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

2. 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

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

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

5. 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

6. SLA Certainty Immediacy Incentive No SLA Uncertainty Delay Cost of Litigation

7. Reputation Renewal

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

9. 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…”

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

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

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

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

14. “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.”

15. 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

16. System/service performance Metrics Response time Latency

17. Metrics Consistency Be wary of averages Jitter

18. Metrics Packet loss Different data transfers tolerate different packet loss

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

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

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

22. Response time Time to resolution

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

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

25. 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

26. Certainty + immediacy = Incentive

27. Service credits Monetary Objective Incentive

28. Termination right Chronic failures Transition

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