Remember when you raised a service request and received a delayed solution?
The response was so late that you switched to looking for another possible solution.
Such delays impact the organization’s overall progress, and we are sure you don’t want to encounter them frequently.
This is where Service Level Agreement (SLA) comes to shield organizations from such irregularities.
The IT service desk offers services to the end-users, so it is essential to resolve tickets within a reasonable time frame. Now comes the question.
What Is the reasonable time frame?
In this context, SLAs can help organizations streamline service delivery.
SLAs are legally binding agreements that can help you match the requester’s expectations.
So, let us understand SLAs in detail, their importance, and why you need SLAs for your organization with examples of SLA templates.
Definition – Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a company and its customers that defines the level of service the company will provide.
It also identifies what happens when the company fails to meet those standards.
The parties involved in the process could be separate organizations or teams. There are three main types of SLA,
- Customer-based SLA,
- Service-based SLA,
- And Multi-level SLA.
It is crucial to carefully evaluate and design SLAs to obtain the maximum service value.
Before creating any SLAs, the service provider needs to understand the difference between internal outputs and customer-facing outcomes to get the most out of the SLAs designed.
Why is SLA management important for an organization?
SLAs help retain customers and provide them with the best experience with exceptional service quality by increasing the service value.
Robust SLA management offers the blueprint of the services you will provide to the end-user.
Here are some incredible benefits of SLA management and why your organization needs SLAs.
1. It helps in improving customer service.
For any organization, the main focal point is providing an incredible customer experience by offering quality services and reducing Mean time to resolution (MTTR) by up to 80%.
SLAs help improve overall service management, ultimately providing exceptional customer service.
2. Better Communication and Accountability
With the help of efficient SLA management, your organization will witness better communication and accountability. It should happen in two ways,
- Customers (Employees) can easily refer to the set priorities in the SLA document and the maximum time allotted to the service provider.
- Organizations can refer to the periodic performance reports to understand the support outcomes.
3. It defines procedures and standards for the customer.
It defines procedures and standards for service providers and customers, which clarify what to do to receive support.
These standards help customers get timely support and measure it through performance reports.
4. It offers you peace of mind.
SLAs make service providers accountable for their actions, and the organization can efficiently check the performance report to identify the delays and SLA breaches.
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Basic Structure of Service Level Agreement (SLA) Template
There are several things included in the SLA. Here is the basic structure.
1. Service Level Agreement
When you are creating your SLA template, the first thing that you need to include is,
- Version details
- All document history
- Document approvals
2. Agreement Overview
An agreement overview is nothing but an overview of the overall details of the SLA. It also includes the individuals included in the service, the effective date, and the expiry date.
3. Service Agreement
This is the most extended and crucial component of any SLA template, which includes the following,
- KPIs and metrics
- Service levels, rankings, and priority
- Service response
- Exceptions and limitations
- Goals and Objectives
- Responses and responsibilities
- Service Management
4. Service Management
The last and final key component of any service level agreement is service management which includes service availability and service requests.
It also provides service management and support details for the service provider.
5. Stakeholders
The stakeholder section includes all the parties involved in the agreement.
6. Periodic Review
Including a periodic review in the SLA template is essential to achieving customer service expectations on time.
The periodic review will outline the effective/expiry date and the parameters regarding the review timeline.
By including the above-discussed service level agreement points, you can efficiently create a robust SLA template that will help your organization manage SLA proficiently.
Some Common SLA Metrics
Without understanding the SLA metrics, you can’t measure the quality of work done by the service provider. SLA metrics are a set of KPIs that will help you monitor and measure performance.
Here are some common types of SLA metrics.
- Defect rate
- Abandonment rate
- Average time to respond
- First call resolution
- Turnaround time
- Meantime to recover
If you’re not measuring or monitoring critical metrics of your SLA, then there will be no space for improvement.
Motadata’s ITSM tool comes with all key SLA metrics through its reporting module that will help you continuously improve your SLA management.
Want to know more about crucial SLA metrics? If yes, then read our detailed blog on SLA Key Metrics.
Streamline Your SLA Management with Motadata’s Result-Driven ITSM Tool
Motadata’s ITSM tool has a feature where you can create SLA and enforce it while managing the tickets.
Our robust functionality helps the organization assess the service provider’s performance, which will give you faster service delivery and quality outcomes.
Let us look at some excellent options and functionality included in Motadata’s ITSM tool while creating SLA.
Here is some result-driven SLA functionality that Motadata’s ITSM tool contains:
1. Maximum Response Time – While creating SLA in the Motadata ITSM tool, you can fix a maximum response time for a technician to respond to a specific ticket.
2. Maximum Resolution Time – When you create SLA in the tool, you can fix a maximum resolution time for a technician to resolve the specific ticket.
3. Escalation Rules – When the maximum response and resolution time are violated, escalation rules come into place and will escalate according to the filled actions.
All these SLA functionalities in Motadata’s ITSM platform will make a significant impact in improving your overall SLA processes.
With an easy-to-use user interface and impacting functions, Motadata’s ITSM tool gives you the perfect opportunity to efficiently create SLAs with conditions, timings, and escalation rules.
So, integrate Motadata’s ITSM solution today into your organization and measure the performance of service providers efficiently with incredible SLA functionalities.
FAQs
SLA is important to ensure that both parties, I.e., service provider and service receiver are on the same page.
There are three main types of SLAs: customers and internal and multi-level service-level agreements.
SLA metrics are a set of KPIs that help measure and monitor service providers’ performance.
SLA is not static; whenever there is modification during the term, you can efficiently revise your SLA to get the best outcomes. SLA should include clear and concise information, so it is crucial to revise it.
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