Acceptable Use Policy

Appendix A

The Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) is stated below in full, the key themes can be summarized as follows:

The Services must be used for lawful purposes only.
Customers shall not invade another’s privacy.
Customers shall not transmit; copyright material without consent of the copyright owner; material legally judged to be threatening or obscene; or third party material protected by trade secret.
Customers that participate in the mass distribution of unsolicited e‑mail / newsgroup messages, will be dealt with immediately.
The Customer may not circumvent user authentication or security of any host, network, or account.
The Customer agrees to not, through its own operations, cause disturbances, outages or other problems which may affect eSolutionsGroup’s network or network based equipment, or which may adversely affect eSolutionsGroup’s ability to provide services.
eSolutionsGroup’s reserves the right to, at its sole determination and without notice, remove any material or data and to block the use of the network for one or more users when their use or purpose does not meet the requirements of the AUP.

A Customer shall also be responsible for the services use of any subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, suppliers, and otherwise clients that directly or indirectly utilize eSolutionsGroup services provided to the Customer.

The Customer shall not:

Use the Services to invade another person’s privacy; appropriate another’s personality; unlawfully promote or incite hatred; nor unlawfully use, possess, post, transmit or disseminate obscene, profane, hate or pornographic material.
Post, transmit, distribute or disseminate content which is unlawful, threatening, harassing, abusive, libelous, slanderous, defamatory or otherwise offensive or objectionable or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any municipal, provincial, federal or international law, order or regulation.
Use the Services to access any computer systems, software, data or any confidential, copyright protected or patent protected material of any other person without the knowledge and consent of such person, make unauthorized attempts to gain access to any account or computer resource not belonging to the Customer (i.e., engage in “spoofing”) or otherwise gain unauthorized access to, alter or destroy any information of another person by any means or device.
Use the Services to upload, post, publish, deface, modify, transmit, reproduce, or distribute in any way, information, software or other material which is confidential, protected by copyright or other intellectual, property or proprietary right, or related derivative works, without obtaining permission of the copyright owner or right holder.
Disrupt eSolutionsGroup’s network, or the nodes or services thereof, or, directly or indirectly, use the Services to restrict, inhibit or otherwise interfere with the ability of any other person to use or enjoy the use of the products or services of eSolutionsGroup or the Internet, including, without limitation, knowingly posting or transmitting any information or software which contains a virus, lock, key, bomb, worm, cancelbot, Trojan horse or other harmful, debilitating or disruptive feature or engage in unauthorized linking or framing.
Send unsolicited e‑mail (i.e., engage in “spamming”), send large quantities of unwanted or unsolicited e‑mail to individual e‑mail accounts (i.e., engage in “mail bombing”), make inappropriate postings to news groups, nor send false commercial messages or any engage in any other abuse of e‑mail or news group servers.
Obtain or attempt to obtain products or services from eSolutionsGroup or anyone else by any means or device with intent to avoid payment therefore.
Unless permitted by the HSA, make, directly or indirectly, any of the products or services received from eSolutionsGroup available to any third party. The Customer shall not permit any third party to gain access to the termination equipment of either eSolutionsGroup or the Customer for the purpose of obtaining access to eSolutionsGroup’s network for the purpose of obtaining any of the products or services of eSolutionsGroup, whether directly or indirectly.
Engage in any activities that deny or disrupt service to any customer or end‑user of eSolutionsGroup.
Engage in any activity that eSolutionsGroup may hereafter advise is unacceptable use of the Services.

If the Customer is at any time in breach of the requirements of this paragraph, eSolutionsGroup may immediately and without notice, and in addition to all other rights and remedies under the HSA and at law and in equity, suspend the supply of any or all Services to the Customer pursuant to the HSA.

eSolutionsGroup reserves the right to remove any and all materials that, in its sole opinion, infringe these restrictions and it may immediately terminate this HSA for any breach thereof without further obligation to the Customer. Any such termination shall be without prejudice to any other rights or remedies available to eSolutionsGroup at law or in equity. Notwithstanding the foregoing, eSolutionsGroup shall have no obligation to monitor the compliance of any material made available by the Customer.

The Customer shall use its best efforts to inform End Users of the key themes of the Acceptable Use Policy described herein. An End Users failure to abide by the Acceptable Use Policy does not affect eSolutionsGroup rights to terminate services as per the HSA.

Any such suspension of the supply of Services shall not constitute a termination of the HSA and shall not excuse the Customer from liability to make the payments to eSolutionsGroup required by the HSA during the period that the provision of the Services to the Customer is suspended. The supply of Services pursuant to the HSA shall resume upon the Customer no longer being in breach of the requirements of this paragraph and the payment by the Customer to eSolutionsGroup of any and all costs of eSolutionsGroup to suspend and restore service and a $500 reinstitution charge.

Continued breach of the requirements of this paragraph may result in termination of the HSA.

