SLA and OLA
Different agreements may be signed by the IT Department.
Definition
- SLA (Service Level Agreement): They are signed with customers to calculate the target resolution date for an incident, service request, change request, or investment request using its Support start date. SLAs are also used to measure the effectiveness and responsiveness of the IT Department and its service providers.
- OLA (Operational Level Agreement): They are signed with service providers to calculate their target intervention date using the date on which the action was transferred to them. They are applied to workflow steps.
- UC (Underpinning Contract): They are OLA agreements signed with external service providers.
EndDefinition
The three types of agreements take into consideration the service hours of the IT Support team and its service providers as well as public holidays. They can also be overridden during critical periods for the organization.
See the graphic representation

Notes
- Calculated priority of an incident/request = Impact + Urgency - 1
- An OLA can be associated with a group of Support persons. In this case, it is used to define the target intervention date of this group for actions transferred outside the workflow (escalation or redirection).
Rules
SLA application rules
SLA_ApplicationRule
- The SLA applicable is always the most restrictive one, i.e. the one with the shortest resolution time, of the two SLAs defined respectively for the catalog category and for the SLA by priority. Note: The SLA by priority is automatically readjusted when the levels of urgency and impact are modified when creating the ticket. It also takes into consideration the VIP level of the recipient.
See the examples.
- You can use the Change SLA wizard to override the SLA. If this is the case, the new SLA will be applicable.
EndSLA_ApplicationRule
SLA creation rules
- SLAs are created and customized based on each customer's strategy.
- Default SLAs can be defined in catalog categories.
- SLAs by priority can also apply to incidents and service requests which are determined based on the levels of urgency and impact of the catalog categories.
- When a ticket is created, the Service Desk operator can override the urgency and/or impact assigned by default. This may modify the SLA by priority.
- The VIP level of the recipient and the critical level of the equipment will automatically increase the urgency. As such, this will change the priority and may modify the SLA by priority.
- Note: In order to specify an SLA by priority for service requests, you must first go to Other Parameters and enable the {SM} Use SLAs by Priority for Services parameter.
Rules for calculating time to solve and late incidents
See the example.
- Calculations are automatically run once the incident is closed.
- Time to solve = Duration of the incident (time between the creation date of the quick call and the end of the incident, entered by the Support person) - non-working time in the SLA calendar (time outside the service hours of the IT Department and public holidays)
- Late = Time to solve of the incident - SLA maximum time. If the difference is negative (i.e. incident processed before the end of the SLA maximum time), the value 0 is displayed (not late).
Best Practice
- Before defining an SLA/OLA, you should define service hours, public holidays and lists of public holidays in the reference tables.
- Give the SLA a descriptive name so that you can identify it easily with the speed of intervention required. If there are two SLAs/OLAs of the same duration for two different geographical areas, you should specify the geographical area in the name.
example 8 hours USA and 8 hours France
- Because no consistency control will be performed automatically, you must ensure that the sum of OLA deadlines does not exceed the SLA deadline if successive actions are required.
Screen description
Menu access: Operation / Transition > References > SLAs
Description: Description of the SLA/OLA.
Service Hours: Used to indicate working days or periods taken into account in the calculation of the target intervention time.
- For SLAs: Service hours of the IT Department.
- For OLAs: Hours during which service providers can intervene.
example
- IT Department service hours: from 9 am to 6 pm
- Service provider service hours: from 8 am to 8 pm
Time Period (Hours): Target intervention time defined in the agreement.
- For SLAs: Deadline of the IT Department for processing an incident/request.
- For OLAs: Deadline of service providers for performing the workflow step for which they are responsible.
Holiday List: Used to indicate the non-working periods taken into consideration when calculating the target intervention date using the list of public holidays defined for the current SLA/OLA.
- The target intervention or resolution date is automatically pushed back to the next working day.
If the Request was entered before: Cut-off time prior to which an incident/request must be declared to the IT Department in order to benefit from faster intervention. In this case, the standard speed of intervention is replaced with a new one at D+1 calculated using the OLA Target and Before fields.
- The date and time are displayed in the time zone of the recipient.
example Request is submitted before 1 pm ==> Intervention on the same day before 6 pm
OLA Target: Day the incident/request is processed, provided it is declared before a specific cut-off time.
example The same day, the next day
Before: Cut-off time prior to which the IT Department must process an incident/request declared within the time limit, taking into consideration the intervention date.
- The date and time are displayed in the time zone of the recipient.
