Vendors Inventory and Attributes

Description — The support coverage model offered by this vendor for the enterprise’s engagement.

Benefit(s) — Ensures business continuity planning accounts for support coverage gaps. A Mission-Critical vendor with Business Hours support in a single time zone has a material coverage gap for global operations.

Source — Manual.

Examples — 24/7 Global, Business Hours (EST, Mon-Fri), Follow-the-Sun, Best Effort

Notes — For Tier 1 vendors with Mission-Critical Dependency Level, 24/7 Global support is the recommended minimum.

Description — A brief summary of the key SLA commitments governing this vendor relationship — uptime guarantees, response time tiers, resolution time commitments, and penalty provisions.

Benefit(s) — Provides immediate SLA context without requiring lookup of the full contract. Enables rapid comparison of SLA commitments across vendors in the same category.

Source — Manual.

Examples — 99.9% uptime guarantee; P1 response within 1 hour, resolution within 4 hours; Service credits of 10% for each 0.1% below SLA

Notes — For the authoritative SLA terms, refer to the Primary Contract Reference in the Contracts and Agreements Inventory.

Description — The formal escalation path for critical issues — the sequence of contacts at each escalation tier from the support line through the Vendor Executive Sponsor.

Benefit(s) — Ensures that during a critical incident, the enterprise can escalate effectively without delay. An undefined escalation path guarantees that critical issues will be mishandled when time pressure is highest.

Source — Manual.

Examples — Tier 1: Support Portal; Tier 2: Primary Support Contact (direct line); Tier 3: Vendor Executive Sponsor (mobile)

Notes — Update whenever Primary Support Contact or Vendor Executive Sponsor changes.