Service Level Agreements for non-IT Services

How TO MANAGE EXPECTATIONS AND DELIVER SERVICE EXCELLENCE.
A 2-day interactive workshop.


OVERVIEW

Service Level Agreements are commonplace in IT. Now they are increasingly being applied to all support services to ensure that service quality is aligned with business needs and provide good value for many. Both private and sector services are creating new, dynamic, responsive Shared Services out of their previous administrative and support services - and SLAs are they key. It contains real life case studies and examples and contains models and templates to take away and use.

Objectives
By the end of this workshop, participants will

• Understand the principles and practices of SLAS
• Be able to define service categories and service products
• Apply meaningful service quality metrics and measurements
• Understand options for format and structure of a SLA
• Know what a SLA should contain
• Be able to draft an effective SLA.

Why you should attend
SLAs are increasingly seen as best management practice in managing both internal and external suppliers to create a harmonious customer-supplier relationships and to align service delivery to mission achievement. This workshop shows you how.

Who should attend
External and internal customers and suppliers of support services, especially those with no formal training in buying and negotiating for support services. Buyers, Contract Managers, Vendors, Sales personnel consultants and all those interested in creating and maintaining effective customer-supplier relationships and in developing SLAs, especially those new to the subject.

How you and your organisation will benefit

How does the user know whether he is getting an adequate service - let alone value for money - from Their service provider? Formal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) between the customer and the provider of a service are one of the keystones of management. They protect both customer and supplier. They are as appropriate to an in-house services as they are to a commercial service. By embracing the business case of the customer, SLAs can help to justify investment, ease capacity and resource planning, justify resource, and establish appropriate value and quality. What are the pitfalls - and how can they be avoided? This programme is particularly suitable for those wishing to develop SLAs for any support service.


Programme

• Introduction and Course Objectives;-Delegate's Objectives and Issues Explored
  
• Service Level Agreements
  The role of SLAs in a Value Plan
  Reactive or Proactive Service?
  Identifying Customers - The Customer Perspective
  What SLAs are
  The objectives of SLAs
  How to Prove Service Quality
  How SLAs help the Service Provider
  How SLAs support the Customer
  How SLAs support the Business
  The Role of SLAs in Partnerships
  SLAs in Support of Quality Models
  SLAs as a Tool for Empowerment
  What SLAs Can and Cannot Do
  Squaring the Circle
  Defining Service
  
• The SLA Project
  Politics of Service
  Influencing Skills Development
  Why Poor Service Can Be Inevitable - and How to Change it.
  Cost / Benefit Issues
  Project Activities
  Project Phases
  Organising for Service
  Selling SLAs
  Obstacles to success - and how to overcome them
  
• Delegate Exercise #1
  Syndicates will identify the service products, boundaries and limits for a Service Level Agreement. They will briefly present their findings to other syndicates and compare notes
  
• Key Measurements and Activity Based SLAs
  Creating Key Performance and Service Level Indicators
  Service Availability
  Service Reliability
  Service Responsiveness
  Appropriate Quality Metrics
  Quality Issues
  
• Delegate Exercise # 2
  Delegates will identify key performance indicators, measurement parameters and methods and apply Service Levels and Service Measurement metrics to the SLA project they have developed in Exercises #1 and #2. They will present their findings and compare them with other syndicates
  
• Creating A Service Level Agreement
  Negotiating with the Customers and Partners br> Usage Forecasts
  Infinite Capacity? Managing Demand
  Realistic Limits to Service
  Monitoring Delivery
  Charging for Services
  Components of Service Level
  
• Format and Structure of the SLA
  Supplier or Customer Driven?
  Types of SLA
  The Role of the SLA in Invitations to Tender, Proposals and Contracts
  The Pilot SLA
  
• Delegate Exercise #3
  Building on the previous Exercises, delegates will develop a structure and outline format for the SLA document. Delegates will discuss their formats and compare them to a model SLA for the same exercise.
  A way Forward A Model SLA is then presented to delegates for review and discussion
  
• SLA Surgery Delegates may raise their own issues for discussion and advice
  
• Course Round-up
  Timing and running order may vary according to the interests of the delegates