* Should an IT organization offer SLAs to their internal users?
The last two newsletters highlighted the dialogue at Network World’s recent IT Roadmap conference in Denver and how it emphasized that the challenging economic environment puts pressure on IT organizations to focus even more than they do in normal economic times. With that in mind, the last two newsletters discussed the need for IT organizations to identify their key applications and to establish service-level agreements for them. This newsletter will continue the discussion of internal SLAs for key applications.
As noted, in the last newsletter we stated our belief that IT organizations should establish SLAs for a handful of key applications and services. We did this because we believe that an IT organization is more likely to be successful if it has these SLAs. Of course, success is not automatic. For example, too often we get asked simple questions such as “Should an IT organization offer SLAs to their internal users?” or “Is it a good idea for an IT organization to implement an architecture function?” In an era of sound bites, the person asking the question typically wants a simple yes or no answer. We try to avoid such simple answers because as we will elaborate on in the next few newsletters, we fervently believe that the truthful answer to the question of ‘should IT organizations offer internal SLAs’ is that it depends.
Before we discuss internal SLAs, let’s discuss external SLAs such as the ones that IT organizations get from their WAN service providers. Basically, every IT organization that we have ever worked with has always insisted that they get an SLA from their WAN service provider for the performance of services such as Frame Relay, ATM or MPLS. That being said, most IT shops do not find these SLAs to be very meaningful, and one IT executive recently told us that the SLAs he gets from his WAN service providers “are not worth the paper that they are written on.”
That raises a critical question: If the SLAs we get from our WAN service providers are not that useful, what are we going to do differently with our internal SLAs to ensure they make a difference? Put another way, in 2009 IT organizations do not have the time or the resources to go off and create SLAs merely as a check-off item because some senior IT executive or industry pundit thought it was a good idea.
The next newsletter will continue to discuss whether or not internal SLAs are worthwhile. In the mean time, we invite you to tell us about your experience with offering internal SLAs? Did it help or was it just one more check-off item? Also, more information on the functions that IT organizations should focus on in 2009 can be found here.
Also, the next IT Roadmap conference will be held in Chicago on April 2. If you are in the area, try to attend as we will continue the discussion of how IT organizations can best cope with the current economic challenges.
