Setting Up a Service Level Management Process

A process of managing service levels ensures that all IT services delivered to customers are in accordance with agreed-upon levels of quality. It also includes ensuring that Service Level Agreements are in place and being observed, measuring and reporting on the service levels, and continuously striving to improve service levels over time.

It is vital to have the right tools in place to accomplish all of this. Most often, the systems and processes that define service levels are outsourced to third-party companies. It is crucial to understand how to manage them within your own SLM process.

The first step in setting up a SLM process is identifying what services are important to the company and establishing the appropriate metrics for the success of the process. This usually involves taking into consideration factors like efficiency of the user base, as well as design aspects. It is also essential to choose the right technology expert – for example a company that is specialised in a particular platform might be able to promise higher levels of performance than a generalised service provider.

Once the SLA goals have been established the teams must create a plan to keep them. This usually involves setting up systems that monitor progress, and notify the team when there are issues with meeting goals.

Additionally, a well-designed SLM process will have built-in continuous improvement processes. These processes will allow teams to learn and improve through the metrics they track. If, for example, the NOC service is consistently failing to meet its SLA of answering calls within 30 seconds, it is possible to pinpoint the cause and fix it.

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