A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract between the customer and service provider that spells out the services, priorities, responsibilities, guarantees and warranties involved in the business relationship.

In any service agreement, each area of service clearly define its own level of service. The SLA may indicate the levels of availability, serviceability, performance or operation. The level of service may also be specified as “minimum” and “target,” which helps to manage expectations in terms of base-level performance as well as computable target values.

SLAs may address the following topics and metrics, just to name a few:

• A detailed description of services
• Advance notification of system alterations that may affect clients
• Percentage of the time services will be available
• Dial-in accessibility
• Quantity of users that can be assisted simultaneously
• Specific performance benchmarks against which actual performance will be measured to help desk response time
• Issue resolution
• Client roles and responsibilities
• Warranties
• Disaster recovery
• Termination of agreement