SLAs: fast becoming a norm

MUMBAI: Service-level agreements or SLAs as they are called, are no longer
being seen as a fancy concept-more on paper, less in practice. SIs indicate that
SLAs are fast becoming a norm these days and customers have started to demand
deliverables as per mentioned in the SLA.

While SLAs used to come into picture for very high value corporate or
government projects, it was almost non-existent for many a SIs catering to
small-to-medium sized client organizations. "But with customer awareness
increasing manifolds, requirement for IT witnessing a surge and IT
infrastructure becoming more critical to one's business, end-users are now
asking for the deliverables to be clearly put in black and white," remarked
Director Xpress Computers, Chetan Shah.

He informed that now nearly 30 percent of his customers demand that SLAs be
put in place. "While they don't put penalty clauses as such, the very fact
that they are asking for documentation of expected deliverables, shows that
customer maturity is increasing," added Shah. And given the fact that
customers tend to take certain service benefits for granted, such an approach
from their end, only helps an SI improve his service revenues.

"We have nearly 50 percent of our customers, with whom we maintain SLAs.
Most of them demand a clarity on issues like response/resolution time, alternate
solutions in case of a breakdown and escalation matrix," pointed out
Saurin Shah, Director, Ashtech Infotech . He also informed about an increasing
demand from customers asking for a built-in consultancy within the service
contract.

D-Link Marketing Manager Anand Mehta believes that while SLAs are more
beneficial from a customer point of view, it also makes an SI more accountable
and serious towards his service liabilities. "If a customer starts
insisting on SLAs, the technology provider would take pains to clearly define
what kind of service he is willing to commit and nothing would be in the realm
of ambiguity," felt Dharmesh Anjaria, Director Dynacons  . He further
informed that about 40 per cent of his customer base proactively ask for putting
an SLA in place.

Many other SIs too unanimously agree that in the times of stiff competition,
it makes more sense to insist on signing up service agreements rather then
over-commit and under-deliver to customers. And with service bound to become the
main bottomline earner for many an integrators, the sooner they adopt SLA as a
standard business practice, the better it would be for them.

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