Service Level Agreement

Discuss about the case study IT Consultants for Western Widgents.

The western widgets is a wholesale business that supplies widgets to clients in a local area and other regions. The company has gained the reputation in years for being fast and reliable in providing their services to clients. The company achieves this through a turnaround from the submission and delivery of orders; this is because they have built a large clientele base over the years throughout the southwest and Toowoomba region. Widget consultants is located in the local industry estate and occupies the large single storey shed of the warehouse and a co-located building where the main office is situated. The following service level agreement discusses issues, which will be covered by the organisation to meet the client’s needs in all areas (Deng, et al., 2003)(eContent, 2006). The agreement discusses, objective, period of the agreement, procedure, and other important areas of the service level agreement such as the information technology, contingency plan that looks at some of the threats and ways to minimise down time for business critical function, the customer service staff responsibilities and the responsibilities of the employee in this agreement.

Statement of Intent

The aim of this agreement is to provide the company with a strong base that will pave way for close co-operation between the clients for disaster management action plan to be provided by Western Widget IT consultants. The agreement is important in ensuring that the services are provided in an efficient and timely manner to the clients. The objectives of this agreement is detailed in section 1.2. This agreement is dependent on each participant fulfilling and knowing their responsibilities and having an environment to maintain and meet the main issues in the service areas (A.Harzing & A.Pinnington, 2011)(Akpoyomare, et al., 2012)(Briggs, et al., 2016)(Cameron, 2004).

• To come up with proper responsibilities that all parties will undertake in the agreement,
• To create an environment that will be conducive to a two-way relationship between the client and the office administration to ensure that there is a strong support of the client’s needs and administrative activities.
• To make sure that the IT consultant achieves the provision of high quality service for the client when it comes to disaster recovery with full support of the client as required.
• To elaborate on the day of beginning for the service level agreement, initial levels and the provision of reviews for the terms underlayed.
• To show in detail the types of services that will be provided by the IT consultant and the level of service that will be expected by the organisation to reduce the misunderstanding between the organisation and the client.
• To come up with a formal system of service objective way of monitoring and make sure that assessment of the recovery program are based on facts.
• To ensure that there is a mutual understand of the IT consultant requirements / abilities and that of the terms required in the disaster recovery program.
• Provide the IT consultant and the client a single and openly referenced documentation.

This service level agreement will begin on the specified date in the Memorandum of Understanding with reference to the acceptance of the terms by each party and shall continue so unless otherwise agreed by the parties.

The review procedure of this agreement will be done annually and at a date, which is mutual agreed by the client and office administration of Western Widgets.  In kind of review will cover services that are provided, procedures and all service levels. Any type of change to the agreement will have to be approved by the office of Western Widgets administration and the Client.

Statement of Intent

The Western Widget consultants and the clients nominate the following representatives to be responsible for the monitoring and the maintenance of this service level agreement.

Western Widget Administration	Representative
Client	Representative

Reference Documents

As part of the agreement, the following documents will be vital, as a basis for the procedures and policies by Western Widgets in executing is services. The documentation will also define the levels of support that are required and activities being prioritized with regard to the needs of the client.  First of all the supports services by the administration of western widgets will be provided with the current standard operating procedures for IT consultants, the company also has a code of federal regulations that will be followed, property management regulations, orders of execution, personnel management rules and regulations, letters and other bargaining agreements(Jones, 2014)(Bozarth & Handfield, 2012)(Early, 2006).

In order for this service level agreement to succeed, then it will call upon the ability for the company to measure performance accurately to gather reliable and credible information, which the IT consultant will provide, to the customer and support areas, which are provided by the services.  These factors will need to be measurable, meaningful and constantly monitored. The services will also be compared with the target levels agreed by the client and the IT consultant. Should there be any form of discrepancy between the agreed target and the service levels by the two parties; then a solution should come between the two parties and come up with a resolution on the same.  Monitoring of the service levels will also be done by the Western Widgets administration and the client representative (Cohen, et al., 2007)(Armstrong, 2012). The consultant will also be responsible in providing progress reports for the services that will have been provided and they will be called upon to share with the representatives of the client’s organisation.

• During the implementation of this agreement, all complaints regarding:
• Actual type of support offered.
• Expected levels of support offered.
• Responsibilities of each personnel during the administration of the agreement.
• Any other issues that are related to this document or the relationship between the IT consultant and the client.
• Information that will be received by each party shall be forwarded in form of writing to the two signatories of this agreement. The main intention will be to ensure that there is a transparent resolution of all problems.

