A general agreement between a client and a service provider is called an SLA agreement. These agreements are widely accepted after the growth of outsourcing IT service providers. But when it comes to internal service level agreement, significant disagreement can be seen.
Service Level Agreements are standard agreements between a service provider and a client. These agreements provide specific guidelines regarding the service and its quality. The quality of assistance needs to be definite and measurable. The agreement must define these factors clearly. If you are accepting service from a service provider or as a service provider, you are providing certain services; in both cases, a Service Level Agreement is essential to determine the liabilities of both parties. It also provides provisions about the penalty whenever a breach occurs.
The Service Level Agreement establishes a legal and commercial relationship between the client and the service provider. Similar to other enforceable agreements, Service Level Agreements are also constructed upon a specific consideration. This is why the party can be eligible for compensation when a dispute arises relating to any irregularity in providing quality service.
These standard agreements can form between organisations and departments of a single organisation. Based on the party involved in the agreement, there are three types of Service Level Agreements they are;
- Customer Service Level Agreement
- Multilevel Service Level Agreement
- Internal Service Level Agreement
Internal SLA
We denote a Customer Service Level Agreement as an external service level agreement because it deals with external clients who require specific services. Some services are termed Internal Service Level Agreements.
These Internal Service Level Agreements are service level contracts between two organisations or departments within a single organisation. The service providers establish agreements between the departments with specific guidelines.
In order to establish an Internal Service Level Agreement, the organisation sets up a meeting between the two departments. This will clear the expectations and requirements of both departments. The providing department will also get an opportunity to disclose the quality of service and the metric they will be providing.
The dispute redressal and penalty process must be discussed and put into the agreement with the mutual consent of the parties.
Misconceptions Relating to Internal Service-Level Agreements
Many concerned department employees are reluctant to enter an Internal Service Level Agreement. They often deny the necessity of the agreement. They think the critical performance indicator and metrics reports they are dealing with are enough to ensure the company’s growth.
-
Internal SLAs Are Mere Agreements
Internal SLAs are often believed to be mere agreements between two organisation departments with less value. But in reality, Internal SLAs are agreements that are sometimes enforceable by law and carry specific obligations.
-
Internal SLAs Are Only Concerned with Services
Another major misconception is that Internal SLAs are only concerned with the services. At the same time, this statement is partially true about the concern. But Internal SLAs are not only concerned with the services but also deal with the department’s metric rate and performance value.
-
Internal SLAs Avoid Business Goals
This common conception that including business goals in an Internal SLA is stupid is wrong. And the reality is Internal SLAs help the company’s overall business to reach its goals.
-
Penalties Can Have an Adverse Effect
Every SLA has specific penalty provisions when the terms of the agreements are violated. The same goes with Internal SLAs, but there is a slight change in the scenario. The department employees often get a bonus on completing the terms, but when a violation occurs, the bonus is cut as a penalty.
-
No Metrics for Service Performance
Even if the Internal SLAs deal with two departments of a company and not with some external client, the metrics and performance value are still needed to monitor the progress and growth of the company.
-
Internal SLAs Is Not Appropriately Monitored
Internal SLAs are essential aspects of understanding the overall growth of the company. So monitoring is vital to ensuring the standards of service a department provides.
Benefits of Internal SLA
Besides all the misconceptions related to an Internal Service Level Agreement, it provides various benefits to a company. These benefits include-
- The Internal Service Level Agreements help the company to reach the internal expectations.
- It brings the company’s attention to the potential issues and obstacles in the overall growth.
- It gives a model example to the department about how to deal with clients in traditional SLAs.
- Internal Service Level Agreements help boost the morale of employees of the concerned departments.
- The agreement helps maintain a good professional relationship between the departments who are the parties to the contract.
- It also helps the company’s overall growth by increasing the system performance.
- The penalty provisions in an Internal Service Level Agreement are unique in themselves. The penalty is often the non-payment of the bonus. This bonus is set to motivate the employees to maintain the quality and metrics of the service.
- The interdependence between the departments of the company helps them to grow parallel.
How to Overcome the Misconceptions
If the employees of your company or specific departments have misconceptions about the benefits of Internal Service Level Agreements, you can rely on various techniques. This technique will help them understand the importance of Internal Service Level Agreements.
-
Involve All Departments
The Internal SLAs are vital factors to ensure the development of your company. So if you want to eradicate the misconception about it and encourage productivity, you need to involve other departments. Besides the parties directly involved in the agreement, you can also include business and legal departments to understand the employees better. You can also appoint daily supervisory employees to monitor the daily reports. These involvements will encourage better performance levels and Internal SLA quality.
-
Express the Motive
Express the Internal SLAs’ motive to the concerned departments’ employees. A better understanding will help the team to perform well in the contract.
-
Modify the Current System
If the current graphs and metric reports are not satisfying enough, try segregating the reports of the different departments and mark the required changes. You can discuss the requirements and modify the system for better results.
-
Set Duration
The Internal SLAs are contracts, and the contracts have a specific time duration. Make changes and modifications within this period to achieve the required result from the Internal SLAs.
-
Have a Vision
Set a vision about what you require from your employees of the concerned department for the Internal SLA. Putting a vision will help you carry out tasks by avoiding misconceptions.
-
Positivity
Misconceptions can often drag you into negativity; try to remain positive and work according to the terms of the Internal SLA to achieve the vision you carry. Strong positive thinking can help you eradicate misconceptions from your employees’ heads.
Conclusion
In Internal Service Level Agreements, a company gains benefits. If a misconception arises, it can affect the efficiency of accomplishing the terms of the agreement. This can lead to a loss in the company’s performance. Follow the article and stay aware of the misconceptions.
Also, Read:
