BusinessForward

By Ryan Mulvaney, Solutions Architect, BusinessForward

Wouldn’t it be great if CIOs used Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as more than a contract with the business? How about viewing it as a multipurpose operational tool instead?

Allotting more thought to creation of the SLA and focusing on integration with an IT organization’s DNA would make  for a nice, built-in performance metric.

Busy IT organizations have a tendency to give the SLA superficial attention. It deserves more.

A common mistake many managers make is their failure to recognize that a Service Level Agreement is much more than a service contract between an organization and its customers. In reality, it’s a powerful operational performance metric. If utilized correctly, a well-written SLA can help your team improve customer service while lowering costs.

Along with Key Volume Indicators and other Key Performance Indicators, SLAs can also be used to help identify opportunities for improvement in your organization, processes and technology.

Think of it this way: If a manager operates his/her organization with a focus on meeting SLAs, the team may find a work-around to simply meet the SLAs. Expectations won’t be exceeded and professional growth may be stilted. But if a manager utilizes an approach focused on maximizing productivity and efficiency, as they would any other operational tool, the SLAs will naturally be met and challenge people to do better.

The value of creating visibility and setting expectations for your customers comes later in the lifecycle of an SLA. In my experience with both global and local corporations, it’s smarter to implement SLAs internally before publishing to your customer base. This will give your organization the opportunity to assess and improve on its level of productivity. Once you are confident in your ability to meet the SLAs, you then need to work with your customers to set expectations. Like many things in life, it’s best to avoid the “do as we say, not as we do” mentality.

Even after SLAs are implemented, there should remain a focus on monitoring and managing them on a scheduled basis. When the SLA is given an operational role, it becomes an excellent tool for managers to keep their fingers on the pulse. Opportunities for continual improvement become part of the landscape for the team too.

It’s really a matter of respecting the SLA for all that it can do for your organization.

Ryan Mulvaney is a Solutions Architect with BusinessForward. He has provided consulting services for companies around the world, helping improve processes in organizations in health care, financial services, retail and manufacturing.