An overview of our standard approach for pre-planned service support requests

Support Service Requests

This page outlines Formpipe’s standard approach to pre-planned and out-of-hours service requests, what the requirements generally are and what typical expectations a customer can have.

It covers the kind of notice that is needed, what is meant by ‘out-of-hours’ and how the chargeable rates are calculated. It is an outline of our standard approach and because every situation can be unique, please discuss with us your specific requirements or if you have any questions.

What is an out-of-hours request?

Our normal working hours are 09:00-17:30 Monday to Friday. We have staff located across the world, although it’s likely that pre-planned support services will be provided by a member of staff in the BST or CET time zones.

“Out-of-Hours” typically means any service that is provided outside of this time period, such as evenings, early morning or weekends. It also refers to public holidays – such as Easter and Christmas. The specifics will depend on the service, the required team member and the timezone/countries involved.

What are the rates for services?

Rates are dependent on several factors, but the below is a guide to how the rates are affected by out-of-hours services:

• Standard Hours Weekdays        – 1.0 x standard rate
• Out-of-Hours Weekdays            – 1.5 x standard rate
• Saturdays                     – 1.5 x standard rate
• Sundays and Public Holidays     – 2.0 x standard rate

For example, a service request of 3 hours 04:00-07:00 on a Tuesday would be charged at a 1.5x rate. While a service at 10:00-13:00 on a Sunday would be at a 2.0x.

Active vs. Available

In some cases, the service request would be for a Formpipe agent to be available ‘on call’. This may be for an agreed period of time, in which maybe only some time is spent actively providing a service.

Where this is agreed, the rates above will be charged at 100% for ‘Active’ time and 50% for ‘Available on Call’ time. Time is charged in 0.5 hour increments.

For example, an agent is requested as ‘Available’ between 10:00-13:00 Sunday. During this time, they are ‘Active’ from 11:30-13:00. This means the invoiced time would be:

• 50%: 2.0 x rate x 1.5 hours (for the 10:00-11:30 ‘Available’ time)
• 100%: 2.0 x rate x 1.5 hours (for the 11:30-13:00 ‘Active’ time)

Availability and Notice Periods

Please give us as much notice for your service request as possible. Generally, one month or more should provide suitable time for us to arrange the resources and all requests will see our best endeavours to fulfill.

If you have standard dates each year that you would like a pre-planned service, please let us know as early as possible and we will do our best to arrange it for you.

To pre-plan the services, we would require a purchase order or agreement up to 100% of the planned time rate – but we would invoice as per the example above. A purchase order or written agreement is required before resources can be allocated or confirmed.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss a service support requirement, please get in touch.