List of tabs
Overridden SLA: List of overridden periods during which the current SLA is replaced with another. These can be one-off or recurrent periods, over one or more years.
example
- One-off periods: At the end of the year, from December 28 to 31
- Monthly periods: The last days of every month, from 28 to 31
- Periods overlapping two years: From December 20 to January 15
- To specify a monthly period, enter the value 0 in the Month starting the Period/Month ending the Period fields.
example Recurrent month-end period from 28 to 31 ==> 28.0 to 31.0
- Periods can overlap.
- The overriding SLA can also be overridden by another.
- When a deadline of D+1 is defined for the overriding SLA, it replaces the current one.
Procedure and Wizards
How to override an SLA/OLA
Step 1 (optional): Indicating the faster intervention for an incident/request reported before a cut-off time.
1. Select the Details tab.
2. Specify the If the Request was entered before, OLA Target, and Before fields.
Step 2 (optional): Indicating a critical period.
1. Select the Overridden SLA tab.
2. Click .
3. Specify the period you want.
- For a monthly period, enter 0 in the Month starting the Period/Month ending the Period fields.
Step 3 (optional): Associating an OLA for actions outside the workflow with a group of Support persons.
1. Select Operation / Transition > Directory > Groups in the menu.
2. Specify the Default OLA field.
Step 4 (optional): Defining an SLA priority for a given priority level.
1. Select Operation > References > SLA Priorities in the menu.
2. Select the priority level you want.
3. Specify the SLA applicable to incidents/requests that will replace the standard one.
Wizards
Examples
Overridden SLA
SLA conditions
Condition | Value | |
---|---|---|
Service hours of the IT Department | 8 am to 8 pm | |
Standard SLA | Speed of intervention for Accounting workstations incidents: 10 hours maximum. | |
Override to D+1 | For all incidents declared before 1 pm, the intervention will be carried out on the same day before 6 pm. | |
Override for month-end periods (payroll) | The intervention will be carried out within 4 hours on the last 2 days of the month. |
Calculation of the target resolution date for incidents declared by the Accounting Department
Ticket | Start date | Rule | Resolution date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Incident reported at 6 pm | 6 pm | Application of the standard SLA using the start date | The next day by 4 pm | |
Incident reported at 10 am
==> Before the D+1 intervention cut-off time |
10 am | Application of the D+1 intervention deadline | The same day by 6 pm | |
Incident reported at 10 pm
==> After the IT Department service hours |
The next day at 8 am | Application of the standard SLA using the start date | The next day by 6 pm | |
Incident reported on April 30 at 3 pm
==> The last day of the month |
April 30 at 3 pm | Application of the month-end intervention deadline | The same day by 7 pm |
SLAs and SLA priorities
Definition of the incidents catalog entries
Subject | SLA | Urgency | Impact | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Incidents > Workstations | 8 hours | 2 - Medium | 2 - Medium | |
Incidents > Security | 4 hours | 1 - High | 2 - Medium |
Definition of the SLA priorities
Priority level | SLA priority | |
---|---|---|
1 - High | 2 hours | |
2 - Medium | 6 hours |
Calculation of the target resolution date for different tickets
Ticket | SLA of the subject | Calculation of the priority | SLA priority | SLA applied (the most restrictive) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Workstations | 8 hours | (2 + 2 - 1) = 3 | None | 8 hours | |
Workstations
==> The Support person overrides the urgency ticket to 1 - High. |
8 hours | (1 + 2 - 1) = 2 | 6 hours | 6 hours | |
Detection of a virus | 4 hours | (1 + 2 - 1) = 2 | 6 hours | 4 hours | |
Detection of a virus
==> The recipient is a VIP user. |
4 hours | (1 + 2 - 1 - 1) = 1 | 2 hours | 2 hours |
Calculation of time to solve and late incidents
Context
Characteristics | Value | |
---|---|---|
Incident history |
|
|
SLA of the subject | 8 hours | |
Calendar | Friday is a public holiday | |
IT Department service hours |
|
Calculations
Characteristics | Result | Detail of the calculation | |
---|---|---|---|
Actual time to solve | 11 hours |
3 hours between creation (Thursday 12 noon) and its suspension (Thursday 3 pm) + 8 hours between resuming (Saturday 8 am, as Friday is a public holiday) and resolution (Monday 12 noon), taking into consideration the respective service hours (4 hours on Saturday and 4 hours on Monday) |
|
Late incident | 3 hours compared with the SLA |
Actual time to solve (11 hours) - SLA target (8 hours) |