Service Level Agreement

[Company Name]

[Company Name]
[Street Address]
[City, State Zip Code]

[Creation Date]

Notes:
 The following template is provided for writing a Service Level Agreement document.
 [Inside each section, text in green font between brackets is included to provide guidance
to the author and should be deleted before publishing the final document.]
 Inside each section, text in black font is included to provide a realistic example. This
sample has been adapted from a real case in which the client identity is hidden for privacy
purpose. The parties are identified as “The Service Provider” and “The Client.”
 You are free to edit and use this template and its contents within your organization;
however, we do ask that you don't distribute this template on the web without explicit
permission from us.

Copyrights: ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom
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Document Control
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 Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION 4
1.1 Purpose 4
1.2 Scope 4
1.3 Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations 5
1.4 References 7
1.5 Overview7

2. PARTICIPANTS 8
2.1 Signatories 8
2.2 Contacts 8
2.3 Responsibilities 8

3. SERVICE OBJECTIVES AND MEASUREMENTS 11

3.1 Service Objectives 11
3.1.1 Service Hours 11
3.1.2 Service Availability 11
3.1.3 Service Reliability 12
3.1.4 Scheduled Processing 12
3.1.5 Exceptional Processing 13
3.1.6 Service Performance 14
3.1.7 Capacity 15
3.2 Service Objectives Ratings 15
3.3 Measurement Details 16
3.4 Measurement Reporting 16

4. ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS 18

5. SUPPORTING INFORMATION 19
5.1 List of Tables 19
5.2 Index 19

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1. Introduction
[The introduction will provide an overview of the entire document. It will include the
purpose, scope, definitions, acronyms, abbreviations, references, and overview of the
document.]

1.1 Purpose
[Provide a brief description of the purpose of this document.]

This document provides an agreement between “The Service Provider” and “The Client” as
to what constitutes acceptable service in quantifiable and measurable terms. It documents
the mutually service objectives, how those objectives will be measured, and the schedule of
distribution for the measurements.
The intent of this Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to ensure the proper understanding and
commitments are in place for effective support, measurement and resource planning in the
provision of the Help Desk service.

1.2 Scope
[Provide a description and scope of the services covered by this SLA:
 Areas to be serviced
 Summary of services
 Boundaries or exclusions]

The service to be provided is the provision of Help Desk for the information technology
infrastructure of “The client”. The areas to be serviced are:

 The main facility, located in […]

 The branch office, located in […]
 And the subsidiary facilities located in […]

The timeframe will be from January 1, 20xx, to December 31, 20xx.

The complete description of all the networks, devices, servers, workstations, operating
systems, and applications to be serviced (currently in use or predicted) is listed in the
referenced document ("The Client". Help Desk Service. Complete Description of Targets.)

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 For the provision of this service, the following processes have been optimized:

 Incident Management.
 Request Fulfillment.

Service will not include:

 Request by personnel not belonging to the authorized list of employees from The
Client.
 Networks, devices, servers, workstations, operating systems, and applications not
listed in the referenced document ("The Client". Help Desk Service. Complete
Description of Targets.)
 Access Management or other security-related process, whose implementation will
be retained by The Client as requested.
 Incidents or requests from facilities not listed in the above-mentioned document.

1.3 Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations

[This section provides the definitions of all terms, acronyms, and abbreviations required to
understand this document.]
Term Definition

Access Management The process responsible for allowing users to make use of IT services, data or other assets.

Agreement A document that describes a formal understanding between two or more parties.

Availability Ability of an IT service or other configuration item to perform its agreed function when required.

Escalation An activity that obtains additional resources when these are needed to meet service level targets
or customer expectations.

Event Management The process responsible for managing events throughout their lifecycle.

Failure Loss of ability to operate to specification, or to deliver the required output.

First-Line Support The first level in a hierarchy of support groups involved in the resolution of incidents.

Functional Transferring an incident, problem or change to a technical team with a higher level of expertise.
Escalation

Hierarchic Escalation Informing or involving more senior levels of management to assist in an escalation.

Impact A measure of the effect of an incident, problem or change on business processes.

Incident An unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction in the quality of an IT service.

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Incident The process responsible for managing the lifecycle of all incidents.
Management

Incident Record A record containing the details of an incident.

Major Incident The highest category of impact for an incident, resulting in significant disruption to the business.

