What is Service Level Management?

The ITIL Service Level Management process will help negotiate, define, agree and monitor service levels with customers. It works closely with other processes, like Capacity Management and Availability Management to ensure the services are provided in a satisfactory level of quality.

Ideally, the service level management process begins by determining what needs be provided and at what times. This is done with input from both the business and the IT team. This will help to set reasonable goals, which are achievable and relevant to the business. Teams should also collaborate to determine how these goals are evaluated and what effect this will have on the customer experience.

Once these targets have been established, the SLM process should begin by making agreements with customers and defining the service level requirements. This includes describing the click here to read services (including what is included and what’s not, so that there is no room for miss the mark) as well as defining escalation and responsibility procedures, and setting performance metrics. This should be documented in an SLA.

The SLM process must also include an action plan to monitor and review the service level compliance. This plan will be reviewed regularly to determine if objectives are being achieved. Automated alerting is essential. SLM must be coordinated among teams so that everyone knows the services they are responsible for and if they are meeting the agreed-upon levels of service.