Adding and editing service level agreements

SECURITY  Security level with Admin permission to configure Service Desk (Tickets). Refer to Admin security settings.

NAVIGATION   > Admin > Features & Settings > Service Desk (Tickets) > Service Level Management > New

Creating a service level agreement is a 2-step process:

  • First, you enter and save general SLA information
  • Then, you define the objectives for the SLA

How to...

  1. To open the page, use the path(s) in the Security and navigation section above.
  2. On the Service Level Management table, click New. The Service Level Agreements page opens in a new window.

  1. Complete the following fields:
Field Description
Service Level Agreement Name Enter a name for the SLA.
Service Level Agreement Description Enter a description for the SLA, including when it should be used.
Options
Use the business hours of Select the internal location with the business hours you would like to use for this SLA. For information on how to configure business hours for a location, refer to Add business hours to an internal location.

Alternatively, you can select Custom Hours from the drop-down list to activate the Hours tab, where you can configure hours specific to this SLA. Custom hours will use the Holiday Set associated with the default internal location. You can specify whether or not to include holidays as scheduled business hours. Refer to Configure custom hours for the SLA.
Use SLA to automatically set the ticket due date and time Select this check box if you would like the SLA objectives' Resolved time frames to determine the ticket due date and time. For example, if a new high priority ticket is created on August 7 at 9:01 AM, the Business Hours are 9 AM to 5 PM, and the SLA objective sets 8 hours for the "Resolved Within" time frame, the due date and time for the ticket will be August 8 at 9 AM.

NOTE  When this check box is selected, it will override any due date/time changes made manually or by a workflow rule. Refer to I am unable to change the due date of my ticket.
Goals
First Response Goal % Enter a number between 0 and 100 for each field to indicate the percentage of time you promise to meet the first response, resolution plan, and resolved timeframes (you will define these in the SLA Objectives). Two decimal points are supported.

You will be able to report on your actual performance vs. these goals using the SLA Performance by SLA report. Refer to Reports on ticket metrics and SLA performance.
Resolution Plan Goal %
Resolved Goal %
  1. Click Save. You must save a new SLA before you can add objectives.

Objectives define the anticipated duration of each SLA event and the business hours during which the SLA clock should record SLA data. Each SLA contains a default objective that can be edited, but not deleted. You can add objectives as needed. For more information, refer to SLA objectives.

  1. To create a new objective for your SLA, click New on the Objectives tab.

To edit an existing objective, click the Edit icon or right-click an objective and select Edit Service Level Agreement Objective.

To copy an existing objective, right-click and select Copy Objective.

The New/Edit Objective window will open.

  1. Complete or update the following fields:
Field Description
Priority Select the Priority, Ticket Type, Ticket Category, Issue Type, and Sub-issue type this objective will apply to. This combination must be unique for this SLA (that is, an SLA cannot have multiple objectives with the same Priority/Ticket Type/Ticket Category/Issue/Sub-issue combination).
Ticket Category has an [All] option, and it will contain all active Ticket Categories plus the currently selected Ticket Category even if it is now inactive. If an inactive Ticket Category is included, “ [inactive]” is appended to the end of the name. Ticket Categories are listed based on the sort order configured in Admin.
If an SLA only has 1 objective ([All], [All], [All], [All] > [All]), these fields will be set to [All] and they will be disabled.
Ticket Type
Ticket Category
Issue Type
Sub-issue Type
First Response

Select one of the following target options for each event of the objective: First Response, Resolution Plan, and Resolved:

  • Within # Hours: When you select this option, you must specify the number hours within which the first response, resolution plan, or resolution is required. The number of hours will respect the selected timeframe.

EXAMPLE  If the timeframe is Business Hours, your business hours begin at 8 AM and end at 6 PM, the ticket comes in at 5 PM, and you are supposed to react within 2 hours, the response will be due at 9 AM the next day.

  • End of Day - Min. # Hours: This option sets the first response, resolution plan, or resolution target to the end of the current day as determined by the selected timeframe. You can specify a minimum number of hours remaining in the day after which the first response target will move to the end of the next day.

EXAMPLE  If you set the minimum number of hours to 3 and your day ends at 7 PM, and you create a ticket at 4:30 PM, the target will move to the end of the next business day, because there are less than three hours remaining in the current day.

  • End of Next Day - Min. # of Hours: This option sets the first response, resolution plan, or resolution target to the end of the next business day as determined by the selected timeframe. You can specify a minimum number of hours remaining in the day after which the first response target will move to the end of the next day.

EXAMPLE  If you set the minimum number of hours to 3 and your day ends at 7 PM, and you create a ticket at 4:30 PM, the target will move to the end of the day after the next business day, because there are less than three hours remaining in the current day. As soon as you are within the defined number of hours, the current day does not count anymore. It is as though the ticket arrived on the next day.

NOTE  Both End of Day and End of Next Day respect the Holiday settings ("No hours on holidays" and "Use normal hours on holidays") for the business hours of the selected Internal Location. If the next day is a holiday, the due time on the SLA event is pushed out another day.
Resolution Plan
Resolved
Timeframe
 The timeframe determines when the SLA clock will run and pause:

All (24x7): the SLA clock runs continuously.

Business Hours: the SLA clock runs only during business hours you configured for the SLA (Custom or Internal Location Business Hours).

Extended Hours: the SLA clock runs during business hours and extended hours you configured for the SLA (Custom or Internal Location Business Hours).
Refer to Establishing business hours for service level agreements.
Active

 Select whether or not you would like the objective to be active. When an objective is active it will be used for tickets that match the Priority/Issue/Sub-issue Type combination. Note that the default objective's Priority, Issue , and Sub-issue are all set to "All" and cannot be inactivated.
  1. Click Save to save the objective. Add additional objectives, as desired.
  2. To delete an objective, click the Delete icon.

IMPORTANT  If you are updating an existing SLA, SLA event targets and elapsed times will NOT be reset for existing tickets that use the SLA. Saved changes will take effect for all future tickets that use the SLA.