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It is therefore advised to clearly define what you are (not) going to do under the agreement in a Service Level Agreement (‘SLA’). You can offer your client the SLA as a separate contract, or as part of the offer.

A Service Level Agreement specifies which levels of service you guarantee. This goes beyond the clauses in ‘standard’ contracts, in which at most the sentence ‘we make our best efforts to keep the service online 24/7’ is laid down.

A SLA is more extensive, specifying in detail in which way the services will be provided. This includes for example guarantees on the online time (‘at least 99,5%’) and protocols regarding disturbances (‘within 10 minutes a receipt, within 30 minutes a status report’). It is up to you in how much detail you want to go. In an SLA, it is important to clearly define the situations in which there is a violation of the obligations laid down in the document and what the consequences of such violations are.

Does your Service Level Agreement (SLA) comply with the following?

• Does your quotation state for which configuration and management matters you have responsibility?
• Do you work with a separate SLA in which you guarantee the level of service?
• Do you clearly define in your SLA what exactly you guarantee?
• How does the client know whether the SLA forms part of its hosting contract?

• Does your quotation or do your terms and conditions state how often you create backups? When describing backups, do you describe what you exactly back up and how often you test the backups?
• How often should the SLA be revised and how should this be carried out?
• Do you have SLAs signed before they actually take effect?
• Does your SLA contain a penalty clause? Does this set out when a penalty is due?
• Can you explain to your clients why the amount stated (and not more) will be paid as a penalty?
• What do you define as “support” and how far does this go?
• Have you clearly defined your response times in the event of problems and support?
• Does the client know when additional costs are required to be paid for support before signing the SLA?

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