Aegis Solutions - Service Level Management

Service Level Agreements (SLA), which are managed through the SLM Process, provide specific targets against which the performance of the IT organization can be judged.

The goal for SLM is to maintain and improve IT Service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon IT Service achievements and instigation of actions to eradicate poor service - in line with business or Cost justification. Through these methods, a better relationship between IT and its Customers can be developed.

What is an SLA?

A written agreement between an IT Service provider and the IT Customer(s), defining the key service targets and responsibilities of both parties. The emphasis must be on agreement and SLAs should not be used as a way of holding one side or the other to ransom. A true partnership should be developed between the IT provider and the Customer, so that a mutually beneficial agreement is reached, otherwise the SLA could quickly fall into disrepute and a culture of blame prevent any true service quality improvements from taking place.

Aegis SLA

The SLA feature in Aegis is completely configurable and allows you to define the following SLA Types:

• The Initial Response Time and Breach Status.

• The Subsequent Response Time and Breach Status.
• The Closed Time and Breach Status.

For each of the above you can define the breach statuses. For example, if you define the Initial Response Time as 3 hours, you can define the following breach statuses:

For each breach status, you can also define who to notify and how to update the incident record when the incident is escalated. For example, if the breach status is 2 Hours To Breach, you can change the Priority on the Incident record from Low to Medium and send a notification to a user or user group. This gives you complete control on SLA notifications.

You can define unlimited number of Client SLAs. This will be used to escalate the client’s incidents. For example, you can have an SLA to cover Network Support and another to cover Applications Support.

You can also attachment any documents related to the SLA for each Client SLA you defined.

SLA Reporting. You can define a Call Queue to report on SLA Breach Status. This can be in tabular or graphical format. You can also define graphs to show SLA Breach Statuses for a given month or any period you defined.

Benefits of SLM

The improvements in Service quality and the reduction in service disruption that can be achieved through effective SLM can ultimately lead to significant financial savings. Less time and effort is spent by IT staff in resolving fewer failures and IT Customers are able to perform their Business functions without adverse Impact.

Other specific benefits from SLM include:

• IT Services are designed to meet Service Level Requirements.
• Improved relationships with satisfied Customers.
• Both parties to the agreement have a clearer view of roles and responsibilities - thus avoiding potential misunderstandings or omissions.
• There are specific targets to aim for and against which service quality can be measured, monitored and reported - 'if you aim at nothing, that is usually what you hit'.
• IT effort is focused on those areas that the business thinks are key.
• IT and Customers have a clear and consistent expectation of the level of service required (i.e. everyone understands and agrees what constitutes a 'Priority One' Incident, and everyone has a consistent understanding of what response and fix times are associated with something called 'Priority One').
• Service monitoring allows weak areas to be identified, so that remedial action can be taken (if there is a justifiable business case), thus improving future service quality.
• Service monitoring also shows where Customer or User actions are causing the fault and so identify where working efficiency and/or training can be improved.
• SLM underpins supplier management (and vice versa) - in cases where services are outsourced the SLAs are a key part of managing the relationship with the third-party - in other cases service monitoring allows the performance of suppliers (internal and external) to be evaluated and managed.
• SLA can be used as a basis for Charging - and helps demonstrate what value Customers are receiving for their money.

The cumulative effect should lead to a gradual improvement in service quality and an overall reduction in the Cost of service provision.