Recent research into outsourcing corporate Web presence found that
the most important factor for companies when considering external
managed hosting is favourable customer service.
Although cost (50%) and flexibility (45%) were important, most
agreed that customer service (71%) and service levels (60%) were
the key deciders when choosing a third party to manage their entire
Internet hosting platform.
The results highlight the importance of good service levels when
using a third-party outsourcer. But many companies are discovering
that once they have signed a service level agreement (SLA) they are
not actually protected. They presume that once they have signed on
the dotted line they are guaranteed 100% uptime and reliable
security, but is that true? And what does an SLA actually protect
against?
The trouble with most SLAs is that they aren't worth the piece of
paper they are written on. This is because you will often find that
they hide a series of get-out clauses so that if something does go
wrong the third party is still covered. The customer, on the other
hand, simply has to put up with an unacceptable service. So how do
you ensure your SLA meets your needs?
In my experience, the following points should always be covered
when signing an SLA with an ISP or hosting company:
- Resilient power availability - you would have thought this was
a necessity but, amazingly, many companies are not covered if there
is a power cut. Some ISPs only offer this as an extra option
- The network - without doubt the outsourcing company should use
more than one carrier, to provide insurance against downtime. They
should also be able to guarantee 99.999% uptime, which means only
288 seconds lost per month compared to 3.65 days a year with
99%
- Guaranteed fix time - in today's technology-focused world any
maintenance work should be carried out in a fixed time and without
the whole network being taken down. I have heard of companies where
the network goes down indefinitely. If that happens you are stuck
with no service and your business is going to suffer. Also, the
supplier should have spares on-site and the technological
capability to fix the hardware problem. Many companies have to
order parts, which can take days
- Payment options - there should be no requirement to pre-pay but
if you want to pre-pay you should be allowed to. Unfortunately,
many companies' billing systems cannot handle this
- Contract length - if the outsourcing company is providing a
good service, it should be able to offer the flexibility of a
monthly contract, if this is not possible the contract should
include a definition of what failures, such as a certain amount of
downtime, will allow an early exit
- Security - is the datacentre safe? Has the network been
protected? Is the supplier running intrusion detection solutions on
your systems? These are all vital security-related questions you
should ask if you hand over parts of your business to an third
party. This must be detailed in the agreement
- Performance monitoring and reporting - this should be
available, free and accessible at all times. Any reliable company
should be monitoring performance on a continual basis and reports
should be available via the Web 24 hours a day. Companies that only
do reporting on request are stuck in the stone age
- Compensation and guarantees - any company that openly offers
guarantees but then adds a rule about compensation if they are not
upheld is starting on a negative note and you should ask yourself
if it is really worth it. After all, you require the service, not
loads of money back
- Installation - many companies offer a guaranteed estimate when
agreeing installation times. This is a contradiction of terms, why
don't they just say 24 hours and ensure everything is up and
running. This is their business, so how complicated can it
be?
Once this has been agreed, it is still worth remembering that a
piece of paper is still only a piece of paper. Unless the people
involved care about the service they provide no agreement in the
world is going to work.
My feelings are that while it is important to negotiate and get the
most out of your SLA, too much emphasis is put on the document. Not
enough time is being spent on actually ensuring the people
providing the service can support it.
Dominic Monkhouse is managing director, Rackspace Managed
Hosting Europe
The Omniboss research was conducted by Vanson Bourne among 100 UK
IT directors from companies with turnovers of more than £50m