Managing Service Level Agreement

[wolfhard]

Hi there,

I am new to ITIL and need some advice. I wish to write an implementation plan for the Managing SLA ITIL process.

Does anybody have experience with this? What can I use for reliable documentation? Is it advisable to hire a consultant? Is the ITIL documentation sufficient?

Kind regards
Wolfhard

[Azard]

Hi, defining and managing SLA’s would only require a consultant if you:

1) Do not have the resource to dedicate to this initiative
2) Do not have the required knowledge
3) Need to have someone else responsible for the implementation.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The SLA in it’s self is not an ITIL process. Service Level Management is the ITIL process, and SLA’s are managed through the SLM process.

You need to esure you have executive spnosorship for the SLM process.

In order to define and develop SLA’s you need to decide what area of the business you are going to focus on. Once you have identified the key stakeholders, you need to define the SLA itself and what elements are required for that particular SLA.
Some of the items you will need to define include responsibility, incentives and or penalties. The fun part is trying to enforce these incentives or penalties if the SLAs are internal. You also have to keep in mind if you require any UC or OLA’s.

If you refer to the ITIL Service Delivery Book, there is a sample SLA you can use as a starting point.

Start small and remember to include any UC or OLA time allotments into the overall SLA time limits.

Cheers,

[wolfhard]

Thank you very much for the insight.

My company is a global Helpdesk solution provider and managing SLAs is part of daily business.

I am currently a student of IS and I have a project to write an implementation plan for the introduction of SLA management according to ITIL.

This would mean that I will have to make a general implementation plan for ITIL SLA management and then realize this plan on one of the service desks.

Customers at this point are all external.

Is the information provided in the ITIL books sufficient to perform this task or do I need professional help?

Thank you very much for your help.
Cheers
Wolfhard

[Azard]

My suggestion is if you are new to ITIL, and new to SLM, then professional help would be suggested. Do not under estimate the work required in implemnting an ITIL process.


I am sure there are consultanting firms in this forum, including my company. If you already have a strong relationship with one, then ask them for a preliminary meeting to discuss your needs. Or if you would like to discuss this further you can email me at:

azard.omardeen@consulting-portal.com


cheers,