SLA Definitions and Timezones

[Stijn Verhulst3]

Hi everyone,

for me it's not clear what the possible impact is, regarding to time calculations, when setting a specific Timezone on a SLA Definition. The ServiceNow Wiki didn't really make me wiser in this area... Could someone clear this out for me?

Kind regards,

Stijn

[brian_quinn · Accepted solution]

Stijn,

This value only matters if the setting "Use the following time zone for SLA" is set to "The SLA definition's time zone".   This setting is under "Service Level Management -> Administration -> SLA Properties".  

Let's take an example to understand the impact of the "Use the following time zone for SLA" and "Timezone" setting.   Let's assume the "Timezone" field for this example SLA definition is set to GMT and the schedule is set from 8-5.  

A user in New York (EST: -5:00) submits an incident about a CI that is located in San Diego (PST: -8:00) at 13:00 GMT, the incident takes 5 hours to resolve.

Here are the SLA calculations based on the "Use the following time zone for SLA" property:

• "The SLA definition's time zone" - The incident lasted from 13:00 GMT to 18:00 GMT.   Based on the 8-5 schedule, the SLA Duration is 4 hours (13:00 GMT - 17:00 GMT)
• "The caller's time zone" - The incident lasted from 08:00 EST to 13:00 EST.   Based on the 8-5 schedule, the SLA Duration is 5 hours (08:00 EST - 13:00 EST)
• "The CI's location's time zone" - The incident lasted from 05:00 PST to 10:00 PST.   Based on the 8-5 schedule, the SLA Duration is 2 hours (08:00 PST - 10:00 PST)

I hope this helps.

Thanks

Brian

[Stijn Verhulst3]

Thanks a lot Brian!

Your example illustrates it perfectly

[Artur J]

I would like to refresh the topic of time zones in SLA a bit.

I want to focus only on the two options avaialble when setup SLA definition

1. The Caller's time zone

2. The Caller's location's time zone

I understand that the first one represents time zone from caller's profile and the second one is a time zone tied to specific location which is further set in the caller's profile.

What I am struggling with is the use case these two options. Looks like for majority scenarios these two option will represent the same time zone so what is the added value from having such two options in servicenow ?

If anyone can share real scenario in which different values for Caller's time zone and Caller's location's time zone are justified it would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Artur