VARIEDADES TEMPORALMENTE AUTORIZADAS PARA VINIFICACION

While some organizations may continue to rely on a „best endeavours‟ approach to service quality, the majority have realized that there needs to be a consistent, agreed and

understandable method used for defining and reporting of IT service quality. As the modern IT organization has matured over time to be more akin to any other area of business, there has also been an increased requirement for more formal methods, by which the value of funding and investments into IT are assessed, and performance measured for services provided and capabilities supported. In the context of Service Offerings & Agreements, Service Level Management is the process that seeks to provide consistency in defining the requirements for services, documenting targets and

responsibilities, and providing clarity as to the achievements for service quality delivered to customers.

In effect, the process seeks to manage the „grey areas‟ that are formed between customers and the IT organization, as well as ensuring that the activities performed by various IT groups are coordinated optimally to meet customer requirements. The staff involved (Service Level Management team) are fluent in both technical and business jargon; they resolve disputes between parties (but as a result are sometimes seen as a spy in both camps) and generally work to improve the relationship between the IT organization and the customers it supports.

7.5.1 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The primary goal of Service Level Management is to ensure that an agreed level of IT service is provided for all current IT services, and that future services are delivered to agreed achievable targets. It also proactively seeks and implements improvements to the level of service delivered to customers and users.

By acting as the liaison between the IT Service Provider and the customers, Service Level Management (SLM) is utilized to ensure that the actions required for gathering

requirements, developing agreements, and measuring and reporting performance are performed in a consistent manner in line with the needs of the business and customers.

The specific objectives that SLM should seek to achieve are:

 Define, document, agree, monitor, measure, report and review the level of IT services provided;

 Ensure that specific and measurable targets are developed;

 Provide and improve the relationships and communication practices with customers;

 Monitor and continually improve customer satisfaction;

 Ensure that IT and the customers have clear and unambiguous expectation; and

 Ensure that proactive measures to improve the levels of service delivered are implemented whenever it is cost-justifiable to do so.

Care should be taken that SLM does get implemented in such a way that it becomes too focused on agreements and contracts being developed. The underlying goal still remains to ensure consistency and clarity in the quality of IT service delivery and to provide an effective channel for customers to negotiate and communicate with the IT organization.

7.5.2 BENEFITS

There are many benefits from both the customer and IT organization‟s perspective to having an effective Service Level Management process in place. Some of the tangible benefits include:

 Consistent interfaces to the business for all service-related issues;

 Agreed service targets and required management information provided to business;

 Mechanisms for providing feedback on the cause of any breach to the targets and detail the action taken to prevent the breach from recurring; and

 Reliable communication channels for customers.

In addition to these, some of the intangible benefits of Service Level Management include:

 Develops the trusted relationship between the IT organization with its customers and business representatives;

 Improved understanding and insight as to the actual and potential offerings that can support business processes;

 Improved customer satisfaction as a result on consistent communication and reporting methods; and

 Improved clarity and understanding as to the performance of IT services and how budgets and money is being utilized.

To assist in the adoption of Service Level Management, each organization should develop its own goal/benefits statements the particular approach taken. For example:

Goal Statement for Organization X:

Through a process of continual negotiation, discussion, monitoring and reporting the Service Level Management process aims to ensure the delivery of IT Services that meet the requirements and expectations of our customers and end-users.

Our specific objectives for Service Level Management are:

 To seek agreement on expected delivery of IT service by gaining an understanding of the Service Level Requirements from nominated personnel;

 To oversee the monitoring of service delivery to ensure that the negotiations regarding the service requirements are not ignored and treated as a once off exercise; and

 To provide relevant reports to nominated personnel on a regular basis.

7.5.3 Service Level Agreements

Although Service Level Agreements are implemented in a wide variety of fashions, the guiding principle is that they are a written agreement between an IT service provider and the IT customer(s), defining the key service targets and responsibilities of both parties.

The key word here is agreement, in that SLAs should not be used as a way of holding one side or the other to ransom. When SLAs are viewed in a positive nature as a way of

continually improving the relationship between provider and customers, mutual beneficial agreements will be developed, rather than the development of contracts as part of a

„blame culture‟ by both parties.

