Managing Service Terms

The fourth step in the Service Level Agreement setup is creating terms for Service Levels established in the previous step. Compliance with your Terms is calculated (and re-calculated if relevant Terms change) from the date and time an SLA issue is submitted and only during appropriate Coverage times. However, any Total Time Open Escalations will still accrue according to Hours of Operation. This means your Hours of Operation are not affected by your Terms, nor do they have any effect on your Terms.

Example:

IF… a “Major” issue with a “Platinum” SLA is submitted on Saturday at 10 pm

AND… Terms = Response “1 hr,” Resolution “4 hrs,” Coverage “24 hrs”

AND… Hours of Operation = “Monday - Friday / 9am - 5pm”

THEN… compliance requires a Response by 11 pm and a Resolution by Sunday at 2 am

UNLESS… that particular Saturday or Sunday is an Exempt Day

OR…any Substatus Rules pause the system clock within that time frame

OR… this issue’s Severity is updated at any point (e.g. On Saturday at 12 am—a Response has not been added and
the issue is “Out of Compliance.” However, at 12:30 am—its Severity is updated to “Moderate” and the issue is now
“In Compliance” since the relevant Terms have changed. The response is no longer required until Sunday at 1 am,
“3 hrs” from the time submitted.

BUT… “Total Time Open” and Escalation will not begin to accrue until Monday at 9 am

UNLESS… this issue is already closed by then

OR… that particular Monday is a Date Closed

OR… a Substatus Rule is currently pausing the system clock

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Adding Service Terms

The following steps must be repeated for every Service Level you have added to your system.

Steps:

1. Click the gear icon in the upper right > click Service Level Agreements beneath the Tools.
2. Click Add beneath the Service Levels area of the right quick menu.
3. Click terms next to the Service Level that will contain the terms you are adding.
4. Start by selecting the Severity you want to add to the Service Level.
5. On the Service Level Terms page, define the Time to Response, Time to Resolution, and Coverage Days and Coverage Times that apply at this Service Level for each Severity.
    
   1. Select a Severity from the drop-down.
   2. Enter the maximum first Time to Response and Time to Resolution for issues with this Severity.
      • If only Response or Resolution time matters and you’re not interested in tracking both, then set the one not needed to 9,999 hours to allow ample time to keep the issue from going out of compliance.
         
   3. Define Coverage availability for issues with this Severity. If 24 hours a day, select Enable 24 Hour Support. Otherwise, select availability through Coverage Days and Coverage Times.
      • For customers using SLAs across multiple time zones, the SLA looks at the Server Time Zone so coverage times must be offset accordingly. For customers using Issuetrak’s cloud services, the Server Time Zone is set to ET (GMT-5).
         
   4. Click Add Terms.

A confirmation message will display when this process is complete and the terms will appear in the Service Level Terms list at the top when the save is complete.

6. Repeat Steps 5a through 5d until terms for every Severity appear in the Service Level Terms List.
7. Define any specific dates (e.g. holidays) that are to be excluded from Coverage terms at this Service Level using the Terms List:
   1. Click exempt days next to the Severity’s terms. Exempt days allow you to apply holidays to your SLAs, excluding specific dates from your SLA coverage times.
   2. Define all Exempt Dates for issues with this Severity in the popup window that opens. If all Hours of Operation Dates Closed, select Use Hours of Operation Dates Closed. Otherwise—or in addition to all Dates Closed —select and describe these dates via the Date Exempt calendar search and the Comment fields.
   3. Click Update.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.

8. Repeat Steps 7a through 7c until all exempt days are added for the Service Level Terms List.
9. If you would like to review the complete list of terms that now exist within your system, you may click the gear icon in the upper right > under the Tools area of the Settings Lightbox, click Service Level Agreements > under the Service Levels area of the Right Quick Menu, click List Expanded Levels.

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Editing Service Terms

Steps:

1. Click the gear icon in the upper right > click Service Level Agreements beneath the Tools.
2. Click List beneath the Service Levels area of the right quick menu.
3. Click terms next to the Service Level that contains the terms you would like to modify.
4. To make changes to the Response, Resolution, and/or Coverage times, click edit next to the current terms in the Service Level Terms List.
5. Make your changes in the Edit Service Level Terms page that opens.
6. Click Update Terms.

A confirmation message will appear and the revised terms will appear in the Terms List at the top when the save is complete.

If you need to change specific dates (e.g. holidays) that are excluded from Coverage times:

1. Click exempt days next to the current terms in the Terms List.
2. Make your changes in the Terms Exempt Dates pop-up window that opens.
3. Click Update.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.

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Deleting Service Levels

Steps:

1. Click the gear icon in the upper right > click Service Level Agreements beneath the Tools.
2. Click List beneath the Service Levels area of the right quick menu.
3. Confirm your decision by clicking OK on the verification popup.

A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.