Our support and service levels

Key facts

Published support and availability statements

The figures below are service-specific published statements. Confirm the applicable contract, measurement period, exclusions and remedies; they are not a guarantee for every deployment.

Managed Services and Connectivity publish different support windows for different service scopes. Customers holding both should confirm which window and escalation arrangements apply to each incident.

What is set per contract

This guide refers to the General Terms and Conditions v3.6; confirm the version incorporated into your Service Agreement. Under those terms, a Service Level is only a commitment stated under the heading "Service Level" in a Service Description; a "Compliance Target", defined as "the target time it will take to resolve each call to the Support Centre depending on priority", is expressly not a Service Level. For Managed Services, we develop "a bespoke priority and escalation matrix with each customer" that dictates how the service desk treats each incident type, with business-critical systems receiving greater alert thresholds and higher prioritisation.

The general terms add these rules around whatever Service Levels a Schedule contains:

• blueAPACHE "must meet or exceed any Service Level" except to the extent a failure "arises from, or is contributed to by, a Reasonable Excuse" (clause 3.7).
• Service Levels are measured with our tools and the results are "final and binding on Customer" (clause 3.8).
• If the Service Period ends without the required notice and the customer continues using the Services, clause 2.9 provides for a three-month extension on its stated conditions, including published-list pricing and no Service Levels.
• Service-specific credits and remedies should be checked in the applicable Schedule. The General Terms also provide remedies, including a pro-rata prepaid-fee refund under clause 3.28 for a qualifying termination following a material Service Description change; clause 27.8 addresses cumulative rights and remedies.
• The Reasonable Excuse list includes customer-caused faults, third party software we use, third party acts, Emergencies, customer non-response to incidents, and anything the Schedule or Service Order adds.

How incidents are raised

Our support channels are available to existing customers. Call the Service Desk on 1300 135 548 and select option 2 within Australia, or +61 3 8696 9369 and select option 2 from overseas, to speak directly with a Level 2 Service Consultant or Specialist Engineer. Registered managed services customers may also email support@blueapache.com, which the Service Desk monitors, or use the emPOWER client portal at portal.blueapache.com to lodge and track requests. Remote assistance is provided through blueapache.rmmservice.com.au at the Service Desk's direction.

For an urgent or business-critical issue the page advises calling and describing the business impact and urgency so the team can prioritise "in line with your organisation's agreed support arrangements". A good request includes contact details, the affected user or service, what happened, when it began, any error messages and the business impact. The help desk covers desktop, server, telephony, networking, cloud, backup and security, with the exact scope depending on the service agreement.

Under clause 3.19 the customer must inform blueAPACHE promptly of any suspected security compromise, and under clause 7 must make knowledgeable personnel available and respond to incidents that need its participation; failure to do so is a Reasonable Excuse.

Monitoring and tooling

Published Network material describes customer access to the monitoring and management toolset used by our team, providing visibility of managed and unmanaged IT environments. Confirm the access and coverage included in your service. Managed Services uses remote monitoring and management for automated patching and compliance, predictive capacity monitoring and regular environment reviews. The 2026 Managed Services page adds automation-led operations, proactive remediation and self-healing, and real-time digital experience visibility; published partner announcements describe ControlUp and NinjaOne capabilities supporting that approach.

Reporting and governance

Within 5 Business Days of each month end we provide standard reports on performance against key metrics for each Service, including Service Levels; samples are available on request and additional reports can be agreed for additional Fees (clause 4.9). Each party appoints an Account Representative with authority over day-to-day matters, and the parties meet every 6 months to review the Services (clauses 4.10 and 4.11). MDR adds dashboards and monthly reporting for leadership. The Archers case study describes monthly operational reviews and quarterly business reviews run by an Account Executive, Service Delivery Manager and Portfolio Engineer.

Scheduled maintenance and emergencies

Clause 3.10 requires best efforts to carry out Scheduled Maintenance within the relevant Schedule's windows or at other times with at least 3 Business Days' prior notice, and with minimum disruption to the customer's business. A Business Day excludes weekends and national public holidays, so three Business Days can span more than three calendar days. The standard windows themselves are in the applicable service schedules. For services other than emPOWER Managed Services, Scheduled Maintenance covers manufacturer-recommended maintenance of the blueAPACHE Environment including updates, new releases and replacements; for emPOWER Managed Services it covers the same for Customer Managed Equipment.

An Emergency is "any event or circumstance which, in our reasonable opinion, threatens or causes a major disruption or degradation to any Services which requires immediate remedial or avoidance action". Clause 3.13 provides that we will give as much notice as is practical, that the Service may not be available during an Emergency, and that we will use best efforts to restore Services as soon as possible. An Emergency is a Reasonable Excuse to the extent it causes or contributes to the failure; this is not a blanket waiver for unrelated failures. Separately, clause 5.1 lets blueAPACHE update shared environment software and replace components at its discretion without consent, and clause 3.26 addresses security-related suspension, subject to its applicable notice and best-efforts mitigation requirements. Confirm the complete provision rather than treating examples such as a denial-of-service attack as an unrestricted suspension right.

