Info-Tech Research Group, a global IT research and advisory firm, has published a new research blueprint that will enable organizations to hold service providers more accountable to their contractual obligations. With so much dependency on outsourcing, organizations risk dealing with lost productivity and revenue due to persistent downtime.
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Service-level agreements (SLA) are designed to ensure that outsourced IT services meet the requirements and expectations of an organization. Well-written SLAs with all the required elements, metrics, and remedies allow IT departments to provide the service levels to their stakeholders and users, avoiding financial and contractual risk to the organization.
“Every year, organizations outsource more and more IT infrastructure to the cloud and IT operations to managed service providers,” explains Principal Research Director Ted Walker. “This increase in outsourcing presents an increase in risk to IT leaders to save on IT spend through outsourcing while maintaining required and expected service levels to internal customers and the organization. Ensuring that the service provider constantly meets their obligations so that the CIO can meet their o********* to the organization can be a constant challenge. This brings forth the importance of the Service-Level Agreement.”
According to Info-Tech, SLAs need to have clear, easy-to-measure objectives to meet expectations and service level requirements, including meaningful reporting and remedies to hold the provider accountable to their obligations. Not understanding the required elements of an SLA and not having meaningful remedies to hold service providers accountable to their obligations can present several risk factors. The methodology outlined in this new research blueprint will provide several benefits and learnings to IT leaders, such as:
- A better understanding of an SLA framework and required elements.
- Standardized service levels and metrics aligned to an organization’s requirements.
- Reduced time in reviewing, evaluating, and managing service provider SLAs.
“Research clearly indicates that there is a general lack of knowledge when it comes to an understanding of the key elements of an SLA,” adds Walker. “There is even less understanding of the importance of the components of Service Levels and the Service Level Objectives (SLO) that the service provider needs to meet so that the outsourced service consistently meets requirements of the organization. IT leaders need to be more resolute in only accepting SLOs that are meaningful to their requirements and have meaningful, proactive reporting and associated remedies to hold service providers accountable to their obligations.”
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The research blueprint outlines Info-Tech’s approach to designing effective SLAs that are right-sized for organizations. The firm presents a three-step solution for effective SLAs:
- Develop a solid understanding of the key elements within an SLA and why they’re important.
- Prioritize contractual services and establish concise SLA checklists and performance metrics.
- Manage SLA obligations to track provider performance and ensure commitments are met.
To learn more about Info-Tech Research Group and to download all our latest research, visit www.infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
Media professionals are encouraged to register for Info-Tech’s Media Insiders program for more research and insights. This program provides unrestricted, on-demand access to IT, HR, and software industry content, as well as subject matter experts from a group of over 200 research analysts. To apply for access, contact pr@infotech.com.
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