OpenMaster: Managing service levels

Why focus on service levels?

Service level management

If you're a commercial company, you measure success in concrete terms: turnover, profits, growth, share of market... Other organizations have equivalent goals. Each line of business (or equivalent sub-organization) makes its specific contribution and is measured on how well it meets its individual objectives.

Today, nobody would deny that a line of business's performance depends heavily on the quality of its information systems. The challenge is how to define, measure, and maintain the quality of IT service that will enable it to attain its business goals. This is what the Gartner Group calls "business synchronization." You have to relate the component functions of the IT infrastructure to the business value they sustain. Not an easy task, when you consider the complex blend of systems, databases, applications, middleware, networks, workstation hardware and software in a typical company.

OpenMaster Service Level Management (SLM) gives your IT staff a view of the entire information system in terms of business consequences:

When monitoring operations, they can concentrate on incidents that would have the worst impact on business goals
When tuning performance, they can apply the most effort where it does the most good
When planning improvements, they can give the highest priority where it will bring most financial benefit

Service level agreements

Service level agreements define a measurable level of customer satisfaction. While OpenMaster SLM helps IT staff to optimize service levels, OpenMaster SLA makes the quality of service contractual.

Initially, service level agreements were usually applied to external suppliers, sometimes with penalty clauses: "waive half the hosting fee if the web site's down more than two hours in the week."

Increasingly, the internal IT department is positioned as a service provider, sometimes in direct competition with external suppliers. More and more users are asking for internal service level agreements.

Most industry experts and, indeed, most IT managers, see this as a positive step. A formal service level agreement:

Obliges users to define the level of service that they really need
Helps to justify higher budgets for business-critical functions
Encourages clearer analysis of return on investment
Makes it easier to set priorities

Of course, once you've defined a service level agreement, you need to measure how well the service delivered complies with it.. Systematically, and, if possible, automatically. IT functions can be extremely complex, but their users generally insist on simple yet comprehensive indicators to express the quality of service.

This is where OpenMaster SLA can help. It includes ready-to-run packages with built-in expertise to report on common operational parameters. Toolkits make it quick and easy to set up specific reports or consolidate complex statistics. Flexible reporting options range from web publishing to multi-dimensional analysis.





Service Level Management Optimizing IT service value ERPs Middleware Internet services Lotus Notes Tuxedo Managing service levels Databases Networks Systems Production White papers	Evidian > Products > OpenMaster > Service Level Management OpenMaster: Managing service levels Why focus on service levels? Service level management If you're a commercial company, you measure success in concrete terms: turnover, profits, growth, share of market... Other organizations have equivalent goals. Each line of business (or equivalent sub-organization) makes its specific contribution and is measured on how well it meets its individual objectives. Today, nobody would deny that a line of business's performance depends heavily on the quality of its information systems. The challenge is how to define, measure, and maintain the quality of IT service that will enable it to attain its business goals. This is what the Gartner Group calls "business synchronization." You have to relate the component functions of the IT infrastructure to the business value they sustain. Not an easy task, when you consider the complex blend of systems, databases, applications, middleware, networks, workstation hardware and software in a typical company. OpenMaster Service Level Management (SLM) gives your IT staff a view of the entire information system in terms of business consequences: When monitoring operations, they can concentrate on incidents that would have the worst impact on business goals When tuning performance, they can apply the most effort where it does the most good When planning improvements, they can give the highest priority where it will bring most financial benefit Service level agreements Service level agreements define a measurable level of customer satisfaction. While OpenMaster SLM helps IT staff to optimize service levels, OpenMaster SLA makes the quality of service contractual. Initially, service level agreements were usually applied to external suppliers, sometimes with penalty clauses: "waive half the hosting fee if the web site's down more than two hours in the week." Increasingly, the internal IT department is positioned as a service provider, sometimes in direct competition with external suppliers. More and more users are asking for internal service level agreements. Most industry experts and, indeed, most IT managers, see this as a positive step. A formal service level agreement: Obliges users to define the level of service that they really need Helps to justify higher budgets for business-critical functions Encourages clearer analysis of return on investment Makes it easier to set priorities Of course, once you've defined a service level agreement, you need to measure how well the service delivered complies with it.. Systematically, and, if possible, automatically. IT functions can be extremely complex, but their users generally insist on simple yet comprehensive indicators to express the quality of service. This is where OpenMaster SLA can help. It includes ready-to-run packages with built-in expertise to report on common operational parameters. Toolkits make it quick and easy to set up specific reports or consolidate complex statistics. Flexible reporting options range from web publishing to multi-dimensional analysis.	What do you need to manage today ERPs: SAP R/3, Oracle Applications Middleware: Internet services, Lotus Notes, Tuxedo Databases: Oracle, Sybase, SQL Server, Informix Networks: 3Com, Cisco, Nortel Networks, Motorola Systems: Windows, Unix, and Linux servers Production: Job Scheduling, Performance, Pilot Why define IT service levels in business terms? Or: a cautionary tale about what could happen if you focus on technical infrastructure rather than the overall service levels. Imagine that you're a successful retailer through traditional outlets. You see a tremendous business opportunity: by selling directly through the web you can cut costs and increase volumes. In short, make a killing. All the financial predictions look good, so you invest heavily in setting up the e-commerce site and adding every imaginable safeguard to ensure that it'll keep running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Success is immediate, and orders are flowing in even faster than expected. Thanks to good planning, the site absorbs the extra load with no downtime. As Christmas approaches you're looking forward to record profits, In fact, you've had to hire extra staff to scale up the delivery dispatching system. Suddenly, a disk in the logistics database reaches saturation just after a network fault trashes the weekly backup. Fourteen days' worth of orders disappear into a black hole. Tens of thousands of people are still waiting for their Christmas presents on New Year's Eve, and your credibility never recovers. Of course, this couldn't happen in real life... Evidian NewsDesk Get regular news about secure management solutions and best practices >> QUESTIONS?