Different types of escalation
12.0 Service Level Management 12.1 Introduction
Imagine the following situation:
The Managing Director (MD) announces to the Chief Information Officer (CIO) that the company is thinking about outsourcing the IT Organization. Over the last two years there have been numerous and major complaints about the current IT services by the business. The customers say it doesn’t do what it should, it is not working properly etc.
The CIO is puzzled to say the least. He had no idea that they were doing so badly. They actually thought they were doing well. The services were up and running for most of the time. They resolve incidents quickly and didn’t get many complaints from the users that they were aware of.
His staff have been putting in an enormous amount of effort to upgrade the server that the payroll system has been running on.
How could we have done any better? See the problem?
1. The IT Organization thinks it is delivering services of a high standard but they have no
figures to back that up. The loosely defined "up and running most of the time" didn't take into account the outages during critical times.
2. The effort on upgrading the server is commendable, but of no benefit as the business
recently decided to outsource the company payroll activities.
3. There probably is no official procedure in place to ask for the Customers opinion or a how
to make a complaint so how could they have know about the perception of the customer regarding there services?
Implementing the Service Level Management process will solve the main problems in this situation. The most widely known element of Service Level Management are Service Level Agreements (SLA's). SLA's allow the IT organization and the customer to come to agreement about which services are been provided, the availability required of them and their costs. These levels would be measurable so both sides can verify if the levels are being met.
Service Level Management is the process that forms the link between the IT organization and the customers. Implementing Service Level Management can only be completely successful when the other ITIL processes are implemented as well.
The main aim of SLM is to ensure the quality of the IT services provided, at a cost acceptable to the business.
Note: There are some who feel that Service Level Management is the single most important process within ITIL. This is a difficult argument to defend. By its very nature of processes within ITIL are of equal standing. It is true that SLM has more of a 'customer focus' than most other processes, but without those other processes, there is nothing to see the customer about!
Objective
The Service Level Management process manages the quality of IT service delivery according to a written agreement between the users and IT department called the Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
The goal for SLM is to maintain and improve on service quality through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring, reporting and improving the current levels of service. It is strategically focused on the business and maintaining the alignment between the business and IT.
Process Description
In order to understand the Service Level Management process it is necessary to understand some basic concepts that are used, we will be explaining them here so the process is easier to
understand.
Service Level Requirements (SLR)
This is a document that contains customer requirements regarding which IT services they want and the availability/performance they need for those services. This is the starting point of setting up the Service Level Agreements.
Service Specifications
The IT organization draws up the Service Specifications based on the SLR. This is the translation of the customer requirements into "how" the IT organization is going to provide these services. What are the technical needs? It also will show relationships between the SLAs, the third parties and IT the organization itself.
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
The SLA is a document that defines agreed service levels between the customer and provider, i.e. between IT and the business. SLAs should be written in language that the business understands (clear, concise and free of jargon). SLAs should not include detailed procedure diagrams for other
Underpinning Contracts (UPCs or UCs)
With the an external supplier or third party is involved in the delivery of IT Services then a contract has to be drawn up to ensure that they provide their service within a certain agreed time, cost, level, etc. The IT organization passes through the business requirements to external suppliers. This document will be reflective of the service levels defined in SLAs. For example, if the SLA states a fix of a printer in 5 days then the UC with the third party should support this i.e. Fix printer and return to organization in 3 days.
Operational Level Agreement (OLA) or Service Provisioning Agreement (SPA)
Some IT services depend on other service being provided from within the IT organization. For example a service to provide a program that runs via the network depends on the availability of the network. Agreements about the availability of the network will be drawn up in an Operational Level Agreement or SPA. As with the UPC these internal "contracts" will support the SLAs in the same manner except the focus is towards the internal IT organization.
Service Quality Plan (SQP)
This plan will contain information about performance indicators for the IT organization to measure the Services. It will contain performance indicators for each of the processes that are implemented in the organization. It is important to also include the performance indicators in the UCs and OLAs as they contribute to the IT service as a whole.
Service Catalogue
This is a document that contains all the Services that are provided, a description of the service, service levels, cost of the service, the customer and the person/department responsible for the maintenance of the service. The content of a Service Catalogue will vary depending on the requirements of the IT organization.
Service Specification sheets often form part of the Service Catalog.
Note: Be sure to understand the principal difference between an Underpinning Contract and an Operational Level Agreement.
Activities
The main activities of Service Level Management consist of: • Composing a Service Catalogue
• Negotiating with clients over the possibilities and price of automation and drafting • Securing and maintaining the Service Level Agreement (SLA).
This is done trough a continuous cycle of the following actions: • Identifying • Defining • Negotiating • Monitoring • Reporting • Reviewing Identifying
Within this activity the IT organization will need to define the services it provides within a Service Catalogue. The Service Catalogue is like a menu of services that will clarify for IT what is on offer and the components of these services.
In this stage the relationship between the IT organization and the customer is built or maintained. The aim is to find out the customer requirements with regard to IT services. As part of this activity the SLR document is written documenting the customer requirements. This document should be signed off by both parties to ensure that a clear understanding is achieved by IT and the business regarding requirements.
Defining
The results of this activity the first time around will be the delivering of the SLR, the service specs and the SQP.
