IT Service Level Management

The object of IT Service Level Management is to maintain and gradually improve business aligned IT service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring, reporting and reviewing IT service achievements and through instigating actions to eradicate unacceptable levels of service.

IT Service Level Management is responsible for ensuring that the service targets are documented and agreed in IT Service Level Management and monitors and reviews the actual service levels achieved against their IT Service Level Management targets.  SLM should also be trying to proactively improve all service levels within the imposed cost constraints.  SLM is the process that manages and improves agreed level of service between two parties, the provider and the receiver of a service.

IT Service Level Management is responsible for negotiating and agreeing service requirements and expected service characteristics with the Customer, measuring and reporting of Service Levels actually being achieved against target, resources required, cost of service provision.  IT Service Level Management is also responsible for continuously improving service levels in line with business processes, with a SIP, co-coordinating other Service Management and support functions, including third party suppliers, reviewing IT Service Level Management to meet changed business needs or resolving major service issues and producing, reviewing and maintaining the Service Catalogue.

IT Service Level Management addresses the entire life cycle of a service, from the implementation of the service to the retirement or "sun setting" of the service. The review processes inherent to IT Service Level Management are designed to address not only service delivery itself, but evaluates the ongoing viability of the current service; whether or not it is still providing value to the organization. If valuable, the review process addresses the adequacy of the services as provided. If no longer required, the IT Service Level Management process creates a new agreement with the customer as to how the service will be retired, what services will replace the retired service and how the IT Service Level Management process initiates and addresses the new replacement services as provided

The results of the IT Service Level Management process are codified in service level agreements (SLAs). Service level agreements also provide specific targets against which the performance of the IT Department can be evaluated. The successful IT Service Level Management process results in an improvement in service quality, higher levels of customer productivity, and a subsequent reduction in the overall cost of services provided. IT Service Level Management also establishes and maintains the channels of communication between IT and its customers.

Specific benefits from SLM include:

·         Services provided by IT are those truly required by the business

·         All parties agree and have a clearer view of roles and responsibilities

·         Specific targets against which service quality can be measured, monitored, and reported are in place

·         Focuses IT effort on those areas that the business considers important

·         IT staff and customers having a clear and consistent expectation of the level of service required and delivered

·         The customer is engaged into the service delivery chain

·         The relationship between IT organizations is formalized

·         The relationship between IT and suppliers is formalized

·         Positions IT, to more accurately account for and possibly recover the cost of services provided to customers

The scope of IT Service Level Management is to maintain and gradually improve IT Service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring, and reporting upon IT service achievements and instigation of actions to eradicate poor service – in line with business or cost justification. IT Service Level Management is the name given to the processes of envisioning, planning, developing, and deploying IT service delivery to customers. Service level agreements provide the basis for managing the relationship between the provider and the customer.

The IT Service Level Management Process is designed to establish, maintain, measure, and adjust to service requirement changes. It does so through agreements with all parties involved in the service delivery process. In order to ensure proper service delivery, IT establishes formal agreements with:

• Customers in the form of service level agreements (SLAs)
• Internal IT organizations in the form of operating level agreements (OLAs)
• Suppliers through underpinning contracts (UCs)

Relationship to Other Processes: The successful implementation of the IT Service Level Management process involves a coordinated effort of all service management functions (SMFs) in the MOF optimizing quadrant. The creation of SLAs and OLAs requires input from all SMFs. The service level manager must have an open line of communication to the business process owners and each SMF manager and must provide the managers with guidelines for the reporting of OLA information. The service level management process is not effective unless all SMF managers are willing to cooperate.