Success in business depends heavily on an organization’s ability to
understand and meet customer expectations. But when those expectations
are not clear, or when customers are not fully informed about what they
can expect from a service provider, managing customer expectations may
become extremely difficult. To counter this issue, businesses of all
kinds rely on SLAs.
An SLA functions as a documented understanding between the entity
providing the service and the one receiving the benefits of the service.
Although traditional SLAs define service expectations between vendors
and customers, they may also be employed between departments within the
same organization. And while the SLA may consist of as little as a few
sentences or as much as entire documents’ worth of provisions and
stipulations, they are always a critical component of modern service
contracts. It’s also important to note that SLAs should not be thought
of as immutable; they should change and grow to meet evolving business
needs. With this in mind, SLAs should incorporate a clear framework for
introducing revisions or modifications during the course of the
contract.