Services, Contracts, and SLAs keep all necessary information that allows the SimpleOne administrator to build a flexible and easy to manage SLM solution. These entities determine the SLM structure by establishing relationships with each other and set up a foundation for further SLA configuration with special features.

Before configuring SLAs, it is necessary to set up all Contracts and IT Services related to them.

IT Service

Role required: service_owner.

The Service records keep all detailed information about services such as type, description, service owner, etc. in Service Portfolio.

To set up a relationship between an IT Service and an SLA, navigate to Service Portfolio → Service Catalogue if your IT Service is active or to the Service Portfolio → Service Pipeline if your IT Service is new or inactive. Open a desired IT Service record and fill in the fields below:

• Service Type - allows to choose one of the possible values according to the agreement type between service the supplier and customer:
  
  • Business;
  • Operational;
  • Underpinning;
  • Request.
• Service Specification - is filled with the Internal and External articles from the Knowledge Base, e.g., SLA records, Service Description, and others that are described in Service Specifications.

Contract

Role required: ITSM_agent.

Contracts keep all the information about signed agreements, including the service provider, supplier, and customer with consumers.

Navigate to Contracts → Contract and click New to create a new Contract record and bind it to particular articles and categories through the following fields:

• Type  - a type of signed agreement that is defined by one of the available values according to a concluded agreement between the parties. Go to Contracts → Contract Types and click New to create one of the possible agreements:
  
  • SLA - Service Level Agreement between the service customer and the provider;
  • OLA - Operational Level Agreement describes internal service provider relationships with its department responsible for service delivery;
  • UC - Underpinning Contract determines relationships between the supplier and the third party that provides any services required for the fulfilment of SLA obligations. 
• Contract Category - a category your contract relates to (go to Contracts → Contract Category and click New to create one);
• Provider - specify a company from the Companies list;
• Supplier - specify a company from the Companies list;
• Customer - specify a customer from the Contact list (go to Contracts → Contact and click New to create one). Any of the following types can be chosen: a company, a branch, a section, a department, a unit, a group, an employee;
• Consumer - specify the end-users from the Contact list (go to Contracts → Contact and click New to create an end-user);
• Service Owner - specify a service owner from the Users list;
• Start Date - specify a date the contract starts;
• End Date - specify a date the contract ends;
• Autoprolongation - check this box if you don't want to prolong a contract manually;
  
• Knowledge Base Article - is referred to a particular article from the Knowledge Base with SLA, OLA, or UC Content Item Class value;
• Total Cost - float-type field for the total cost of a contract.

SLA

Role required:  service_catalogue_manager or service_owner (if you want to change any Article related to Service specification of the owned Service).

The articles that contain formal documented agreements signed by the service supplier and the customer in relation to a particular service are based in the Knowledge Base. 

To add such an article to your SimpleOne solution, navigate to Knowledge Base → All Articles, push the New button, and fill in the form. The fields below determine a particular SLA article regarding an IT Service:

• Name - a name of the Service Level Agreement;
• Content Item Class - describes SLA appointment, the following possible values apply to SLAs:
  
  • SLA;
  • OLA;
  • UC.
• Body - submitted SLA content;
• Service - one chosen record from the Services, the field Owned by is automatically filled with the owner name from the selected service record;
• State - one of the possible values:
  
  • Draft - is not ready to be accepted as active;
  • Published - is active;
  • Retired - is not in use anymore.

Agreements and Commitments

The SLM advanced features help administrators to flexibly configure and establish key targets and their values determined within the SLAs. The Agreement and Commitment entities describe levels of service delivery with specific, measurable parameters that make the SLM customization full and clear.