What should be in an ola

How do you know whether your organization is primed to use OLAs to maximize collaboration across internal and external teams? There are also considerations to make to determine if you should use OLAs across internal groups or multi-sourced vendors:.

Operational-Level Agreements sometimes get confused with Service-Level Agreements because of their connected nature. However, understanding the distinction between the two is important because it ensures all internal and external resources are on the same page when it comes to providing services to the end-user.

Overall, OLAs serve as excellent tools for enterprise organizations who have embraced digital transformation by:. Download now for free! These postings are my own and do not necessarily represent BMC's position, strategies, or opinion. See an error or have a suggestion? Please let us know by emailing blogs bmc. January 9, 5 minute read. They allow your organization to track performance and progress against commitments to the customer as defined in the SLAs.

The agreement can consist of one or more service targets. Service targets can define penalties for noncompliance of an agreement or rewards for meeting and exceeding the specified goals. Operational Level Agreements also known as Operating Level Agreements are internal agreements that a service provider defines for internal users to meet SLAs. OLAs can also contain one or more objectives or service targets.

The OLAs would be used to track internal service commitments such as the following service targets: Response time for incidents or problems assigned to IT groups Availability of servers supporting various applications Underpinning Contracts are agreements that are used to track performance between an external service provider and a vendor. The OLA highlights the commitment to internal groups within the organization.

It describes relationships at the operational level, including those between: Service Desk Support Group s Incident Resolution Network Management Operations Management All of these relationships are captured in a document typically owned by the Service Management Team. Components of an OLA At the most basic level, the OLA functions as a document that serves as a matter of record between parties: General overview The General Overview does three important things: Reaffirms the purpose of the agreement between parties Outlines the goal of the agreement Highlights objectives of the document Parties Responsible This section lists all the stakeholders involved and will include their names, titles, and roles.

Best practices for writing an OLA If you are writing or creating an OLA, here are some best practices to consider: Outline the purpose of the document in paragraphs. Can you think of any other Value Streams? When someone orders a new laptop, wants access to one of our applications, or even has an application loaded on their laptop, changing offices, incident escalation, and service request escalation.

Value streams are everywhere. Use the Service Catalog to define all IT services. Assign functional teams the task of documenting their role in delivering and maintaining each service. Identify the key players e. Document each functional teams' expectations for delivering each service, that is, what they need from other groups to do their work i.

Include contingency plans for unexpected events. Test and retest OLAs and make changes when needed. Take the onboarding process, contact all the various teams responsible, and discuss what you can do to make it easy for everyone. Looking forward to seeing what you produce and what you learned from the exercise.

We invited the team to Harry's Diner for dinner We told them that the Service Desk wanted a greater understanding of what Desktop needed to make their job easier. I do not know whether it was the free food or our offer to make it easier, but they liked the idea. After we all introduced ourselves, I pulled out my tablet and said, 'Besides just getting to know each other better, I want to hear how the Service Desk can better support your Desktop team.

I had quite a list when we finished. Nothing earth-shattering, just little things, like incident and request documentation, and that we did not always ask the right questions of our customers.

I replied that we did not know and that we have never had any training by Desktop. The Desktop team will conduct training for the Service Desk. They will review all escalated incidents and service requests to identify what my team could do better with training, tools, and knowledge articles. Service Times are related to countries which again define a set of holidays.

The escalation points are always aligned to the Time Zones of Service Time Profiles, and will therefore always be within the active working times. Imagine the following situation: a support desk is working 24 h, 7 days a week. As the company has sites all over the world, there are three different support centers in Germany, Japan, and the United States which are rotationally on duty.

Each support center has a day time shift of 8 hours - 9 to 5 local time. All three support centers offer support for the same services. Define three similar Service Level Agreements with the desired entitlement, scope, and fulfillment.

To simplify this example, these SLAs will be defined for all users, assets, and services, and only one Service Level will be defined for incidents with high priority. Reaction Time is 1 hour and Solution Time 3 hours.

Problems are derived from incidents if these cannot be solved immediately. On the Changes dialog page, you can manage Service activities, such as solving a problem, that result in changes. Organizational Unit, Cost Center, and Location If you create a new configuration item, you can link it by using a corresponding button to the respective organizational unit, cost center, and location. For existing configuration items, the ownership cannot be changed. Contract Number Number that identifies this agreement in your company.

Status Displays the current status of the agreement and, therefore, maps the contract development. Contract Responsible Person Employee of your company who is responsible for this agreement. Fulfillment Responsible Role Role in your company that is responsible for this agreement.

Description Detailed description of the agreement, such as additional remarks about the contents or conditions of the contract. Journal Comments about your activities that are related to this configuration item. You cannot change the journal entries after they are made.

Valid from Date on which the contractual agreement takes effect. Depending on the effective date, the status is automatically monitored by the system to map contract development. Valid until Date on which the contractual agreement expires. Depending on the expiration date, the status is automatically calculated by the system to map contract development.

Original Expiration Date Original date on which the contractual agreement expires. Unlimited Validity Select this option if this contract is valid for an indefinite time period.

Send Expiry Mail Select this option to get an email reminder from the system when the agreement expires. Mail Number of Days Before Expiration The reminder is sent this number of days before the contract expires. If you enter 0, the reminder is sent on the day the agreement expires. Expiration Mail Recipient Persons to which the expiration reminder should be sent.

Reminder Copy Persons to which a copy of the reminder email should be sent. Renews Upon Expiration Select this option to renew the agreement automatically.

Renewal Period The agreement is renewed by the entered time period. Time Unit : Unit of time for renewal of the agreement. Cancelation Cancelation modalities for this agreement.

Send Cancelation Mail Select this option to have an email reminder sent when this agreement can be canceled. Mail Number of Days… The reminder is sent this number of days before the cancellation date.

Cancelation Mail Recipient Persons to which the cancellation reminder should be sent. Categories The Categories dialog page allows you to define Categories covered by the support contract. Entitlement The Entitlement dialog page allows you to define who is allowed to engage the support covered by this contract. Combining Entitlement and Scopes While using support contracts within the Service Level Management and ticket processing, it is most likely that you will need to set up specific combinations of entitlement and scopes.

FSR Bonus Optional monetary compensation in case of over-compliance.