Business continuity and disaster recovery

Two different mechanisms exist. DRaaS (emPOWER IT Continuity Services, Schedule 4) is a contracted Service: where the Schedule includes it, our obligation is to restore Customer Data and Software to the agreed Restore Time Objective and Recovery Point Objective. Business continuity management under clause 15 is a planning arrangement: if the customer wants its own business continuity plan to incorporate management of the Services, it may ask us to perform actions under an Action Plan, which blueAPACHE "will not unreasonably refuse". The customer pays for creating, maintaining and updating the Action Plan and for any work performed when the plan is activated, at the Action Plan's rates, the Service Order's Time and Materials Rates, or our then current rates, as a Professional Service. Fixing activation costs in the Action Plan is the control the clause provides.

Where backups are included, the obligation is to run the backup software at agreed intervals and re-run reported failures; a restore returns the data as it was at backup time. Where backups are not included, the customer must take its own. The terms restrict data-loss liability and describe a remedy for breach of backup or DR obligations, subject to other applicable liability provisions and rights that cannot lawfully be excluded. For customers within clause 10's scope, clause 10.4 describes a ten-element BCP, joint testing at least every six months and results within 7 days. Clause 10.5 addresses customer costs subject to its conditions; these arrangements are not automatically included in every service.

Questions to settle on the Service Order

• Priority definitions, response targets and resolution targets for each priority, and whether they are Service Levels or Compliance Targets.
• Service credits, how they are calculated and whether they are the sole remedy.
• The support window that applies when holding Managed Services and Connectivity together.
• Maintenance windows per Service, and a notification address for emergency notices.
• RPO, RTO, backup intervals and retention for each backup and DR Service.
• Additional Reasonable Excuses the Schedule adds.
• Business continuity Action Plan scope and fixed activation costs.

Related

• Service comparison
• Terms and conditions guide
• How to work with us
• Offices and contact
• Support
• emPOWER Managed Services
• Managed Service Bundles
• Service Agreement

What response time do you commit to?

For Managed Services, a bespoke priority and escalation matrix is agreed with each customer, and the general terms treat a resolution "Compliance Target" as distinct from a Service Level. Targets are set per customer in the service agreement.

What uptime do you publish?

99.999 per cent for emPOWER Cloud services and 100 per cent for its storage, and a minimum 99.99 per cent site uptime for emPOWER Connectivity under a dual-firewall, dual-carriage, multi-carrier design. Schedule 4 also publishes 99.8% availability for the DRaaS environment, subject to its scope, measurement rules and exclusions.

Is support 24/7?

For emPOWER Managed Services, yes: unlimited 24/7 support with Australian staff in business hours and a global team after hours. The emPOWER Connectivity service desk is 7am to 7pm on business days with 24x7 monitoring, and MDR provides 24/7 alerting, triage and remediation. Hours for other services follow the service agreement.

How do I log an incident?

Call 1300 135 548 option 2 in Australia or +61 3 8696 9369 option 2 internationally to reach a Level 2 Service Consultant or Specialist Engineer, email support@blueapache.com if you are a registered managed services customer, or use the client portal at portal.blueapache.com. Call for anything urgent and state the business impact.

Are there service credits?

Service-specific credits and remedies should be checked in the applicable Schedule. The General Terms also provide remedies, including a pro-rata prepaid-fee refund under clause 3.28 for a qualifying termination following a material Service Description change; clause 27.8 addresses cumulative rights and remedies. Ask for the Schedule and confirm whether credits are the sole remedy.

When can you take a service down for maintenance?

Clause 3.10 requires best efforts to use the relevant Schedule's windows or give at least 3 Business Days' notice at other times, and to minimise disruption. In an Emergency we give as much notice as practical and use best efforts to restore Services as soon as possible. The Reasonable Excuse applies only to the extent it causes or contributes to a failure.

What is a Reasonable Excuse?

A defined list of circumstances that excuse blueAPACHE from breach and switch off Service Levels to the extent they contribute to a failure: customer-caused faults, outages at the customer's request, third party software we use, third party acts, Emergencies, customer non-response, and anything the Schedule adds.

Do you include disaster recovery?

Only where the Schedule expressly includes emPOWER IT Continuity Services (DRaaS), in which case the obligation is to restore Customer Data and Software to the agreed RTO and RPO. Business continuity planning under clause 15 is a separate, chargeable arrangement on request.

How often do I get reports and reviews?

Standard reports on performance against key metrics, including Service Levels, within 5 Business Days of each month end, and a joint review of the Services every 6 months. MDR customers also receive dashboards and monthly reporting.

Who measures whether a service level was met?

We use our own measurement tools. Clause 3.8 states that the results "will be final and binding on Customer". Customers seeking independent verification should agree a permitted method; clause 6 restricts unauthorised monitoring, and applicable audit-access rights should also be considered.