Current Issue Past Issues Browse by Topic Free Newsletters Magazine Subscriptions RFP Solution Center TechCareers Ask the Experts IT Pro Downloads Tech Library Measuring Users ' Expectations With SLAs By Patricia Schnaid You probably spend a great deal of your day managing expectations.
Many organizations use SLAs with their outsourcers and carriers.
Since IT fundamentally provides service to its business users, SLAs are being increasingly used within a corporation between IT and the business units. By developing a set of mutually agreed-upon service characteristics, business users know which services and response times are provided at what baseline costs. IT can show that it is providing timely services to corporate management and department users in language that's understandable to them. And an SLA provides a framework for getting additional IT resources when adding apps or improving existing services. IT and business units must develop SLAs in partnership.