You should create a simple document in the beginning and when things change, you can always expand on it.
Developing an SLA when outsourcing service desk services or IT help desk support is critical. It sets the tone of the provider/client relationship, defines the expectations around the services offered, and highlights the potential gaps and problems in service delivery, among other things.
You should also set up periodic, review sessions with all business heads and the service provider. Good times to do that are when the environment changes, the client’s needs or expectations change, the workload changes, and/or when better, more precise metrics and processes become available.
Instead, think of it as a working process designed to define and balance business requirements with available resources. Savvy managers consider it as a list of targets and goals they can use to drive the quality of a project.
Steps in Developing An SLA
Action Point: Pick a project you might like to outsource. Then develop a checklist based on that project.
Developing a good SLA can make or break an outsourced IT help desk project. So take the time to get it right. It will set the project’s tone and expectations early on and drives the project forward.
You don’t need to be a lawyer, nor do you have to take months to create one. If you keep it simple and follow a checklist, you can create one fairly quickly.
If you’re an experienced IT manager, you’ve probably had to create service level agreements. Heck, you’ve probably created dozens. But when was the last time you thought about what an SLA really is? Or what it can be – an effective and efficient management tool. It’s probably been a while, right?
Because a service level agreement focuses on what the service provider will provide a customer or client with. Of course, this will differ wildly depending on the kind of services the service provider in question can actually supply.
With Process Street, you can use our ready-made, ready-to-go SLA template process for not only your SLAs, but also your OLAs, too.
Although you’ve briefly described the objectives, targets, and goals in the introduction, you’ll want to completely dedicate a later section where you discuss and define the service and compliance targets in detail. Alternatively, you could choose to define targets as milestones and then list the actions involved to facilitate those milestones. Whatever option you go for, make sure the information provided here is thorough.
And with villains such as poor communication, stress, and human error constantly rearing their ugly heads, it makes that job even harder.
Operational level agreement examples (templates)
For those fully-immersed in the IT and tech industries, check out this page written by the team at IT Process Maps.
Do remember to keep a close eye on any form fields you change, as that’ll change the variables, too.
It’s all well and good explaining what operational level agreements are via the written word. However, to get a complete idea, you need to see what they look like and the structure they take.
- Review of the draft
- Negotiation of the contents
- Edit and revise the document
- Obtain the final approval
Customer Based SLA: A customer based SLA can be best defined as a contract or agreement with an individual group of customers which contains details regarding all the services they use. An example of this type of SLA is an agreement between an IT services provider and the finance department of a multinational company for services provided like procurement system, payroll system, billing, and finance system.
One of the mutual benefits of having an SLA is that you and your customer both, will have a fair say when it comes to determining the kind of service they are receiving. Also, having the right objective measurements will eliminate all guesswork and save time and energy too. It is also important for you to understand that your customers may not be satisfied with the level of service provided to them even if you meet all the objectives defined in the SLA.
The ideal method to come up with realistic and sustainable technical goals is to think of the various requirements and technical goals that could improve the level of service over time. Technical goals usually include throughput, delay, jitter, availability levels, scalability, response time, new application introductions, security, new feature introductions, and cost.
Step 6. Measure and Monitor SLA Conformance
Performance identification of results and outputs expected by the customers from the arrangements also come under service standards and form an important part of the SLA.
Typical service level agreements usually have many different components including support level, how it will be measured along with overall budget concerns and escalation path for SLA reconciliation. Having proactive service definitions and reactive goals are a must for high availability environments. Some of them are listed below.
Defining the right metrics is just as important because it helps the organization attain a reasonable performance level. You can set a proper baseline as far as the metrics are concerned from time to time by revisiting and readjusting the settings at a future date.
Now you may wonder why preparing and having a Service Level Agreement is even necessary in the first place, so here is why. An SLA works to protect both parties involved in the contract, the service provider and the customer where future work is concerned. Service Level Agreements are thought for service based businesses and are applicable to a variety of businesses involving custom built software systems, vehicles, appliances and products stocked on shelves. But what is even more interesting to note is that SLAs are also used by attorneys, doctors and insurance companies.
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Finally, the SLA specifies financial penalties Company X must pay Company Z if the SLA is not met. The penalties are different for the availability measurement and for the two order processing measures.
This agreement can be a formal negotiated contract or an informal understanding between two parties. Some are extensive agreements covering many performance metrics, while others are simple single-term measurements.
Among other things, this SLA covers the availability of the cable service, the time the cable company has to respond to requests for information or service, and the time the company has to repair or replace defective equipment. The SLA specifies penalties to the cable company if it fails to meet the terms of any part of the SLA. For example, if any cable channel is not available for more than four hours in a day, your account may be credited the cost of a full day’s service.
An SLA specifies minimums, but the provider is always free to exceed the minimum. The purchaser has the right to enforce (or choose not to enforce) the SLA penalties to the fullest.
A Complex SLA
In this simple example, the key elements of a service-level agreement are:
Company X agrees to provide contacts for Company Z to get in touch with at any time the website is not available. The SLA also includes an escalation path all the way to the CTO of Company X if service breakdowns are not resolved within the specified timeframe.
If you have a pizza delivered to your home every Friday night by the same delivery person, you might have an implied SLA with that person. You hand over a generous tip for delivering the pizza hot, and a less generous tip if it arrives cold. If it arrives cold too often, the SLA is canceled and you're moving your business to a rival pizza place.
When a customer and a supplier agree to do business, it's important to define expectations. That's the purpose of a service-level agreement (SLA). An SLA is a contract between a supplier and a customer that defines the minimum acceptable level of the service that will be delivered.
What is an SLA? It’s a written document between a service provider and a client. The client can be internal or external. It doesn’t matter. It has no set length. It can be short, long, or anything in between. Some may be as short as one page. Some may be as long as one hundred pages.
Action Point: Pick a project you might like to outsource. Then develop a checklist based on that project.
If you’re an experienced IT manager, you’ve probably had to create service level agreements. Heck, you’ve probably created dozens. But when was the last time you thought about what an SLA really is? Or what it can be – an effective and efficient management tool. It’s probably been a while, right?
Developing an SLA when outsourcing service desk services or IT help desk support is critical. It sets the tone of the provider/client relationship, defines the expectations around the services offered, and highlights the potential gaps and problems in service delivery, among other things.
What Are Service Level Agreements?
Below is a checklist we have put together for you to use. Feel free to adapt it to fit your needs:
You should also set up periodic, review sessions with all business heads and the service provider. Good times to do that are when the environment changes, the client’s needs or expectations change, the workload changes, and/or when better, more precise metrics and processes become available.
You don’t need to be a lawyer, nor do you have to take months to create one. If you keep it simple and follow a checklist, you can create one fairly quickly.