Service Desk

The IT consultant’s service desk will be responsible for providing IT support services to the clients and employees of the organisation. Some of these services will include client information security, networking services, real-time online customer care, handling customer complaints, responding to client’s emails and management of the organisational activities.

Scope

The IT consultant will be responsible in provision of all services but not limited to clients’ needs especially in handling client complaints, administering and answering client emails, providing online real-time complaints response and managing client’s calls. Such other activities will include as indicated in 3.0

Objective of Service Level Agreement

The aim of customer service will be to attend to any need, complaints and other calls from the organisations clients. This will also include providing the customer will the right information, provide alternative solution to a crisis and be able to make appropriate referrals when needed at any point.

• There should be evidence of overall customer satisfaction. This will be collected by allowing a customer to fill an online survey customer feedback after each access of the company’s services.
• The company will also have a performance score which will be used to rate whether customer are happy with the services provided by the company. If the rate is higher than it means that client was satisfied and would recommend the consultant to the next customer that his needs were met.
• There will also be the use of an average resolution time indicator. This means that the customer will report to the administration the time that was used to respond to his needs. If his problems were responded to in a timely manner then the consultant will have performed to the requirements (Armstrong, 2012).
• Lastly, the consultant would also want to know if the customer issues were resolved satisfactorily during a disaster (Briggs, et al., 2016).

General responsibilities:

• The IT consultant should be able to handle general problems that affect the clients under their care. He should be able to provide prompt response to any problem that come to them.
• IT consultant will also assist in selling the name of the organisation to the clients will come for other services. This will involve introducing the client to services other than those they came to seek help.
• The IT consultant will also be responsible for other clerical tasks for the organisation that will include other secretarial service as deemed necessary.

• Receive, track, monitor and assist in any customer disasters.
• Collect and distribute information within the network and outside which are more complex to the customer.
• Provide an end user and in-house user documentation.
• Responsible for operations in the IT help Desk outside the normal business hours or on a needs basis.
• Review and update all data shifts on a continual basis

• Research and document common data related problems.
• Develop and provide IT related training to clients on a needs basis.
• Manage client information including recovery of lost information and provide IT related solutions (Wischnowski, et al., 2003)(Kramar, et al., 2012).
• In charge of real-time customer related response during a disaster occurrence.
• Ensure and maintain the highest level of confidentiality between the client and the company. This will include recording and keeping all clients information, not sharing client passwords with other staff members or companies.
• Maintain high levels of professionalism and perform other duties as may be assigned (Jacobs & Chase, 2014).

The hours of operation for Western widgets will be as follows:

Office Hours: 8:00 AM- 5:00 PM for seven days a week.

Overtime Hours: 5:00PM to 8:00AM from Monday to Friday.

The response time to incidents reported by clients will be within 20-30 minutes of the call.

INCIDENT	RESPONSE TIME
Low internet communication	20-30 minutes
Payroll system low	20-30 minutes
Crashed Customer feedback system	1 hour

Priority level Response time will be within 10 minutes.

PRIORITY	RESPONSE TIME
Poor customer feedback system	10
Faulty Phone extension lines	10
Poor network server	10

Response time for service will be done within 2 hours of the call. This will involve gathering of information from the person requesting, finding appropriate person and details and reverting to the client.

Custom Requests (CR)

Custom request shall be done within 12 hours of the call.

Escalation Process

Escalation process will take within 2 to 3 working days.  This will provide time to investigate the issue, find the right response, repackage, and revert.

Planned Outages

Planned outages for this agreement will only be visited during the following window period between 9:00AM 9:00 PM on Sundays. It will however be changed depending on the needs of the client and upon prior notice.

Data Security and System Integrity

There will be strict handling and administration of client’s data all time. In times of access to the client’s data, the client shall be duly informed to authorise any use of data. The client shall also deserve administrative rights of his data and will provide authorisation for its use.

• To provide as much information as deemed necessary by the IT consultant.
• To not withhold any information when asked to do so by the consultant.
• To share all the administrative rights with the consultant so long as it will be used in solving the disaster at hand.
• To cooperate with the consultant during the time of the services.
• To act with respect and prompt response when asked by the consultant.
• To meet all the costs and other requirements as described in the service.
• To respond to other calls by the consultant (Adrian, 2007)(H.Zhao & Seibert, 2006).

