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Pau Lo

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service charter for contracts or SLA

Our partner organisation has a contract with a 3rd party to host and support an IT application. The contract has no specific SLA's around issues such as performance, availability, issue resolution etc. However, the 3rd party do offer a "service charter" which details what standards and metrics they will align to with their service provision. Is this adequate, or do you still need SLA's in place?
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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It should be very clear, what Service Level Agreements are in place, even at the simplest level....

The "devil will be in the detail" of the Service Charter, which could be a SLA in disguise.

so, in terms of Issue Resolution, what does it state?

Full Service restored within 1 hour ?

You need to put in terms, what provisions you want to meet, or walk away, or negotiate. (which could mean an increase in price of the contract!)
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Pau Lo

ASKER

does/can a service charter in itself act as an SLA? They seem to be a document external to the formal contract.
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ASKER

I was kind of thinking an SLA in a formal contract - mandatory - and penalties can be applied, whereas a general all customer service charter is just a "this is what we aim to align to" type document, but they arent contractually obliged to do so...
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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