About to start running a pilot of 2 web analytics ASP vendors on a
global, high volume site and the thorny subject of SLAs has cropped
up.

From talking to people on this forums and other blogs, I understand
vendors can be *very* 'attentive' and provide excellent service
during the pilot period but that may dissipate once the contract is
signed. We would like to be able to stipulate that the levels of
service and support during the pilot will form the basis for the
longer term contract, thus the SLA applies from the start of the
pilot onwards.

However there doesn't seem to be an industry standard SLA for ASP
models and the 'Terms and Conditions' I've seen from both vendors
are far from adequate. I wondered if anyone on the forum had
experience with defining SLAs - what is typically acceptable /
achievable?

I'm currently thinking we should obtain a agreements on the
following (however whether this is realistic is another question…):


Availability and Response of software/functionality

- standard availability / guaranteed up time (data gathering = 24x7,
reporting = ?)
- speed of service – e.g. screens to be returned in x seconds
(probably tricky to enforce as depends on bandwidth)
- response of service in relation to unexpected increase to
load/traffic volume, load distribution etc
- response of service in relation to expected (seasonal?) increase
to load/traffic volume
- permitted downtime (notifications, definition of, emergencies
etc.)
- compensation for downtime – service credits, reduced contract
period etc. for x mins of downtime per month (outside of planned or
emergency maintenance etc.)


Availability of reports/data

- collected data to be reflected in reports within x hours
of initiating query
- availability of results after initiating query


Technical / Best Practise Support

- Vendor resources available / dedicated to us (no of account
managers, technical, consultants etc. assigned/dedicated to project,
hours per month)
- Vendor response to customisation/change requests (quotation,
delivery of service etc.)
- Issue escalation procedures – (on-line, phone, email, priority
levels, status reporting and response times)
- Supporting material – availability of on-line help, accuracy of
documentation, live support


Security

- Physical hosted environment, protection of data/servers
User access to the system, data
- Back-up, archiving and recovery
- Monitoring in place and availability of that data (notifications,
reporting)


Communication

- Agreed points of contact (on both sides)
- Timings of notifications (planned maintenance/outage, status
reports, changes to service etc.)

Anything else...?

Many thanks,

Steve