How to Fix SLA’s for Service Delivery Workflows
Last week,we left off walking you throughthe process of configuringkey SLAs for the 11 Service Delivery Workflows.If you followed our advice, we know things are still not working as expected. Perhaps nothing much is different. Or worse, maybe everything is a hot mess. In other words, we have put you through the hoops of expanding the priorities and configuring the SLAs,and you aren’t yetreaping the benefits from all your efforts. What gives?As mentioned in the P.S. of last week’s article: “While the SLAs will be activated, they are not yet ready for prime time. There are some other Autotask Configuration tweaks that need to be made to besure that all non-project and non-recurring scheduled events have an SLA applied to them. Standby, as more guidance is coming, but please do not pause, keep going, we have a way to go yet.”That said, let’s keep going until we reach the “holy grail”… stick with us here & we will guide you to your “pot of gold”…
The Remaining SLA Configurations
As mentioned, there are several other configurations that impact SLA automation:
Status SLA Event
Default Service Desk Contract
Contract Category
Contract SLA
Note: these are the known impacts. If you feel there are others, please book a FREE 30-minute Coaching Callwith us, so we can sort out the impact and advise you on a work-around. After all, that is the least we can do since we have gotten you into another fine mess.
Status SLA Event:
There is an attribute to each status which ties into the SLA Automation, and that is the Status SLA Event field. This field does one of two things:
Sets the date stamp for one of the three SLA clocks
Pauses all three of the SLA clocks
If the field is not populated, then there is no change.The way to look at Statuses is that they are the Journey Map of the Customer Experience from New to Complete. Note: Please order the Status from New to Complete, as it will make it easier for the Techs to find the next status since they are working the ticket.This way,they will be more inclined to keep the status Up To Date. Here is a generic list of Statuses and the associated Status SLA Event:
New – No Status
Ready for Technician – First Response
In Progress – Resolution Plan
Waiting … – Waiting CustomerComplete – Resolved
task and ticket statuses
Naturally, there is more to the Journey than these 5 statuses. Here is a screenshot of our recommended Status List: (Note: If you want to get a jump on the next phase, review the Status list and clean up your Customer’s journey from New to Complete now, as we will revisit the journey in future articles.
Default Service Desk Contract
In order for the SLA Automation to work, every Customer needs a Default Service Desk Contract. Otherwise, the Customer’s requests will have the Non-Contract SLA applied and their request will go to the back of the bus.This is notdelivering Superior Service for the Customer.
Contract Category
You may be surprised (it surprised me) that the Service Desk Workflow Rules do not see Contracts;however, they do see Contract Category. So, if every Managed Service Customer’s ticket has a Contract applied to them (See Default Service Desk Contract) and every Contract has a Contract Category, then the Workflow Rules will apply the correct SLA.In other words, it will not apply the non-contract workflow rule to Managed Service Customer’s requests.
Contract SLA
Every Contract should have an SLA, and it should be the same SLA for all Contracts for the same Customer. While some work may be outside of the MSA, that speaks to a billing arrangement - not a Customer Experience relationship. If it were me, I would want my best Customers (Managed Service Customers) to have the same Customer Experience for all of their requests, even if it’s outside of the MSA.Great, so we have three more things we need to fix. How do we do that?I wish I could tell you it’s easy…but to my knowledge, there is no Export/Import Contract function in Autotask that would allow exporting, adjusting in Excel where it is easier, and then importing back into Autotask.
Here is the process we recommend when guiding MSPs on how to improve their Service Delivery Operation &SLA Automation:
1. Roll over the Autotask Menu and select Contracts.2. Search all Contracts.3. Sort by End Date, and for those with End dates in the past, edit the contract and inactivate, or renew the contract.4. Sort by Account, and make sure each Account has a Default Service Desk Contract.
If not, edit the Contract that covers the most amount of anticipated labor, and check the Default Service Desk Contract box.
5. Sort by Contract Category, and make sure that all Contracts have a Contract Category designated.
Edit those that don’t, select any Contract Category, save and close.
Repeat for all Contracts without a selected Contract Category.
6. Sort by SLA, and make sure that all Contracts have an SLA designated.
Edit those that don’t, select the right SLA given the relationship with the Customer, save and close.
Repeat for all Contracts without a selectedSLA.
So, what is your homework? Here’s what to do next…
Adjust the Status SLA Events
Adjust the Contract Fields to have:
No Expired Contracts
Default Service Desk Contracts forEvery Customer
A Contract Categoryfor Every Customer
Service Level Agreementsfor Every Customer
From this point forward…
All Tickets should have an SLA applied.
All Tickets should have a Next SLA Event Due Date.
It may take 30 days for all tickets to be working properly, as Workflow Rules do not apply the changes until a ticket is Created or Edited.
Have the Techs start sorting the list of tickets in “Next SLA Event Due Date” order.
If the Next SLA Event Due Date field is empty, Check to make sure:
- That there is an SLA applied to the Ticket. - The Ticket has not been reopened. - If it has, edit the SLA date stamps, and clear out the “Resolved” date stamp. - The ticket is not in “Waiting …” status. - If so, filter it out of this list and move it to another listNote: This is where Widgets are much better than Queues.But what if it’s none of these three reasons? Help is right here:book a FREE 30-minute coaching call with Carol H. or myself.[su_note note_color="#f4f718" text_color="#000000"]Guiding MSPs to Freedom from Service Delivery Issues to Grow the Company starts with a FREE No-Obligation PSA Self-Evaluation.[/su_note]