About Applying Service Level Agreements

A service level agreement (SLA) that you create in the Service Level Agreements (SP) application is applied to records with values that match criteria you specify on the SLA. The less specific the SLA, the more records to which it is potentially applicable. The more specific the SLA, the fewer records to which it is potentially applicable.

You can create an SLA that is applicable to any record type, but typically, you create SLAs for tickets and work orders.

Applying SLAs

There are several ways in which SLAs are applied to tickets or work orders:

• An SLA might be applied using a workflow or escalation process, or using another SLA.

• You can use the Apply SLA action in the ticket or work order, which lets the system choose and apply the most appropriate SLA or SLAs for the record. If one or more SLA is applied, you are notified of the identifier of each. You are notified if an applicable SLA is not found.

• You can use the Select / Deselect SLA action in the ticket or work order to select an SLA.

Your system administrator determines whether you can apply one or more than one SLA to a record.

• If one SLA is allowed, and more than one SLA matches a record, the value in the Ranking field of the SLA is used to select one.

• If more than one SLA is allowed, all matching SLAs are applied. The SLA that calculates target dates either is the SLA with the highest ranking or the SLA with the most stringent commitment time. Your system administrator determines this setting.

A lower number in the Ranking field takes precedence over a higher number.

Matching an SLA

When you apply an SLA to a ticket or work order, one or more matching SLAs are selected.

The SLA matches the ticket or work order based on:

• classification  

• priority

• service or service groups

• conditions specified in conditions fields and the condition builder

• site, location, or location within a specified location hierarchy

• asset type, asset, or asset within a specified asset hierarchy

• configuration items

• customers

In more detail, the following list is of the matching criteria that you can add to an SLA:

• record type (ticket types and work order types)

• effective dates

• calendar and shift  

• classification

• internal priority

• services or service groups

• any conditions that you specify

• site, location, or location within location hierarchy

• asset or asset type, or asset within asset hierarchy

• ranking

SLAs and Target Dates

Your system administrator determines whether you can apply one or more than one SLA to a ticket or work order. If you can apply more than one SLA, the system administrator determines which SLA updates the target time fields. The administrator determines whether the highest-ranked SLA or the SLA with the most stringent commitment updates the fields.

See Also

c_about_conditions_r.htm

Select / Deselect an SLA