SLAs

[digone52]

In Schools internal ICT departments that get busier and more pressured as time goes on, are customer SLAs important or not?

 

The reason why I ask is that we may soon be under an SLA. We have happy customers, but we need to be more visible and accountable evidently.

 

I assume that when you're under an SLA, then you have to document everything you do, and do so promptly to ensure that job opening and closure is logged. While we have a helpdesk portal already, it does not exactly drive our jobs in this way. I'm concerned that while the job is extremely pressured already, we will have added burdens of doing an enormous amount of logging, looking over our shoulder to ensure that SLAs are being met, producing management reports to ensure compliance, and so on. This all adds to a job that cannot be fitted into the number of working hours already. I'd be interested in your views.

[Grey-gear]

I've been working under a SLA for two and bit years now and with what I have experienced it's not to bad. We get the staff to use our helpdesk as a first point of contact they just need to E-mail a support address and the helpdesk generates the call\ticket from that, sure it took awhile for the staff to adjust but once they got use to it then it became second nature for them.

 

I work with a few other Techs and normal we just pick the ones we want\the are left and if needs be the NM will assign tasks. Depending on what your SLA will be depend on how push it will make you but it could help priorities jobs. The one I work to has three levels, level 3 that allows up to a week to fix issues, level 2 that allows three days to fix the issue, level 1 that allows 14 hours and level 0 that means drop everything and get it fixed.

 

Can the helpdesk that you are using do automated reports? If so that may save you time in the day to get them running.

 

I think though the SLA is there it has not real changed how I was working before I was moved on to it.

 

Hope this helps

[bossman]

An SLA works both ways to ensure that the end process is as smooth and efficient as possible, it is not just the techs that should have to conform to the KPI's but also the staff.

 

Staff must do XYZ before the IT staff do ABC and if this process is adhered to then the process will be effective.

 

This must be agreed by both parties beforehand and the SLT must be the ones to implement the whole process with KPI's for both parties involved.

 

I feel that if you have these processes in place from the outset then your workload may become easier, it should in practice curtail all the extra's which the staff put on the IT dept which are not necessary, key is to get the line drawn at where the IT support stops and the training for the Staff starts.

 

Good Luck

[mrforgetful]

Any rough ideas on what problems should be included in an SLA and what timeframes should be set to resolve them? Also who is responsible when the problem lies in requiring outside contractors? eg, I have a projector that needs replacing but requires the whole pole replacing too due to fittings, this requires an external contractor but they can't get here for two weeks...

[Grey-gear]

Any rough ideas on what problems should be included in an SLA and what timeframes should be set to resolve them? Also who is responsible when the problem lies in requiring outside contractors? eg, I have a projector that needs replacing but requires the whole pole replacing too due to fittings, this requires an external contractor but they can't get here for two weeks...

 

SLAs can cover small everyday jobs such as password changes, toner installs and paper jams, to Server's crashing, restoring items from backups and help fix the heads computer. The timescales will depend on the negations between the supply and customer, for example a level 3 problem could have 5 day fix time and a level 1 or 0 problem my need to be fixed within 2 hours.

 

For external contractor not sure this is the same on other SLAs but for the one I work under then external contractors pause the timer, like I said this may be different depending on SLA.

 

Hope that helps

[mrforgetful]

Pausing the timer, I like that.

 

Just looking through this Sample SLA - Wiki

 

Thanks for the starter points.

[dry]

We started working to SLAs under instruction from the IT company that took over IT Support provision at my previous work place.

 

SLAs were Priority 1 to 5 (iirc) and a P1 call target was initial response 15 minutes, resolution 1 hour. We could also count 'resolution' as 'reason for delay', so as long as we had told the user why x can't be done within y SLA, the SLA was still met.

 

The SLA structure worked both ways as I found I was now logging things on the helpdesk that weren't being logged before- student password resets etc which took two minutes to do (and meant the call resolution time was 2 minutes), resulting in my 'score' being bumped up considerably.

 

The company bought the department a nice shiney tablet which we would take out on calls with us, allowing us to keep the ticket updated on the helpdesk in real time as opposed to when we got back to the office.

[mrforgetful]

Ok, so like now we have tickets that we've addressed and the staff haven't come back to confirm that's not a black mark on our stats, good.

 

We often find people eager to report a problem but not confirm a change has being satisfactory, of take a week to provide more information requested, I guess these cases too would not add time to out resolution.

[dry]

Ok, so like now we have tickets that we've addressed and the staff haven't come back to confirm that's not a black mark on our stats, good.

 

We often find people eager to report a problem but not confirm a change has being satisfactory, of take a week to provide more information requested, I guess these cases too would not add time to out resolution.

Correct, we had something written into policy along the lines of 'chaser emails sent each day for 2 days, then once a week for 2 weeks, then ticket closed' or something like that.

[mrforgetful]

Yeh we unofficially (as there is no SLA) will close a ticket that hasn't had a response in 10 days. Not had any complaints.

 

I think the sample SLA here will be a great start and gives me some ideas.

 

Thanks guys.