SLM is a key process within the ITIL framework because it defines the levels of service that the rest of the processes have to strive to deliver. It is primarily concerned with setting the goals for Service Management in conjunction with the customer community. The goals for SLM as stated by ITIL are:

The goal for SLM is to maintain and improve IT Service quality, through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon IT Service achievements and instigation of actions to eradicate poor service - in line with business or Cost justification. Through these methods, a better relationship between IT and its Customers can be developed .

Not a huge goal but every word is loaded with meaning. Often the expectations and aspirations of the business community regarding IT performance is their perception of the quality Service and Support rather than the scope of technology solutions available to them. To leave expectations as the yardstick is very dangerous. It is important to convert those expectations into realities and this is really what these goals are all about. Let us have a look at a breakdown of the goals.

SLM is to maintain IT Service quality- complacency is the enemy of us all especially when it comes to maintaining quality, true winners are never complacent. Before we can begin to improve the quality of IT services we must make sure that we have in place processes, working practises and metrics that will ensure that we continue to maintain the levels of service that we have agreed with our customers. That is what this element is stating. Do you communicate regularly with your customers to check whether you are maintaining your levels of services? Do you set service targets that are challenging? Do you survey your customers often? If not then you may be guilty of falling levels of service quality. A classic scenario from a few years back was when servers began to dominate as the new technology during this period too many organizations started to ignore the service that was provided by the ‘old’ mainframe technology. The result was unhappy customers, critical business systems threatened and a very expensive Y2K. Always keep maintenance of agreed current services at the top of your agenda.

SLM is to improve IT Service quality- note that this element is not talking about new technologies but current technologies. So we maintain and improve not stay stagnant. Too often IT sets targets that are easy to hit and then congratulates itself every month when those targets are met. However if those targets are not 100% then those congratulations are not deserved. Even worse is that the figures have been hit so often that nobody cares any more they just go through the motions of producing and issuing the metrics. You must have a clear policy statement to improve the levels of quality if you want top meet this goal element.

Through a constant cycle of agreeing, monitoring and reporting upon IT Service achievements – agreeing, monitoring and reporting this element could not be clearer nor could it be much simpler. It is about constant communication with your customers to understand their technology requirements required to meet their business objectives. To often the only communication between IT and its customers is when thing go wrong which is why so much conflict exists in many organizations. A relationship based on confrontation will always fail which is why this element is so important.

You cannot manage expectations but you can manage realities so it is important that the agreeing, monitoring and reporting be formalized to remove any confusion and provide a concrete base for future relationships. To do this ITIL recommends that you catalog your services and default values in a Service Catalog (SC) from which your Service Level Agreements (SLA) can be agreed with your customers. It also recommends that you have in place internal agreements, Operational Level Agreements (OLA) between IT departments and that you also have in place contracts with your external suppliers, Underpinning Contracts (UC), to ensure that you can meet the values set in your Service Catalog or in your SLAs. The OLAs and UCs must be in place before you approach your customers to discuss and agree service levels.

If you do not have an SC or SLAs then you will be in conflict with your Customers because you will not have an agreed level of service even if you do have them you may be in conflict because the agreements were not mutually acceptable. Sometimes you are meeting your targets but get poor results in Customer Satisfaction Surveys, this means that you are either surveying the wrong people, asking the wrong type of questions or have agreed and built a poor SLA. If you do not have OLAs or UCs then you will find conflict between IT departments and their suppliers, a typical case is second level not responding to an escalated incident with the urgency expected by the Service Desk. So the clues here are; conflict between IT and its Customers, poor survey results, internal conflict or a bad relationship with external suppliers. If this is you then you are not meeting this element.

Can you answer these three simple questions successfully? Are you meeting regularly with your customers to agree, and document, service levels? Do you then implement the necessary monitoring to measure those agreed service levels? Do you then issue reports with recommendations and suggestions to ensure that any failures to the agreed levels of services are eliminated? If you cannot a resounding yes to each of these questions then you’re not meeting these elements. Remember this should be a constant cycle of events not just a once a year visit. It is through this constant cycle that we create the information that drives the final two elements of these SLM goals so failure here is not acceptable.

Finally the key word in this element is ‘achievements’. It is encouraging IT to take a positive attitude and see the way forward as success oriented. First you meet your service commitments and then you improve them through your achievements. Even a negative situation could result in an achievement, e.g. if an unexpected failure occurs the achievement could be to not only get the customer working again very quickly but to put in place measures that will ensure that it never happens again. Also achievements come from beating targets agreed with customers and not being content just to meet the targets. So are you positive? Do you strive to beat your agreed targets? This one word can be the difference between striving for success or resting on your laurels.

It is a constant cycle that can generate potential improvements at any stage. However improvements just for their own sake are not good enough we must make sure that they have a sound business case, i.e. in line with business or Cost justification. To be certain that we are in line with business or Cost justification we need certain other ITIL components to be in place, namely; change management to implement the improvement, financial management to understand the cost implications and configuration management to identify the scope and impact of the improvement. In addition the Return On Investment (ROI) needs to be calculated and proven while the Total Cost of Ownership needs to be measured after implementation of the improvement. 6f course you can still make improvements in line with business or Cost justification without these components but you risk wasting time and revenue.

To meet this element you will need a Service Improvement Program (SIP), normally run in conjunction with problem and availability management. ITIL describes an SIP as:

Where an underlying difficulty has been identified which is adversely impacting upon service quality, Service Level Management must, in conjunction with Problem Management and Availability Management, instigate a SIP to identify and implement whatever actions are necessary to overcome the difficulties and restore service quality.

Of course SIP components must also be in line with business or cost justification. Are you meeting this goal element? Do you make sure that you are constantly improving service in line with business or cost justification? Do you have an active Service Improvement Program? Or do you only react when all else fails? It departments who constantly strive to improve service are often viewed as corporate assets because they enhance the business power of the organization.

Through these methods, a better relationship between IT and its Customers can be developed – this element is more of conclusion than anything else. If you are meeting all of the other elements in this goal then this last element will the natural result. When you have a good relationship between IT and its customers then you will have more contented staff and more interesting challenges. This element is the litmus test for all of the others in the SLM goals if you are meeting it then you are most likely to be meeting all the others.

Business alignment indicator – the prime focus forSLM is business alignment but there is one point of alignment that needs to be discussed here to meet the SLM goals and that is Customer responsibility. Many of the items in an SLA or a Service Catalog can only succeed if the Customers fulfil their roles and responsibilities. For example how can ITSM meet their Release plan commitments if the customer is not available as agreed in the plan? How can ITSM solve Incidents if they are not reported? How can ITSM keep an accurate CMDB if customers do not report upgrades to their assets? It is important that SLAs and Service Catalogs clearly state all customer commitments and deliverables after all ITSM is a partnership between IT and their Customers. For formal SLAs Customers should sign to confirm that they agree and understand their Service Level commitments. Customer responsibilities should be measured and reported just like ITSM responsibilities.

It can be argued that Service Level Management is the key process because it manages the Customer needs and requirements yet it is the process most ignored by IT departments. After reading through the goals, and their interpretation, it is easy to see how important SLM is to both IT and Customers. If you can meet these goals then it is likely that you are also succeeding in many of the other processes because they are intrinsically linked. For example to meet agreed Availability levels then you must be undertaking at least some of the tasks required by Availability Management. SLM is the key to success because IT are working as a business unit along with the other more traditional units and not as an isolated appendage.

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