Jira ITSM solutions with Tempo

Optimize your IT service level management

Delivering essential, high-quality IT services without overburdening the service provider’s staff requires you to balance priorities, expectations, and capacity. It’s challenging but possible with an effective IT service level management (SLM) practice. 

IT service level management is one aspect of the IT service management (ITSM) framework, a facet of the larger Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). The ITIL framework facilitates the delivery and maintenance of business-critical computer systems that keep an organization operational.

SLM may be delivered in-house or through a third-party provider. No matter how your business operates, this guide will explain everything you need to know about the process and tools necessary to optimize your SLM.

What is IT service level management?

IT service level management is a process for outlining and maintaining IT services for a client. SLM is one of the five key elements of the ITIL framework, adding structure to the IT service delivery lifecycle. With SLM in place, the management process becomes more efficient and predictable. 

In practice, SLM brings clients and service providers together to agree on a framework for IT service delivery based on customer needs. The arrangement defines the following:

• IT roles and responsibilities

• Which services clients can access

• Expected performance as outlined by service level agreements (SLAs) or operational level agreements (OLAs)

• Metrics used by the provider to measure and report on service quality

• The costs of each delivered service

By establishing an IT SLM agreement, providers can accurately allocate resources and meet the client’s needs using a cost-effective framework of assistance and support. Customers can control the levels of service accessed. Should business requirements change, the process’s built-in flexibility and ongoing improvement measures ensure IT management processes respond quickly to an evolving marketplace.

Benefits of IT service level management

Implementing an IT service level management process generates many benefits for clients and providers, including the following:

1. Accurate framework

Gauging an organization’s IT requirements allows providers to define service levels based on specific needs. The supplier precisely allocates resources, ensuring they’re never over or underutilized, leading to better efficiency and cost savings. 

2. Increased alignment

An effective SLM requires a complete assessment of business needs. Once requirements are better understood, the provider and client can collaborate to find the best ways to deliver services and maximize operational performance.

3. Expectation management

Service level management establishes and communicates precise quality expectations. Organizations and providers know up front the mechanisms for measuring, monitoring, and reporting service quality, ensuring the client’s experience consistently meets expectations.  

4. Defined roles and responsibilities

An SLM agreement clearly defines and communicates who is accountable for addressing a specific issue, whether the client or the service provider. Clearly defined roles reduce misunderstandings and confusion while effectively managing expectations.

5. Built-in flexibility

As part of the ITSM framework, IT service level management requires routine process evaluations to identify and address areas of improvement. If the client’s business needs must adjust to new market conditions, the provider can quickly adapt the SLM to meet these changing needs.

Essential implementation steps for ITSL management

IT SLM implementation is a systematic process that requires careful planning, execution, and monitoring. The steps of a successful service level management deployment are as follows:

1. Gather data

The service provider collaborates with the business unit or client to discuss organizational needs and expectations. They work together to evaluate past experiences and review historical data, generating a real-world picture of which management processes and tools worked and which didn’t. This engagement helps identify service level requirements (SLRs), expectations, and desired outcomes.

2. Document services

The supplier catalogs available IT services that meet the client’s business requirements. They also document expectations by defining each service’s scope, features, and performance standards.   

3. Define service levels

The service provider aligns performance objectives according to the business requirements identified in step one. These targets should follow the SMART framework: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

4. Establish SLAs and SLOs

Together, the service provider and client establish service level objectives (SLOs) and (SLAs). Then, the client and provider negotiate a contractual agreement outlining the level and quality of services provided – the SLOs – plus penalties for missing the mark. Together, these become critical components of each SLA. 

5. Monitor and review

Once the service provider implements SLOs and SLAs, it continuously monitors performance via KPI tracking and reports its findings to the appropriate stakeholders on an agreed-upon schedule.

