This documentation supports the 20.02 version of BMC Service Level Management. To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.

End-to-end process

The following sections describe different approaches to service level management as well as a high-level process for using BMC Service Level Management in your environment.

Goals of service level management

With BMC Service Level Management (BMC SLM), IT can manage the entire range of service level agreements, from defining SLAs and monitoring compliance to collecting and analyzing Key Performance Indicator (KPI) data, addressing problem areas, and continually refining the services offered. BMC SLM enables real time, proactive SLA management to ensure that you meet or exceed expectations. As a result, you can keep IT service delivery and support closely aligned with business requirements and continually improve service quality.

Purpose of service level management

The purpose of service level management is to ensure that all operational services and their performance are measured in a consistent manner throughout the IT organization, and that the services and the information produced meet the needs of the business and customers.

Objectives of service level management

The objectives of the service level management process are to maintain and improve on an agreed level of IT service quality. The agreed level is provided for currently defined and anticipated IT services. IT service improvement is accomplished through a continuous cycle of agreeing, monitoring, and reporting.

Benefits of service level management

The benefits of service level management are found in service quality improvements, and the reduction in service disruption, which can lead to significant financial savings. Other specific benefits from service level management includes the following items:

  • Enables you to pinpoint areas of weakness and take corrective action.
  • Helps you to understand the impact to the business for missed service targets.
  • Allows you to gain visibility into which agreements are not being met and which agreements exceed compliance targets.
  • Allows you to view trends, spot problem areas, and minimize disruptions for key business services.
  • Helps IT managers, customer service managers, and other service providers to guarantee a high level of responsiveness to service requests.
  • Helps service organizations to assess and monitor the relationship between the support staff and their customers and helps them to meet service commitments.
  • Allows service organizations to monitor key infrastructure performance indicators and business services as defined in Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Operational Level Agreements (OLAs), and Underpinning Contracts.
  • Provides a means to create goals and monitor commitments through reports and graphical dashboards.
  • Improves customer satisfaction.
  • Facilitates agreement between business and IT on service priorities.
  • Reduces service disruption.
  • Helps IT understand the cost to the business for missed service targets.
  • Increases understanding of cost, risk, and business priorities.

SLA lifecycle management

BMC Service Level Management (BMC SLM) supports the complete SLA lifecycle. During the first phase of the lifecycle, BMC SLM helps establish success criteria with a customer. In the second phase, you implement definition and monitoring framework. In the third phase, you manage operations with business priority interlocked to IT processes. In the last phase, you review and improve service based on review results.


 

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