A short while ago I was asked this question from one of our reader: “ I want to set a KPI around how much of the time we meet the SLA. Like 'meeting the SLA x% of the time'. Can someone advise what would be that 'x'? What is the common practice?  Is there an industry standard around this?”   I’m going to have to go with the consultant answer and say it depends.   First, are we talking about a single service to a single customer? Are we talking about multiple services to multiple customers or somewhere in between those two extremes? Your SLAs should include details of the anticipated performance that your customer expects.  First thing you need to do is discuss with your customer what are the levels of utility and warranty they are expecting? Then document and agree these targets are reachable given the resources that are at your disposal and any constraints that may be discovered. The requirements for functionality (utility) should be defined by you...

I was recently asked if I had any insights into what roles (titles) are commonly used in companies and organizations to fulfill the BRM function.  This individual commented that the BRM function is one that they wholeheartedly support, but were finding that investing in a resource that is exclusively focused on that is something that companies either can’t afford (legitimately) or that they struggle to justify the cost for the position. Finding the suitable individual with the proper skill set to fulfill the Business Relationship Management (BRM) role can certainly be a challenge.  One thing to recognize is that the BRM job role function is dual fold.  This person represents first and foremost the customer.  They must be familiar with intimate details regarding customer needs, expectations and preferences.  On the other side the BRM also will liaise with the business to ensure that the service provider can fulfill those customer needs.  This is so...

Business Relationship Management (BRM) is the process and role that allows us, as a service provider, to establish a strategic and tactical relationship with our customers. This will be based on ensuring we understand the customer and the business outcomes they are trying to create and how and what services are engaged by the business to meet those defined goals and objectives. A key activity of the BRM process is to ensure that as business needs change over time, we as a service provider, are able to translate these needs into requirements through the use of a Service Level Requirements document (SLR) which then manifests itself into the portfolio in the form of defined services.  The BRM will assist the business in articulating these requirements and the value of these services that the business places on them. In this way the BRM process is executing one of its critical success factors, which is to safeguard that the customer’s expectations do not exceed what they ...

As business organizations opt for support from the cloud to provision Software, Platform, or Infrastructure services the need for warranty through the service value chain becomes paramount. Service warranty is gained by achieving specified levels of availability, capacity, continuity, and security.  The dynamic, nature of the business and varied demand from multiple customers and user profiles must be considered when defining and investing in cloud architectures.  Each customer will expect that only their application or service will be delivered to users when in fact multiple customer and user communities could be leverage from the scalability and shared resources in the cloud. Availability/Capacity and the Cloud Service providers must gain assurance that multiple instances of the same application are delivered in a scalable manner.  In order to ensure availability and leverage capacity on demand additional tools and technologies such as load balancing, server ...

There have been many discussions on what is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) or what is an Operational Level Agreement (OLA).   And by the way how does that differ from an Underpinning Contract?   We can agonize over how to measure and what to measure and who, what, where, and how we should manage our internal and external reviews.   Capturing the appropriate knowledge and building in a system for iterative activities and improvement are always a challenge.   Each of these could provoke a lengthy discussion on their own merit.    In this segment I would like to address the thought of who cares!   In other words, what is the real business value for implementing Service Level Management (SLM)? Why do I care about SLM? At the root of it all, the true value of SLM is that it is a vital organ in the systemic approach to integrate the business with IT.    Using SLM to strengthen the relationships between the two provide an opportunity for g...

One of the most important goals of Service Level Management (SLM) is the need to build strong relationships between the customers and users of IT Services. It is incumbent on the roles of the Service Level Manager and Business Relationship Manager (a role defined with Demand Management) to serve as the Voice of the Customer. SLM must act as an agent on behalf of business customers, since those individuals or groups must focus on executing business processes or serving further the end-users of a company’s goods and services. The business should not have to spend its time worrying about the value they need from IT Services. SLM needs to create a strong bond with the business and end-user customers. This bond needs to be a familiar and personal link that shows the customer that IT truly cares about the needs and success of the business. Good Service Level Management cannot be conducted solely through emails or phone calls. A good Service Level Manager knows they must meet their customer...

I was recently asked about the accountabilities and responsibilities of the Service Level Manager and Service Owner.  Let’s start with Service Level Manager . Responsible for gathering Service Level Requirements from the customer. Responsible for negotiating and maintaining SLAs with the customer. Responsible for developing and maintaining OLAs. Responsible for understanding underpinning contracts as they relate to OLAs and SLAs. Responsible for producing, reviewing and evaluating reports on service performance and achievements on a regular basis. Also for conducting meeting with the customer to discuss service performance and improvements. Responsible for initiating appropriate actions to improve service levels (SIP). Conducting yearly reviews of SLAs, OLAs and underpinning contracts. The success of SLM is very dependent on the quality of the Service Portfolio and the Service Catalogue and their contents. They provide the necessary information on the services to be manag...