Service Level Agreement

SLA – Everything you Need to Know

SLAs are agreements that define what users and customers can expect from the IT services; define targets for suppliers; and provide suppliers, customers, and stakeholders with regular information on how the services are delivering on these expectations. This information is used to drive improvements. Using SLAs can support effective working relationships between IT and the business, as both should be involved in SLAs’ creation, maintenance, and use. Service Level Management is the process responsible for SLAs in an organization.

Well-developed and -implemented service level agreements can benefit the customer, the users, and the suppliers, including internal IT. These benefits are best realized through careful design, planned implementation, active use, and continual improvement. Here are the benefits of SLAs

Help guarantee good service and satisfied customers
Provide end-users with an expectation of the quality of service they can expect to receive
Help to avoid misunderstandings or confusion about what must be done
Provide a trusted source of information for the agreement
Make the customer and the supplier be attentive to the details of the services
Protect suppliers from ambiguous and unstated requirements

What is an SLA?

A Service Level Agreement is a formal, structured agreement between two parties to provide one or more services to a mutually agreed level. One of the parties is always the customer of the services. The other party is the supplier that provides the services. A supplier can be part of the same organization as the customer or in a different organization. The SLA can be a physical or electronic document. Appropriately authorized individuals from both parties should sign the document. It extends the definition of service from the one contained in the service catalog and provides an agreed and a guaranteed minimum level of service performance.

What does an SLA contain?

An SLA describes the services it covers, the scope of the services, the service characteristics, including the hours when it is available, and the hours that are supported. The document also contains the targets for these services, the responsibilities of both parties, including responsibilities for review and maintenance of its contents. It may also include a pricing model, with any charges for using the service and penalties that are payable for failures to fulfill the service levels. The SLA should be written from the viewpoint of the customer, to facilitate understanding.

What is an Underpinning contract?

An Underpinning Contract describes a contract between a customer and a supplier, which includes SLAs for the services provided. The UC will also contain contractual clauses that aren’t directly related to the service levels, such as how to use subcontractors, technical standards required of the supplier, and who owns the intellectual property rights for the services. For every requirement in a contract, it is good practice to indicate what will happen if the requirement is not satisfied. Including targets for adherence in SLAs is a useful mechanism, as compliance can be measured and reported.

Response Time to a Customer incident

When the customer makes a support call to the company, the following guidelines will be adhered to to measure and monitor the KPI (Key Performance Indicators). This measure ensures that all support calls are responded to in a timely manner and the severity of each call is understood by both parties.

Delivery of Service

Network Elites is committed to the following chart that explains how the support calls are prioritized and how the severity class of each support call is determined. The Severity of any support call can be categorized as Low, medium, and high.