The Service Level Agreement or SLA

All organisations are dependent upon the services of others. This is simply the nature of commerce and industry in the 21st century.

This creates a number of challenges for those responsible for business continuity and contingency planning. For example, how are the key services defined? How are they governed? How should business continuity be embraced? How should responsibilities in a disaster scenario be assigned?

These are all of course addressed via a service level agreement, often referred to as an SLA. The SLA quite simply defines the service and the basis of its delivery. It defines the understanding between the two parties, and stipulates what each party is responsible for in various situations.

Clearly this is fundamental to business continuity. Continuity and recovery will be central to all good service level agreements - and conversely the SLA will essentially help you manage business continuity.

PRODUCING A SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT
Producing a service level agreement is not a two minute job. It must be comprehensive, must fully reflect the service delivered and must embrace the needs of both parties. However, SLA production need not be a trial.

In recent years several tools have emerged to help. The Service Level Agreement Toolkit is particularly comprehensive. It contains a service level agreement template, a guide, a presentation and a checklist, all of which are designed to help you create a quality SLA in double quick time.

For more information on this offering see the Service Level Agreement World website.
 



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