Cloud Services
A service-level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and the customer. The contract outlines the client’s obligations and the standards of the terms and services for vendors and their clients. The primary aim of an SLA is to minimize the possibility of disagreements and problems between clients and vendors, which might have a negative impact on projects and business relationships. SLAs were initially by IT service providers and later expanded when companies adopted IT outsourcing. Currently, SLAs are used in a variety of field, including project management. Additionally, SLAs in the modern world are used to govern relationships between internal and external customers, as well as service providers (Goo et al., 2009).
SLAs serve a critical role in project management. Vendor services involve a lot of conflict, arising from misunderstandings and dissatisfaction, making these contracts important. These crucial agreements describe specific performance characteristics of a vendor and define ways to address any issues arising from services. Project managers should request SLAs based on the nature and duration of the anticipated service. The agreement will minimize the risk of unexpected consequences, especially after the project is over. For an SLA to be effective, three primary elements should be considered.
The first element is urgency and technicality categories. In an SLA, prioritizing key requests is an interest customers and providers share. Prioritization ensures businesses distribute their resources efficiently and assure customers that their most essential issues are handled first. Defining prioritization in an SLA needs you to first identify request categories. For instance, of an SLA refers to an entire service operation, predefining every single scenario could be challenging. Therefore, general issue types are needed; however, they should be concise and defined to facilitate logical categorization of detailed issues. After identifying these issues, they should be labeled using expressive terms that everyone can understand. For example, words like normal and urgent can be used to label issue categories. To enhance clarity, add a list or table of categories to the SLA, describing their respective urgency based on the customer’s operational demands. For example, if the severity level of an issue is critical, it means that a system might be down and this requires an immediate response. Therefore, the customer will expect no delays and the provider will respond on time, making urgency and technicality category vital in an SLA.
Accessibility number is another essential aspect that should be included in the agreement. Accessibility is the primary principle of better customer service; therefore, it is important to an SLA. Among the many concerns customers might have regarding any service is how easy it is for them to get in touch with the provider for support (Pradana, 2016). Most service providers indicate office hours in their website. To ensure an SLA allows efficient customer service, it should grant facilities through custom terms, especially if the contract involves larger corporate clients.
A good service level agreement should include availability elements to limit the level of inconveniences customers and providers experience. The providers should differentiate availability during weekdays, weekends, and holidays. The SLA should also include specific time zones and urgency. Therefore, the agreement will help customers know things like the time of day during which their provider is available and particular channels services can be accessed. Another thing to be included is the unique time customers can access a channel and the option to call through to supervisors and managers in charge. Additionally a service level agreement ought to have waiting limits per time, in a given channel, and urgency.
Problem resolution is another critical principle, not only to SLAs, but also in other areas of business involving more than one party. Customers want to be sure if providers will be available to offer solutions in case something goes wrong. Additionally, customers are concerned if the provider can fix the problem and how it will be done. Therefore, the service level agreement should assure the customer that the problem will be fixed; however, to build trust, the provider should clearly identify how specific problems will be handled (Nicholas, 2006).
A disaster recovery plan is a core aspect in problem resolution that has to be included in an SLA. In a typical set up, a disaster refers to a complete failure of most if not all services in central functions of business. Most providers in the IT sector have disaster plans that applies to a variety of customers, especially in cases of data loss. The specific details of the plan should be included in the disaster recovery plan.
The disaster recovery plan included in the SLA should identify possible disaster scenarios and particular solutions for the specific customer. Including a disaster recovery plan in an SLA is essential in problem resolution because it ensures the customer and providers knows their responsibilities and actions to take in expected scenarios. However, the customer will still question the time it will take to fix a situation when it becomes real. Therefore, the real recovery time is a metric of interest in an SLA. The provider should state the maximum recovery time for essential issues. Additionally, the customer should be assured that a qualified expert in a given field will be involved in solving relevant fields to avoid further failures.
References
Goo, J. & Kishore, R. et al., (2009). The role of service level agreements in relational
management of information technology outsourcing: An Empirical Study. MIS Quarterly,
33(1), 119-145.
Nicholas, B. (2006) Service level agreements: An essential aspect of outsourcing, The
Service Industries Journal, 26(4), 381-395, DOI: 10.1080/02642060600621563
Pradana, H. (2016). Analyze the effectiveness of Service Level Agreement (SLA) toward goods
delivery. Academic Journal of Science, 05(01), 323–332.