Assignment: Service Catalog and Service Level Agreements

An important aspect of service management is creating a service catalog. The service catalog describes the services managed by the IT organization. This document is published so that the company can understand the services and how they are supported. Without a service catalog, users may make assumptions about the service levels and assume that the service level is higher than is practical or achievable.

Part of each service catalog entry is a service level agreement, or SLA. The SLA describes such factors as when a service will be available, response times for problem resolution, and who can expect the service (which customers). It is also useful in determining metrics, or key performance indicators, for evaluating the success of service delivery.

In this application, you will be developing a 4-5 page service catalog (including SLAs) for a set of services provided by PPI's IT Department. Some information is provided for you below, but you are encouraged to be creative and go beyond the suggested information to create your service catalog and service level agreements.

PPI has a standard business work week of 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Employees use the ERP during the work week. During the off-hours the ERP performs batch processing. The technical staff receives automated text and e-mail messages when a service is not responding and is required to restore critical services within two hours, 24 hours a day.

Develop a service catalog describing the following five services:

• Help desk (manned during business hours)
• Electronic mail
• Corporate website (which runs on local services)
• ERP
• Connectivity to the Internet

For each service listed above, create approximately one page of material that addresses the following information. Organize your service catalog in a way that is easy for the reader to find the information they require.

• Service name
• Description
• Customers
• Standard service features (a bullet list of important features is sufficient)
• Supported devices (such as computers, smart phones, etc.)
• How to obtain service (for example, should customers call the help desk? Send an email? Complete a form?)
• Service Level Agreement that includes the following:Hours of service (by day and time - don't forget corporate holidays)
• Response time for service outages (think about what is an acceptable period of downtime for the service)
• Assess how each SLA resolves the conflicting needs and common goals of the customer and the service provider.

Be sure to defend and support your opinion and remember to properly cite your sources according to APA guidelines.