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Configuring service level agreements

Service level agreements (SLAs) enable a service provider to formally document the needs of its customers or lines of business by using agreements and providing the correct level of service to meet those needs. A service provider can be an IT organization, a customer support group, or an external service provider.

SLAs allow you to track performance and progress against your commitments. You can react quickly to ensure that the goals defined in the SLAs are met. Based on your requirements, you can enable SLAs for each group. SLA milestones are used to update information in tickets and ticket notes. You can send email notifications to administrators, technicians, and requestors to ensure the goals of the service are met.

This topic contains the following information:

Video

The following video (12:26) provides information about configuring service level agreements in Track-It!:



https://youtu.be/SBqHzmMbCRo Open link

Benefits of service level agreements

  • Provides a means to review, enforce, and report on the level of service provided.
  • Streamlines the communication between a service provider and its customers; enables costs to be controlled; and helps to provide a consistent level of service in support of key business services.
  • Helps management to provide a high level of responsiveness to assess and monitor the relationship between the support staff member and their customers that helps them to meet service commitments.
  • Allows service organizations to monitor key infrastructure performance indicators and business services as defined in SLAs.
  • Provides a means to create goals and monitor commitments.

Components of a service level agreement

Together, the following components form a service level agreement:

GoalsThe objective of the service level agreement.
CriteriaThe conditions that determine when the SLA is applied on a record.
MilestonesThe events that are configured based on the clock conditions.

Understanding how service level agreements are applied to a record

The following figure illustrates how SLAs are applied to a record:

Consider the following important points:

  • When you create a ticket from the Track-It! application and only one SLA matches the ticket criteria, the SLA is automatically attached to the ticket.
  • When you create a ticket from the Track-It! application and multiple SLAs match the ticket criteria, from the list of matching SLAs, you can select an SLA to attach to the ticket.
  • A ticket created from Self Service or created as a result of a business rule is attached to the best matched SLA based on the following ranking:
    1. Requestor
    2. Department
    3. Location
    4. Category
      For example, if there is no SLA defined for Requestor, Department, Location, or Category, and if there is an SLA for Status = Open, that SLA is attached to any ticket that is created from Self Service or by a business rule with the open status.

Key considerations for milestone

  • After a milestone for a ticket has been executed, the SLA Milestone Complete check box is selected for the ticket.
  • If a ticket is resolved and closed, even if the milestone has not been executed, the SLA Milestone Complete check box is selected.
  • SLA milestones are not applied when the clock is stopped.
  • If all the milestones are executed, a condition with the Last Modified for the If the elapsed time since option for a milestone might not work as expected. This issue occurs because after all the milestones are executed, the SLA Milestones Complete check box is automatically selected for a ticket on which the SLA is applied.
  • Milestones do not trigger for tickets that were created before the SLA was created.

To enable service level agreements for a group

  1. On the header bar, expand the hamburger menu  and select Configuration.
  2. Click SLAs and Business Rules and from the Service Level Agreements list, select Service Level Agreements.
  3. On the Service Level Agreements page, click Manage SLA.
  4. In the Manage SLA dialog box, from the group list, select the group for which you want to enable SLAs.
  5. (Optional) To enable SLAs when a ticket is updated, select the Validate selected SLA when Ticket is changed check box.
    By default, the Yes, Select SLA option is selected.
  6. (Optional) To disable SLAs for a group, select the No, disable SLAs.
  7. Perform one of the following actions:
    • To keep the Manage SLA dialog box open to enable SLAs for another group, click Apply.
    • To close the Manage SLA dialog box, click Apply and Close.

To create a service level agreement

  1. On the header bar, expand the hamburger menu  and select Configuration.
  2. Click SLAs and Business Rules and from the Service Level Agreements list, select Service Level Agreements.
  3. On the Service Level Agreements page, click New.
  4. In the New Service Level Agreement dialog box, in the SLA Name field, enter an appropriate SLA name.
  5. To activate the SLA, ensure that the Inactive check box is cleared.
  6. In the Start Date field, select a start date for your SLA.
    By default, the current date is displayed.
  7. In the End Date field, select an end date for your SLA.
  8. From the IT Owner list, select an IT owner.
  9. From the Status list, select a status.
  10. In the SLA Description field, enter description for the SLA.
  11. In the Define Goal section, from the Priority list, select priority.
    Based on value you select, the other fields in the Define Goal section are populated. For more information, see Creating and managing priorities.
  12. In the Define Criteria section, perform the following actions:
    1. From the Select a Field list, select a field that you want to use to configure the SLA, such as Department.
    2. From the Select a Condition list, select a required condition.
    3. Based on the condition that you select, from the Select/Enter a Value list, select or enter a field value.
    4. To add the defined condition, click .
    5. To add another condition, repeat step 12a to step 12d.
    6. (Optional) To delete a condition, click .
  13. Click Save.

