A service-level agreement (SLA) is an important part of business consulting and is often used between a company’s internal operations and its customers. It defines what each party needs to reach its goals and provides a mechanism for reporting on those goals and any issues that arise.

SLAs protect the end-user and the service provider, by establishing standards and targets. They also establish consequences for not meeting these expectations. They also allow for key performance indicators to be created that can help an organization identify areas where it is not on track with its strategic objectives.

The SLA must include all services covered by a contract and provide details about turnaround times, as well as any exclusions. The contract should also include a list of metrics to be used in measuring the service provider’s performance.

Metrics must be easy to collect and reflect only those factors that the service provider can reasonably control. They should also have a reasonable starting point so that they may be refined over the course of time. http://royston-consulting.com/generated-post-3/

A key performance indicator, or KPI, is a metric that measures how well a business is performing in terms of its primary goals. It can be used to determine if the business is off-course, which is a common problem for small businesses.