Priority levels help route work correctly. Response and resolution targets are operational targets, not guarantees. For serious incidents, the target may be containment, workaround, restoration effort, or vendor escalation rather than permanent correction.
Priority definitions
P1 - Critical
Widespread outage, confirmed or strongly suspected security event requiring immediate containment, or material business interruption affecting a substantial portion of operations.
- Major outage
- Ransomware event
- Core line-of-business platform unavailable for multiple users
- Internet outage at a primary site
- Server failure affecting core operations
P2 - High
Significant degradation or multi-user issue that materially affects operations but is not fully business-stopping.
- Shared printer failure affecting a department
- Degraded line-of-business application
- Multiple-user login issue
- Partial phone outage
P3 - Medium
Single-user issue, non-critical service degradation, or normal operational support request that does not create major business stoppage.
- Single-user login issue
- Workstation problem
- Outlook issue
- Minor application support issue
P4 - Low
Routine request, scheduled work item, informational request, minor change, or non-urgent issue.
Priority table
| Priority | Typical examples | Target response | Target outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 - Critical | Security incident, full system outage, unavailable core system, major operational disruption affecting a substantial portion of the organization. | 60 minutes | Containment, workaround, restoration effort, or escalation within 4 hours. |
| P2 - High | Multi-user degradation, important service impaired, business process blocked for a group, or elevated security concern. | 2 hours | Workaround, remediation plan, or vendor escalation within 8 business hours. |
| P3 - Medium | Single-user issue, standard endpoint problem, normal application issue, access issue, non-critical backup warning. | 6 business hours | Resolution target of 2 business days where conditions allow. |
| P4 - Low | Routine request, minor change, information request, planned maintenance question, low-impact issue. | 1 business day | Resolution target of 3 to 5 business days where conditions allow. |
P1 emergency criteria
- A confirmed or strongly suspected cybersecurity incident.
- A core system outage that prevents a substantial portion of operations from functioning.
- A network, internet, voice, or cloud issue that creates major operational disruption and is within MSP scope to assist.
- A critical data-loss or backup/recovery issue requiring immediate containment or restore effort.
A single-user problem is normally P3 unless the affected user is tied to a time-sensitive operational emergency and the issue blocks a critical business function.
What is not P1
- Single-user issues.
- Password resets.
- Printer issues.
- Routine password resets, software questions, printer issues, and single-user workstation problems.
- Normal application errors that do not create a major business stoppage.
- A request that is urgent to one person but does not affect a critical business function.
- Planned work, new equipment setup, application changes, or project tasks that were not scheduled as emergency work.
- After-hours convenience requests that do not involve a critical outage or security event.
- Issues caused by vendors, internet providers, carriers, utilities, or cloud platforms where Cloud Core MSP can assist but cannot directly restore the service.
What targets mean
Response target means the target time for Cloud Core MSP to acknowledge, triage, or begin appropriate action after receiving a properly submitted request with enough information to act.
Resolution target means the target time for reasonable progress toward restoration, workaround, containment, vendor escalation, or closure. Permanent resolution may depend on vendor response, parts, client availability, internet providers, Microsoft, telecom carriers, or third-party software vendors.
Response and resolution times are targets, not guarantees. For serious incidents, Cloud Core MSP may satisfy the service target through triage, containment, workaround, restoration activity, or escalation to the responsible vendor or provider.
Escalation path
- Tickets are triaged by impact, urgency, affected systems, and available information.
- Issues may be escalated internally when they require deeper technical review, security review, vendor coordination, or client decision-making.
- Client contacts may be asked to approve downtime, changes, vendor access, purchases, or project scope before work can proceed.
- Emergency after-hours response is for P1 matters, not routine requests or non-emergency work.
Client responsibilities during support
- Provide accurate issue details, affected users, affected systems, urgency, and recent changes.
- Keep designated contacts reachable for high-priority issues.
- Provide vendor information, account access, facilities access, or approval where needed.
- Avoid making parallel uncoordinated changes during troubleshooting unless coordinated with MSP.