Developing a Service Level Agreement (SLA) Process

Gain a comprehensive understanding of practical implications of an SLA program along with the options for implementation and management.

A service-level agreement (SLA) is a negotiated agreement between two parties where one is the customer and the other is the actual service provider. This can be a legally binding formal or informal contract. An SLA should contain operating norms, which describe how the process is governed, managing, and controlled. An SLA should also include a set of operating metrics that are reported on a monthly or basis. SLAs are needed to measure the success of any service provider and establish a mutually agreed upon level of service and performance metrics. The Shared Service and Outsourcing Network (SSON) recommend that the following items are included in the SLA process; the processes to be included and the products and services of those processes, a list of the processes which are out of scope at this point to manage customer expectations, conditions of service availability - hours of opening, days of operation, service standards - times for delivery of services should be recorded in number of working days (rather than say 24 or 48 hours) to manage expectations and be clear about closures of operations for bank-holidays or weekends, an R-A-C-I matrix - to show who is Responsible, Accountable, needs to be consulted and Informed, regarding process steps. This ensures role clarity in completion of tasks, cost vs. service trade-offs, to manage expectations about work arounds or just as a favor requests, and clear escalation procedures and timelines so that when something goes wrong it can be resolved by the right person, in the right role, at the right time.