Business Consulting and SLA
A service level agreement (SLA), which is an important aspect of business consulting, is used often between a firm’s internal operations as well as its customers. It outlines what each party will need to achieve its goals, and provides a way for both parties to report on these goals and any issues that may arise.
SLAs protect both the end user and the service provider by establishing standards, targets and consequences for meeting or not meeting those expectations. They also allow the creation key performance indicators which can help a company identify areas of its business that are not on course to meet their strategic service vendor and a customer objectives.
The SLA is a document that defines all the services that will be included in a given contract. It should also include information on turnaround times and exclusions. The contract should include a list that specifies the metrics used to measure service provider performance.
Metrics should be selected to reflect only factors that are within the service provider’s reasonable control and be easy to collect. They should also be set up with a reasonable base, so they can be refined as time goes on.
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric used to measure how well a company is performing in relation to its primary goals. It can help the company determine if it is going off course, a problem common to small businesses.