Ramsey Donnell Assoc. Director for Access & Organization The John Marshall Law School

Service Level Agreement Core component of many technology contracts Ancillary Sometimes offered at added cost Promise by a vendor to meet a certain level of service

Categories of agreements Hosting Cloud computing –ASP, software-as- service Network connectivity Technical support/maintenance

Library/Law School agreements Internet connection Website hosting ILS hosting/maintenance Course management system hosting/support Lecture capture Server maintenance/support

Often they are If not… Is it worth the price? Does it signal a problem with the service provider? Ask to see SLA early in process

SLA Certainty Immediacy Incentive No SLA Uncertainty Delay Cost of Litigation

Reputation Renewal

1.What is being measured? Availability, performance, support 2.How is it measured? Metrics—uptime, etc. 3.Remedy Credits

Is the SLA part of the signed contract? How can the SLA be modified? “We reserve the right to change the terms of this SLA…”

Availability of system/service Metric—uptime E.g., 99.9% over 365 days, 24/7

Exclusions from calculation Scheduled maintenance Hours per month? Advance notice? Limitations?

Exclusions from calculation Emergency maintenance/unplanned downtime Plan to minimize unplanned downtime?

Exclusions from calculation Force majeure Acts of god, war, natural disaster… Overbroad? Mitigation?

“Provider shall not be liable to Customer for any failure or delay caused by events beyond Provider’s control, including, but not limited to, Customer’s failure to furnish necessary information, sabotage, failure or delays in transportation, communication or utilities, failures or substitutions of equipment, labor disputes, accidents, shortages of labor, fuel, raw materials or equipment, or other technical failures.”

AVAvailability of service/system in a given month (percentage) Total DTMinutes in a given calendar month for which service/system is not in operation Permitted DTMinutes of DT in a given month that is excluded from the calculation of AV (e.g., scheduled maintenance, DT due to force majeure) Total service time Total number of minutes in the given calendar month

System/service performance Metrics Response time Latency

Metrics Consistency Be wary of averages Jitter

Metrics Packet loss Different data transfers tolerate different packet loss

Assumptions underlying service levels If exceeded, no remedy under SLA Volume and transaction assumptions Orders per second System queries Data transfer Expansion

Technical support The system is down! Mechanism for reporting? Help desk—phone support Online ticketing system

Call support—quality measures English Max. hold times Live vs. automated system

Response time Time to resolution

Response time Severity Levels Critical—faster response times How defined? Who assigns?

Time to resolution/workaround When must work begin? What resources devoted? When will it be resolved?

Severity LevelResponse Time ResourcesResolution Severity 1 – service unusable 15 minutesImmediate assignment of dedicated technician, continuous effort 2 hours or less Severity 2 – portion of service unusable 2 hoursReasonable personnel and effort 8 hours or less Severity 3 – minor errors 8 hoursAs neededAs mutually agreed

Certainty + immediacy = Incentive

Service credits Monetary Objective Incentive

Termination right Chronic failures Transition

Binding, no unilateral modification? Structure What is being measured? Availability Performance Technical support Metrics – objective Remedy Credits Termination