A process to manage service levels ensures that all IT services provided to customers meet agreed-upon levels of quality. It is about ensuring that Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are in place, being adhered to and service levels are monitored and reported on.
In order to accomplish this, it’s essential to have the right tools in place. The processes and systems that define service levels are outsourced to third-party companies. Therefore, it is essential to know how to manage them in the context of your own SLM processes.
The first step to set up an SLM process is to identify which services are essential for the business and set realistic measures of success. This includes factors like efficiency, user base, and design factors. It is also important to choose the right technology expert – for example a company that is specialised in a particular platform might be able to commit to higher levels of performance than a more generalized service provider.
After the SLA goals are established, teams must create a plan to maintain them. This usually means implementing systems that track progress and alert teams automatically when there are issues in meeting the goals.
In addition, a solid SLM process will have built-in continuous improvement processes. These processes will enable teams to learn and improve by analyzing the data they track. If, for instance a NOC service is consistently failing to meet its SLA of answering calls within 30 seconds, it’s what is slm likely to be possible to determine the reason and fix it.