Corporate Service Level Agreements

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Introduction The Corporate Service Level Agreements allow you to define a combination of Service Levels and Service Level Targets which can be used across multiple services that share the same service level requirements. Where a Service Desk offers a standard set of Service Levels across all of its services, using Corporate Service Level Agreements can centralize the management of these Service Levels into one place rather than on a service by service basis.

Related Articles Overview of the Service Level Management Structure Service Level Rules Builder Transitioning to the new SLA Functionality Service Level Agreements Escalation Actions Request Settings

Details

The following SLA Details are required when first creating a new SLA and are available within the SLA form.

• Name

The name of the Service Level Agreement will be used to fine and link to Services and will be visible on the requests that they are associated to. As an unlimited number of SLAs can be created so it is important to provide a name that is descriptive enough to reflect its use.

• Description

Define the purpose of the SLA and what it covers. This description may be used to help in the selection of a the SLA.

• Working Time Calendar

This is the defined work hours for the Service Desk that that is responsible for fulfilling the Service Level Agreement. A Working Time Calendar includes the timezone, days of the week, hours within each day, and exclusion days such as holidays. The calculation of Service Level Targets will be based on the selected Working Time Calendar.

Service Levels

One or more Service Levels can be defined for each Service Level Agreement. Each Service Level contains configurable Service Level Targets and their associated automated escalations. Service Levels are required if you need to automate and track targets such as response and resolution targets.

• Name

The name of the Service Level will be displayed along with the SLA on a request that it is assocaited to. This is used to help a support person understand the Service Level that they need to adhear to. An example of a common naming convention for Service Levels is Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

• Description

Define the purpose of the SL and what it covers. This can be used by Service Desk Staff when changing an applied Service Level against a request.

Service Level Targets

Service Level Targets allow you to define the timing for your response and resolution targets. Providing these targets is optional, however using these is an important part of keeping track of the performance provided by the service desk. Both the response and resolution targets are calculated against the selected Working Hours Calendar. By selecting any of the existing Service Levels you will be able to manage the associated targets for that Service Level.

Target Types

• Response Target

The time in which a response to a new request needs to be made.

• Resolution Target

The time in which a suitable resolution to a request has been completed and a normal level of service provided.

Service Level Target Calculation

The service level targets that you add to Hornbill relate to the working hours defined in the working time calendar specified against the SLA. This means that some calculation is required to ensure the targets you set represent the correct number of calendar days that you are advertising to your customers.

Example:
If you have a target that you advertise as 5 calendar days, you need to determine what this equates to in days, hours, and minutes in relation to the hours defined in your Working time calendar.

1) Begin by multiplying your target (in calendar days) by the working hours set in your working time calendar (your working day) i.e. 5 x 9.5. Now divide the result of that by 24 (i.e. (47.5)/24) which gives your Hornbill target in days (i.e. = 1.98 days).
2) You place "1" in the field representing "days".
3) It's then a case of working out what .98 of a day is in hours – which in this case would be 24 x 0.98 = 23.52 hours.
4) You place "23" in the field representing "hours".
5) Finally, we then need to get the minutes from our answer of 23.52. Therefore, 0.52 of an hour is 31.2 minutes (i.e. 60 x 0.52 = 31.2 minutes).
6) You place "31" in the field representing "minutes".

Therefore the target of 5 calendar days based on a 9.5 hour working day equates to 1 day, 23 hours, 31 minutes.

More details of this along with some useful tools can be found in this FAQ article Setup and Configure Timers in Service Manager

Escalation Actions

Against each Service Level Target you can configure escalation actions which will get automatically invoked should the Service Level still be active at defined time intervals before and or after the specific Target of the Service Level.

• Read more here about configuring Escalation Actions

Managing Service Level Rules

If you create more than one Service Level for any of your SLA's, you will enable the Manage Rules tab. This will allow you to configure rules to manage when the different Service Levels of your SLA should be used. Learn more about configuring rules for your Service Level Agreement here

Linked Services

When a Corporate Service Level Agreement is first created it will not be available to be used until it is associated to one or more of the Services you offer. In order to associate it to a Service, visit a Service record > SLA's tab > and use the Link button to associate the Corporate SLA. Once the Corporate SLA is associated to one or more Services, you will be able to see which Services it is linked to from this tab.