What is an SLA (Service Level Agreement)?

What is an SLA (Service Level Agreement)?

                                     What is an SLA (Service Level Agreement)? SLA is a level of service which is expected by the customers from suppliers. It’s a contract between the companies and suppliers that comprise penalties or remedies which the service levels will agree to be achieved. Mostly, SLAs will be between the companies and the suppliers beyond the company but in some cases, it may also be between the two departments within the company. SLAs are of three different types. They are Customer service level agreement, Internal service level agreement, and Multilevel service level agreement. These three types will convey three different sets of agreements made by suppliers or companies to the customers.

                                        SLA (Service Level Agreement) should be provided with the duties and responsibilities of both parties. It’s not compulsory to only be the description of the services provided but can also be the one that compiles the responsibilities of both the parties, protocols for adding and removing measures, remedies, and penalties for contravention. By doing so, both parties’ bad behavior can be avoided. This service section includes the specification of service provided, service availability under norms, time window, responsibilities of each party, upsurge procedures, and cost or service trade-offs. The management section includes reporting processes, standards and methods, and dispute resolution processes. Is an SLA transferable? Many have this question raising on them. SLA can’t be transferred as the new owner may change everything and he may not care about the existing customers so it has to be renegotiated.

SLAs can be created as joint metrics for multiple vendors or service providers. It’s completely depending on the customers. The most common question among people is who needs a service level agreement? it’s mostly used in IT-related fields but it’s originated with network services. IT department creating this to measure, justify and compare with other vendors. Customer service level agreement, one among the types of Service level agreement includes expected service details by the customer, service availability, standards for all the levels of services, responsibilities of each party, upsurge procedures, and cancellation terms. Sometimes service is between a service provider and its external customers. So, it is also called an External service level agreement. Internal service level agreement is from within the company. Sometimes a separate SLA can be had between the marketing and sales departments even though it has an agreement with each customer to make it easier.

                                        Multilevel SLA is nothing but the SLA that splits into different levels, for the same services but for the different sets of customers. Multilevel service level agreement supports businesses of the various internal department or business customers. It’s nothing but the outline of the expected service of each party that is more than one service provider and user. Overall objectives, detailed description of the service provided, performance standards, service credits or the compensation, and critical failure are the four important aspects of SLA. These are the four most important aspects of SLA. Every SLA should include whether the service recipient is your customer or from the sales team.

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