Review service standards

Reading notes

Contents

A service-level agreement (SLA) is a two-way agreement between the help desk and clients. It details all the service that the help desk provides and the targets that must be met. It also states what clients can expect of the service.

Items that may be included in a SLA are:

- services provided by the help desk

- hours of operation

- after-hours services

- client responsibilities

- call priorities and response times

- escalation procedures

- reports to be produced

After an SLA has been written and approved it must be updated and reviewed on a regular basis. An SLA ensures that the help desk understands its responsibilities and clients know what to expect. It also provide a benchmark against which help desk performance can be measured.

For an example of an SLA, look at the Stores SLA.doc for a small communications company's service-level agreement.