A service level management program ensures that all IT Services delivered to customers are of agreed standards of quality. It includes ensuring that Service Level Agreements are in place and are being met, measuring and reporting on service levels, and constantly striving to improve service levels over time.
It is crucial to have the correct tools in place to achieve all of this. Most often, the systems and processes used to define the service levels are subcontracted out to third-party companies. It is therefore crucial to know how you can best manage them in the context of your own SLM processes.
The first step to set up an SLM process is to determine which services are essential for the company and to establish acceptable measures of the success of the process. This includes factors such as efficiency, user base and design aspects. It is also crucial to choose technology expertise carefully – for example, a company that specialises in a particular platform might be able to commit to higher levels of performance than a more generalised service provider.
Once the SLA goals are established the teams need to create an action plan to ensure they are met. This typically involves putting in place systems that can track progress, and notify the team of problems in meeting the targets.
Additionally, a well-designed SLM process will incorporate continuous improvement processes. These will help teams to analyze the data they collect, and identify ways to improve the processes that are causing problems. If, for instance, the NOC service consistently fails to meet its SLA of answering telephone calls within 30 seconds, it’s possible to identify the reason and fix it.
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