The Service Level Agreement Template provides a method by which an arrangement between your company and your client can be formalized to deliver specific services, at specific levels of support and maintenance, at an agreed-upon cost.

The primary objective of the Service Level Agreement Template is to identify those services that are included and NOT included in the agreement, identify the names of the applications covered under the agreement, and how the agreement may be terminated. It also will stipulate how the agreement is amended, the required levels of effort, and how the agreement is renewed. The vendor will also be required to provide metrics reporting.

SLAs commonly include segments to address: a definition of services, performance measurement, problem management, customer duties, warranties, disaster recovery, termination of agreement.

In order to ensure that SLAs are consistently met, these agreements are often designed with specific lines of demarcation and the parties involved are required to meet regularly to create an open forum for communication. Contract enforcement (rewards and penalties) should be rigidly enforced, but most SLAs also leave room for annual revisitation so that it is possible to make changes based on new information.

Within the agreement, the following general terms and conditions are specified:
    Term of agreement
    Organizations
    Approvals
    Key Contacts
    Dependence on other organizations
    Roles and responsibilities.

A list of the applications covered under the agreement, identifying the application name, disaster recovery tier, normal availability schedule, maintenance schedule, severity level, and pertinent comments.

The levels of support required of the vendor are addressed to identify, troubleshoot, and resolve production issues, as well as support time guidance.

Scroll down to the IT Service Level Agreement example below.