Misaligned SLAs Could Lead Enterprises to the “Seeing Green But Feeling Red” Trap, According to Alsbridge

Alsbridge Releases Report on 4 Basic Measurements to Aligning SLAs to the Outsourcing Contract

Without the proper alignment of IT service levels to the needs of the business, companies can fall into the trap of "seeing green but feeling red," meaning that the service level measures are exceeding their targeted performance levels yet there are still IT delivery issues,  explains Alsbridge Inc., a benchmarking, sourcing and transformation advisory firm. The latest report by Alsbridge- 4 Basic Measurements to Aligning SLAs to the Outsourcing Contract- provides a good framework to evaluate the service levels companies are currently using or are developing as part of an outsourcing contract.

When negotiating a new outsourcing contract, clients face the challenge of determining the service levels that are most meaningful to the business. The intent of a service level agreement (SLA) is to measure the provider's overall performance by virtue of concise, unambiguous metrics with targeted levels of performance that are easily understandable by the client community and are simple to validate from a client's perspective.

As the outsourcing industry has matured, providers have developed a multitude of service level measures that they can propose to their clients in an outsourcing contract - some more relevant to the client's business than others. Chip Wagner, CEO, Alsbridge Inc., says “Without the proper alignment of IT service levels to the needs of the business, companies can fall into the trap of "seeing green but feeling red.” “Fortunately, there are several common service levels within the outsourcing marketplace that align nicely to the perception of lines of business and end users,” adds Wagner. The report by Alsbridge throws light on four basic metrics that can serve as a guideline for defining service level requirements, including:

1.       Service Desk

2.       Projects

3.       Change Management

4.       General

“When dealing with an outsourcing contract, there are literally hundreds of "typical" IT metrics that can be reported on,” says Dieter Thompson, president, Alsbridge Inc., “While true that some IT-specific metrics should be in place, most should have a focus squarely on measuring the delivery of services to the end users.”

For further details access the complete report 4 Basic Measurements to Aligning SLAs to the Outsourcing Contract.

 About Alsbridge Inc.

Alsbridge is a global consulting firm that helps companies transform and optimize the way they purchase, manage and leverage technology and business processes.   We have over 200 team members on 3 continents serving over 200 clients a year including more than 40% of the Fortune 500.  Alsbridge has helped hundreds of companies reduce costs and get more value from their vendors.  Our experienced consultants leverage proprietary tools and information databases to identify and engage the optimal vendors for your situation, negotiate best practice terms at fair market prices, and improve the way you work with your service providers.  Alsbridge clients utilize the most cost effective and value added sources globally for IT infrastructure services, network carrier services, hardware and software, application support and development, business processes and cloud services.

EDITORS/WRITERS: Journalists interested in covering the above topic or interviewing one of our SMEs please contact:

Scott Tims
Office: 214-378-7970 ext. 278
stims@thepointgroup.com
www.alsbridge.com