1. Scope
This Support SLA describes our support commitments for the Meridian platform — the Polaris desktop, the Aurora mobile companion, the Island Bar widget, and the supporting back-end services (the "Service"). It applies to firms subscribed under the MSA. Trials, beta features, and unpaid accounts are supported on a best-efforts basis only and are not covered by the response targets or service-level credits.
2. Hours of support
| Window | Hours |
|---|---|
| Standard support | Monday – Friday, 8:00 to 18:00 Pacific Time, excluding Canadian statutory holidays |
| Severity 1 emergency response | Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, including holidays |
3. Channels
- Email — support@thenovasystem.com.
- In-product help — Help button inside Polaris and Aurora.
- Documentation — knowledge base and onboarding guides, accessible inside the product.
- Status — /legal/status for real-time service availability and incident history.
- Severity 1 hotline — emergency escalation procedure provided to subscribed firms at onboarding.
4. Severity definitions
| Severity | Definition | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Severity 1 — Critical | The Service is unavailable to a material portion of the firm's users, or a confirmed security incident is in progress. | Sign-in is broken for the whole firm; the platform is returning errors to all users; suspected breach of customer data. |
| Severity 2 — High | A major feature is unavailable or impaired and there is no acceptable workaround. | Documents cannot be uploaded; calendar sync is broken; assistant returns errors for most prompts. |
| Severity 3 — Medium | A feature is impaired but there is a workaround, or a non-critical feature is unavailable. | A single integration is failing; a non-essential dashboard widget is wrong; cosmetic UI defect with workaround. |
| Severity 4 — Low | Question, how-to, configuration help, or minor request. | How do I bulk-import clients? Can you help me configure SSO? |
5. Response targets
Response time means the time from when a properly described, in-scope ticket is received during the applicable hours until a Nova System staff member responds with substantive information (an acknowledgement alone does not satisfy the response target).
| Severity | First response target | Update cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Severity 1 | One business hour, 24×7 | Every two hours until resolved or mitigated |
| Severity 2 | Four standard support hours | Daily until resolved |
| Severity 3 | One business day | As needed |
| Severity 4 | Two business days | As needed |
6. Uptime commitment
We target 99.9% monthly uptime for the production Service measured as the percentage of minutes in a calendar month in which the core authenticated Service is available, excluding scheduled maintenance, force-majeure events, and excused downtime. Status data is published at /legal/status.
6.1 Scheduled maintenance
We announce scheduled maintenance through the status page and, for maintenance expected to be user-visible, by email to administrative contacts at least seventy-two hours in advance, except for emergency maintenance to address security or stability concerns.
6.2 Excused downtime
The uptime commitment does not cover unavailability caused by (a) factors outside our reasonable control, (b) the Customer's actions or third parties acting on the Customer's behalf, (c) the Customer's equipment, network, or integrations, (d) beta features, (e) third-party services not under our control, including the Customer's connected services and certain third-party intelligence service providers' outages, or (f) suspension permitted by the MSA.
7. Service credits
For each calendar month in which the production Service falls below the uptime target, we will, upon request, issue a service credit applicable against the next month's invoice:
| Monthly uptime | Service credit |
|---|---|
| Below 99.9% and ≥ 99.0% | 5% of that month's subscription fee |
| Below 99.0% and ≥ 95.0% | 10% of that month's subscription fee |
| Below 95.0% | 25% of that month's subscription fee |
Service credits are the Customer's sole remedy for failure to meet the uptime commitment. Credits must be requested within thirty days of the end of the month in which the downtime occurred. Aggregate credits in a given month will not exceed 25% of that month's subscription fee.
8. Out-of-scope support
Support does not cover (a) issues with third-party services not under our control, (b) defects in the Customer's own integrations, (c) bespoke development beyond the supported APIs, (d) end-user training beyond the documentation, or (e) issues caused by use of the Service contrary to documentation or the AUP. We may offer professional services for out-of-scope work under a separate statement of work.
9. Higher tiers
Plans that include premium support may offer faster response targets, named technical contacts, quarterly reviews, and structured escalation paths. Premium terms, if applicable, are set out in the Order Form.
10. Escalation
To escalate an open ticket, reply with "ESCALATE" in the subject line and a short explanation. Severity 1 hotline procedures are provided at onboarding for the firm's primary administrators.
11. Changes
We may update this Support SLA from time to time. Material reductions in service levels will not take effect for the Customer until the next renewal.
12. Contact
Support: support@thenovasystem.com. Premium-support and partnership: trust@thenovasystem.com.