If you have a critical dependency on a supplier (service or product) it is important that you have an agreement to define the obligations of both parties. This certainly applies to external suppliers, but in large organizations, it may apply to internal ones as well.
The Service Level Agreement, or SLA, defines the parameters of the service. Critically, in the context of this portal, it also defines the levels of availability and response in emergency situations.
The SLA therefore is a very important document indeed. As with other important items (such as the disaster recovery plan!), it should be carefully prepared and given due consideration.
THE SLA TOOLKIT
We have recently identified a product designed to ease this process. The SLA Toolkit offers a template, a full interactive guide, a training presentation and an audit checklist (to enable review of existing agreements).
It is provided in MS-Word (template, guide and checklist) and PowerPoint (presentations) formats to give full control to the user.
For further information on this product, see the specific Service Level Agreement web site.
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