This European Standard provides guidance on the preparation of contracts in private sector for maintenance services. It can be applied to: cross-border as well as national company/maintenance contractor relationships; the whole range of maintenance services including planning, management and control in addition to maintenance operations; every type of item with the exception of computer software unless the software has to be maintained as an integral part of, and together with, technical equipment. It does not; provide standard forms for maintenance contracts; determine rights and obligations between company and maintenance contractor; provide rules for agreements with public administrations. NOTE It is common to have service-level-agreements with different models, including consulting, engineering, improvements and optimization with incentives. It is out of the scope of this standard to consider characteristics of these agreements.