Support based on Service Level agreements (SLA – Service Level Agreement) consists of the establishment of a contract where optimal levels of support depending on a number of parameters are stipulated objective, established by mutual agreement between the client and MSP.
This contract defines the operating level of operation, scope and responsibilities, as well as penalties by fall of the service, among other topics. When engaging the services of MSP the contract describes a specific level of quality to provide either corrective maintenance (support), as preventive.
The main points covered in the definition of the service, that are of great importance to formalize an operation, are :
- Type and scope of service
- Level of support to clients and type of assistance
- Provisions and considerations for security and data
- Guarantees, solution and response times
- Service availability and connectivity
- Fines or penalties for drops of service
To implement support service based on SLAs, MSP applies best practices from ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), same that were created by the British Government for IT administration . As part of the process of implementing, certain key factors, on which will depend largely the achievement of desired outcomes, should be taken into account:
Definition of procedures and mechanisms of monitoring and evaluation.
- Definition of objectives in the operation
- Tuning of expectations
- Time planning
- Analysis, optimization, and/or redesign process
On the other hand, some of the most common mistakes in the implementation of such services are:
- A. To define service levels unattainable
- B. Excessive regulation
- C. Error in the definition of priorities
- D. Technical complexity
- E. Irrelevance (if a SLA has no effect whatsoever on the client, the objective is nonsense).
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