If you are like most business owners and managers, you don’t understand exactly what service level agreements (SLAs) are all about. However, you likely have an SLA at your office. SLAs indicate the types of service a managed IT service provider offers and what to expect from that service. Such an agreement should be read as closely as possible, yet few people invest the time necessary for such an in-depth reading. Let’s take a closer look at what your Los Angeles IT support’s SLA should include.
The Details of an SLA
When you are provided with an SLA from your Los Angeles IT support provider, you should read it over to get a better sense of the services you will receive. Reading this agreement makes it that much easier to determine if the provider is worth its keep or if a different vendor will prove ideal. The bottom line is your business is highly unique so the nuances of your SLA should be tailored to your nuanced needs.
IT Services
The SLA should list the entirety of the IT services provided, whether they are backup and disaster recovery, cloud services, or something else. The SLA should explain exactly how the services are offered without any room for interpretation. Every last detail should be provided to prevent potential questions about why specific services are not recognized or available. Conditions of the availability of services must also be outlined to prevent legal disputes. However, this requires metrics in the context of service expectations.
SLA Acronyms
SLAs typically contain plenty of acronyms. Let’s take a quick look at a couple of the top acronyms included in SLAs to help you better understand these documents. As an example, MTBF is short for "mean time between failure", meaning the amount of time necessary for a provider to solve a problem. MTTR is short for "mean time to repair".
The Shift Toward Shorter SLAs
More and more customers are requesting comparably brief SLAs that keep things as simple and short as possible. After all, an abundance of legalese makes it that much more difficult to understand the document. However, the SLA must explain services, the people involved, and other basics. The SLA must also have a specific end date that pinpoints exactly when the contract will come to an end. So, don’t hesitate to look into your current SLA to get a sense of whether it is accurate, informative, and keys in on all the necessary components listed above. When in doubt, reach out to your IT service provider for more information or a potential amendment to the SLA.
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