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A Service Level Agreement (frequently SLA) is that part of a service contract where the level of service is formally defined. In practice, the term SLA is sometimes used to refer to the contracted delivery time (of the service) or performance.

Description

An SLA is a formally negotiated agreement between two parties. It is a contract that exists between customers and their service provider, client or between service providers. It records the common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantee, and such — collectively, the level of service. For example, it may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service like billing and even penalties in the case of violation of the SLA. A contract is a legally binding exchange of promises or agreement between parties that the law will enforce. ... A service provider is an entity that provides services to other entities. ...

Historically, SLAs have been used since late 1980s by fixed line telecom operators as part of their contracts with their corporate customers. More recently, Information Technology departments in larger enterprises have adopted the idea of using service level agreements with their customers — users in other departments within the same enterprise — to allow for comparing the delivered quality of service with the one promised and potentially consider the alternative of outsourcing IT services to an external company. A telephone company (or telco) provides telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications. ... Information and communication technology spending in 2005 Information Technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ...

The technical specifications of an SLA are commonly described through either a Service Level Specification (SLS) or a Service Level Objective (SLO). An SLS is intended as an operational guideline for the implementation of the service, and an SLO is a subset of an SLS containing some service parameters and goals to be achieved by the SLS. Service Level Objectives (SLOs) are a key element of a Service Level Agreement between a Service Provider and a customer. ...

Common metrics

Service Level Agreements can contain numerous service performance metrics with corresponding service level objectives. A common case in IT Service Management is a call center or service desk. Metrics commonly agreed to in these cases include: IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline for managing large-scale information technology (IT) systems, philosophically centered on the ITSM stands in deliberate contrast to technology-centered approaches to IT management and business interaction. ... A call centre (Commonwealth English) or call center (AmE) is a centralized office of a company that answers incoming telephone calls from customers(often for the purposes of product support) , or that makes outgoing telephone calls to customers (telemarketing). ... A Service Desk is a primary IT capability called for in IT Service Management. ...

• ABA (Abandon Rate): Percentage of calls abandoned while waiting to be answered.
• ASA (Average Speed to Answer): Average time (usually in seconds) it takes for a call to be answered by the service desk.
• TSF (Time Service Factor): Percentage of calls answered within a definite timeframe, e.g. 80% in 20 seconds.
• FCR (First Call Resolution): Percentage of incoming calls that can be resolved without the use of a callback, or without having the caller call back the helpdesk to finish resolving the case.

Uptime Agreements are another very common metric, often used for data services such as shared hosting, virtual private servers and dedicated servers. Common agreements include percentage of network uptime, power uptime, amount of scheduled maintenance windows etc. Satiate is the first album released by Avail in 1992. ... Uptime is a measure of the time a computer system has been up and running. ... Shared hosting is a form of web hosting where more than one web site is hosted on the same server. ... A virtual private server (also referred to as virtual dedicated server or virtual server, and abbreviated VPS or VDS) is a method of partitioning one physical server computer into multiple servers that each has the appearance and capabilities of running on its own dedicated machine. ... A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting where the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. ...

Many SLAs track to the ITIL specifications when applied to IT services. Atil, also spelled Itil (Turkic for Big River), was a name of the Volga River and of the capital of Khazaria from the middle of the 8th century until towards the end of the 10th century. ...

Typical contents

SLAs commonly include segments to address: a definition of services; performance measurement; problem management; customer duties; warranties; disaster recovery; termination of agreement.^[1]

In outsourcing

Outsourcing involves the transfer of responsibility from an organization to a supplier.The management of this new arrangement is through a contract that may include a Service Level Agreement (SLA).The contract may involve financial penalties and the right to terminate if SLAs are consistently missed. Setting, tracking and managing SLAs is an important part of Outsourcing Relationship Management (ORM) discipline. It is typical that specific SLAs are negotiated up front as part of the outsourcing contract and they are utilized as one of the primary tools of outsourcing governance. Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. ...

References