Plan Updating

The Disaster Recovery Plan updating will properly be controlled to the needs of the client. All the changes made will be fully tested and appropriate amendments made before signing of the SLA. All the Disaster Recovery Plan procedures will be done under the control of the IT Consultant.

With regard to the Disaster Recovery Plan, all information will be documented and stored in secure locations as directed by the company. The senior management will be issued with the Storage device and a hard copy of this agreement. Each team member will also be issued with a CD and hard copy of the plan. There will be a master copy; this will be stored in specific resources that are established for this course.

With regard to this agreement, all the business processes between the IT consultant and the client will be listed. The strategy will involve the maintenance of a duplicate site that will enable an instant switching between the headquarters and the backup area. Some of the most vital areas will include:

KEY BUSINESS PROCESS	BACKUP STRATEGY
IT Operations	Fully mirrored recovery site
Tech Support – Hardware	Fully mirrored recovery site
Tech Support – Software	Fully mirrored recovery site
Facilities Management	Fully mirrored recovery site
Email	Fully mirrored recovery site
Purchasing	Fully mirrored recovery site
Disaster Recovery	Fully mirrored recovery site
Finance	Fully mirrored recovery site
Contracts Admin	Fully mirrored recovery site
Warehouse & Inventory	Fully mirrored recovery site
Product Sales	Fully mirrored recovery site
Maintenance Sales	Fully mirrored recovery site
Human Resources	Off-site data storage facility
Testing Fully Mirrored Recovery site –	Fully mirrored recovery site
Workshop Fully Mirrored Recovery site –	Fully mirrored recovery site
Call Center	Fully mirrored recovery site
Web Site	Fully mirrored recovery site

Period of Agreement

With regard to the business processes, there are disruptive threats that will occur anytime that will affect the service. Some of the potential threats for the IT consultant are listed in the below table. Each risk has been examined clearly with regard to the level of business disruption that could arise from each disaster.

Potential disasters have been assessed as follows:

Potential Disaster	Probability Rating	Impact Rating	Brief Description Of Potential Consequences & Remedial Actions
Fire	3	4	Excess power load that could cause cables to heat up.   Fire and smoke detectors on all floors.
Act of sabotage	5
Electrical power failure	3	4	Redundant UPS array together with auto standby generator that is tested weekly & remotely monitored 24/7. UPSs also remotely monitored.
Loss of communications network services	4	4	Poor LAN or ISP that will lead to loss of communication. Purchase a new service provider. Have backup.

Probability: 1=Very High, 5=Very Low                     Impact: 1=Total destruction, 5=Minor annoyance

There will be key issues identified by the IT consultant that will trigger the activation of Disaster Recovery Plan.  With regard to the work under the Service Level Agreement, some of the main key trigger issues are:

• Total Loss of Power
• Total Loss of Communication
• Lack of coordination between the management and the IT team
• Total Loss of Local Area Network

When this happens all the departments will assemble at the working group-meeting hall or at the recreation hall as an alternative.

The IT consultant will contact and assemble the Disaster Recovery Team. The responsibility of this team will include but not limited to the following:

• Restore the Key IT service in a span of 1 hour of the incident.
• Establish areas of emergency and course of action.
• Recover to normal Business within 4-6 hours after the incident.
• Coordinate activities with the client and his team as first responders.
• Report to the IT consultant and the client on progress.

The IT consultant will ensure that there is a hard copy of the names and contact numbers of each employee working in various departments. The management department will work with the IT consultant in storage of customer and client information, both in a backup hard disk and in hard copy. They will also be issued with the Disaster Recovery plan and business continuity plan, which they will be allowed to keep in their homes in the event that the building could be inaccessible due to natural disasters like fire. 

There will also be close contact will all employees with regard to disaster and immediate action for the company. Employees who will not reach fellow staff from their list will be provided with staff emergency contacts.  If the manager of a particular department assigned to contact another client is inaccessible, the backup staff member will do this job.

Whenever staff desires to get latest information and response from the organization, they will be provided with a toll free number, which will be listed in the disaster recovery card. In the card, there will be details on the nature of disaster, where to assemble and constant updates regard time and day to resume work.

