Configuring Follow the Sun

You can handle business operations seamlessly in different timezones by using Follow the Sun model. For this, you can use the BMC Service Level Management (Service Level Management) business entities for the cumulative calculations of an Operational Level Agreement (OLA) service target across business entities. OLAs track internal service commitments such as the resolution time for incidents or problems assigned to IT groups.

Important

Cumulative calculations across business entities does not work with SLA type service targets.

Related topic

Defining-service-targets

Configuring-service-targets

If a request is reassigned by a technician in one business entity to a technician in another business entity, the Service Level Management measurements continue and the milestones and due date are updated.

For example, a request is reassigned from the California-San Francisco business entity (Monday to Friday 8:00 to 18:00) to the England-Greenwich business entity (Monday to Friday 8:00 to 17:00). Service Level Management calculates the time spent in the California-San Francisco business entity and starts to record the time in the England-Greenwich business entity. When the request is completed, the times spent within each business entity are added together to produce the total time spent working on the request. The total is then compared against the goal time to calculate whether the service target is met or missed.

Important

Make sure your Service Target uses the value from a field on the application form to determine the business entity by checking the "Use on App Form" option. If you specify the business entity on the service target definition form, Follow the Sun is not invoked.

To configure Follow the Sun

 Configuring Follow the Sun involves three steps:

  1. Create a field on the application form to hold the business entity, if needed.
  2. Reference the field for your Operational Level Agreement (OLA) on the Data Source Settings page (see To reference the business entity field).
  3. Verify that your service target is an OLA and check the Use on App Form option.

To reference the business entity field

  1. Log on to BMC Service Level Management Administration Console.
  2. On the Data Source page, select the MSP/Business Time tab .

  3. Select an OLA Type Reference Field.
    This value specifies the field on the application form that holds the business entity.

    Important

    If you change the settings in the OLA Type Reference Field you must rebuild the service target afterwards.

    Do not rename a business entity in use.

To create your service target

  1. Log on to the Service Level Management Console.
  2. During the service target definition in Step 1 of 4, in the Agreement Type field, select Operational Level Agreement.
  3. In the Step 2 of 4, select the Use on App Form check box.

This step specifies that you want the fields on the application form to be used for the business entity.

Important

If you build the data source filters to include the OLA Type Reference field or the SLA Type Reference field, the value of that field on the data source record overrides the value of the business entity on the service target definition. Therefore, if you select the business entity from the list on the Business Entity field, Follow the Sun does not work because the business entity does not change. The business entity must be referenced from the field on the Application form. However, if the OLA service target (or SLA service target) is built and data source filters set the value for the OLA Type Reference field (or SLA Type Reference field), it does not matter whether or not the Business Entity field on the service target definition is configured, because the value of the data source record field configured for the OLA Type Reference field (or SLA Type Reference field) takes precedence.

Examples

Consider the following examples to see how a service target can reference:

  • Two business entities
  • Business entities on different servers on different machines.

Example 1: Service target computation for two business entities

  • Business Entity 1 is available from 8:00 to 16:00 Monday to Friday.
  • Business Entity 2 is available from 18:00 to 02:00 Monday to Friday.
  • The Operational Level Agreement (OLA) service target has an 8-hour resolution goal time.
  • The orange line shows the timeline for the SLA and the green line shows the timeline for the OLA.

The following image explains the timeline for scenario 1:

SLMWiki-111.gif

  1. At 12:00, a request is submitted in California. The due date for the OLA is calculated at 12:00 the next day in Business Entity 1.
  2. At 16:00, the request is reassigned and Business Entity 2 is now referenced by the OLA. The OLA goal time is recalculated to 22:00 hours on the same day. The time spent on the OLA in Business Entity 1 is calculated.
  3. During non-operating business hours, no time is used in calculations.
  4. At 18:00, the service target starts to be tracked in Business Entity 2 for the OLA.
  5. At 24:00, the request is resolved and the OLA is completed. The total time spent on the request was 10 hours for the OLA (4 hours Business Entity 1 + 6 hours Business Entity 2). The OLA goal is not met. You can reevaluate your commitment to OLAs to ensure you can meet your SLAs in the future. In our scenario, having two shifts enabled the SLA to be met.

Example 2: Service target computation for business entities on different servers on different machines

  • Server 3 in Seattle has Business Entity 3 configured (8:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday, Pacific Standard time).
  • Server 4 in England has Business Entity 4 configured (8:00 to 16:00 Monday to Friday, England-Greenwich time).
  • Server 5 in Singapore has Business Entity 5 configured (9:00 to 19:00 Monday to Friday,Singapore time).
  • An Operational Level Agreement (OLA) service target has a 20-hour resolution goal time.

    The following image explains the timeline for scenario 2:
    SLMWiki-112.gif
  1. At 14:00, a request is submitted in Seattle. The due date for the OLA is calculated to be 16:00 in two days using Business Entity 3.
  2. At 18:00, the request is reassigned and Business Entity 4 is now referenced by the OLA. The OLA goal time is recalculated and the time spent on the OLA in Business Entity 3 is calculated.
  3. During non operating business hours, therefore no time is used in calculations.
  4. At 08:00 the service target starts to be tracked in Business Entity 4 for the OLA.
  5. At 16:00, the request is reassigned and Business Entity 5 is now referenced by the OLA. The OLA goal time is recalculated and the time spent on the OLA in Business Entity 4 is calculated.
  6. At 09:00, the service starts to be tracked in Business Entity 5 for the OLA.
  7. At 13:00, the request is resolved and the OLA is completed. The total time spent on the request was 16 hours for the OLA (4 hours Business Entity 3 + 8 hours Business Entity 4 + 4 hours Business Entity 5).

In this scenario both the OLA and the SLA were met, but having three shifts enabled the customer commitment to be completed much earlier.


 

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