/ OPS NOTE
SLA as a product: paying for measurable guarantees, not for 'support'
Published: 2026-04-10·5 min readslaoperationsguarantee
The classic 'support retainer' charges hourly in exchange for blurred accountability. An SLA productizes operations: fixed response time, fixed availability, fixed compensation if missed.
The 'support retainer' problem
Most digital buyers know the setup: a monthly bucket of N support hours the vendor 'reserves' for you. In practice that means uneven reaction times, little transparency, and outcomes that are hard to measure.
SLA as a product
DeepCraft Care isn't 'support', it's a guarantee:
- Response time: 60 minutes for critical incidents, 4 working hours for major issues.
- Availability: 99.5% monthly uptime guaranteed.
- Compensation if missed: credited against the next month's fee on a fixed formula.
- Reporting: a monthly numerical audit report.
What we don't promise
- We don't promise that every new feature request is free.
- We don't promise a 24/7 on-call team for every engagement.
- We don't promise that rewriting the legacy system is included.
The Care SLA exists to keep the existing system running — at a predictable price, with a predictable response and a predictable audit trail. That's the deal.