Appendix B – Service Level Agreement

This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) applies only to (i) service outages directly related to bandwidth and/or physical space services provided within the eSolutionsGroup Network, (ii) response times following the failure of a hardware component being monitored and managed by eSolutionsGroup.

Points of Demarcation:

The network access port servicing the Customer within the eSolutionsGroup Network will serve as the demarcation point for Internet Communication Services The power circuit(s) provided by eSolutionsGroup to the Customer’s Rack Space will serve as the demarcation points for colocation services. The scope of this SLA does not include, under any circumstances, any portion of the public Internet.

Service Warranties: Hosting and Management of the eSolutionsGroup Network

(a) Network Availability Warranty: The eSolutionsGroup Network will be 100 percent (%) available.

eSolutionsGroup Managed Systems Scope

Exclusive to equipment solely monitored and managed by eSolutionsGroup.

eSolutionsGroup Managed Systems Warranty Process

eSolutionsGroup will detect a hardware failure and open a trouble ticket within 30 minutes of a high or medium severity failure event. For high severity events, eSolutionsGroup will initiate the repair of the affected component within 30 minutes of the opening of the trouble ticket. A high severity failure is defined as the failure of a non‑redundant hardware component that is then being monitored by eSolutionsGroup. For medium severity events, eSolutionsGroup will initiate notice to the Customer within 90 minutes of the opening of a trouble ticket to arrange a maintenance window to repair the affected component. A medium severity failure is defined as a failure of a redundant hardware component that is then being monitored by eSolutionsGroup.

eSolutionsGroup Managed Services Warranty Remedy

If repair work has not been initiated within 30 minutes of the opening of a trouble ticket for a high severity failure event, 1/30th of the Customer’s monthly charge for the affected service will be applied to the Customer’s account. If eSolutionsGroup does not initiate notice to the Customer within 24 hours of the opening of a trouble ticket to arrange a maintenance window to repair the affected component of a medium severity failure event, 1/30th of the Customer’s monthly charge for the affected service will be applied to the Customer’s account.

Server Performance and Monitoring

eSolutionsGroup shall provide the following server performance benchmarks:

Servers shall average less than 8 seconds response time for 80% of requests as measured by server response time only, not network transmission time.
Servers shall average 99.9% up time (excluding Network Availability of 100%). This would be exclusive of regularly scheduled maintenance events.
eSolutionsGroup shall post an approved message in the event of a system outage that lasts longer than 15 minutes.

Server Availability and Monitoring

Servers shall be operational and monitored 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Monitoring shall be done by executing a connection to the provided service. In the event a server fails to respond to the connection request over a sustained 5 minute period, a eSolutionsGroup system administrator is automatically notified of a potential server outage. An eSolutionsGroup system administrator shall initiate an investigation within 5 minutes of such a notification to identify whether there is a problem and shall initiate work to restore server to normal operating capacity

Server Availability Warranty Remedy

For each hour (or partial hour) where servers are not fully operational, a service credit equivalent to 1/30th of the Customer’s monthly charge for committed bandwidth and physical space services will be applied to the Customer’s account to a maximum of the monthly charges for services.

Customer Service

eSolutionsGroup shall provide reasonable commercial efforts to be immediately available via your Customer Account Manager or Technical Contact person. eSolutionsGroup will respond to all Customer requests related to hosting, management, development, and maintenance within the same business day. eSolutionsGroup shall initiate actions to respond to a customer inquiry within one business day of being notified.

Change Request Warranty:

Change requests requiring less than 1 hour of eSolutionsGroup work, within 1 business day.
Change requests requiring less than 4 hours of eSolutionsGroup work, within 3 business days.
Change requests requiring more than 4 hours of eSolutionsGroup work, as mutually agreed upon.

Emergency requests (urgent same day requests, after business hours and weekends): eSolutionsGroup shall use reasonable commercial efforts to make the requested changes within 24 hours of notification.

Change requests require written notification in the form of a “Request for Work” form or email equivalent.

Browser Support

For hosted solutions that are coded and developed by eSolutionsGroup we strive to support most commonly used and current browsers. During the development and internal QA process, we ensure that our deliverables work correctly with the latest versions of popular mainstream browsers. The developers of the mainstream browsers are continually deploying new software and versions to meet emerging technology trends and user needs. In some cases these developers may discontinue support and maintenance of a version or a feature. As such, eSolutionsGroup is not obligated to ensure that our products will work correctly with discontinued software, or browsers that are no longer maintained or supported by its developer.

Responsive Design

Sites with a responsive design are fully supported on the latest versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 11 and later. Older versions of Internet Explorer are not compatible with modern responsive design tools. Our sites are designed and coded to degrade gracefully and remain legible if they do not render correctly in older browsers. In addition, those visiting the website with older browsers will see a notification recommending that they upgrade their browser to a newer version for the best experience. Our responsive websites are also tested on the latest operating systems on iPad, iPhone, and Android devices.

