The Complete Guide To It Service Level Agreements

Covering all aspects of Information Technology Service Level Agreements (SLA's), this essential manual is a step-by-step guide to designing, negotiating and implementing SLA's into your organization. It reviews the disadvantages and advantages, gives clear guidance on what types are appropriate, how to set up SLA's and to control them. An invaluable aid to IT managers, data center managers, computer services, systems and operations managers. This unique, comprehensive guide is a major update of Andrew Hiles' landmark 1991 guide to Service Level Agreements and 2000 Second Edition.

Most suppliers lose around 16% of their customers each year. The reason? Poor service — whether perceived or real. Any technology-based support service, whether in-house, contracted or outsourced, stands to be accused of being insensitive to the requirements of its customers (or users). Equally, customers of a support service may have unrealistic expectations of what can be reasonably provided. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) can overcome these gulfs. A Service Level Agreement can create harmony between parties and can prevent disputes between customers and suppliers. It can justify investment and identify the "right" quality of service. It can mean the difference between business success and failure. SLAs are potentially a strategic tool to align all support services (particularly IT) directly to business mission achievement. In the past, few organizations used them in this way. Armed with this book and the companion SLA FRAMEWORK, more and more businesses are now succeeding. Where are SLAs going? Increasingly business-focused. Increasingly measured in real-time. Simple documents that cover complex service infrastructures. Providing a competitive edge. Embracing penalties. The brave, who commit to tight SLAs and perform against them will win the commercial spoils. This book provides the knowledge and tools based on fifteen years of intensive development to ensure your enterprise is among the winners.

Provides guidance on how to create enduring, satisfying and profitable relationship between customer and supllier by using service level agreements.

In an ideal business climate, all your service level agreements would align perfectly with business goals. Your company’s vision, definitions, requirements, and performance measurement would be clear. But in today’s fast-paced, complex world of outsourcing, you could use some help to make that a reality. Look no further! In A Rothstein Publishing Collection: Service Level Agreements, four key books by Andrew Hiles combine to help you achieve effective agreements. Andrew Hiles draws on decades of experience to guide you in achieving service level agreements (SLAs) that are not simply legal documents, but are strategic business-centric tools that can lead to enduring, satisfying, and profitable relationships between customer and supplier. In this four-book package, you will receive a step-by-step guide to designing, negotiating, and implementing SLAs in your organization: Service Level Agreements: Winning a Competitive Edge for Support & Supply Services The Complete Guide to IT Service Level Agreements: Aligning IT Service to Business Needs E-Business Service Level Agreements: Strategies for Service Providers, E-Commerce and Outsourcing Creating a Customer-Focused Help Desk: How to Win and Keep Your Customers These books include checklists, samples, statistics, and real-world case studies that will help you to: • Create clearly written SLAs that are unambiguous, comprehensive, and enforceable. • Balance service costs against quality for business advantage. • Provide the level of service that meets the expectations of customers and keeps them loyal. • Apply quality assurance techniques to the SLA to identify the right quality of service. • Prevent disputes between customers and suppliers. • Avoid catastrophic losses and day-to-day headaches.

Service Level Agreements are being used increasingly in the ILS sector as a means of ensuring quality of service and value for money. This volume offers librarians and information managers practical, step-by-step guidance to constructing and implementing an SLA.

Your customers don't care whether it is you, your ISP, ASP, or other outsourced provider who screws up - they just know they can't do business with you when they want to. All that matters is that your e-business is failing to deliver - and that you need to hold someone accountable. Meaningful Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are unambiguous, comprehensive, and enforceable. SLAs commit suppliers to a defined quality of service: failure to meet explicit service levels can result in penalties or even legal action. Spectacular losses often follow e-business outages, particularly when SLAs are not in force. The biggest hit is not necessarily loss of income or profit, but impact on stock values - especially when markets are skittish. Some losses have exceeded $40 million with stock values falling by 26%. This new book offers the keys to effective SLAs with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs), which can go a long way toward averting catastrophic losses as well as day-to-day headaches.

Shows how to write a risk and impact assessment report, and illustrates some of the science behind risk and continuity theories.