Perhaps one of the most important documents an IT director can sign is a service level agreement (often abbreviated as SLA). It is the legally binding agreement between you and your service provider as to what level of support you can expect from them. This agreement can cover many things: expectations, exclusions, penalties, and more. In the hopes of drafting the best SLA you can, we have broken down the parts of the service level agreement and provided you with some tips to make sure that you’re writing the strongest service level agreement for all parties involved.
Introduction & Purpose
Not everything in your contract can be covered in your SLA.
The SLA is meant to be a contract between an IT company and a supplier. It should describe the level of service and maintenance the company could expect from the supplier. It is important to keep in mind that while the SLA will attempt to cover everything, not everything in your contract can be covered in your SLA. If there are any parts of your contract that you feel are particularly important in your coverage from your supplier, you should include them in your original drafting phase.
Parties & Dates
Your SLA should pinpoint with whom the agreement is between, the name of the company and the name of their provider. While it is standard to put the name of both organizations and addresses, don’t forget to include a key person of contact and their contact information: full name, their position title, and other relevant information. Everything should be clearly labeled and easy to differentiate: email address, office phone number, fax and/or personal cellphone number if applicable. When listing contact information, it may be worthwhile to list them in priority as primary ways of contact (i.e. if your client is more likely to answer their office phone than their email).
Your SLA should clearly state the start and end date of the agreement. To avoid confusion in date formatting, it may be best to write the date out (i.e. February 1, 2016, versus 02/01/2016). It should include review dates of the agreement. However, depending upon the agreement, these can vary. Determine if you two should come together every few months to review the SLA, or if you should come together when one party has a concern and agree to do so within a number of days.
Hardware, Software, & What’s Covered
Exclusions can happen in a variety of scenarios.
In this section of your SLA, you’ll expand upon exactly which hardware and software your agreement will cover. For organization and readability, it may be best to have this section organized in a table. Your table should include the hardware or software make and model, the quantities you’ll be purchasing, and their uptime priority. You should list the hardware or software with the highest uptime priority first, meaning the services you need to function all of the time. Another thing you should include in your equipment table is its status for uptime coverage—are these services covered for uptime? It may also be beneficial for you to include an Other section in your table. This section will give you the chance to document things such as serial numbers, software key codes or anything else you feel is relevant.
It is important for this section of your SLA to be as thorough as it can be because you would not want to run into a circumstance of exclusion, which is when your SLA will not be deemed valid. Exclusions can happen in a variety of scenarios, including when the hardware or software you’re trying to have serviced is not in your original agreement; in the true spirit of Higher Ed IT, many suppliers try to be as accommodating as they can and will try to assist you in any way they can.
Responsibilities
This is the point in the SLA where both the client and supplier will be able to outline their respective responsibilities in the agreement. Much about this is going to be very standard: the supplier will make sure that the client has their uptime, the client will use the IT system as the supplier intended, etc. Despite it being commonplace to outline both parties’ responsibilities, we’d recommend making sure that you use this section to add any specifics you feel are necessary—including things such as contacting via phone versus email. While all of these seem very minor, using direct language can save everyone a headache in the long run.
Uptimes, Measurements, & Penalties
Any unexpected downtime can result in the client being credited for the supplier’s services not working.
For the client to appropriately use the supplier’s hardware, software, or services, the supplier must guarantee a certain percentage of uptime. The amount of guaranteed uptime is dependent upon the hardware or software’s priority. For example, any software listed as priority one should have a guaranteed uptime of 99.99% while a priority two piece of hardware may only have an uptime of 99.7% and so on and so forth. The measuring of hardware or software uptime is done by the supplier’s automated systems and any unexpected downtime can result in the client being credited for the supplier’s services not working, excluding routine maintenance. Now, what is most beneficial to this part of your SLA is to discuss your potential penalties. While many suppliers already have an individualized system in place, it may be worthwhile to ask if these penalties apply to things such as your Help Desk. The key to a good SLA is making sure that you’ve used specific language in order to avoid any confusion.
Response & Resolution Times
Much like your perspective uptime, your response and resolution time are based off of measurements.
As you may expect, response and resolution times are directly related to uptimes. It is how soon you can expect a response from your supplier. This is, of course, based off of the priority levels you and your supplier agree upon. Similarly, resolution time is how quickly your supplier can address and resolve your downtime. Much like your perspective uptime, your response and resolution time are based on measurements, and penalties will be applied to your credit. Your supplier will have their own set of numbers, but this does not mean that you should not use this section of your SLA to bring up any concerns about response and resolution times.
Termination
With every agreement, the client has the right to terminate their partnership with the supplier if the supplier has not been holding up their end of the agreement. The exact terms of your agreement and rights to termination should be discussed between the two parties. This is also a section of your SLA in which you should be as specific as possible with the language you’re using.
Service level agreements vary from company to company. Some may be very heavy on details while others will only outline the basics of what the client needs. They should also include a section for definitions as not everyone uses the same terminology. Regardless of the type of service level agreement you and your supplier agree upon, it is incredibly important to make sure that both of you agree on its contents because this agreement is what will guide your working relationship.
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