Defining milestones for a service level agreement

After you define and save your SLA, you can configure the milestones.

  1. Navigate to the Service Level Agreements page (hamburger menu  > Configuration > SLAs and Business Rules > Service Level Agreements > Service Level Agreements).
  2. From the list of SLAs, click Edit or double-click the SLA for which you want to define milestones.
  3. Click Define Milestones and then click New.
  4. In the Add Milestone dialog box, perform the following actions:

    1. In the Milestone Name field, enter a name for the milestone.
    2. To activate the milestone, ensure that the Inactive check box is cleared.
    3. In the Define Conditions section, perform the following actions:
      • If you are tracking available time, select an appropriate option, and in the Reaches section, enter the duration.
      • If you are tracking if the elapsed time, select an appropriate option, and in the Reaches section, enter the duration.
    4. Click Define Actions, perform the following actions:

      1. From the Select an Action list, select an action that the milestone must perform, such as Update Record.
      2. From the Select Record Type list, select a type such as Tickets.
      3. In the Select a Field dialog box, from the Select a Field list, select a field, such as Category.
      4. From the Select a Value from list, select an option, such as Use a value or an expression.
      5. From the Select/Enter a Value list, select an option, such as Applications.
      6. To add the configured action, click  .
      7. To add multiple actions, repeat step the above steps.
      8. (Optional) To delete an action, click .
    5. Click Save.
  5. To enter multiple milestones, repeat step 4.
  6. Click Save.

Understanding how a service level agreement milestones are executed

When a milestone is created and enabled for an SLA, and business rules are also enabled, the job queue immediately polls the conditions on the milestone every two minutes. You can configure a custom polling rate in the Job Monitor Settings. For more information, see Configuring job monitor settings.

On the Job Monitor Settings form, the Poll interval is set to two minutes by default. Based on your requirement, you can change the polling interval if other than the default is required. When milestones are polled, the entries appear on the Business Rule Event Viewer.

Note

The maximum polling interval for an SLA milestone is five minutes. For example, if you set the poll interval to 30 minutes, the SLA milestones are polled at every five minutes.

About paused milestones

When the job queue starts to poll a milestone, if the executed actions fail, the system continues to poll the milestone until the actions are completed successfully. The number of retries is based on the setting in the Retry Limit field in the Job Monitor Settings. When the retries are exhausted, the milestone is paused. Paused milestones appear on the Business Rule Event Viewer.

Before you resume any action on a paused milestone, you must check and resolve the reasons for failure. You can use the Debug View to track the business rules and notification activity. By using the LogConfig utility, you can enable appropriate logging levels and log targets: file system or system trace that can be read by using the DebugView utility. For more  information, see Using Track-It! utilities.

You can resume paused milestone, delete, or disable milestones from the Business Rule Event Viewer. For more information, see Tracking business rules and SLA events.

To copy, edit, or delete a service level agreement

  1. Navigate to the Service Level Agreements page (hamburger menu  > Configuration > SLAs and Business Rules > Service Level Agreements > Service Level Agreements).
  2. On the Service Level Agreements page, perform one of the following actions:

    ActionSteps
    To copy an SLA
    1. Select the SLA that you want to copy and then click Copy .
    2. In the Copy Service Level Agreement dialog box, enter an appropriate name.
    3. Click Save.
    To edit an SLA
    1. Select the SLA that you want to modify and then click Edit .
    2. In the Service Level Agreement: servicelevelAgreementName dialog box, edit the required fields.
    3. Click Save.
    To delete an SLA
    1. Select the SLA that you want to delete and then click Delete.
    2. In the Delete Record dialog box, click Yes.


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