1. Purpose
2. Definitions
3. Services To Be Provided by UKERNA
4. Service Levels
5. Auditing Services
6. Relationships between UKERNA and Client Institutions
7. Reporting
8. Charging Principles
9. Sub-contracting
10. Annual Review

1. Purpose

UKERNA will provide a set of computer networking services to the UK research and education community. The Higher Education Funding Council for England will make payments, on behalf of all the funding councils, to UKERNA in order to have such services provided. The levels of service provided will be measured and monitored by the Technical Advisory Unit of the Joint Information Systems Committee (TAU).

2. Definitions

In the remainder of this Memorandum of Understanding, "Community" refers to members of the UK research and education institutions which are eligible to receive UKERNA services under the terms of this Memorandum of Understanding. Those institutions, referred to as "client institutions" below are listed in Annex B. In some cases, a client institution agrees to take responsibility for some aspect of provision of service to one or more other client institutions; such institutions are referred to as "secondary institutions" with respect to the client institution undertaking the responsibility.

3. Services To Be Provided by UKERNA

The services to be provided by UKERNA are of four types:

1. Operational services; subject to the targets set in Annex A, UKERNA will provide a set of operational services which allow users at client institutions to communicate with each other and with users at sites outside the UK Community. Operational support services will also be provided so that the complete set of client institutions' data communications requirements can be met by UKERNA. A basic set of operational, wide-area networking services will be specified by the HEFCs as to be provided to all client institutions. Other operational services will be optional; that is to say, they will only be provided when client institutions explicitly request them. Optional services may be separately chargeable.
2. Development services; UKERNA will propose annually an outline development programme and will undertake the overall management of such a programme. UKERNA's management responsibility will include financial management of projects, the choice (when appropriate) of sub-contractors, and the initiation of new projects which fall within the agreed outline and which take advantage of new developments of interest to the Community.
3. Coordination services; the HEFCE, acting as lead funding body, provides funds to support a number of services essential to the continued development of the Networking Programme. These services are provided for the Community as a whole and may be visible only indirectly to client institutions. All client institutions, however, benefit from them and may make use of the information that they generate.
4. Management and Consultancy services; UKERNA will also offer organizational and technical expertise to manage programmes on behalf of the HEFCs and to advise client institutions on certain aspects of networking.

The full set of services to be offered or provided by UKERNA is listed in Annex A.

4. Service Levels

For each of the Operational Services specified in Annex A, a parameter or set of parameters which gives a measure of the quality of the service is also specified. The target values (or sets of values) for these parameters represent the Service Level which UKERNA commits to provide. UKERNA shall not be required to honour these commitments in case of Force Majeure.

The detailed specifications of common Service Level parameters and of the methods of measuring them shall be in conformance with "Notes on the Definition and Measurement of Service Levels" (attached as Annex C).

5. Auditing of Services

Although one or more performance indicators are specified for each of the Development and Coordination Services listed in Annex A, assessment of the quality of such services is necessarily subjective. The HEFCs have established the TAU in part to monitor the service level agreements. The TAU may be assisted, where necessary, by the appointment of independent experts. From time to time they shall carry out a technical audit of one or more of UKERNA's Development or Coordination Services. The purposes of any such audit will be to assess the extent to which UKERNA has met the requirements of the specification of the Service or Services being audited and to suggest ways in which these services could be improved. Such audits will pay particular attention to the performance of UKERNA with respect to the listed indicators. The audits will also take account of the budget available.

The HEFCs may also request an audit of the methods and procedures used by UKERNA to measure the values of the service level parameters defined for the Operational services. The purpose of the audit will be to confirm the accuracy of UKERNA's reports on the extent to which it has achieved the required levels of service. Client institutions may ask the TAU to instigate an investigation in cases where they have prime facie evidence that the service levels are not being met.

Technical audits will normally be carried out no more frequently than once per year. The auditors shall have access to all reports described in section 7. below and to any material provided by UKERNA to client institutions as part of UKERNA's service provision. UKERNA will allow the auditors to spend reasonable amounts of time interviewing UKERNA staff. UKERNA will be given the opportunity to make comments to the auditor on a draft of the auditor's report. A copy of the auditor's final report shall be made available to UKERNA.

The costs of the TAU, of employing technical auditors and of expenses directly incurred by them shall be borne by the HEFCs.

6. Relationships between UKERNA and Client Institutions

All client institutions which receive UKERNA services will have an agreement with UKERNA which specifies, inter alia:

1. the optional services, if any, selected by the client institution,
2. the financial payments, if any, to be made by the client institution,
3. the obligations of the client institution to provide support for the measurement of service levels and the diagnosis of faults,
4. other responsibilities of the client institution,
5. the contact points within UKERNA and the client institution for dealing with fault reports and other communications.
6. the secondary institutions, if any, supported by the client institution and the relative responsibilities of UKERNA and the client institution for the services provided to those secondary institutions.

In general, UKERNA will communicate only with the central computing service (or equivalent organizational unit) in any client institution. Although UKERNA will take reasonable steps to deal with enquiries and demands from end users, such steps will normally take the form of referring the enquiry or demand to the most appropriate contact point (as defined in (d) above) in the end user's or another client institution.

If an institution does not provide the necessary information and discharge the necessary obligations, UKERNA may be unable to provide the defined level of service. UKERNA will alert the ACN to any such failure on the part of an institution, and act on specific instructions received.

7. Reporting

UKERNA will provide master copies of the following reports to the Secretary of the JISC and to the TAU at the times and the frequency indicated:

1. for each of the Operational Services, the reporting items listed for that service in Annex A; these will be delivered each calendar month, by the sixth working day of the following month,
2. financial accounts, showing a summary of the expenditure incurred in providing and supporting the services listed in Annex A; these will be delivered quarterly, by the tenth working day of the following quarter,
3. a written summary of important developments, improvements to services, numbers of client institutions etc, and an explanation of any failures to meet target Service Levels; this will be delivered quarterly, by the tenth working day of the following quarter,
4. a report, suitable for general publication, describing the principal activities and results of UKERNA in relation to the services listed in Annex A; this will be delivered annually, the first such report to cover the period up to 95/3/31, within forty working days of each anniversary of this date.

8. Charging Principles

Other services provided by UKERNA outwith this agreement shall not be subsidized by the funding associated with this agreement. Thus, in cases where UKERNA makes a charge to a client institution for all or part of the Operational Services it provides to the client, a share of the cost of the relevant UKERNA Coordination services will be included in the charge as an identifiable overhead.

It is understood that UKERNA may also provide the services described in this Memorandum of Understanding to organizations not covered by this agreement and may provide additional services which do not form part of this agreement to client institutions. When UKERNA makes charges for such additional services, the charging rates will be set to reflect the whole cost, including a share of overheads, of providing the services.

9. Sub-Contracting

UKERNA remains responsible for ensuring that the services are provided to the client institutions with the agreed levels of quality, even if it chooses to sub-contract for the provision of some or all of the services covered by this Memorandum of Understanding.

10. Annual Review

The TAU and UKERNA shall review annually the list of services given in Annex A and submit revisions to the HEFCs for their approval. The service year for this purpose shall start on the 1st April. At least two months before this anniversary, they shall by mutual agreement specify a revised list of the services which UKERNA will offer during the following twelve months and the values of the corresponding service level parameters.

ANNEX A
ANNEX B
ANNEX C