Service Level Agreement Manager
product overview
In an effort to optimize investments in programs, projects and contracts with suppliers and outsourcers most organizations apply a great deal of time and effort to the establishment of contractually obligated service levels and escrows. Often times these involve financial penalties, defined reporting intervals and specific performance criteria. Although tremendous resources are applied to establishing these standards of performance, in most cases the definitions, reporting criteria and transparency associated with contract compliance is lacking and in many cases missing until there is a problem. By that time the remedies are limited and an adversarial relationship develops between the client and the supplier. To complicate matters, a typical organization has numerous contracts and supplier relationships with unique, negotiated service levels, reporting criteria and escalation procedures with little or no visibility from an enterprise perspective. Register For More Information About SLAManager
SLAManager™ simplifies the definition, capture, reporting and presentation of performance metrics and results. The solution is cross-industry and provides for both an organizational and a supplier/outsourcer view.
The intent of the SLA Manager (SLAM) offering is to provide a single repository for organizations to define, manage, track, report and audit the performance of critical service levels associated with one to many contracts or programs that are delivered by a single or multiple suppliers. SLAM is a fully web enabled set of applications that provide visibility and transparency to supplier reporting of service levels. These applications include the following components all of which are governed by defined security and rights profiles:
Administration – allows for the definition and configuration of client, supplier, contract, and service level information. The module also allows for the management of user profile information, website personalization, automated interface management and the definition of system alerts, escalations and formulas associated with each service level.
Foundation – the SLAM foundation applications provide the underpinnings and rules engine associated with capturing, storing and transacting upon service level results. The foundation component includes the ability to automatically monitor the status of any given service level and produce automated results based on non-compliance. It is also responsible for the import of service level data. In addition the foundational components provide a complete transaction log that can be viewed within the administration system.
SLA Home - provides a real-time, personalized portal for client specific service level data including access to contract data and related reference materials, best practice information, risk mitigation strategies, alert and escalation information, overall system status and links to other SLAM applications and other external sources of service level information. This application may be augmented with links to client specific internal sites or supplier information systems.
Company Wall – provides a organization-wide representation of service level results and metrics. This Rich-Internet-Application (RIA) interface allows authorized users the ability to define specific Windows, Panes and Views that organize service level results in a way that meet enterprise-wide reporting requirements. Authorized client or supplier administrators can create contract specific or company wide representations of service level performance. Clients may also compare results across suppliers, allowing for representations including charts, graphs, narratives, symbols and customized scorecards presented through a single web-based interface.
My Wall – provides for customizable, personalized representations of service level results and metrics. This Rich-Internet-Application (RIA) interface allows authorized users the ability to define specific Windows, Panes and Views that organize service level results in a way that meet your specific needs. Along with these results other related information can be posted on your wall and saved for future reference. Links to client, supplier, contract and service level data can also be captured on your wall.
Reports – included as an application the reports module allows for the generation of real-time and historical reports based on results captured from suppliers. This information allows the client to track trends in supplier performance and can be used as a vehicle to monitor contract compliance. The reporting module also provides for the ability to print definitions associated with suppliers, contracts, service levels, formulas, escalations and actions.
As an integrated system, each of these applications serves to provide a single source for the reporting and management of supplier service levels. Each of the applications is governed by systems security and rights management that only allows users to access information for which they are authorized. For example, systems administrators have rights to define contracts, service levels, formulas and alerts as well as view results. A typical user would only have access to reviewing the results and metrics for which they have authorization either via the SLA Home, Company Wall or My Wall. Typical users of the system would include a contract manager, business stake holder, compliance officer, supplier liaison or clients legal or contracting personnel. Supplier personnel may also be authorized to access to system to review/track results and/or review feedback on their performance.
The SLA Manager solution serves as a single reference point for contractually mandated service levels and escrows associated with the performance of outsourced services or supplier product and service offerings. The solution provides for independence and transparency in the reporting of service level metrics and also provides a framework through which our services team can perform optional, periodic or random audits of service level results. Suppliers are commissioned by their client to report service level results either electronically or via manual input to the SLA Manager solution. These results are ingested, validated, archived and published to authorized users of the system via a robust web-based set of interfaces. The solution also provides for the creation of reports.
All information reported to the SLA Manager solution is archived in a secure database and can be used to perform trend analysis, supplier compliance validation, provide supplier feedback and to establish personalized views and representations of service level performance data for management reporting and compliance purposes. The solution is also the system of record for related supplier, contract, service level, and transactional data. Embedded in the application is a sophisticated alert and communications sub-system that monitors the timeliness of supplier reporting and also broadcasts messages related to variances from service level standards or expected outcomes.