On an ongoing basis this activity will include taking the SLRs as well as the content of the Service Catalogue and defining a draft SLA that aligns both into acceptable service levels. During the creation of this document consideration of the UCs and OLAs is critical as these documents support the SLA.
Later on the needs of the customer and the specs need to be verified on a regular basis as they might change. The needs of the customer might change due to a change in the business procedures and the specs made need changing as a result of the changed Requirements or the introduction of advanced technology.
Negotiating
Once the draft SLA is formulated negotiation is carried out to gain agreement, acceptance and a signature for the following documents.
• Service Level Agreement • Underpinning Contracts • Operational Level Agreements
Monitoring
If service levels cannot be measured and monitored their value is substantially reduced. Why set service levels if you do not know if they are being met?
In order to be able to measure the service levels they need to be clear and have to be objective. It is not enough to define how much time a service can be unavailable, one also needs to define when a service is said to be available again. Is it when the IT organization restored the service or when the users are aware of it?
In order to monitor the performance, availability and support service levels other processes such as Capacity, Availability and Incident Management should be in place. These processes will manage and report on service levels reporting back to the Service Level Management process.
Reporting
The reports should show the figures about the service levels that are required and the actually measured service levels.
Subjects that can be included are: • Time needed to resolve Incidents
• Down time of the network and any other occasion where the service levels have not been met.
• Time needed for a change.
• All major disruptions to the IT service in detail. • Use of the capacity (minimum and maximum) • Amount of interactions with various services Reviewing
Reviewing the Service with the Customers on a regular basis will help discover opportunities to improve the IT service that is provided. With the help of a Service Improvement Plan (SIP) this can be achieved.
Once the Service Level Agreements are documented is it not end of the process it is the start! It is also important to regularly review how the process itself operates and update where necessary.
Roles
Service Level Manager Role
The Service Level Manager is responsible for the implementing of the process and maintaining or improving the Service Levels by initiating improvement actions. The role requires a position that allows the person to negotiate the service levels with the customers on behalf of the IT
organization.
The Service Level Manger oversees the steps that result in the following official documents: • Service Level Requirements
• Service Specs
• Service Level Agreement • Underpinning contract
• Operational Level Agreements • Service Quality plan
Relationships
Service Level Management is at once the basis and, the result of, the implementation of Service Management processes. Service Level Management is related to every other module within Service Management.
You can’t implement Service Level Management to a full maturity without the other nine processes and the Service Desk function, due to the holistic approach required for Service Management. The Service Support processes - Incident and Problem and the Service Desk - aim to restore the services as soon as possible when there is a breach within the Service Levels. They provide SLM with valuable information as the customer’s perception of the Service Levels.
The Service Delivery processes are more focussed on keeping the services running within the parameters defined in the SLAs. They get information from SLM about the required levels and give information about the actual levels and advice about the impact of new or changed services. Note: Remember the Service Support Processes are:
o Incident Management o Problem Management o Change Management o Release Management
o Configuration Management
Benefits
Introducing Service Level Management will have the following benefits for the Business and the IT organization:
• The IT service will be of a higher quality and will cause less interruption. Hence the productivity of the IT customers will improve as well.
• The resources of IT staff will be used more efficiently.
• The IT organization will provide services that meet the expectations of the customers. • The service provided can be measured.
• The perception of the IT organization will improve. • Cost reduction.
• The services provided by the third parties is more manageable with the underpinning contracts in place and therefore any possibility of negative influence on the IT service provided is reduced.
Common Problems
The following issues need to be addressed in order to ensure a successful Service Level Management process:
• The service levels set out in the SLAs must be achievable for the IT Organization in the first place.
• UCs and or OLAs much be set up properly otherwise external suppliers or internal parties may inadvertently create a breach of the agreed Service Levels.
• The services need to be measurable and objective for IT Customers and the IT organization. • There needs to be a commitment to negotiate the Service Levels required and in the
drawing up Service Level Agreements. This must be backed with a commitment to conduct regular reviews and not simply let the agreements get outdated.
Note: A useful acronym when thinking about Service Level Agreements (or any contract) is SMART
• Simple
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Time driven
Metrics
The following question will help determine if the Service Level Management process is effective and efficient:
• Are all services covered by SLAs?
• Do the services within the SLAs have the necessary UCs and or OLAs? • Is there an improvement in the Service Levels?
• Are the actual Service Levels measured?
• Is the perception of the IT organization improving?
Best practices Interesting websites:
Assessment
http://www.itil.co.uk/online_ordering/serv_del_graphs/servlevel_mngt.htm
http://www.interpromusa.com/SLA Challenges for ASPs.pdf Books http://www3.gartner.com/1_researchanalysis/focus/entmgmt013002.html More theory http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/TechNet/prodtechnol/windo ws2000serv/maintain/opsguide/cfgmgtog.asp Essentials (terminology) Service Level Management:
The process of negotiating, defining, drafting, securing and revising a demanded and cost justified level of service delivery to the user.
Service Level Requirements
Business demands and requirements for service levels. Examples are: downtime, availability % and opening hours of the helpdesk. Together with the service catalogue they can be input for the SLA negotiations.
Service Catalogue
Overview of all current services as delivered by IT. May have a price list attached.
SIP = Service Improvement Program / Plan
Actions, phases and due dates for the improvement of the services
SQP = Service Quality Program / Plan
A document that contains all the information for the managers, including the Performance Indicators for the other ITIL processes.