The typical contents for an SLA include:

 An introduction to the SLA;

 Service description;

 Mutual responsibilities;

 Scope of SLA;

 Applicable service hours;

 Service availability;

 Reliability;

 Customer support arrangements;

 Contact points & escalation;

 Service performance;

 Batch turnaround times;

 Security; and

 Costs and charging method used.

The key criteria for any information to be contained within an SLA is that it must be measureable, with all language used being clear and concise in order to aid

understanding. As already discussed, SLAs are not used as legal documents for imposing penalties, otherwise it is in conflict with the goal of improving relationships between

customers and the IT Service provider. Another mistake made by organizations in implementing SLAs is they that become too long and technically focused. When this occurs there is potential for misunderstandings or even for the SLA to go unread.

To assist in ensuring these guidelines are followed, it is useful to have an independent party, who has not been involved with the SLA negotiation and development, to do a final read-through. By doing so it might highlight potential ambiguities and difficulties that can be addressed and clarified.

7.5.3.1.1 Service Level Agreement Structures

Due to the wide range of services, customers and business to be addressed by Service Level Management, consideration should be made as to the most appropriate SLA structure that will be meet the organization‟s needs. The three common approaches include Service-based, Customer-based and Multi-level SLAs.

Service-based SLA

This structure involves the documentation of an SLA for each service, with the SLA

covering all the customers of that service. For example, a Point of Sale (POS) service will have an SLA created that covers all the customers who use the POS as part of the retail business processes.

The service-based SLA is usually preferred by IT as it allows a single document to cover a single service for all customers of that service. It means less administration time spent in negotiating different documents with different customers and less time spent on worrying about accommodating different requirements amongst users.

However, there are potential disadvantages that may arise as a result of a service-based structure. These include:

 Difficulties faced when there are varying requirements across the customers involved for a service; and

 Deciding which customers will sign such an agreement, as it may not be appropriate or feasible for all to sign.

In cases where there is a fairly consistent level of service required across all customers (such as e-mail), then service-based SLAs may be an efficient structure to use. The definition of multiple classes of service (e.g. Gold, Silver and Bronze offerings), may also be used within a service-based SLA to enable some flexibility in offerings.

Customer-based SLAs

For this structure, an SLA is documented for a specific customer, covering all of the services they are provided with from the IT organization. In effect, this means that if the IT organization is providing services to ten different customers (e.g. Human Resources, Sales and Marketing, Finance etc.) then there would a requirement for ten SLAs to be

created. In most cases this is the preferred option for customers, as it details all their specific requirements in a single document.

The potential disadvantage in using customer-based SLAs may occur when there are common requirements for services across most customers. This could result in the duplication of effort in defining and documenting SLAs for each customer. If this is the case, a combination of both of these structures may be appropriate, providing all services and customers are covered, with no overall or duplication.

Multi-level SLAs

Some organizations have chosen to adopt a multi level SLA structure, where each layer has a different level of focus. While the layers chosen should be appropriate to most effectively meet the organization‟s needs, a common approach to multi-level SLAs is as follows:

 Corporate Level: covers all generic SLA issues to every customer throughout the organization. These targets should be set at a sufficiently high level to serve as a benchmark for all new services introduced.

 Customer Level: covers all SLA issues relevant to a particular customer group or business unit, regardless of the service being used.

 Service Level: covers all SLA issues relevant to the specific service, in relation to a specific customer group.

Figure 6.18: – Typical multi-level SLA structure

Other feasible options that could be used for multi-level SLAs include:

 Geographic region: covering all customers in that region. This is useful for international organizations where there are varying requirements between the regions being served.

 Organization: covering all customers that exist within an organization that is being provided with services. More specific details can then be provided at the customer level.

 User group: covering all services being provided to a particular user group.

 Premium, Enhanced & Standard: where customers are defined instead in terms of the level of service being offered.

This kind of structure allows SLAs to be kept to a manageable size, avoids unnecessary duplication, and reduces the need for frequent updates. However, it does mean that extra effort may be required to maintain the necessary relationships and links within the Service Catalogue and the Configuration Management System.

7.5.4 SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

As an overview of Service Level Management, the process will generally consist of the following interrelated activities: (not necessarily in chronological order)