Service Level Management

Review

Proper Service Level Management is a continuous process that requires a continual review of the quality of the services offered.

This review should be based on objective and measurable parameters drawn from past experience, SLAs in force and the drawing up of the Service Catalogue.

This review process should not be limited to those SLAs that, for one reason or another, have not been complied with, although obviously, in such cases it is essential, rather its aim should be to improve the quality of service and make it more uniform.

The outcome of the review should be a Service Improvement Programme (SIP), taking into account factors such as:

• Problems relating to the IT service and their possible causes.
• New customer needs.
• Technological advances.
• Fulfillment of service levels.
• Evaluating the real costs of the service.
• Implications of a degradation in quality of service on the customer's organisational structure.
• Evaluation of the performance and skills of the personnel involved.
• Reallocation of resources.
• Compliance with the OLAs and UCs concerned.
• Perception of the customer and users of the quality of service.
• Additional training needs of users of the services.

The SIP should be the baseline document on which the renewal of the SLA is negotiated with the customer and it should constitute the reference document for the management of other IT process such as Change Management, Problem Management, etc.