If you could provide one or two pieces of advice to clients or providers regarding the creation or management of Service Level Agreements (SLA) and/or Subjective Service Level Agreements (SSLA), what would that be?
Assume nothing. Identify use cases and make sure that they are covered by your SLA, especially if you are replacing a vendor with which service has been an issue. Make sure that you address things that are currently not working, but don't forget to include the things that aren't causing your problems now. Start with the pre-mortem! Think about what is driving this change and what frustrations you're trying to solve for with this purchase/contract. Then imagine that you have completed the project and it's failed. What are the things that failed? Why did they fail? – Robin Ryan, Woodruff Sawyer
Keep the SLA simple. Someone will have to keep track of the performance, and most times the vendor will not. Do not try to be unique with the SLA. The vendor may say yes, but has no way to manage 400 different SLA's. Make sure there are some fees at risk each month or quarter, and you choose where those dollars will be at risk. – Vincent Pinto, NFP
SLAs are a vehicle to manage the relationship and should be fair and realistic. SLAs should have a variety of categories and equally, both the client and vendor/provider should have a say in what's being captured and measured. If there are one or two areas which have plague you in the past, talk about those with the vendor/provider candidates as part of the selection and decision making process. Once the SLAs are established, get the agreed upon date/time on the calendar even if the meeting is three months out. If the relationship is healthy albeit one or two SLAs/SSLAs are failing, talk openly about why and what can be done to correct the shortcomings. – Ron Conine, Lockton Companies
Determine what is important to you and then ask for it. Even if your selected solution provider cannot give you everything you ask, hopefully you will find a compromise that is beneficial. It also helps to show your priorities. – Anne Burkett, USI Insurance Services
Be realistic and look at what it has transpired in the past and analyze. Hold people accountable. Nothing is more detrimental to a deliverable than lack of accountability. – Caleb Fullhart, Peridus Group
Own the governance of the SLA as the client. It's a two way partnership. – Corrina Nation, Benefit Technology Resources
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