The benefits of outsourcing your IT support can be tremendous. It can help you to concentrate on your core business, remove the burden of day-to-day IT maintenance, and allow you to focus on things like new product development, customer care, and other strategic business initiatives. Outsourcing also helps you cut costs when it comes to this line item which is often one of the biggest expenses for any company. But in order to get all these benefits, you need to have a clear plan with measurable standards for both parties so that any issues can be avoided or quickly resolved if they arise. Even though the first instinct for most businesses when outsourcing services is that cost is the primary concern—and it usually is—it doesn’t mean that cost isn’t important when you outsource your support services. If you don’t set up fair and reasonable pricing from the beginning with a Service Level Agreement (SLA), there’s a good chance that cost will end up being even higher than it needs to be.
What is a Service Level Agreement?
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is an agreement made between two parties that details the level of service that will be provided and what the expectations are for both parties. For example, an SLA could state that a third-party support provider will have a resolution time of four hours during business hours and 12 hours after hours. Or it could state that a particular service will be available 99.95% of the time—meaning that it’s only down for four hours each year. The SLA is typically agreed to when a contract is signed between the two parties and is typically part of the initial Request for Proposal (RFP) and/or Request for Quote (RFQ) process. It’s important to note that an SLA can also be a one-off agreement that’s made after the outsourcing relationship is already in place. And in fact, many companies elect to do this.
The Importance of Having an SLA When Outsourcing Support Services
When you outsource your support services, you’re basically contracting with one company to provide a particular service while they’re responsible for achieving that service level. If they fail to do so, then they’re in breach of contract and you have a right to hold them accountable. If you don’t have an SLA in place during the contracting process, it’s going to be very difficult if not impossible to hold your service provider accountable. You can legally terminate your contract with them and seek damages, but without an SLA, you have no grounds to do so. Expectations need to be spelled out—and communicated—between both parties so that everyone knows what to expect and there are no misunderstandings. The importance of having an SLA is that it spells out the expectations of both parties regarding the level of service that’s going to be provided as well as the expected response times for incidents and outages.
Benefits of Having a Service Level Agreement for Outsourced Support
There are plenty of benefits to having a SLA in place for your outsourced support services. Here are just some of them.
– You’ll know when you can expect the service to be down- If there’s one thing that’s a constant in any business, it’s that something will eventually break. When you outsource your support services, you have to understand that there will be times when the service will be down—due to planned maintenance, unplanned outages, or other service-related issues.
– You have a clear method of communication in the event of an outage
– If your service provider has a 24/7 call center, you can expect them to be your first line of communication in the event of an outage. If they don’t, then you’ll want to have some other method of communication in place
—such as an on-call contact or a ticket system.
– You know that your provider is committed to providing excellent service
– The benefit of having a SLA in place is that it binds your service provider to providing high-quality service and doing everything they can to meet or exceed those expectations.
– You can hold your provider to the terms of the contract
– If your provider is unable or unwilling to meet the terms of the SLA, then you can hold them accountable for this.
Reasons Why SLAs Are Crucial for Outsourced Support Services
– It ensures a level of service that your business expects- If you don’t have an SLA in place, then there’s no way of knowing what level of service you’ll receive. And it’s important that you have a clear level of service that your business expects. – It protects both your business and your service provider- An SLA protects both your business and your service provider. It spells out the obligations of each party and spells out what happens if either party fails to live up to those expectations.
More Benefits of Having a Service Level Agreement for Your Support Services
– It helps you to identify potential issues before they occur- An SLA will put both parties on notice if any issues arise with the level of service provided. You and your service provider will be able to identify potential issues before they become serious problems. – It helps to prevent legal issues- An SLA helps to prevent legal issues by spelling out what is expected of each party and what happens if one party fails to meet their obligations. This can help to avoid costly legal issues down the line.
Conclusion
The benefits of outsourcing your IT support can be tremendous. It can help you to concentrate on your core business, remove the burden of day-to-day IT maintenance, and allow you to focus on things like new product development, customer care, and other strategic business initiatives. Outsourcing also helps you cut costs when it comes to this line item which is often one of the biggest expenses for any company. But in order to get all these benefits, you need to have a clear plan with measurable standards for both parties so that any issues can be avoided or quickly resolved if they arise. Even though the first instinct for most businesses when outsourcing services is that cost is the primary concern—and it usually is—it doesn’t mean that cost isn’t important when you outsource your support services. If you don’t set up fair and reasonable pricing from the beginning with a Service Level Agreement (SLA), there’s a good chance that cost will end up being even higher than it needs to be.
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