SLA
The term SLA, also known as a service level agreement, describes an agreement or interface between a customer and a service provider with regard to recurring, mostly computer technology services. The aim here is to create a transparent means of control for the customer by describing agreed service characteristics in more detail, such as the scope of services, the response time, and the speed of the respective processing. Another characteristic of the SLA is that the respective service provider divides each relevant performance characteristic into different quality levels from which the customer can select on the basis of business aspects. Historically, service level agreements first emerged in the context of evolving computer and information technology, but are now used for many types of services.
Requirements for an SLA:
Service level agreements should cover all networks, services, connections and components. This also includes data, voice and Internet services, value-added services and basic services (services that add value to the core services of an offering), mobile and fixed networks, city networks, local networks and wide area networks, as well as microwave, end-to-end and fixed links. An SLA contract should therefore define the content of the respective service, including the term of the agreement and the termination modalities. Furthermore, an SLA contract should describe the respective technical service and include the handling of faults, failures, contractual penalties and change management. Nevertheless, any service provider can label any offer or service with an SLA label, because no standards exist for service-level agreements.
Definition of terms:
A distinction is made between a service-level agreement and an operation-level agreement. In general, an operation level agreement often serves to support and secure an SLA. Since these agreements are concluded between individual departments of the same company, they usually only apply internally. An underpinning contract (UC), on the other hand, refers to a hedging agreement between a service provider and the service provider acting on its behalf. The dependencies associated with this contract exist as promised services by means of supporting contracts, which are guaranteed with external resources and are linked to each other via so-called escalation mechanisms (including the determination of the liquidity status).
Future prospects
The latest approaches to the service level agreement go beyond computer-specific agreements and requirements and also place requirements on the company’s respective business processes in the SLAs. Particularly attractive for this form of service level agreement are, for example, the number of transactions processed, the quantity of archived documents, or the print output. These approaches can be supplemented at any time by other personnel, administrative, sales and marketing variables.