The disaster recovery Plan team will prepare an initial financial and personal assessment of each employee. It will then compare this with the impact of financial affairs of the client’s business. Some of the areas to look at will include:

• Health fitness
• Family background
• Financial documents
• Sources of revenue
• Check books, credit cards, online bank accounts
• Cash at hand
• Contingency Plan

The main objectives of the Contingency Plan will be to ensure that there is uninterrupted existence of the company’s business functions to the client as per the service level agreement.  This will evolve around the protection of two most vital areas of the clients business, and this is Data and Personnel. All areas of the business contingency plan will address protection and safety of Data and Personnel information.  This will be done in the following order:

Agreement Review Procedure

The IT consultant together with the client will determine which team member will be responsible for each function during the contingency plan phase. There will be addition duties and responsibilities that will address specific actions and functions during each phase.

The response phase thus will server the following functions:

• To come up with an immediate and controlled mechanism at the place of action.
• Conduct the initial assessment of the impact of the incident, if there were losses or damage of equipment and disruption to the IT business and operations.
• To investigate and provide proper information on, if, or when there will be access to the system will be allowed.
• Provide the client with facts that are necessary to make right and informed decisions with regard to the resumption and the recovery of the business.

The main activities during the resumption phase will be:

• To organize and establish an IT management and control center and a site for the resumption of IT operations.
• The team will also activate and mobilize the support system that is necessary to support and facilitate resumption of activities.
• The team will also notify and appraise all the urgent business operations from the directives of the IT consultant and the client.
• The team will also alert all employees, suppliers, customers and the entire organization of the progress.

• During the recovery phase of the contingency plan, the IT consultant and his team will prepare and implement all the actions necessary to support the recovery of very sensitive and urgent business processes.
• The team will also coordinate with the IT consultant and the Client to discern responsibilities will fall above their jurisdiction or beyond their control.
• In addition, the team will liaise with other employees in various departments during the recovery processes.

• In this phase, the IT consultant and his team will come up with procedures that are necessary to implement the contingency plan; this include migration or relocation of the business process to an alternative site or service provider.
• The team will also ensure the implementation of important procedures that will support, mobilize operations and technology department migration or relocation.
• IT consultant will oversee all the relocation or recovery efforts and perform staff, stakeholders and customer notification before, during and after relocation of resumption of business process.

During the implementation of the contingency plan, the following assumptions are made;

First, it is there will be evident running telecommunication connectivity and fibre optic cabling which Internet Service Provider and the Telecom Department will provide.

Also all the necessary Memorandums of Agreement and Understanding will have been executed.

Some of the major Issues that can be encountered by the IT consultant during the implementation of the contingency plan will be as follows:

• The lack of client’s budgetary commitment to the Disaster recovery.
• Absolute commitment by the client’s senior management to Contingency plan and disaster recovery.
• Interruption to the proposed scheduling procedures for the repairing and backing up of files to the storage system.
• The development and execution of the Memorandum of understanding and Agreement and Service Level Agreement.
• Completion of the required assessment for and completion of the procurement of required Items for the business processes.

Core business functions	Characteristics of interruption	Short term (Up to [TIMEFRAME])	Long term (More than [TIMEFRAME])
Payroll	Inavailability of building and payroll system	Organize with the bank to ensure payments are wired as previousely done in the past month.	IT consultant to organise for a backup payroll system be installed promptly.
Email	No Email Access In the Building and Fault with the exchange Server	IT consultant to advice ISP . Accounts to be set up to access email over webmail of the disaster is not recovered promptly.	Buy a new server or borrow server and rebuild. Collect back ups from off store storage.
Network- Including Print and remote access	No access to shared drives, prints and financial information	IT consultant to contact IT supplier to support remotely.	Implementation or repair of terminal server to wait until access to the building is restored. If the problem persists decision to be made on purchasing a new one.
Phone and landlines	Access to phone system down including mobile phones	Contact Telcom firm to fix the problem. Advice the provider to separate main lines from extension systems	Arrange for telcom firm to remove diversion
Accounting Systems	No access to building and other special financial systems	IT consultant to contact IT supplier and repaire SQL server.	If unrepairable purchase new server.

By signing below, all parties agree to the terms and conditions described in this Agreement.

The Terms and Conditions will apply for (check the required box only):

Services – As per Appendix A Service Catalogue

Hours of Coverage – As per this SLA

Name: Damien John Stritch

Position: IT Technician/Consultant 

Signature:

Date:  12/08/2016

Name:

Position:

Signature:

Date:

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