Page 15 - Telecom Reseller September-October 2016

September/October 2016
Don’t
Settle for
99% SLAs
COLWELL
By Timothy C. Colwell, SVP Ef ciency First® Adoption – AOTMP (www.aotmp.com)
Technical availability is widely known in the SLA arena and ve 9’s is the gold standard, but SLAs are also important tools for setting performance expectations in professional services, consulting and outsourcing relationships.
e di erence between SLAs in these relationships from traditional technical SLAs is that they guide task and activity completion,
work ow performance, customer experience interactions and engagement plan integrity. Deliver on-time, on-budget and in the expected manner. ere’s one additional di erence as well – these SLAs should all drive towards 100% performance.
A 100% performance SLA may seem unrealistic due to forces outside of a vendor’s control and issues will arise from time to time. So, how is 100% performance achieved? It requires companion SLAs that include separate time intervals to complete the activity cycle. For example, suppose an outsource vendor is managing mobile device ordering with carriers on behalf of an enterprise.
e statement of work identi es the requirement for the outsource vendor to place all orders with carriers the same business day when approved requests are received by 3:00
PM ET.
e standard SLA may indicate that this
requirement will be met 99% of the time. If 100 requests are placed in a measurement period and 99 orders are completed on time, the SLA is met by the vendor, but there’s still one request that technically never has to be ful lled and the vendor is still in compliance with the SLA.
is is where the companion SLA comes into play. Adding a secondary measure that indicates 100% of orders will be placed within two business days, for example, ensures that the entirety of the outsource commitment addressed.
Requiring professional services, consulting and outsourcing vendors to meet 100% of requirements with complete SLAs drives intended outcomes and desired performance throughout the relationship. n
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Ask the
Telecom Pro
Q: Are xed fee rates or discounts better for telecom carrier services?
A: Fixed fee rates in carrier contracts are particularly
cost e ective for traditional PSTN services and legacy services that are nearing end of life in 5 years or less. The reason for this is that service rates uctuate over time for legacy service o erings, often increasing, and a xed fee service rate is likely
to o er better price performance over the term of the contract than discounts o of list if list rates should increase. Conversely, discounts for newer technologies are often better than xed fee rates as list rates trend downward for newer technology as adoption increases and economies of scale for delivery are realized by carriers.
Q: How do I avoid early termination penalties during technology transition?
A: The most e ective mechanism for avoiding EFTs starts with contract terms. To counter the e ect of ETFs due to business downturn or changes in technology, include clauses in your contracts to account for those events. A business downturn
clause can o er full or partial relief from ETFs if the reason for service turndown is business related. Technology upgrade clauses can eliminate ETFs in the event that current technology is being replaced with new or di erent technology from the same carrier. In every case, mitigating ETF risk during the contract term starts by including provisions that o er exibility in
the relationship for the life of the contract.
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