In order to provide a service the first thing to understand is what that service is. It may seem an obvious statement but it is easy to assume that what is there is what needs to be supported and this can lead to misunderstandings and time not spent effectively.

It is important to understand the distinction between a service and the equipment that makes up that service. A service is a complete facility whereas the equipment is the hardware, software, consumables and other components that are each only a part of a facility. This concept is key to providing good customer-care as it is the service that is of interest to the end-user, not the hardware or software that enables it, which is why, in Service Level Management, we document services and not hardware and software.

We have included some example services catalogue templates in the toolkit section

It is a worthwhile exercise to identify and write down every ICT service that is used and then agree with end user representatives which of these services are relevant and worthy of support. The document produced is called a Service Catalogue. Of course this must be updated when new services are introduced but once this baseline is in place it becomes easier to understand what the potential workload is, how it may fluctuate and whether resources are becoming stretched.

When the services to be supported have been agreed they need to be placed in some kind of order of importance to the school as a whole. This is so that, in the event of a conflict, technical support staff know what must be attended to first.

This should be agreed with the end-users and a document published and circulated to them. This is popularly known as a service level agreement, or SLA, and is a compromise between the level of service that the end-users require and the level that ICT/technical support can undertake to provide based, on resources available and overall cost.  

Underpinning contracts are agreements with third parties who may have been procured to contribute to the provision of the service(s). These contracts will be negotiated between ICT/technical support and the third party or parties and will use the levels of service agreed in the SLA as the input to the requirements.

Sometimes elements of the service may be dependent upon another internal department or division outside the control of ICT/technical support. Similar underpinning agreements may also be required here to ensure that the overall SLA can be met. These are known as operational level agreements, or OLAs.

These underpinning contracts and agreements should be transparent to the end-user and enable the appropriate parts of the SLA to be met.

It is important to monitor the service provided against the agreed levels to identify areas for improvement or renegotiation. The point of service level agreements is not to apportion blame or criticise targets not met. It is to identify weaknesses and work together to identify a level of service that can be achieved within the budget available and that supports the end-users' requirements adequately. Communication and negotiation are the watchwords.

Review meetings should take place on a scheduled, regular, basis so that representatives of the SLA know they have a forum at which to raise and discuss issues. This also enables new requirements to be highlighted up front and worked in to the service provision.