A Service Level Agreement can be used to contract any type of service no matter how big or small.
A Service Level Agreement will be used not only as a contract between the service provider and the customer but also as a memorandum of understanding between the two of what is expected of the service to be provided, as well as defining performance and delivery time expectations of the agreed work.
Typically a Service Level Agreement will have a number of mutually agreed terms such as level and range of the service to be provided, warranties, responsibilities of both parties and guarantees.
Service Level Agreements can have a plethora of uses. They can be used for relatively small service arrangements, all the way up to large scale services. An example of a smaller type of service that can be engaged by such an agreement is for the engagement of services between an internet service provider and a customer. This type of agreement would detail the criteria and specifications of the internet service to be provided, how it is to be provided, the agreed quality and level of the service, as well as any limits of use or usage policies the customer is to follow.
A larger scale example of a Service Level Agreement …
A larger scale example of the use of a Service Level Agreement may be depicted through the rental of construction machinery. In this case, a certain number of machines are often rented for a specific purpose, for a specific duration, to be at a specified site. The contractor of the machines’ services will require the machine for a particular defined purpose. This will need to be reflected in the Service Level Agreement.
This example also shows that there is a defined purpose for the agreement and terms of use for both parties.
Another defining feature of a service agreement is that there is a completion date or delivery measure for the services. This can be demonstrated in the internet provider example with the service being provided and measured on a monthly basis.
Where a service of any type is being provided, it is beneficial for both the provider and the client to enter into a Service Level Agreement. This will ensure that expectations of the service provision, the duties of both parties, and the quality and parameters of the work expected and provided will be reflected in the agreement. Overall this result means greater clarity in expectations and ultimate final satisfaction of both parties.
