Click    when you are finished.

Welcome to the Service Level Management Foundations learning. Click each sequential tab below to find key learnings and information.

{magictabs width="100%"}

       Introduction       ::

Purpose of Service Level Management

Service Level Management (SLM) provides connectivity and synergy that brings all the pieces of service management together to deliver value and continuous improvement for customers and users. SLM interacts with nearly every aspect of service management. It enables the primary dialogue with our customers for defining and measuring success, and it provides the baseline by which improvement and strategy anchors discussions for future investments and roadmaps.

The primary goals of Service Level Management include:

• ensuring all current and planned IT services are delivered to agreed achievable targets,  and
• monitoring a constant cycle of service level agreements (SLAs) and operational level agreements (OLAs) negotiations, monitoring performance to service level targets, reporting IT service performance, and improving the level of service delivered through semi-annual service reviews with customers.

SLM Objectives  &  Activities

Several key objectives define Service Level Management. The primary objectives are:

• Define document, agree, monitor, measure, report, and review the level of IT Services Provided. Investigate corrective measures when appropriate.
• Improve the relationship and communication with the business and customers.
• Ensure that specific and measurable targets are developed for all IT services.
• Monitor and improve customer satisfaction with the quality of service delivered.
• Ensure that IT and the customers have a clear and unambiguous expectation of the level of service to be delivered.
• Ensure agreement and support is obtained by all for proactive, cost-effective continual improvement.

1. Negotiate Service Level Agreements
2. Monitor & Measure SLA performance
3. Measure & Improve customer satisfaction
4. Publish Semi-Annual Trending Service reports
5. Conduct Semi-Annual Service Review Meetings to improve service performance

Service Level Management:  Process Overview   {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

• SLM provides a consistent interface to the business for all service-related issues. IT provides a reliable communication channel and a trusted relationship with the appropriate customers and business representatives at a tactical level.
• SLM provides the business with the agreed service targets and the required management information to ensure that those targets are met.
• In the event that targets are breached, SLM supports feedback opportunities on the cause of the breach with details of the actions taken to prevent the breach from recurring.

Service Level Management:  Process		Service Level Management:  Inputs & Outputs

{/showhide}

Service Level Management:  Responsibilities   {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

• You are listed as the Service Level Manager (SLM) for your service.
• If you are replacing a previous SLM, make sure the previous SLM submitted a request to remove the SLM role from their profile (similar process steps as requesting an SLM role).
• When prompted to identify who had trained you,   enter WWID 10561784.

Click to view a demonstration how to request a Service Level Manager Role.

Service Level Manager Responsibilities

Responsibilities Summary
Monitor and measure SLA performance to goals. Ensure that service reports are produced and published quarterly. Ensure that service performance reviews are carried out semi-annually, and that agreed actions are progressed. Track all complaints & compliments documenting the definition, record, and communication. Measure, record, analyze, and improve customer satisfaction.
Responsibilities Priority
Critical	Ensure that the current & future customer service requirements are identified, understood, and documented in an SLA. Negotiate and agree on levels of service to be delivered with the customer. Maintain accountability for the Service Level Management process for their service.
High	Ensure that all changes are assessed for their impact on service levels. Ensure that service reports are produced for each customer, and that breaches of SLA targets are highlighted, investigated, and actions taken to prevent recurrence. Ensure that service performance reviews are scheduled, carried out with customers semi-annually, and are documented with agreed actions progressed. Review service scope, SLAs, OLAs and other agreements semi-annually. Ensure that improvement initiatives identified in service reviews are acted on and progress reports are provided to customers.
Medium	Keep aware of changing business needs Measure, record, analyze, and improve customer satisfaction. Develop relationships and communication with stakeholders, customers, and key users.

Service Level Management Meetings

• Semi-Annual Service Review meetings with your customers.
• Semi-Annual Service Review meetings with your OLA Service Partners.
• Service Level Management Process Improvement Team (SLM PIT).
• Joint Process Improvement Team (PIT) for your service's operations processes (IM, PM, RF, KM).

Process Improvement Team (PIT)

{/showhide}

Additional Resources

||||

           SLA  |  OLA           ::

Types of SLAs | OLAs

• One document that applies to all the service's primary customers.
• This is the goal state for IT.

• One document per primary customer group that covers all the services they use. For example, an SLA can cover all the systems Finance uses from IT (Accounting system, billing system, tax system).
• A few services in IT will create an SLA/OLA for each of its components because they each have different deliverables and customers.

Service Management:  Job Aids

• Service Level Agreement & Operations Level Agreement (SLA/OLA) - (template)
• Service Level Target (SLT) - (template)
• Service Level Requirements (SLR) - (template)

Service-Based  vs  Customer-Based Comparison   {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

Service-Based SLAs/OLAs:   When to use 1 SLA/OLA?	Customer-Based SLAs/OLAs:   When to use 1 SLA/OLA per customer?
OLA business partners and customers are the same. Service deliverables are the same for all customers.	OLA business partners and customers are different. Service deliverables are different for each customer.

Deciding Which Agreement to Use (SLA/OLA)

Who's Responsible for Documenting?

• It's the customers who are responsible for providing the service level requirements to the service that directly supports them. 
• When the customer fills in their service level requirements, it's important that they value proposition of inceased service levels. This helps ensure that they are cost-justified.
• The SLM who owns the customer-facing service is responsible for writing their service's SLA. In turn, the OLA business partner who supports that SLM is responsible for writing the OLA.
• The OLAs are aggregated to provide a single SLA which is presented to the customer by their direct service SLM.

How SLAs & OLAs Work Together

{/showhide}

Negotiating an SLA | OLA   {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

Negotiate an SLA

Negotiate an OLA

OLA Provider Roles

{/showhide}

Number of SLAs | OLAs Needed   {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

{/showhide}

||||

    Service Chain Value    ::

Technical Service Value Chain

• Service Level Managers only need to gather Operational Level Agreements or Underpinning Contracts from service partners that directly support their service.
• Each layer in the service value chain collects OLAs from their direct service partners.

Professional Service Value Chain

• Professional services typically do not have "outages" or incidents.
• They offer value by consulting or sharing their experiences with the business.

||||

   Service Level Targets   ::

Categorizing Service Level Targets (SLTs)

Grouping Service Level Targets

There are several ways to group SLTs. The various grouping approaches are:

The Service Level Targets  template  specifies the grouping in the header per:

Grouping Methods Have The Same End Result

• Whether you're grouping by Application Tier, BIC, or Data Center Tier, the end-result is the same.
• You will end up with 2 - 4 categories used to group your Service Level Targets. The targets will range from MOST important (Mission critical) to LEAST important (Business Convenient).
• It is required that you have at least 2 groups to categorize your SLTs, but no more than 4.

Details:  Business Impact Category   {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

Business Impact Category

• Business Impact Category (BIC) Cross-Categorization:    With Priority   [ Example ]

• Business Impact Category (BIC) Cross-Categorization:    Order of Completion   [ Example ]
     Within each Business Impact Category, further priority ratings can be applied.

{/showhide}

Details:  Business Important | Application Tier | Data Center Tier   {showhide title="See More ..." changetitle="Hide ..."}

Business (Customer) Important
Group  Service Level Targets  by business customer's importance.

• Some customer's business have greater impact on Intel's bottom-line; therefore their service deliverables take higher precedence.

Application Tier
Group  Service Level Targets  by application tiers.

• Use tiers if the majority of your service deliverables involve application support.

Data Center Tier
Group  Service Level Targets  by data center tiers.

{/showhide}

||||

   ||  Completion  ||   ::

Click    when you are finished.

{/magictabs}