SLAs: A CIO's Guide to Success

SLAs: A CIO's Guide to Success:

"The work doesn't stop once all the SLAs are in place, either. The agreements
require constant discussion and renegotiation as the needs of the business
change. Untended SLAs can lull IT into a false sense of security about the level
of existential happiness among its customers. E-mail response time and network
availability statistics may look great to IT, but the business may actually be
seething about a wholly unrelated issue. To be effective, SLAs require more
thoroughness and vigilance in measuring customer satisfaction so that
dissatisfaction not reflected in the SLA metrics will reach IT before a real
crisis hits.

Yet despite the trouble and expense, SLAs provide
invaluable performance metrics to IT and create more informed customers. 'The
biggest benefit of an SLA in my mind is it makes the business aware that there's
a relationship between support and dollars,' says Tim Parsons, senior vice
president for IT at Interstate/Johnson Lane Inc., a brokerage firm based in
Charlotte, N.C., that created an SLA for help desk support. 'If they can
understand the relationship between cost and the level of support, then they can
make a better business decision about what support is required and how much it
will cost.' Without lining up customer expectations with IT's ability to
realistically meet those expectations, IT stands little chance of breaking out
of the first circle of 'service bureau hell': unrealistic expectations matched
to limited resources."