GTS Case Study: Geotechnical Support Service Level Agreement
GTS Geotech won the tender to provide UNIX & E&P Systems Services to an independent oil & gas company in London, with the promise to maximise customer productivity and provide a highly resilient & reliable service, whilst optimising the Company's use of Information Technology. A Service Level Agreement (SLA) was drawn up, outlining the range and quality of services to be provided, levels of service expected by the client and the mechanisms that would determine compliance with this agreement
The SLA:
- Provided a definition of the products and services, how they would be delivered, and how they shall be supported
- Established two-way accountability and responsibility
- Established achievable and sustainable Service Levels
- Established Performance Measurement criteria
- Established reporting criteria
- Defined the cost of the service delivery
The UNIX & E&P systems support was to follow a proactive preventative approach rather than a problem resolution approach, identifying areas where problems could occur and rectifying them. GTS was encouraged by the client to use remote support as much as possible to maximise the amount of support provided whilst minimising the number of bodies actually onsite. GTS agreed to provide qualified UNIX and E&P Help Desk Analysts capable of supporting servers, systems, workstations, applications and peripherals and organised staffing ensuring a smooth continuous service.
Within the SLA, GTS agreed to provide:
- Hardware and software maintenance and support – including managing licences and warranties, development & maintenance of hardware configurations, systems & client software held on servers, server optimisation, capacity management, advising & guiding on server technology & hardware procurement
- UNIX & E&P Helpdesk – 1st line user support, call logging
- ORACLE Administration
- DMS administration
- Print & Plot Queue Administration
- Disaster Recovery Strategy
Helpdesk availability, problem management & priority levels, response times & escalation procedures were all outlined within the contract and agreed by the client. Each call was to be logged, prioritised and responded to in the time frames agreed and should a problem not be resolved, it should be escalated to a number of levels as required, to get the problem dealt with. A service level up-time target was agreed for servers, back-up systems, workstations and applications both during and outside of core hours as well as for the E&P helpdesk.
Every month, the onsite GTS team leader was required to produce a statistical report outlining the performance and availability of GTS’ services. Within this report, each of the services was rated as either Fail, Meet or Exceed and penalties were meted out if GTS failed to meet its agreed service targets. If GTS’ service exceeded the agreed targets, a bonus system was agreed on to encourage excellence in the service.
GTS successfully supplied these services to the client for three years and the targets set under the SLA were either met or exceeded in each of those years
