Service Level Management Processes by Anticlue

Service Level Agreements are the foundation of the Service Level Management Process. When deciding to implement an SLA, one has to consider the different structures to determine what will work with your organization.
There are different structures for Service Level Agreements.

1. Multilevel – A multilevel structure assists in reducing the overall volume of specific agreements needed to outline all available services. This structure is normally applied to cover the following levels:
   • Corporate level - The corporate level covers all of the generic service level management issues appropriate to every customer in the organization. For example the network services agreement level or desktop support would be applicable at this level.
   • Customer Level – The customer level covers all service level management issues to a specific customer group, such as the patient billing group or the radiology department.
   • Service Level – The service level covers the service level management issues to a specific service used by a customer group. For example, the PACS and Radiology Information System (RIS).
2. Service or customer based structure – A service or customer based structure is really suitable in smaller business environments. A service-based service level agreement structure encompasses one service for all customers. A customer-based service level agreement structure covers all the services used by one specific customer group.

Different structures work for different organizations. Doing some research on this topic is time well spent.
After the determination of which structure will be utilized it is time to move to the first part of the process, scoping and creating the service level agreement. Scoping and creating the SLA is a part of the negotiation and finalizing stages. During negotiations, the customer’s needs are defined in service level requirements (SLRs) and the service catalog. Quite often there are two different viewpoints here between the service level requirements and the IT service provider. The IT service provider should also look to any vendor agreements or third-party providers to assure the same standard is applied.

Once the Service Level Requirements are vetted, accepted, and validated. Service targets are derived and defined within an Operational Level Agreement (OLA) and an underpinning contract (UC). The Operational Level Agreement and Underpinning Contract are supporting documents to the SLA.

The outputs of the negotiating stage of the SLM process are:

• Service catalog – The Service catalog portrays IT as a service instead of as an implementing or maintaining organization. The service catalog details the IT services that are offered as well as the features and functions of that service.
• Service level requirements – Service level requirements are documents which define the customers need. These are used to obtain the scope of the customer’s need. Once derived, SLRs provide a mechanism to develop, modify, and initiate service.
• Operational level agreement – The operational level agreement covers the delivery of services that support the IT organization in its delivery of services. This document provides an internal quality check for the service agreement. For example, if vendor support is only 8 am – 8 pm Mountain time weekdays, it is impossible to offer a service agreement which only provides upgrades and system outage at 9:00 PM EST on Saturday.
• Underpinning contract - The underpinning contract is a contract with an external vendor or supplier. The underpinning contract covers the delivery of services that support the IT organization in its own delivery of services. The underpinning contract can be a master service agreement, with a support addendum or schedule of services agreement.

The second stage of the service level management process is the finalizing stage. The primary activities that occur during finalizing are drafting, reviewing, agreeing upon, completing, and validating, and completing the SLA and supporting agreements.

The next stage is the monitoring stage. Within this stage both technical and procedural actions are monitored. Monitoring coincides with the next stage, reporting. Reports are created to measure the service level compared with the agreed standard.

The final stage is the review stage. When reviewing Service Level Agreement, it is important to keep in mind the changing business environment. There maybe symptomatic problem and trends that highlight the need to change procedures and possibly the need for additional resources. A common technique is to use a Service Improvement Process (SIP) to allocate additional personnel and resources, to modify procedures, and to recommend changes to the level in the SLA.

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