Every industry has its own jargons and so does IT. As various business models evolve frequently, many companies get confused with the associated terminology. SLAs stand for Service Level Agreements and these are the contractual agreements that organizations expect IT companies to provide them with while providing their services. It is just like defining the scope of the services and documenting them for accountability and further consideration to resolve issues in case of aberrations. 24X7 remote support 365 days a year is an example of a service level agreement. 99.5% uptime of a mail server is another.

It is a challenge to measure IT services and their quality as IT services are different from manufacturing processes due to its factors of production which is not already defined set of rules and steps but People. For the same reason it is highly recommended to the organizations to freeze SLAs while getting into agreements with IT solutions providers and fill as many gaps as possible to avoid defaults and dissatisfaction.Many service vendors are shrewd to let leave gaps in the SLAs to enable the possibility of change management and scope enhancements. For example, the SLA might include 8 hours support where as you require 9 hours. SLA might not include Saturdays where you may require the support on that day as well. Some SLAs define everything w.r.t the timings but neglect the back-up resource. If the main resource is on a leave, the vendors charge extra for providing the back-up support and the companies find themselves in a soup.It is highly recommended to companies to list down all the requirements in an objective manner and then negotiate with the vendors for the services. Generally, the companies do it the other way around – they talk first and then ponder over the requirements in an objective way.

Here are few tips for the companies to look for before signing a contract so that they do not find themselves in a situation where they are exceeding their IT budgets by spending more on services due to loopholes in SLAs.

Following keywords define if the services a vendor is offering are truly of good quality and the SLAs are good enough to be signed without any hitch.

Measurable: Do I have KPIs associated with the SLAs
All organizational functions work on a few critical success factors and to measure, control and improve them we need metrics. Key Performance Indicators or KPIs are numbers given for ensuring that service quality can be measured. One can always state high uptime in an SLA but that would make the quality measurement highly ambiguous. A service vendor stating a number, say 99% uptime, makes it very clear avoiding confusion when it comes to analyzing the service quality. Taking an example, if the company’s server was down for more than 4 days time in a year, it can directly state that the service was down for more than 1% of the time and take the necessary action.

Customized: Are the services customized to fit MY case?
Every client and its requirement are different and for the same reason they should be treated differently. The quality of service expected by the help-desk of a 9-5 office is far different from the quality expected from the IT service desk of a 24X7 hospital with sophisticated machinery dependent on IT uptime. Every proposal should have specific clause catering to the specific requirements as the expectations is different for different cases even when the services are similar. In simple words: pin down everything that you expect from your vendor to be provided to YOU.

Comprehensive: Are ALL the necessary clauses included?
Organizations should make sure that all the clauses are included and nothing is missed out. You can only save seconds by not mentioning a trivial and obvious clause like “Weekly meetings” but it may cost you dollars when you are not able to get hold of your account manager for discussing a critical improvement instantly. Experience suggests mentioning even the tiniest of the clause.

Secure: Is my information in SAFE hands?
Make sure you have it clearly mentioned in the contract that any data or information loss or leakage would be handled severely. It is advisable to also mention the penalties and periphery. There have been numerous cases in recent past that made companies lose millions, if not in hard cash then in reputation and relational capital loss.

Auditable: Are AUDIT agreements finalized and mentioned?
Clearly mentioned timelines and outlines of the auditing process are important. Imagine if the services are not monitored, how they can be improved. The auditing agreement is usually not given very high importance while signing SLAs but need to be taken into consideration for regular improvements.

Communicable: Are the review, progress and grievance MEETINGS schedule documented?
Deciding upon the account management aspects through collaboration and communication is the essence of successful professional relationships. Daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly meetings and agendas should be clearly mentioned else it becomes vague and tacit to measure the progress and problems leading to unsatisfied clients.

Accountable: Is a proper ESCALATIONS Matrix portrays clearly defined accountabilities?
An escalation matrix is a tool used by service providers to clearly mention how an incident will be handled with in a particular time and if support was not able to handle it, what would be its course to the next level. For example, if the incident has been logged in for more than one hour, it should be escalated to the technical head, then to Accounts Manager and so on & so forth. Though many organizations feel that mentioning the escalation procedure with timelines is enough, it is suggested to also mention the matrix with respect to the team associated with an escalation level, its location, the professional who is responsible and penalty associated with every escalation.

Scalable: Are IMPROVEMENTS in IT services a part of the contract?
Availability is not the only measure but the oldest measure. Today SLAs include improvements suggested and implemented and the strategic impact on ROI for a particular suggestion made by the vendors. The value added is not by keeping the services running but also improving the efficiency on a regular basis. Metrics like cost per hour of server downtime and cost-benefit ratio for not installing a high availability setup are very important for companies buying IT services and for the same reason, crisp and clear SLAs make sure that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship rather than a one-sided one.

There is no panacea for the gaps that the services industry has since it is ever evolving like we human beings. Though it is difficult, thought leaders’ proactive approach can help in evolving at a faster rate than the services landscape. It is highly recommended to various services buyers to have special project teams brainstorming on the various aspects of the services they are going to invest in. Hard earned money going in drain is the last thing organizations would be looking at.