre, for visibility and measurability and to be actioned by the Minfos database team on the next available business day.

Email                                                                     

Customers and external suppliers may communicate with the database team by sending an email to help@minfos.com.au.

Communication received in this mailbox from our Minfos customers will be logged in the Minfos Help Centre, for visibility and measurability.


Service availability

For the provision of the service covered by this Service Level Agreement, availability is determined by the amount of the time the method of the service is available to users.

During working hours, the Minfos database team will seek to achieve 100 per cent availability across all service request methods combined, so the customer can report an incident or request service through any of the available methods.

The estimated individual availability of each request method is shown in the following table.

Request Method

Hours of availability

Telephone
 (Minfos support centre hotline)

During business hours

Email

At all times

Minfos Help Centre

At all times

Database reliability

As part of the quality of service, the Minfos database team has designed the service to be resilient and reliable.

Scheduled processing

All database requests made by customers will be managed according to the business rules of the Minfos Database team.

The customer can request service or report an incident by the four methods listed in Service request methods.

The Minfos database team may respond to an enquiry by any of the above methods, depending on the requirements of the customer.

Service performance    

The target resolution time for each incident or service request depends on its priority. The agreed targets are as follows:

Priority

Description

Target Resolution Time

3

Moderate

24 hours

4

Low

48 hours

6

Ongoing

No time frame

7

Weekly

7 days

 

Priority 3: Moderate

  • Product inclusions for Multi-store
  • MNPN requests from integrated parties (Dose-Aid, DD Books)
  • Retail Pricing files for selected brands

Priority 4: Low

  • Product inclusions and MNPN assignment from pharmacies

Priority 6: Ongoing

  • Product Merges (available monthly)
  • API Wholesaler Update (available monthly).
  • Sigma Wholesaler Update (available monthly).
  • Symbion Wholesaler Update (available weekly).
  • Dispense Updates (available monthly)

Priority 7: Weekly

  • File testing
  • Maintenance of existing Minfos supplier files, see “Current supplier list maintained by Minfos Master Database”
  • Wholesale Files for selected brands
  • Head office MNPN update requests for selected brands
  • Promotion files for selected brands
  • Prescription Pricing files for selected brands

New file maintenance

Direct supplier files will be tested and provided to pharmacies periodically. Prerequisites for supplier file acceptance are:

  • Supplying the file with the correct information to be supplied to pharmacies
  • Following the correct formatting as required for file provision

New suppliers will be supplied with:

  • An introductory letter and explanatory details and requirements
  • A sample template and file composition
  • A testing phase timeline and expectations


Service objective ratings

All logged issues and database requests will be managed within our Service Level Agreements. We anticipate meeting more than 90 per cent of our service objectives.

Targets

Percentage of incidents and database request targets met

Met

≥ 90%

Breached

< 10%


Measurement reporting

Monthly reports will be generated from the Minfos Help Centre to help us monitor the level of service against our targets, and will include:

  • Database team analyst work breakdown
  • Periodic reporting covering particular Service Level Agreements

These reports will compare details of performance with all Service Level Agreement targets, and include details of any trends or specific actions taken to improve service quality.

Reports may be pared down to the component level, especially if a target is reported as breached. The Customer Service Desk Manager will distribute all reports to the Head of Minfos and Database Team Lead for review.


Additional considerations

This section provides important database information that is external from this agreement.

Signatories

The following people have reviewed and approved this document, and agree that it will be used as the formal Service Level Agreement for the provision of the Minfos database service.      
               

Name

Position

Angela Lapthorn

Head of Minfos

Anna Lamberti

Customer Service Desk Manager


Glossary of terms


Term

Definition

AgreementA document that describes a formal understanding between two or more parties.

Availability

The ability of the database service or other service to perform its agreed function when required.

Customer

The site or pharmacy that Minfos has recorded as being a customer of Minfos

Database hours

An agreed regular time period during which the database service is to be available.

Failure

Not operating to specification, or not delivering the required output.

Impact

A measure of the effect of an incident, problem, or change on business processes.

Incident

An unplanned interruption to business processes, or a reduction in the quality of an IT service.

Priority

A category used to identify the relative importance of an incident, problem or change.

Process

A structured set of activities designed to accomplish a specific objective.

Resolution

Action taken to repair the root cause of an incident or problem, or to implement a workaround.

Role

A set of responsibilities, activities, and authorities assigned to a person or a team.

Service level

Measured and reported achievement against one or more service level targets.

Service level agreement (SLA)

An agreement between a service provider and a customer.

Service level requirement (SLR)

A customer requirement for an aspect of an IT service or database request.

Service level target

A commitment that is documented in a service level agreement.

Self-service portal

The service management tool used to manage database incidents at customer sites.

Service or incident request

A formal request from a user for something to be provided.

Urgency

An estimate of how long it will take for a given incident, problem, or change to have a significant impact on the business.

We

Minfos®, the company. Also referred to as “us” and “our”.

Current supplier list maintained by Minfos Master Database

This list is available here.