Service Level Agreement Pitfalls

[boww]

Hi all,

I have created a web-app for a specific branch of a large conglomerate. This was firstly done in a fairly informal fashion with no written contracts. However, other branches are also interested in the tool. This means that I will become an official supplier to the company, meaning that I have to sign a Service Level Agreement with this conglomerate. What are some of the pitfalls that I have to look out for in these types of contracts, I do not want to shoot myself in the foot for the sake of expansion!

 

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[Stargazer]

As you are the service provider it is for you to come up with the basic framework of the SLA.

Call it a Standard SLA that would be part of the contract and would cover response times, compensation etc etc and you want a lawyer to draft it up.

I would then forward a copy of that to this particular client and ask what else they would want covered over and above this as they are what you could call large business. eg Do you want each site to contact you directly or go though someone at the Head Office and that is the umbrella contract. On their side they may want 2 hour response time when contacting you as opposed to Standard 6 hours and so forth.

Don't let them come up with it from scratch otherwise there will be something in it buried away.

Over time you will then have a couple of Contracts covering SLAs and Payments and Customer Service for different type of customers.

The small/medium one client, one website type and the large business and/or multi- site type,

Think of it like your Internet or phone line. Different SLA for a domestic line than a large business with complex needs.

The gist is that your SLA is one that you can actually provide. That way there are no pitfalls if it is you who wrote the contract. Any changes they negotiate with you as you find your feet with larger customers, you only incorporate into the larger business contract again if you think you can actually deliver.

Dan