ITIL - Service Level Management

Service level management is the name given to the processes of planning, negotiating, co-ordinating, monitoring, and reporting on Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The process includes the on-going review of service achievement to ascertain that the required service quality is maintained and wherever necessary improved.

SLAs contain specific targets against which performance can be evaluated. They also define the responsibilities placed on all parties, in particular binding Service Delivery to offer an agreed quality of service so long as the users constrain their demands within agreed limits. The relationship between Service Delivery and its customers is therefore put on to a formal business-like footing similar to those which exist between Service Delivery and its suppliers. When used in conjunction with the financial management process, service level management provides the basis for running Service Delivery as a business or profit centre.

Service level management provides a number of benefits not least of which is that it enables specific targets to aim for and against which service quality can be monitored and measured. Furthermore, service monitoring will allow weaknesses in existing services to be identified, so that the quality of service provision can be improved.