Get Started with Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Overview

Within the Enterprise Service Management (ESM) platform, Service Level Agreements (SLA) are the terms of the contract between the service provider (either internal or external) and the customer and are crucial to providing quality service. In ESM they define the level of service – the response time plus what outcomes the customer will receive within that time. 

Important
Individuals must have ESM Application Admin, or ESM Enterprise Admin access to the desired ticketing application to configure SLAs. If you do not have this level of access please contact either the App Admin of the desired ESM ticketing application, or submit an Enterprise Service Management ticket requesting assistance with creating and configuring SLA(s).

Features

  • The SLA requirements can be configured for to accommodate various business needs in each Ticketing Application. 
  • Escalation steps can be added to each requirement to trigger ticket events or notifications

Within the ESM system, there are two possible requirements for an SLA, Respond By and Resolve By.

  • Respond By is the agreed to time limit, in hours, for communicating with the requestor, confirming the ticket has been received, and setting expectations; this is satisfied by changing the status to any In Process status class status.
  • Resolve By is the agreed to time limit for moving the ticket to a resolved, or closed status. Review the Enterprise Service Management Status article to learn.

If the time limit is reached for either of these deadlines, the SLA has been violated.

Each of these requirements are set in relation to the creation date and time. Each SLA can have multiple escalation steps that must be completed before a certain percent of the time elapses to meet the service level agreement. If the set amount of time for a step to be done is reached and the step is not complete, an automatic action can be triggered.

Some of the possible actions that can be triggered by an escalation step are:

  • A notification can be sent to:
    • Responsible resource
    • Responsible resource’s manager
    • Reviewer
    • Requestor
    • Creator
  • The priority of the ticket can be changed
  • Responsibility of the ticket can be reassigned

There is no limit on the number of escalation steps per SLA requirement.

If 100% of the time passes for Respond By or Resolve By, then the SLA has been violated and the ESM system will use the Service Level Agreement Violation notification template when sending emails, if the percentage is less than 100%, the system will use the Service Level Agreement Warning notification template. Escalation steps can be set to occur after the SLA time requirement has been passed by setting the percent of the deadline has passed to 100% or greater. 

Next Steps

Need additional help or have issues

For support, requests may be submitted anytime using the appropriate Enterprise Service Management form. Requests generate a Ticket which will be worked in order received and urgency by IT Employees with the knowledge and permissions to assist with the request.

For immediate assistance please review the Contact Us page for the appropriate support group.