SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS

Definition

A Service level Agreement (SLA) is just that, a contractual agreement between a provider and consumer of service. An SLA will detail in writing what each party can reasonably expect from the other.

The provider is the person or department providing a service for others to use. This may be internal to the organization or a third party supplier.

The consumer or customer is the person or department making use of the service that is being provided.

Each party must agree on a measurable, quantifiable, reasonable, and obtainable level of service.

The SLA does not try to achieve 100% perfection, but it does define the acceptable level of imperfection. It also defines what is sought-after and what is achievable.

SLA Structure

The structure of the SLA will vary greatly from company to company and will take its shape based on the parties involved. An SLA between the Help desk and the accounts department will differ from the SLA used between a third party maintenance supplier and a customer, simply because of the different requirements of each party. However the elements of most SLA's reflect similarities. The two main areas to consider when designing SLA's are the Service elements and the Management elements

The Service elements consist of the following sub-elements: -

Context setting information Service descriptions Service standards

Context setting information section will outline the purpose and scope of the agreement, as well as information pertaining to the two parties of the SLA.

The services provided are detailed in this section. The services that are not provided should also be highlighted in this area.

Service standards provide a clear and concise description of the conditions under which the stated services will be provided.

The Management elements consist of the following sub-elements: -

Service tracking and reporting Periodic review Change management

Service tracking and reporting This section will indicate how the effectiveness of the agreement will be monitored and reported

The Periodic review section details a schedule in which both parties agree to meet to communicate any inadequacies of the SLA.

The Change Management component of the document is provided to detail the control procedures for allowing any modifications that may need to be made to any of the elements of the SLA.

The order of these elements within an SLA is not that important, and in fact some elements may be combined with others within the various sections of the document.

Another element that may be included in the SLA is the area of penalties. This section deals with the failures to meet the performance objectives. Penalties are normally in the form of financial incentives. For example, a help desk may agree to provide one month free service should it fail to perform within the working parameters of the SLA. Another favourable penalty is to have a member of senior management from the vendor visit the client to explain any failures of service.

Below is a sample Service Level Agreement to help illustrate the final structure of a SLA document. This sample has been adapted from the book; 'Building and Managing a World Class IT Help Desk' by Bob Wooten. There are some references to appendices that are assumed for this example.

This Service level agreement will help familiarise you with necessary help desk information, such as hours, policies, and standards, and help define mutually agreed upon operating procedures. By reviewing this document, you will become more familiar with how to contact us, operating hours, call priority, and hardware and software standards it should be used as reference when contacting the ABC Help Desk.

Scope

ABC Help Desk supports desktop computers, the software applications that run on them, and peripheral devices such as printers and scanners, servers, and network equipment.

While the ABC Help desk will attempt to help with all technology issues, our support and training commitments will focus on the standard products listed in appendix A.

This agreement will be formally reviewed each January and July for any necessary changes. No changes can be made to this document without the prior consent and sign-off of all parties affected.

Contacting the Help Desk for assistance

You may contact the ABC Help Desk for any issue by email or by calling 757-555-2317. We also offer selected services over the Internet at abc.helpdesk.com. This service will then route your information or direct the call to the appropriate group, individual, or third party vendor for resolution. However, the following are guidelines for you to use when deciding whom to call for various issues.

Issue Contact Do thisDesktop and printers Hardware Support Group E-mail or call 757-555-2317, option 1Network and connectivity Hardware Support Group E-mail or call 757-555-2317, option 2Business Software Software Support Group E-mail or call 757-555-2317, option 3Microsoft Office Software Hastings computer services Call 919-555-1937

Hours of operation

ABC Help Desk 5:00 am to 10:00 pm. Monday to Friday Eastern Standard Time

Emergency after hours support is provided via pager during all other times.

Please refer to the Contact list in Appendix B for pager numbers. The Help Desk is closed on all ABC observed holidays.

Problem Severity Levels

Code Customer impact Response Time to customer Resolution Time1 Business halted 30 min Until fixed2 Business impacted 1 hour 24 hours3 Software defect 2 hours Tracked until fixed4 Inquiry Same business day 72 hours

Severity Level Definitions Business halted The business systems are down or inaccessible Business impacted Multiple users in a location cannot access the systems but the

systems are available and workarounds do exist. Software defect An issue where our business software is not working Inquiry Question on how things work, service request, etc. Response time to customer The time between the initial request and the Help Desks

first response. Resolution time The time between the initial call ant the actual resolution of the

problem. "Until fixed" means the IS staff will not leave until the problem is resolved.

Escalation

We recognise that the importance of call can be subjective and many factors go into prioritising them. As a guideline, however, we proactively escalate calls based on the codes above inform increasingly higher levels of management when they remain unresolved.

We include the schedule of tis internal prioritisation below. Please refer to the Contact list in Appendix B for each contact name.

Code Customer impact Response Time to customer Resolution Time1 Business halted 30 min Until fixed2 Business impacted 1 hour 24 hours3 Software defect 2 hours Tracked until fixed4 Inquiry Same business day 72 hours

Notification

Because of the importance of the computing systems to ABC Company, we will not only escalate issues internally, but also notify and follow up with the ABC contacts as well. For name detail, please refer to the contact list in Appendix B. Included below is a schedule of notification based on problem severity.

Code elapsed time Whom notified1 30 min Manager of Help desk Services1 1 hour Director of IT1 2 hour Chief executive officer2 3 hours Manager of Help desk Services2 24 hours Director of IT3 3 hours Manager of Help desk Services3 48 hours Manager of applications Development3 72 hours Director of IT4 72 hours Manager of Help desk Services

Notification of problem status can also be found on the Intranet under abc.helpdesk.com. There is a problem status screen that will detail all open issues and dates.

Standards

As the technologies supported are constantly evolving with customer needs, we will maintain the standards officially supported in Appendix A through e-mail to each section manager 30days before implementation.

Contact list

Appendix B will document the entire list of contacts alluded to in the master SLA. There names, job titles, office numbers, and mobile phone numbers will be included. As changes are made to this list, we will contact the section manager with 30 days notice wherever possible. You are expected to update us with any changes on you side as required.

Service performance Measures

Important to the process is to measure the actual performance against the service level agreement. As our current philosophy is not to staff for peaks in the workload, there will times when we are unable to meet our agreement despite unforseen situations.

System Availability 99.95% availability within the times stated.

NOTE: This relates to the computer system being up and running. A location connecting to the system is a function of the phone company. To aid this, we provide all locations with a dial-up backup solution, which allows the location to reach the system through alternate means.

Problem management 90% resolved within severity level definitions.

Those problems resolved outside these parameters will be included in our monthly report to the Director of IT and the appropriate customer manager.

Follow-up calls All calls/e-mails returned within same business day.

First call resolution 80% of calls resolved during initial call.

Signatures

________________________________________ _______________________________Manager of Help Desk Services Date ________________________________________ _______________________________Director of IT Date

________________________________________ _______________________________Hastings Computer Services Mgr Date

________________________________________Regional ABC Help Desk Vice President _____________Date