Given the complexity and investment inherent in large SAP environments, it is quite likely that you and your IT colleagues are being asked to measure and ensure a certain level of service for users of your SAP systems. A Service Level Agreement (SLA) can be of enormous benefit, because it directly addresses a core frustration of most IT managers: the fact that end users and managed resources grow exponentially while IT budgets increase at a much slower rate. Every IT organization should have an SLA that clearly delineates what services it supports, and how quickly service outages will be restored. This article explains how to craft an effective SLA, what content should be included in the SLA and supporting Operational Level Agreement (OLA), and how to measure SLA compliance.
Richard DeAngelis
Richard DeAngelis is a senior consultant with Computer Design and Integration, LLC. His areas of specialization include technical design and configuration support for datacenter-class products and services at Fortune 1000 companies. He frequently speaks at seminars, user groups, and business forums.
You may contact the author at
rick_deangelis@cdillc.com.
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