Standard Design

For the public facing side of websites and online applications, we test with the following supported browsers:

Microsoft Windows Apple OS X

Internet Explorer 11, Edge Safari (latest at go live)

Firefox (latest at go live) Firefox (latest at go live)

Google Chrome (latest at go live) Google Chrome (latest at go live)

eSolutionsGroup does not support beta versions of browsers on hosted applications.

Maintenance Windows

The eSolutionsGroup standard maintenance windows are currently between 10 PM and 1 AM (EST) on the 3rd Tuesday of the month. eSolutionsGroup reserves the right in its sole discretion to alter these standard maintenance windows or to schedule a non‑standard maintenance window from time to time by giving 24 hours notice to the Customer.

Notification by Customer

At the time the Customer believes that an event that qualifies for a service credit under this SLA has occurred, the Customer should contact eSolutionsGroup and confirm that a trouble ticket specific to the event has been opened. Once a ticket has been opened, eSolutionsGroup will initiate diagnostic testing and trouble isolation to determine the nature of the service quality or availability event. If the trouble is diagnosed as one which may be within the scope of coverage, responsibility and management of the trouble ticket will be assumed by eSolutionsGroup. Any necessary follow‑up is the joint responsibility of the Customer and eSolutionsGroup. No service credits can be extended unless a trouble ticket has been opened with eSolutionsGroup. In addition, the Customer must formally request a service credit within 7 days of an eligible event if the Customer believes a service credit is due.

eSolutionsGroup shall notify Customer in case of a service outage:

If Customer experiences a service outage, Customer may contact eSolutionsGroup personnel in the following manner:

Phone: 1-866-691‑5528

eMail: productsupport@esolutionsgroup.ca

Appendix C – Accessing Customer Support

How?

You may use one of the two methods to contact bids&tenders for support:

Phone: Bids & Tenders Support Line – Primary 1-800-594-4798

eMail: Bids & Tenders Support Email – Primary: support@bidsandtenders.ca

*Please note: If you are experiencing a system outage, please phone us.

What?

Please be prepared to provide the following details (or include these details in your email). A helpful support ticket will be issued so that your issue is dealt with in an expedient manner.

What is your preferred method of contact (ie. eMail or Phone – please provide a number)
When can you be reached by our support staff for resolution.
Please describe the challenge that you are having in detail.
Please provide details of any error messages that you are receiving.
Please briefly describe what you were doing at the time the error occurred.
Please explain the urgency of your request.

It is understood that in some cases providing these specific details may not be possible. Providing as much detail as is applicable will help eSolutionsGroup’s staff respond in an efficient mannerEscalation Procedures

eSolutionsGroup’s software’s escalation procedures raise the visibility and importance of your problem within our software. At the discretion of eSolutionsGroup, project manager, customer product support issues may be escalated internally to senior support technician, the product support manager, or the development team.

Job Title:	Product Support
Contact:	Support
Phone:	+1 800 594-4798
Email:	support@bidsandtenders.ca

Job Title:	Team Lead – Implementation
Contact:	Laura Case
Phone:	+1 519 616-2291
Email:	lcase@esolutionsgroup.ca

Job Title:	Product Manager
Contact:	Christine Wood
Phone:	+1 289 926-8786
Email:	cwood@esolutionsgroup.ca

Job Title:	Principal
Contact:	Alison Carden
Phone:	+1 519 404-5657
Email:	acarden@esolutionsgroup.ca

In general, if you are not satisfied with a response from the product support staff, you may request that the issue be escalated by contacting your support representative.

Appendix D – eProcurement Rider

eSolutionsGroup understands that the Services are intended to be used by the Customer to:

1. post bid opportunities (“Customer Issued Opportunity”), including but not limited to:

1. 1. Request for Proposals, Tenders, Information
  2. Request for Qualifications; or,
  3. any other call for bids issued by the Customer
2. receive online submissions;
3. compare bids;
4. perform online evaluations and reporting;
5. manage contracts and insurance renewals; or,
6. manage vendor communications
Customer acknowledges that eSolutionsGroup or another parent or affiliated company (“Related Entity”) may wish to respond to a Customer Issued Opportunity and that nothing in this HSA including the provision of the Services creates a conflict of interest or prevents eSolutionsGroup or a Related Entity from submitting a proposal, quote or bid and being considered by the Customer for said Customer Issued Opportunity.
eSolutionsGroup represents and warrants that the Services have not been designed or engineered in a manner so as to, nor will it operate to, provide eSolutionsGroup or a Related Entity with any competitive advantage in responding to a Customer Issued Opportunity.
Customer agrees that the use of the Services will not bias or affect any procurement decision to award or reject any proposal, quote or bid made by eSolutionsGroup or a Related Entity pursuant to a Customer Issued Opportunity.
eSolutionsGroup acknowledges and agrees that the provision of the Services does not provide eSolutionsGroup or a Related Entity with any favor or preference with respect to a Customer Issued Opportunity nor does it obligate the Customer to purchase any additional services from eSolutionsGroup, except as may be required by this HSA, or a Related Entity including those which may be sought through a Customer Issued Opportunity.