Editing Service-level agreement (section)

==Overview==
A service-level agreement is an agreement between two or more parties, where one is the customer and the others are service providers. This can be a legally binding formal or an informal "contract" (for example, internal department relationships). The agreement may involve separate organizations or different teams within one organization. Contracts between the service provider and other third parties are often (incorrectly) called SLAs – because the level of service has been set by the (principal) customer, there can be no "agreement" between third parties; these agreements are simply "contracts."{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} [[Operational-level agreement]]s or OLAs, however, may be used by internal groups to support SLAs. If some aspect of service has not been agreed upon with the customer, it is not an "SLA".

SLAs commonly include many components, from a definition of services to the termination of agreement.<ref name="SLAZone">{{cite web |url=http://www.sla-zone.co.uk/ |title=The Service Level Agreement Zone |work=SLA Information Zone |publisher=Service Level Agreement Zone |date=2015 |access-date=22 June 2016}}</ref> To ensure that SLAs are consistently met, these agreements are often designed with specific lines of [[wikt:demarcation|demarcation]] and the parties involved are required to meet regularly to create an open forum for communication. Rewards and penalties applying to the provider are often specified.  Most SLAs also leave room for a periodic (annual) revisitation to make changes.<ref name="ShacklettFive11">{{cite web |url=http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/large-business/key-points-for-sla.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222042328/http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/large-business/key-points-for-sla.aspx |title=Five Key Points for Every SLA |author=Shacklett, M.E. |publisher=Dell |date=12 January 2011 |archive-date=22 December 2012 |access-date=22 June 2016}}</ref>

Since the late 1980s SLAs have been used by fixed-line telecom operators. SLAs are so widely used these days that larger organizations have many different SLAs existing within the company itself. Two different units in an organization script an SLA with one unit being the customer and another being the service provider. This practice helps to maintain the same quality of service amongst different units in the organization and also across multiple locations of the organization. This internal scripting of SLA also helps to compare the quality of service between an in-house department and an external service provider.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn:142006455X|title=Advances in Network Management|last=Ding|first=Jianguo|publisher=Auerbach Publications|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4200-6455-1}}</ref>

The output received by the customer as a result of the service provided is the main focus of the service level agreement.

Service level agreements are also defined at different levels:
* '''Customer-based SLA''': An agreement with an individual customer group, covering all the services they use. For example, an SLA between a supplier (IT service provider) and the finance department of a large organization for the services such as finance system, payroll system, billing system, procurement/purchase system, etc.
* '''Service-based SLA''': An agreement for all customers using the services being delivered by the service provider'''.''' For example:
** A mobile service provider offers a routine service to all the customers and offers certain maintenance as a part of an offer with the universal charging.
** An email system for the entire organization. There are chances of difficulties arising in this type of SLA as level of the services being offered may vary for different customers (for example, head office staff may use high-speed [[Local area network|LAN]] connections while local offices may have to use a lower speed leased line).
* '''Multilevel SLA''': The SLA is split into the different levels, each addressing different set of customers for the same services, in the same SLA.
** '''Corporate-level SLA''': Covering all the generic [[Service level management#Service level management|service level management]] (often abbreviated as SLM) issues appropriate to every customer throughout the organization. These issues are likely to be less volatile and so updates (SLA reviews) are less frequently required.
** '''Customer-level SLA''': covering all SLM issues relevant to the particular customer group, regardless of the services being used.
** '''Service-level SLA''': covering all SLM issue relevant to the specific services, in relation to this specific customer group.