Mean Time Between The average time that an IT service or other configuration item can perform its agreed function
Failures (MTBF) without interruption.

Mean Time Between The mean time from when a system or IT service fails, until it next fails.
Service Incidents
(MTBSI)

Priority A category used to identify the relative importance of an incident, problem or change.

Process A structured set of activities designed to accomplish a specific objective.

Request Fulfillment The process responsible for managing the lifecycle of all service requests.

Resolution Action taken to repair the root cause of an incident or problem, or to implement a workaround.

Restore Taking action to return an IT service to the users after repair and recovery from an incident.

Role A set of responsibilities, activities and authorities assigned to a person or team.

Service Hours An agreed time period when a particular IT service should be available.

Service Level Measured and reported achievement against one or more service level targets.

Service Level An agreement between an IT service provider and a customer.

Agreement (SLA)

Service Level A customer requirement for an aspect of an IT service.

Requirement (SLR)

Service Level Target A commitment that is documented in a service level agreement.

Service Request A formal request from a user for something to be provided

Service Level A chart used to help monitor and report achievements against service level targets.
Agreement
Monitoring (SLAM)
Chart

Urgency A measure of how long it will be until an incident, problem or change has a significant impact on
the business.

Table 1. Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations

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1.4 References
[This section provides a complete list of all documents referenced elsewhere in this
document. Identify each document by title and other applicable data like version, date, etc.
This information may be provided by reference to an appendix or to another document.]

Doe, Jane;. (20xx). "The Client". Help Desk Service. Assigment of roles.
Doe, Jane;. (20xx). "The Client". Help Desk Service. List of Incidents and Services to Request.
Doe, John;. (20xx). "The Client". Help Desk Service. Complete Description of Targets.
Doe, John;. (20xx). "The Client". Help Desk Service. Incident Management Process Design.
Doe, John;. (20xx). "The Client". Help Desk Service. Request Fulfillment Management Process Design.
Doe, John;. (20xx). "The Client". Help Desk Service. Service Level Requirements.
Doe, John;. (20xx). "Thye Client". Help Desk Service. Service Design.

1.5 Overview
[This subsection describes what the rest of the DT contains and explains how the document
is organized.]

The sections below detail how the Help Desk Service from “The Service Provider” to “The
Client” must be measured and evaluated, as agreed by both parties.

Section 2 lists all the stakeholders involved in the acceptance and maintenance of this
agreement. Roles and responsibilities are defined at the end of this section.

Section 3 describes the details of the agreed service levels, including how they are
measured.

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2. Participants

[Document the key participants and their responsibilities in the process of negotiating and
managing this Service Level Agreement. These participants may include:
• Service Level Manager
• Service Delivery Manager
• IT Customer.]

2.1 Signatories
[Customize this list with all the persons signing and approving this document. For each
person, insert name and position.]

The following persons have negotiated this document and agree it will be used as the formal
Service Level Agreement (SLA) for the provision of the Service.

Name Position
For “The Client”
Jane Smith Chief Information Officer
Joe Smith Business Process Owner

For “The Service Provider”

Joe Doe Chief Information Officer
Jane Doe IT Service Product Manager

Table 2. Signatories.

2.2 Contacts
[Add in this section other persons which are important for this Agreement, for example, for
legal issues, procurement, etc. For each person, insert name and position.]

Name Position

Table 3. Contacts.

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2.3 Responsibilities
[Summarize the roles and responsibilities of the key parties to this SLA. For each role, list
the responsibilities. Duplicate when needed for both client and customer.]

Roles Responsibilities

IT Customer  Communicates requirements to the Customer Liaison in order to determine

