Terms of Service & SLA
Contracts should clarify, not complicate. We publish our Master Service Agreement standards, IP ownership terms, and SLA benchmarks before you ever sign a contract.
100% Client IP Ownership
You own all custom source code, documentation, database schemas, and AI prompts created for your project upon final invoice settlement. No vendor lock-in.
99.9% Production SLA
High-availability architecture design guaranteeing 99.9% uptime for cloud infrastructure and under 4-hour response for P1 critical outages.
30-Day Exit Guarantee
Maintain partnerships based on value delivered. Standard contracts include 30-day mutual termination clauses with assisted repository handoff.
Service Level Agreement (SLA) Matrix
Guaranteed response times and targeted remediation windows for production systems under support retainers.
| Incident Tier | Response Time | Target Resolution | Scope & Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 - Critical Production Outage | < 4 Hours | < 12 Hours | Core platform unavailability, critical database failure, or security breach blocking end-user operations. (24/7/365 On-Call) |
| P2 - Major Feature Impairment | < 8 Hours | < 24 Hours | Significant feature failure or degraded AI inference performance without complete system blockage. (Business Hours + On-Call) |
| P3 - Moderate Defect / Bug | < 24 Hours | Next Sprint Release | Non-critical UI/UX quirks, non-blocking workflow defects, or minor styling issues. (Standard Business Hours) |
| P4 - General Inquiry & Minor Tweak | < 48 Hours | Prioritized Backlog | Architecture advisory, dependency updates, and feature enhancement requests. (Standard Business Hours) |
Flexible Engagement Models
Structured to align with enterprise procurement protocols and agile startup trajectories.
Fixed-Price Milestones
Scoped Products & Well-Defined MVPs- Guaranteed price & delivery timeline
- Clear functional specification sign-off
- Milestone-based stage-gate payments
- Ideal for Greenfield SaaS & App builds
Dedicated Autonomous Pods (T&M)
Rapid Scaling & Complex Engineering- Dedicated Solution Architect, Full-Stack & AI engineers
- Bi-weekly sprint planning & direct Slack sync
- Complete flexibility to pivot feature scope
- Full transparent time-tracking via Jira/Git
Architecture & Advisory Retainer
Fractional CTO & AI Modernization- Monthly dedicated hours with senior founders
- Codebase security & performance reviews
- LLM cost optimization (FinOps) monitoring
- Priority emergency escalations
Strategic Equity Partnership
High-Potential Startups & Spin-Offs- Discounted cash burn in exchange for equity
- Deep technical co-founder level commitment
- Shared architectural risk & product alignment
- Selective evaluation by SHIVAM ITCS founders
Intellectual Property & Open-Source Compliance (SBOM)
All code authored by SHIVAM ITCS for client engagements is treated as work-made-for-hire upon complete payment. For open-source libraries (e.g., React, Next.js, .NET Core runtime, Python libraries), we maintain a verified Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) ensuring permissive commercial licenses (MIT, Apache 2.0, BSD) with zero copyleft (GPL) contamination in your proprietary software.
Ready to review an enterprise MSA?
We can draft a customized statement of work (SOW) aligned with your legal requirements.