10.3 SLA
The Service Level Agreement defines the level of efficiency that a company is committed to maintaining in regard to its customers with respect to the provision of a service. The efficiency of the support is measured not only in terms of effectiveness, i.e. the achievement of the objective, but also in terms of level of performance with which the objective is achieved.
SLAs are generally applied to assistance services and define the time taken to take charge of and resolve reported malfunctions. The timing varies according to the categorisation of the problem: for example, if the problem concerns a blockage in the production process, the expected SLA will be lower than the reporting of a non-blocking malfunction. In the first case, the company will have set an SLA of 4 hours, in the second of 12 hours.
The taking charge times consider time slots and working days. For example: the service is guaranteed between 8.00 and 18.00, 365 days/year; the blocking notification (which provides for a 4-hour SLA) is opened at 16.00 on 5 March, thus the expiry of the SLA will be at 10.00 the following day, 6 March.
In vtenext, the SLA functionality is integrated with the HelpDesk module, counting the time from the opening of the ticket to when a user takes charge of it.
It is displayed in the corresponding block:
|
Time elapsed |
Time elapsed since opening the ticket (as explained above) |
|
Time remaining |
Time still available before the expiry of the SLA |
|
SLA start date |
Date and time of counting start |
|
SLA end date |
Date and time when the SLA is expected to close |
|
Update time |
Date and time of the last update of the automatically recognised fields* |
|
SLA Estimated time |
Time allocated to the ticket to resolve and close the problem |
|
Due Date |
The date of closure status is entered automatically |
|
Due time |
Time the ticket is closed |
|
End SLA |
Recognised if the count is completed |
|
Idle Time Elapsed |
Time spent in suspension (see below) |
|
Out SLA Time Elapsed |
Indicates how much time is being spent in excess of the guaranteed SLA |
|
Reset SLA |
Resets and restarts the count |
Warning! The frequency of the update depends on the SLA CRON configuration settings in the operating system. The default SLA CRON is disabled, so it must be activated for the module to work. See the relevant chapter: CRONJOB – Processes to be scheduled.