service specifications
 Obtains feedback from users concerning satisfaction with the services
provided
 Communicates any issues with the services provided to the Customer Liaison
or the Service Delivery Manager
Customer Liaison  Ensures that monthly service levels are meeting customer needs and ensures
appropriate action is being taken when they are not.
 Identifies customer requirements for new or updated services
 Monitors the progress of customer-related projects, such as solution
development projects
 Identifies service level requirements
 Negotiates service level agreements
 Facilitates the identification and resolution of customer satisfaction issues
Service Level  Negotiates and agrees this and other SLAs with the Service Provider.
Manager  Negotiates and agrees with the Service Provider any Service Level
(Customer) Requirements for any proposed new / developing services.
 Analyses and reviews Service Performance against this SLA.
 Organizes and maintains regular Service Level reviews with the Service
Provider which covers:
 Review of outstanding actions from previous Reviews;
 Current performance;
 Review of Service Levels and targets (where necessary);
 Appropriate actions to maintain / improve Service Levels.
 Any actions required to maintain or improve Service Levels
 Acts as co-ordination point for any temporary changes to Service Levels
required (i.e. extra support hours required by the Customer, reduced Levels
of Service over a period of maintenance required by the Service Provider,
etc.).
Service Level  Negotiates and agrees this and other SLAs with the Customer.
Manager  Negotiates and agrees any Operational Level Agreement required within the
(Service Service Provider for supporting the Service.
 Negotiates and agrees with the Customer any Service Level Requirement for
Provider)
any proposed new / developing services.
 Analyses and reviews Service Performance against this SLA.
 Organizes and maintains regular Service Level reviews with the IT Customer
which covers:
 Review of outstanding actions from previous Reviews;
 Current performance;
 Review of Service Levels and targets (where necessary);
 Appropriate actions to maintain / improve Service Levels.

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  Any actions required to maintain or improve Service Levels
 Acts as co-ordination point for any temporary changes to Service Levels
required (i.e. extra support hours required by the Customer, reduced Levels
of Service over a period of maintenance required by the Service Provider
etc.)
 Ensures that changes are assessed for their impact on service levels.
Service Delivery  Provides a managed level of service at budgeted cost to all users. Builds and
Manager manages aggregate service plan (including cost and resources forecast) for
services. Identifies and manages improvements.
 Forecasts medium-term volumes for services managed, in terms of service
demand from all sources and capacity units (skill, space, processing, storage,
and bandwidth). Acquires/manages capacity in line with policy to balance
utilization and responsiveness to new demands; allocates workload across
different geographic capacity pools to meet customer needs and utilization
requirements.
 Forecasts service demand and resource needs within cost budget; manages
directly assigned workforce (customized service) within budget; provides
input on customer satisfaction needs and issues to competency
development.
 Sponsors, leads, and funds improvement team for the delivery
infrastructure.
Service  Operates and maintains the Service.
Execution  Ensures that IT services operate within service level targets.
Manager

IT Operations  Monitors the Service and service levels.

Analyst  Reports on the performance of service components .
 Maintains operational logs and journals, including monitoring data.
 Maintain all operational knowledge bases.
 Monitors system tuning.
IT Operators  Execute day-to-day operations, enabling Service to be provided.
 Provide data on the execution of services.
 Record completion of works.
 Perform routine maintenance tasks.
 Implement approved operational changes.

 Perform system tuning.

Table 4. Responsibilities.

For the updated assignments of roles to people / positions see the referenced document
("The Client". Help Desk Service. Assigment of roles.).

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3. Service Objectives and Measurements
[These are the important commitments in the SLA, which the Service Owner and Service
Supplier have agreed as the key measurements of SLA achievement. As part of the design
of the Service, a few KPIs and metrics have been selected; they are as close as possible to
the real perception that the client has of the service.]

3.1 Service Objectives

[List key service level objectives and measurements. The objectives in the list will vary
according to the service been provided, the warranties required, and the targets been
serviced.]

3.1.1 Service Hours

[Write a description of the hours that the customers can expect the service to be available.
Specify special conditions for exceptions (e.g. weekends, public holidays) and procedures
for requesting service extensions (who to contact
– normally the Service Desk –- and what notice periods are required)]

Service must be available from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Monday through Friday, except when
the Customer facilities are closed due to holidays, administrative closings, or inclement
weather. A service can be requested or an Incident reported by telephone during working
hours, or by mail or by the Web Service Portal at any time. Incidents reported or services
requested outside the working hours will be served at the next scheduled working day,
unless a special procedure for Major Incident is invoked (see 3.1.5 below.).

3.1.2 Service Availability

[Specify the target availability levels that the IT service provider will seek to deliver within
the agreed service hours. Availability targets within agreed service hours are normally
expressed as percentages (e.g. 99.5%). Measurement periods, method and calculations
must be stipulated. This figure may be expressed for the overall service, underpinning
services and critical components or all three. It is often more practical to try to measure
service unavailability in terms of the customer’s inability to conduct its business activities.]

