Small businesses that wish to remain competitive can no longer afford to be complacent about technology support. Linking service level agreements (SLAs) to IT support is becoming vital, says Dawie Bloomberg, MD of Green Apple IT, a provider of general IT support to small businesses.
SLAs are not beyond the reach of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMEs and SMMEs) and can be tailored to meet business requirements and budgets.
Small businesses today rely on IT systems for communication, transacting and even delivery of service. While these systems may not be as complex as enterprise IT systems, they are every bit as mission critical. Network failure or losing access to email can be debilitating, signalling loss of sales and a drop in service capability.
With small business owners being more tech savvy and hands-on in terms of implementing IT systems and solutions than ever before, many try to do it all with less than satisfactory results.
The reality is that it takes technology management expertise and ongoing vigilance to ensure a stable, reliable technology environment and IT support SLAs can help mitigate the risk. A clear understanding of how to build support around critical applications and systems can deliver SLAs that are both effective and affordable.
Designing an effective SLA for SMEs
The key objective in designing an effective IT support SLA is to build a support structure around the business critical applications and systems that drive core business processes and operations.
The first step is to assess the IT systems and solutions in place, identify critical applications and systems, determine risk to the business and shore up obvious weaknesses.
This phase lays the foundation for ongoing support and often requires close collaboration between the business and the outsourced service provider. Typical issues addressed in this phase may include ensuring there is no single point of failure, that backups are in place and are running properly, that resilience is built into IT systems to cope with potential failure, and that a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is in place.
Once this foundation is laid, the next step is to define how critical systems will be supported. Particular focus should be given to system health checks, which encompass regular assessments of network, server and application performance. This facilitates proactive preventative maintenance and provides early warning of any irregularities or potential failure.
It also helps ensure that the service provider remains aware of the status of the businesses IT systems and what issues the client is facing. This guarantees that if and when challenges arise they can be speedily and effectively addressed.
What will make all the difference is ensuring that the outsource service provider selected has the right skills and experience to support the business. Questions to ask include: does the service provider have a good track record, do they have experience supporting SMMEs, do its technicians have the necessary formal training, and does it have an established service management capability?
The business approach and service philosophy of the service provider are also important factors to consider.
The outsourced service provider users appoint to take care of critical business systems must have the capacity to deliver on the SLA, but also be committed to ensuring business systems run smoothly and are continually optimised. The best relationships are built on trust and transparency.