Today’s workers want immediacy in a world that’s always on. Luckily, automation tools have evolved to help ITSM teams meet demand. According to global research from the SolarWinds® State of ITSM Report, surveyed companies using automation miss service-level agreements (SLAs) at a rate 11% lower than those without. Let’s unpack this finding.
What are SLAs in ITSM?
A service level agreement (SLA) sets service standards for monitoring and managing performance against agreed-upon targets, giving the user an expectation of how long their ticket will take to resolve. SLAs define and manage client expectations when a request is raised or an incident is reported. This involves continuous tracking, reporting, and improvements to deliver consistent service quality and meet customer expectations. Most SLAs are based on ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) principles as international best practices for IT planning, delivery, and maintenance standards. Service-level management (SLM) enhances customer satisfaction by consistently delivering services according to agreed standards, reducing disruptions, and improving reliability. It also helps optimize resource allocation and enhance decision-making by providing clear metrics and performance insights.
What Kind of SLAs Are IT Pros Subject to?
Here are some typical examples of SLAs that ITSM teams are expected to meet:
- Response Time: The maximum time allowed to acknowledge a ticket once submitted. For instance, critical incidents may require a response within 15 minutes, while low-priority issues may allow for two hours.
- Resolution Time: The time frame in which an incident must be resolved after it has been acknowledged. Critical issues might have a resolution time of one hour, while non-critical issues could be set at 24 hours.
- Service Availability: The percentage of time a service must be operational and accessible. This could be expressed as 99.9% uptime for a critical service.
- Escalation Process: Defined timelines for escalating incidents that are not resolved within initial response or resolution times. For example, an incident not resolved within four hours may automatically escalate to a senior technician.
- First Contact Resolution Rate: The percentage of tickets that are resolved on the first contact with the user. A typical target might be 70–80%.
- Customer Satisfaction Score: A metric for measuring user satisfaction with the service, often derived from surveys. A common target might be an average score of four out of five.
- Problem Resolution: The time taken to resolve underlying problems that cause repeated incidents, typically set between seven and 30 days, depending on the severity.
Life is accelerating, and people expect technical issues to be fixed quickly. SLAs help streamline this process, improving employee experience and enabling the service desk to handle incidents more effectively.
How Can Automation Help Teams Meet These SLAs?
Data in the State of ITSM Report received from surveyed companies confirms that implementing automation throughout ITSM workflows improves an organization's ability to meet its SLAs. So, what kind of automated processes can be implemented to help teams stay on top of their workload?
- Automated Ticket Routing: It’s all about getting the problem in front of the right person, fast. These tools automatically route tickets to the appropriate technician or team based on the issue type or priority level. This reduces response times and ensures that incidents are handled quickly by the right people.
- Self-Service Portals: Create self-service options that can be developed for users to resolve common issues, such as password resets or access requests. This can improve first-contact resolution rates and reduce the number of tickets submitted, relieving pressure on agents.
- Intelligent Alerting: Implement intelligent alerting systems that analyze incoming incidents and prioritize them based on severity and urgency. This helps ensure that critical issues are brought to the attention of the appropriate team members.
How AI Promises to Transform ITSM
The transformative force of artificial intelligence (AI) is signaling a future of streamlined ITSM by automating day-to-day routine tasks for better incident resolution. Virtual online assistance can improve user support with common requests like passwords and software installations. Machine learning algorithms can identify and analyze various metrics and then forecast possible issues. Self-healing systems can detect anomalies and initiate corrective actions. AI also understands the language of user queries, providing support in a conversational tone across various platforms.
Choose an Automation Strategy That Suits Your Setup
IT pros are under more pressure than ever to meet complex SLAs. Thankfully, there is a host of tools available to automate and streamline processes and give service desk agents support in removing barriers to effective work. Artificial intelligence opens new possibilities for IT professionals seeking support meeting challenging SLAs. However, it takes careful evaluation and planning to ascertain what kinds of AI-driven tools are right for your organization.
Check out our series on the three main approaches to AI implementation here