For the provision of the Service covered by this SLA, availability is determined by the
percent of the time components of the Service are available to users.

“The Service Provider” will seek 100 % availability during working hours for all the
interfaces combined (telephone, e-mail or Web) to report or request, that means client will

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always have at least one mean available to report and Incident or request a service at
working times. Availability of each interface alone is provided below:

Interface Availability Hours to Measure

Telephone 90 % During Work Hours

E-mail 95 % At All Times

Web Portal 90 % At All Times

Table 5. Availability of Service.

3.1.3 Service Reliability

[This means the maximum number of service breaks that can be tolerated within an agreed
period; it may be defined either as number of breaks in a timeframe, or as a Mean Time
Between Failures (MTBF) or Mean Time Between Systems Incidents (MTBSI). Define what
constitutes a ‘break’ and how these will be monitored and recorded.]

As part of the quality of service, “The Service Provider” has designed the service to be
resilient; enhancing in that way realibility.

The commitments in this SLA are as follows:

 No more than 2 (two) Failures in 12 (twelve) months, and

 Mean Time Between Failures equal to or greater than 180 days.

For the provision of the Service covered by this SLA, a Failure will be considered any
Incident with Impact = Critical. See the referenced document ("The Client". Help Desk
Service. List of Incidents and Services to Request.) to determine the Impact of an Incident.

3.1.4 Scheduled Processing

[Describe the procedure for serving the request for service made for users. Include details
of the contacts within each of the parties involved in the agreement and the escalation
processes and contact points. If the procedure is explained in other documents, include the
reference to them]

All Incidents will be managed according the Incident Management Process that was
designed along with the design of the Service itself. For details like workflows, roles and

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responsibilities, work products, escalation and control procedures, see the referenced
document ("The Client". Help Desk Service. Incident Management Process Design.)

All the service requests made by users will be managed according the Request Fulfillment
Management Process that was designed along with the design of the Service itself. For
details like workflows, roles and responsibilities, work products, escalation and control
procedures, see the referenced document ("The Client". Help Desk Service. Request
Fulfillment Management Process Design.)

The first-line support is the entry point defined for both process. Users can request service
or report an Incident by using one of the following:

 Using the Web Portal (preferred.)

http://support.theclient.any/...
 Sending an E-mail.
[email protected]
 Calling to the Service Support telephone.
1-800….

3.1.5 Exceptional Processing

[Write here special procedures like escalation, major incidents, etc.]

Special procedures are defined in the design of both processes to address special
circumstances like:

 Major Incidents.
 Change of Urgency.
 Request to address emergencies outside the working hours.

In those cases, emergency procedures are defined including hierarchical escalation. They
must be authorized for both Service Level Managers. See the referenced documents ("The
Client". Help Desk Service. Incident Management Process Design.) and ("The Client". Help
Desk Service. Request Fulfillment Management Process Design.)

This number will be available for emergency request:

1-800…

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3.1.6 Service Performance
[Include details of the expected responsiveness of the IT service, like online response time
commitments, transaction processing targets, performance objectives, etc. Performance
objectives should be related to agreed business volume levels or transaction volumes.
Describe how performance will be measured]

The target resolution time for each Incident or Service Request depends on its Priority.
The agreed targets are as follows:

Priority Description Target Resolution Time

1 Critical 1 hour

2 High 8 hours

3 Medium 24 hours

4 Low 48 hours

5 Planning Planned

Table 6. Target resolution times by Priorities.

Priority is determined by the Urgency and the Impact of the Incident or Service Request, as
per follow:

Impact

High Medium Low

High 1 2 3

Urgency Medium 2 3 4

Low 3 4 5

Table 7. Determination of Priorities.

A updated, detailed list of types of Incidents and Service to Requests, along with their
agreed Urgency and Impact and the calculated Priority is shown in the referenced document
("The Client". Help Desk Service. List of Incidents and Services to Request.) not included
inside this document.

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 3.1.7 Capacity
[Capacity to be provided, preferably related to business volumes (e.g. transaction volumes,
number of concurrent users, etc.). What will be done if agreed capacity limits are
exceeded.]

To address the work at all times, the personnel for delivering the service is organized into 2
(two) shifts:

 Shift I: from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

 Shift 2: from 2:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

The assigned manpower for each of the three tier of Support and the technical
infrastructure for providing the Service is described in detail in the referenced document
("The Client". Help Desk Service. Service Design.)

