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Service Level Agreements: Evaluating and Negotiating Law School Technology SLAs

Service Level Agreements: Evaluating and Negotiating Law School Technology SLAs. Ramsey Donnell Assoc. Director for Access & Organization The John Marshall Law School. What is an SLA?. Service Level Agreement Core component of many technology contracts Ancillary

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Service Level Agreements: Evaluating and Negotiating Law School Technology SLAs

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  1. Service Level Agreements:Evaluating and Negotiating Law School Technology SLAs Ramsey Donnell Assoc. Director for Access & Organization The John Marshall Law School

  2. What is an SLA? • Service Level Agreement • Core component of many technology contracts • Ancillary • Sometimes offered at added cost • Promise by a vendor to meet a certain level of service

  3. Examples • Categories of agreements • Hosting • Cloud computing –ASP, software-as-service • Network connectivity • Technical support/maintenance

  4. Examples • Library/Law School agreements • Internet connection • Website hosting • ILS hosting/maintenance • Course management system hosting/support • Lecture capture • Server maintenance/support

  5. Are SLAs negotiable? • Often they are • If not… • Is it worth the price? • Does it signal a problem with the service provider? • Ask to see SLA early in process

  6. Why an SLA? SLA No SLA Uncertainty Delay Cost of Litigation • Certainty • Immediacy • Incentive

  7. Other incentives? • Reputation • Renewal

  8. The Bones of an SLA • What is being measured? • Availability, performance, support • How is it measured? • Metrics—uptime, etc. • Remedy • Credits

  9. First things first… • Is the SLA part of the signed contract? • How can the SLA be modified? • “We reserve the right to change the terms of this SLA…”

  10. Services & Metrics • Availability of system/service • Metric—uptime • E.g., 99.9% over 365 days, 24/7

  11. Availability, cont’d • Exclusions from calculation • Scheduled maintenance • Hours per month? • Advance notice? • Limitations?

  12. Availability, cont’d • Exclusions from calculation • Emergency maintenance/unplanned downtime • Plan to minimize unplanned downtime?

  13. Availability, cont’d • Exclusions from calculation • Force majeure • Acts of god, war, natural disaster… • Overbroad? • Mitigation?

  14. Force majeure • “Provider shall not be liable to Customer for any failure or delay caused by events beyond Provider’s control, including, but not limited to, Customer’s failure to furnish necessary information, sabotage, failure or delays in transportation, communication or utilities, failures or substitutions of equipment, labor disputes, accidents, shortages of labor, fuel, raw materials or equipment, or other technical failures.”

  15. Calculating Service Availability

  16. Services & Metrics • System/service performance • Metrics • Response time • Latency

  17. Performance, cont’d • Metrics • Consistency • Be wary of averages • Jitter

  18. Performance, cont’d • Metrics • Packet loss • Different data transfers tolerate different packet loss

  19. Provider assumptions • Assumptions underlying service levels • If exceeded, no remedy under SLA • Volume and transaction assumptions • Orders per second • System queries • Data transfer • Expansion

  20. Services & Metrics • Technical support • The system is down! • Mechanism for reporting? • Help desk—phone support • Online ticketing system

  21. Technical support • Call support—quality measures • English • Max. hold times • Live vs. automated system

  22. Technical support • Response time • Time to resolution

  23. Technical support • Response time • Severity Levels • Critical—faster response times • How defined? • Who assigns?

  24. Technical support • Time to resolution/workaround • When must work begin? • What resources devoted? • When will it be resolved?

  25. Sample severity levels

  26. Remedy • Certainty + immediacy= Incentive

  27. Remedy • Service credits • Monetary • Objective • Incentive

  28. Remedy • Termination right • Chronic failures • Transition

  29. Recap – Evaluating an SLA • Binding, no unilateral modification? • Structure • What is being measured? • Availability • Performance • Technical support • Metrics – objective • Remedy • Credits • Termination

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