Service level reporting criteria may include:

• Review of tickets, incidents, and escalations

• Assessment of chronic alarms and incidents

• Maintenance coordination

• Planned activity forecasts

• Identification of issues and preventative measures

• Staffing and proficiency reviews

• Overview of service and operation metrics

• Client assessment of service provider performance

6. Stakeholder management

Relationship management is critical to SLM success. The provider must regularly engage with clients to ensure the support team meets performance expectations and communicates effectively. The company also evaluates internal procedural compliance, quality, response time, escalations, and other factors impacting service and customer satisfaction.

7. Continual improvement

SLM implementation includes an ongoing improvement process. Based on internal reviews, the provider identifies opportunities to enhance services, plans and executes those upgrades, and monitors the results.

IT service level management best practices

Managing service level agreements can be challenging. A provider must track KPIs, communicate with clients, address missed targets, and continuously improve performance. Based on the ITIL framework, the following SLA management  best practices can help streamline processes and improve outcomes:

1. Leverage technology

Specialized service level management software saves service providers time and effort by organizing and tracking SLA management tasks. These solutions streamline numerous tasks:

• Automate repetitive work

• Monitor SLA compliance and alert team members when compliance is at risk

• Provide visibility into team performance

• Track metrics

• Facilitate performance report generation

• Improve client communication

2. Create separate SLAs

Service level agreements are a series of commitments a provider makes to its client. Combining multiple promises into a single SLA can create confusion and conflicts between service tickets. Instead, create individual SLAs for each IT service to simplify tracking and prioritization.

Individual SLAs may address these factors:

• Response time

• Uptime

• Resolution time

• Mean time to recovery or repair

• Error rate

Distinct SLAs allow each service to establish an achievable schedule based on individual capacity.

3. Align SLAs with business needs

Effective SLA management prioritizes customers’ needs and requirements rather than operational metrics. Providers should engage with their clients and listen closely to understand the processes their services support. Then, they can tailor the SLAs accordingly. By instituting outcome-based metrics, service providers avoid creating a watermelon effect, where they’re successful according to the KPIs, such as uptime, but fail to achieve the client’s desired goals. Indicators look green, but they’re red underneath the surface.

For example, imagine a service provider promised 99.5% e-commerce website uptime, which they achieved. However, the 0.5% downtime occurred during periods of heavy traffic, resulting in a significant loss of sales that impacted client satisfaction. A better alternative would be safeguarding site accessibility during traffic spikes by guaranteeing supplemental server support during expected peak hours.    

4. Account for typical and unusual scenarios

Establishing scenarios where SLAs don’t apply is as important as defining where they do. 

Examples of possible exceptions include:

• Orders will be processed within 60 minutes of receipt except on Monday, from 12:30–3:30 a.m., when routine system maintenance occurs.

• The service provider will configure new workstations within five business days of receiving the PO, presuming notification of management authorization within 24 hours of the request.

• SLA targets are waived during local or regional disasters, such as floods, fires, or extended electrical outages.

Contract exemptions ensure everyone meets their responsibilities and the service provider isn’t penalized for issues outside its control.

5. Ensure SLAs are measurable

Establishing SMART goals – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound – helps service desk staff establish tracking metrics that demonstrate success rates or identify areas for improvement. 

6. Review and adjust

The ITIL framework is focused on continual improvement. Therefore, routine SLA reviews should occur whenever proposed or promised improvements to process or service design affect customer objectives. Examples include updates to operational hours, availability, or response time.

7. Define penalties and incentives

The contract should define penalties for noncompliance and bonuses for exceeding performance targets. Clarity regarding the consequences ensures accountability and helps motivate staff to meet and exceed quality standards.

Streamline IT service level management with Tempo

Whether you’ve earned your service level management certification or are simply overseeing SLM as an additional responsibility, you need specialized tools to handle the job. That’s why Tempo offers a modular suite of that allow you to build and scale a customizable for your business. 

Our ITSM platform includes tools to support the following tasks:

• Time management:

• Reporting:  

• Team capacity management:

• Financial management:

• Project, program, or service management:

This centralizes your entire service portfolio, providing agents with transparency to ensure every decision and action supports long-term goals and fulfills contract obligations to your clients.