3.2 Service Objectives Ratings

[Create a ratings chart to show how the customer would rate the service in terms of
performance. The ratings should be based on targets, such as availability targets, response,
etc.]

When possible, RAG (Red, Amber, Blue) charts will be used to evaluate the Service
performance and other results. These are special types of SLAM (Service Level Agreement
Monitoring) charts. Two days before each Service Level Review, the Service Level Analyst
will distribute the RAGs altogether with the source reports to all the participants.

Resolution time is pivotal to performance as shown in Table 6. Target resolution times by

Priorities.

The agreed criterion for rating the service is as follow:

Percent of Incidents and service requests meeting target (P).

Target Breached P ≤ 95%

Target Threatened 95% > P > 97%

Target Met P ≥ 97%

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 Table 8. Rating of Service.

When the Rating is “Target breached”, a penalty may be applied upon “The Service
Provider”, unless demonstrated the fault lies on the side of “The Client”. The penalty can
also be waived if both parties reach an agreement to do so. If applied, Penalty will be:

P$ = V$ x (95% - P); where

P$: Penalty;

V$: Payment to receive for the period;

P: Percent of Incidents and service request resolution meeting

target.

Additionally, surveys will be used to measure the perception of users about the Service. The
results will be used to monitor and increase the quality of service. A rating of 3.5 in a scale
from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) will be considered satisfactory.

3.3 Measurement Details

[Provide details of how measurements will be taken and any necessary calculation formulae.
Define any special transactions or benchmark processes that will be used to measure and
monitor service levels.]

Event Management will provide the environment for all the measurement and reporting
required to monitor the components, the process and the Service itself. The primary source
for monitoring the targets in this SLA is the information collected into the Service
Management tool. In the case of measuring elapsed times (like resolution time which is
pivotal for rating the Service), the value is calculated from the time the incident or request is
created in the system until the time the incident or request is marked as closed.

When the incident or service request is reported outside the working hours, the record is
actually created at the beginning of the next working hour, unless a special procedure is
invoked to start resolution immediately.

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3.4 Measurement Reporting
[Describe how measurement results or changes to the schedule will be published. Additional
detailed information other than standard monthly measurements will be included in the
monthly report only if one or more of the service level objectives has been missed.]

Reports will show collected measurements relevant to the targets defined in this SLA. They
are of three types:
 Operational reports: to help the outgoing monitoring of Service against the targets.
 Exception reports: produced each time a service level target is breached or is about to
beach.
 Periodic reports: to be discussed in scheduled Service Level Review.

The periodic reports will incorporate details of performance against all SLA targets, together
with details of any trends or specific actions being undertaken to improve service quality.
They will include SLAM charts at the level of the whole service. Optionally, they can be
drilled down at the level of components, especially if a target is reported breached. The
Service Level Analyst will distribute these periodic reports to all participants two days before
the Service Level Review meetings.

The Service Level Reviews will be held every two weeks and will be led by Service Level
Managers.

Page 17
4. Additional Considerations
[Put additional content about services here.]

The parties agree to try resolving their differences internally in good faith. In case a
difference persists, they will submit their complaints to the arbitrator. The decision of the
arbitrator will be considered final and must be accepted by both parties.

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5. Supporting Information
[The supporting information makes the DT easier to use. It includes:
 Table of contents
 Index
 Appendices
These may include use-case storyboards or user-interface prototypes. When appendices
are included, the DT should explicitly state whether or not the appendices are to be
considered part of the requirements.]

5.1 List of Tables

Table 1. Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations.....................................................................6
Table 2. Signatories......................................................................................................................8
Table 3. Contacts.........................................................................................................................8
Table 4. Responsibilities.............................................................................................................10
Table 5. Availability of Service...................................................................................................12
Table 6. Target resolution times by Priorities............................................................................14
Table 7. Determination of Priorities...........................................................................................14
Table 8. Rating of Service...........................................................................................................15

5.2 Index

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Availability 11, 12 References 6
Capacity 14 Reporting 16
Contacts 8 Responsibilities 8
Definitions 5 Scope 4
Overview 7 Signatories 8
Performance 13 Target resolution time 13
Purpose 4 Timeframe 4
Ratings 15

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