A Practical Guide To Implementing Slas: Techexcel White Paper
A Practical Guide To Implementing Slas: Techexcel White Paper
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NOTE: IT teams can have multiple SLAs based on different service criteria and different customer needs and expectations, BUT the goal is to minimize the number of SLAs and definitively AVOID offering one SLA for every permutation of customer and service criteria. This paper is primarily focused on SLAs, but there are two additional concepts in the same family that you might want to be aware of:
Operational Level Agreement (OLA) an agreement between an IT service provider and another department from the same
infrastructure service
What is the provider promising? How will the provider deliver on those promises? Who will measure delivery and how? What happens if the provider fails to deliver as promised? How the SLA will change over time?
Investigate the current situation. What have you achieved to date and, more importantly, is this where the business wants to be tomorrow? Create a realistic plan describing what level of service should be provided based on critical feedback from business units, customers and the service provider.
Make sure to include all relevant information including purpose, scope (what to include and exclude), dependant business processes and the impact of loss of service.
3. Record the terms of the agreement
Outline the roles and responsibilities for both the customer and the service provider including definitions of terms like contract duration, locations and service times. For example:
Duties of the service provider Duties of the customer Responsibilities of service users (e.g. with respect to IT security) IT Security aspects to be observed (if applicable, references to relevant IT Security Policies)
Do not forget to define EXCEPTIONS to service times such as weekends and public holidays as well as regular maintenance downtime.
4. Identify performance levels
Set out both minimum and expected performance levels for the service as well as conditions under which the service is considered to be unavailable or limited. For example, the expected and minimum service levels might be 95% and 85% on schedule. The key here is that the expected level is what the customer is actually paying for and the minimum level is what the customer would consider poor, Read: borderline unacceptable service. An insight to availability can be considered in 9s: 99.9% equals 8 hours 99.99% equals 53 minutes 99.999% equals 5 minutes
5. Outline escalation procedures
Define the steps to be taken when service levels do not meet the expected and agreed upon standards. This may involve determining fault for missed measures, reporting, and problem resolution within a specified time. Also, when the problem still isnt resolved within a specified time, senior management from both the customer and service provider sides must intervene.
6. Define metrics
Define the service metrics and be certain to track them over time. Items to include are conditions when the service is considered to be unavailable/limited, availability targets, reliability targets, time-to-restore service and maintenance downtime. Commonly used metrics include: MTBF Mean Time Between Failures MTBSI Mean Time Between Service Incidents MTRS Mean Time to Restore Service TAT Turn Around Time Uptime
For external IT providers, write out any additional fees that may apply and the exact circumstances under which they apply. The clearer conditions are stated, the lower the likelihood for disagreement. This will result in higher customer satisfaction and more prompt payment.
8. Delineate costs and penalties
Write out the costs for the service provision and the rules for penalties. For example: Financial credits / Root Cause Analysis / Corrective Action Plan Normally penalties are a percentage of monthly recurring fees that scale up with failure severity Penalties are often capped at 50 to 100% of monthly fees Penalty caps may be cumulative across all SLAs Contract termination may be a defined option for recurring or very severe issues for example x consecutive months or y months within any z consecutive months Contract termination may also be triggered by extreme individual failures
SLA exclusions
You need to detail and provide a list of exclusions in which time is exempt against the overall SLA measurement. Common exclusions are scheduled and emergency maintenance which may involve anything from upgrading equipment, to reboots, to backups. Some may exclude SLA provisions for failure of a third party which the service provider does not directly control. It may also be used against software vendors for defects in the code base, which require the software vendor to fix themselves.
Emergency maintenance MUST be covered. Force majeure if not defined and must be consistent among the vendors vendors and suppliers. Reasonable efforts this shifts the burden to the customer when the vendors efforts are not sufficient. Scheduled maintenance must be clearly defined.
Examples: The obvious: server is not responding. Major functionality is not working (i.e. major bugs). A significant number of users cannot log in. Excessive latency i.e. too slow to use effectively.
Service objectives Parties included People responsible for the agreement Coverage period Definition of terms Procedures for updating/changing/amending the agreement
Procedures for adding or changing services Arrangements for service interruptions Escalation procedures Customer / service provider responsibilities
Contact points included for both customer and service provider Communication channels and methods Does the agreement state what and how performance monitoring will occur? Service targets, both expected and minimum levels How to monitor and report on performance Frequency of reporting Auditing of reports and monitoring Quality assurance measurements Complaints Management
Does the agreement delineate service costs and penalties for substandard performance?
Service cost and financial penalties
Additional Resources
TechExcel www.techexcel.com Helpdesk Institute (HDI) www.thinkhdi.com itSMF - www.itsmfi.org ITIL Homepage - www.itil-officialsite.com
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