As a Pegasystems client, you have a key role to play to ensure the best possible results for your technical support cases. Members of your team should be familiar with this handbook before the need for assistance arises. This handbook will help you and your team understand the following aspects of your experience with Pega's global support team:
- Technical support services that Pega provides
- Ways to contact Pega for technical support
- Information that you need to provide initially and throughout the lifecycle of your case
- The Support Case process
- Support Case severity levels and response times
- Your responsibilities as a Pega client
Pega provides maintenance services as described in this Client Support Handbook and according to the terms of your Agreement and an applicable Schedule. The Pega team of global support experts is dedicated to keeping your Pega products up and running effectively. While Pega products are designed to provide stability and serviceability, it is reassuring to know that a dedicated team of support engineers and product specialists is ready to respond to your needs.
We strive to ensure your success by delivering industry-leading, world-class support. Our goal is to ensure your satisfaction each time you contact us.
For additional Pega Support information that is not part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see the Pega Support Center.
For more in-depth information about Pega's support processes, best practices, and tools not included as part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see How to get support.
Scope of Client Support at Pega
Severity Levels and Response Times
Software Update and Extended Support Policy
Account Administrators
If you have been designated as a Account Administrator for your Pega Support account, you can manage authorized users. Authorized users are the contacts for your company’s support account and the people who can create, update, and view Support Cases.
Only your company’s designated, authorized account contacts may submit Support Cases. These individuals can request that our support team investigate problems or suggest modifications to your system. Authorized account contacts should be a focal point in your company for Pega knowledge and skills.
Select your authorized account contacts carefully. They should be individuals who are knowledgeable about both your technical environment and Pega products. As Pega product experts, authorized account contacts must be readily accessible to answer questions from other personnel and product users in your company.
The names and contact details of authorized account contacts may be transferred internationally to process your Support Cases or other submitted case work.
For additional Account Administration information that is not part of the Support@Pega contract information, go to How to Get Support, Administering accounts.
Scope of Client Support at Pega
The global team of support experts at Pegasystems can provide assistance investigating potential product defects. This includes problems that arise in the following example scenarios:
- Problems encountered during application development
- Issues encountered during standard use or testing
- Environmental issues, including performance and configuration problems with the product
- Installation, update, or migration problems
- Other software use or operation errors
Pega support team members help isolate problems with non-Pegasystems products as specified in the Pega Platform Support Guide.
For clients who have licensed Pega Cloud® Services or Pega Cloud for Government or both, in addition to the assistance described above, Pega provides the following:
- 24 x 7 x 365 monitoring and management of production services, including monitoring and management for database, environment, and network
- Security monitoring and management
- Service maintenance and updates, including patches and other updates for security, infrastructure, operating system, and Pega applications
- Disaster Recovery service
- Database backup and restore
- Threat and vulnerability testing
- Root cause analysis for Severity 1 events
There are situations where the support team is not the appropriate group to provide assistance. Problems of this nature that fall outside the bounds of your Pegasystems Maintenance Agreement include the following types of requests:
- Requests for application design or development advice
- Detailed performance tuning and system optimization
- Requests for general information about the products and services offered by Pega
- Client runtime application performance issues
You can post these types of requests to the Pega Support Center, or, for in-depth assistance, you can engage Pega Consulting to assess your needs.
Self-Service Offerings
If you encounter problems with your Pega products, you might be able to solve the problem yourself. Pega provides a variety of self-service options for problem solving and continuing education for Pega products. This information is always available to you and your colleagues for achieving business goals as quickly and efficiently as possible. See How to Get Support, Support self-service offerings.
Support Case Handling
This section explains various aspects of Support Case handling.
Submitting Support Cases
Support Case Types
Hot Fixes and Local Changes
Escalation Request Process
Reopening Support Cases
Submitting Support Cases
If, after using the many different self-service resources offered by Pega, you are unable to resolve a problem, you should submit a Support Case. Only authorized account contacts should submit a Support Case and follow up on in-progress cases.
Support Case Types
Pega Support tailors your support experience to provide you the appropriate support assistance based on your need and context.
Pega classifies support cases as Issues and Incidents. Issues are for situations when a Pega feature or function is not working as expected. Incidents are reported when an unintended event has caused a system outage or major impact on your business operations.
You can also request assistance for other support services, namely:
-
Cloud change
-
Existing hotfix
-
Cloud assistance
For additional information on Support Case types that is not part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see How to Get Support, Creating a support ticket.
Hot Fixes and Local Changes
Support Cases are closed upon delivery of a solution through a local change, hotfix, patch, or plan for resolution in the next update release.
For additional information about hotfixes and patch releases for Pega Infinity™, including Pega Platform™, that is not part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, refer to the articles in Keeping Current with Pega.
To find information on the latest Pega Platform patch releases (Pega Platform version 8 and later releases), watch for announcements in the Pega Support Center.
Escalation Request Process
If you have submitted a Support Case, but you are not satisfied with the support or advice provided, you may request escalation. For additional information that is not part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see How to Get Support, Escalating Support Tickets.
Reopening Support Cases
The Support Case Reopen feature allows you to reopen a Support Case that was resolved within the past 20 days. If the Support Case was resolved more than 20 days ago, you should submit a new Support Case. For additional information that is not part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see How to Get Support, Requesting support services > What are the criteria for reopening a support ticket?
Severity Levels and Response Times
When you submit Support Cases, you must specify the circumstances and context necessitating the request. The Severity level is then automatically calculated and drives the expected response times, both for Pega and for you, the client who submitted the case.
