Chas2002

Rs - this is one similar to those I created in the Military. It's a good starting point.

SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

BETWEEN
________________________
&
_________________________

Terms in this document:

PBX is a direct reference to the Private Branch Exchange Department and it’s personnel.
Telecommunications refers to Voice communications and Voice Mail.
Service refers to the Move, Add or Change of a telecommunications set, fax line, modem and voicemail.
Local Switch refers to the Meridian 81C switch that services the departments at _____________.
Distant Switch refers to the outlying Meridian systems at ___________, ___________, and _________.
Central Office refers to Bell __________.
Internal Customer refers to the employees and departments of ____________. (The executive, technical, human resource and support teams.)
External Customers refers to those individuals or business outside the scope of control of the PBX Department.
Turnaround Time shall be considered a good faith effort of the PBX Department and it’s staff to remedy a problem.
Business day indicates normal business hours between Monday and Friday, excluding Federal Holidays.

Goal of this Service Level Agreement

The goal of this agreement is to enhance, support and manage our internal customer's telecommunications requirements. A secondary goal is to identify response times, assist in our internal customer’s achievement of maximum proficiency and reliability in their telecommunications environments and set forth escalation procedures.

Specific Goal Topics covered in this agreement:

 Dependable support for a standard telecommunications platform for core business departments,
 Response times to problems, new users, and other service requests,
 Statement of operational hours,
 Reduction in labor cost via standardized call out procedures,
 Procedures for escalation of service request and/or outage reports.

Technical Support Service Level Agreement

______’s Private Branch Exchange Department has identified a standard business approach to providing technical services to the various departments of _________. The PBX Department will provide support, to include; new set installations and services, movement of existing telecommunication services, reprogramming of existing telecommunications services and maintenance of existing telecommunications services.

This document is the Service Level Agreement (SLA) that defines the scope of support and the services that ________ users can expect:

Support

The PBX Department will provide technical support to our internal customers via the _________ (Your call center or trouble desk).

The ____________ (call center/trouble desk) is responsible for:

 initial point of contact for the telephone questions and problems
 issuing trouble tickets,
 communicating expected response time,
 tracking of service/problem ticket.

Hours of Service

8:00am until 5:00pm, Monday through Friday will be the normal hours of service. However, if additional coverage is required outside of these hours, the hours may be expanded.

Turnaround Times

The following turnaround times for services will be in effect:

New Service at local switch - within 1 business day with properly submitted requisition.
New Service at distant switch - within 2 business days with properly submitted requisition.

Move or Change of service at local switch - within 1 business day with proper notification.
Move or Change of service at distant switch - within 2 business days with proper notification.

Outage Report at local switch of non-essential telecommunications* - within 4 hours on business days. The following Monday if trouble is reported after 2:00 PM on Fridays.
Outage Report at distant switch of non-essential telecommunications* - within 6 hours on business days. The following Monday if trouble is reported after 2:00 PM on Fridays.

Outage Report at local switch of essential telecommunications** - within 1 hour on a business day. Within 2 hours on non-business days.
Outage Report at distant switch of essential telecommunications** - within 2 hours on business days. Within 2 hours on non-business days.

Indicate your call out procedures here....

The following are scheduled turnaround times:

 Custom programming,
 Telecommunications projects.
 Upgrade and patches for software releases ,
 Software licensing and maintenance,
 PMI’s,
 System backups and maintenance.

Problem Escalation

Not all problems are emergencies. But those problems that are not addressed and resolved expediently can become emergencies. After pursuing the standard problem reporting mechanism via a trouble service ticket submitted directly to the ____ (call center/trouble desk). The user will have a service ticket that can be used to reference the problem report. The user can progressively escalate emergency problems in the following manner:

 Obtaining approval for escalation from his/her management,
 Communicating a new acceptable response time.

Recognize, however, that a user who sets a pattern of problem escalation (attempting to circumvent the problem resolution queue) will be admonished to respect the service queues and established turnaround times guarantees.

Customer Responsibilities :

Customers of ________ telecommunications services, as part of this SLA in which the services they will receive are detailed, also have some responsibilities:

 Customers should report problems using the problem reporting procedures detailed in this SLA, including clear description of the problem,
 Provide input on the quality and timeliness of service,
 Recognize when software testing and/or maintenance are causing problems that interfere with standard business functions.
 Understand that in some cases effective and

"Ever greening"

Telecommunication environments and requirements inevitably change, and this SLA needs to define an "ever greening" process to ensure that the support agreement keeps pace with the reality of user requirements. As the telecommunications infrastructure moves from the standard Legacy system switch to communications servers and local area networks – the PBX department and the Information Technology department will share in the resolution of a problem, thus possibly extending installation times and response to outages.
The management of PBX and IT will need to create a committee with cross- representation to meet quarterly to review technical support service success, service shortcomings, technology updates, and user requirement changes. Once the support service is initiated, the committee will note the results and recommend the changes and improvements.

Acknowledgment

The PBX Department and Customers have both acknowledged and accept the terms and responsibilities required for effective and efficient service delivery. Should there be a need to modify the level of support, this will be done by designated individuals/teams of each party.[/i]

papa-bear

Thanks Chas, this will be helpful. Thanks!

pbxn

Hey RS, this is what I have used, and it has served me well. Although be prepared for some resistance from your business group, as some of these time frames are not quick, purposly to cut down on idiotic moves.

Repair services
-programming changes
-moves
-new installations
-major projects

MAC's (moves, add, and changes)- this is for "basic" changes: names, extensions, moves etc. A MAC form must be filled out in detail, highlighting the persons involved, correct spelling of names, from and to locations etc. All MAC forms have a 3 to 5 day turn around time, dependant upon the complexity of request.

New Installs: New installs fall under my change control mindset. Since any and all new installations ( whether it is hardware or software such as circuit install) are major changes to a working environment, a change control is required. The change control highlights the requested change, scope of work, risks to current environment, and back out plans. All change controls have to be approved by appointed persons, and turn around time for change controls are typically over 7 days.

Major Projects: these fall under the change control process, as well as follow a typical project plan, involving all affected people. For example, one of my projects was a major system overhaul, the plan started last year, and I finished my portion by Jan 1 of this year. So with these, I normally get all vendors and managment together, and try to get some REAL dates.

Outages: Outages are the special love child. A 24 hour return to service time, if applicable. Within the first 3 hours of an outage, notify management, and advise of issue and progress. Set up conf. call if needed. If problem is not resolved within 15 minutes, escalation to higher tier of support is required. If not resolved in 30 minutes, escalate again, etc. etc.
Hope this helps

papa-bear

Thanks pbxn, more good ideas.

Chas,

With the chance of looking foolish, what is a PMI?

Also, was there anything in the rest of this line that may be a benefit to read?

thx!

Chas2002

PMI - Preventive Maintenance Inspections.

I meant to delete that bullet.

Chas2002

papa-bear

Thought it looked strange. Thanks for the clairification.