Document Template

Service Level Agreement

Organisation name Introduction This document outline provides guidelines on the typical contents that should be included in a service level agreement. Service level agreements are prepared for a whole host of different products and services in a variety of industries and markets. This document covers the standard contents that should be included in a service level agreement for products and services.

Typical contents

 Parties to the service level agreement  Purpose of the agreement  Definition of the services to be provided  Term of the agreement, including notice period and termination  Financial provisions  Definition of the level of support  Escalation process  Change control procedures  Mechanism for monitoring and measurement of service levels  Client responsibilities  Dispute resolution  Legal considerations  Appendices

Detail to be included in each section

Parties to the service level agreement

This section states the names and head office locations of the organisations involved in the service level agreement.

Purpose of the agreement

This section should detail the purpose of the service level agreement and make reference to:  the parties involved,  a summary of the products and services that are to be covered  the starting point (or source) for the agreement, e.g. whether it is an outsourcing agreement or a contract for the maintenance and support of equipment and or software  a cross reference to the contract for supply of the equipment/software to be maintained/supported, where applicable.

Definition of the services to be provided

This section defines the services to be provided within the agreement. This should be a detailed definition of the services to be provided and the equipment to be used for the provision of such services (or should link to an appendix that lists the services and equipment).

Term of the agreement including notice period and termination

This section should outline the following:

 the start date, duration and end date of the agreement  any minimum period for which the agreement will run  the notice period required for either party to terminate the agreement.

Financial provisions

This section should determine the fees to be paid by the client to the service provider, the payment terms relating to the payment of the fees and any exclusions (such as the cost of on-site visits by the service provider, if they are not included as part of the standard agreement).

Definition of the level of support

The level of support to be provided must be defined in detail and the following elements should be included:

 the hours of cover  the service provider department, contact names and telephone numbers  the target response times agreed between the client and the service provider– there is normally a sliding scale based on the severity of the problem, with the most severe having a one hour response time and the least critical being a response time of days rather than hours.

Escalation process

The escalation process should detail the circumstances which necessitate escalation by the client to a higher level of authority, should the service provider fail to meet the agreed service level and the escalation levels to be followed. This will differ per organisation but there will normally be a least two levels of escalation, e.g. from the support desk to the Support Manager to the Customer Services Manager/Director.

Change control procedures

A change control procedure should be detailed that highlights the process to be followed when there is any material change to the products and services supported or any proposed change to the charges. The agreement must take account of changing hardware and software, and the continuity - and improvement - of services to the client during the transition phase.

Mechanism for monitoring and measurement of service levels

A mechanism should be agreed and documented for monitoring and measuring the actual performance of the provider against the agreement. This may be in terms of speed or effectiveness as well as cost. Agreed performance targets or key performance indicators (which should be precise) should be agreed for each service element. Some examples of key performance indicators are mean time between failure of equipment, length of downtime, percentage downtime etc.

Client responsibilities

This section should detail the responsibilities of the client in performance of the agreement. Such responsibilities should include information and materials to be provided to help diagnose problems, installation of any software/hardware updates, contact personnel to be contacted in the client organisation and access requirements to be provided to the service provider. Dispute resolution

This section should determine the process to be followed should there be a dispute that cannot be resolved through the normal escalation routes (see above). Normally this will be an arbitration process. Legal considerations

This section should include any legal considerations such as:

Confidentiality – maintenance of confidentiality for service provider and client information Warranties and liabilities – this covers areas like conformance with standards and use of reasonable endeavours, limits regarding consequential loss, loss of profits etc. Proprietary rights – who owns the rights to software supported by the service provider.

Appendices

Lists of equipment and other resources.