Severity Levels
Support Case Response Times
Support Team Response Times
Client Response Times
Severity Levels
When submitting a Support Case, provide information about your problem and specify the following details that will be used to evaluate the severity of the case:
- Support Case type
- Business impact or project exposure
- Currently an active Support Case
- Environment affected (development, test, staging, production)
- Deployment affected (Pega Cloud, On-Premises, or Client Cloud)
Below are some example scenarios and their calculated severity:
|
Calculated Severity Level |
Scenario |
|---|---|
|
Severity 1 |
The production system is down or inaccessible. |
|
Severity 2 |
The reported incident causes disruption of a major feature or function of the system that has significant impact on production users and functionality. A Severity 2 incident can also severely impair development efforts. A Severity 2 incident prevents users from performing work or significant portions of their work, and it affects a large number of users. |
|
Severity 3 |
The reported incident involves a feature or functional failure that results in the Pega product not working as described in the documentation. A Severity 3 incident prevents or delays users from performing some tasks. |
Support Case Response Times
Support Cases are handled according to the response times required by Pega and you, the client.
Support Team Response Times
The support team response times are specified in the following table.
|
Calculated Severity Level |
Support |
Initial Response |
Support Case Updates |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Severity 1 |
Premium Support 24 hours, 7 days a week |
Premium Support Direct communication with the client within 15 minutes of the Support Case being submitted by the client |
Premium Support Incident: At a minimum, every eight hours Issue: Not applicable |
|
Severity 2 |
5 days a week (Standard Business Hours) |
Direct communication with the client within one business hour of the Support Case being submitted by the client |
Incident: At a minimum, every one business day updates or mutually agreed upon frequency Issue: Not applicable |
|
Severity 3 |
5 days a week (Standard Business Hours) |
Direct communication with the client within two business hours of the Support Case being submitted by the client |
Incident: At a minimum, updates every five business days or mutually agreed upon frequency Issue: Not applicable |
Client Response Times
The following table specifies the required client response times based on the Support Case severity:
|
Calculated Severity Level |
Client Response Required |
Otherwise, This Action Is Taken |
|
Severity 1 |
Within 1 to 4 business hours |
Severity 1 Support Case is downgraded to Severity 2. |
|
Severity 2 |
Within 5 to 8 business hours |
Support Case downgraded to Severity 3. |
|
Severity 3 |
In 5 business days |
Support Case is closed. |
Where:
"Standard Business Hours" are defined as 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM on a Business Day, in the time zone of the client contact who submits the Support Case.
"Business Day" is defined as a day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or public holiday in the city of the client contact who submits the Support Case.
A Support Case will be closed if Pega does not receive any response from you after contacting you three (3) times over the course of five (5) business days.
Your Support Case will be closed when it has been referred to Pega Consulting or another party outside of Pega.
Your Support Case will be downgraded or closed if you do not respond in a timely manner to the Pega support team member working your case.
Software Update and Extended Support Policy
This document explains the Pegasystems policies for software updates and extended support.
Software Updates
Software updates support the evolution of Pega products and provide new functionality and enhancements to these applications within the functional domain of the licensed components.
Pega performs software updates on Pega Cloud® services and Pega Cloud for Government.
For on-premises or client-managed installations, you may request new versions of Pega software and update your environments. Installation of software updates can also be provided by Pega through a professional services engagement.
For further patch information and details on Pega Infinity™ Update scenarios not included as part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see the Pega Software maintenance program.
Standard Support Policy
The Pega Standard Support period for each Pega software release is eighteen months from the time Pega makes the version Generally Available (GA). During the Standard Support period, Pega may release periodic software patches. Pega software patches are cumulative and include important security, supportability, and reliability improvements, including critical hotfixes and critical bug fixes. Pega may also provide hotfixes for clients who on are the latest supported patch of their software release. For further information and details on Pega Infinity™ Update scenarios not included as part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see the Pega Software maintenance program.
Extended Support Policy
The Extended Support policy applies to updates on any environment where Pega software is installed.
Pega software enters Extended Support 18 months after the date that the release is made generally available (the first 18 months are Standard Support). The Extended Support period lasts for 18 months, for a total of 36 months of support.
After Extended Support begins:
-
Pega does not release further patches to the software version. Clients should work to quickly update to the latest version to benefit from any additional features, fixes or improvements included in such release.
-
Clients will continue to receive support but will be required to update to the latest release to resolve any non-production issues they might experience. For more information, go to the Pega Support Center.
-
At the sole discretion of Pega, we may provide hotfixes for the following issues, for clients who are on the most recent supported patch of their software release:
- Critical issues that result in production outages
-
Security-related vulnerabilities
-
Backporting capabilities or support for newer versions of third-party solutions will no longer be available while your Pega software is in Extended Support.
-
The version of your Software in Extended Support will no longer be available for download from .
-
Pega will no longer undertake the certification of vendor platforms against Pega products and versions in Extended Support (including products acquired through merger or acquisition, such as Chordiant, Antenna, OpenSpan, and other products).
Software versions earlier than Pega Infinity
For all software released by Pegasystems (including products from Chordiant, Antenna, OpenSpan, and other products obtained by Pega by acquisition) prior to the release of Pega Infinity: Extended Support for these products, including all related versions, ended on June 30, 2023.
For PegaWorks and Chordiant applications, Extended Support is limited to screen-sharing or on-site support (if needed). In addition, Pega does not have the ability to create patches or hotfixes and cannot guarantee a resolution in all circumstances. If Pega is unable to resolve the issue by a screen-share, it might necessitate going on-site to assist in devising a possible workaround. The client is responsible for Pega travel expenses for any on-site support.
For details on Extended Support timelines not included as part of the Support@Pega contract documentation, see the Pega Extended Support program.