How To - Configure Multiple SLA based upon MLC in IT Service Management - Part1

[prakhar_saxena]

I will be publishing this as a series of blogs with all the steps required to understand(basic concepts), configure or setup multiple SLAs in IT Service Management based upon Multi Level Categorization in Solution Manager 7.1 which we have recently implemented or configured for a customer.

 

Over the years SAP has made huge investment in the Service Operations area of Solution Manager and the new version which is 7.1 today provides flexibility to all SAP customers to implement IT Service Management for entire SAP and non SAP landscape.

 

In my experience, this is a journey and we should not jump on it doing everything at the same time but rather go step by step to implement the various capabilities of IT Service Management in Solution Manager 7.1.

 

During several implementations for IT Service Management in SAP Solution Manager 7.1, we have come across a common requirement to have multiple SLA or Service Level Agreements for support.

 

This blog series will focus on detailed configuration or implementation steps for setting up multiple SLA based upon Multilevel categorization(MLC) or the different type of incident.

Basic concept of SLA

Service Level Agreements (SLA) are typically agreed by SAP Customer with vendors who provide support or services adhering to their requirements

Typically there can be various criteria for having different SLA requirements. For every customer SLAs can be different based upon business conditions or support requirements i.e. either service basis or for specific product basis etc.

 

We can implement or configure multiple Service Level Agreements to satisfy different requirements from support perspective, for multiple customers or a single customer itself. This means we now have got flexibility of easily supporting different deadlines as per customer scenario based upon the variants of configuration possible in the new version of Solution Manager.

 

Service Level Agreements (SLA) in Solution Manager works upon two main concepts of:

1. Service Profile and


2. Response Profile

 

The basic concept are already explained in detail over wiki on below link

SLA Management - SAP IT Service Management on SAP Solution Manager - SCN Wiki

Just to add further over Service and Response Profile

1. Service Profile – This helps us to define the time period within which the support partner should provide the service. e.g. 24/7 support which means 24 hours each day of a week


2. Response Profile –  This helps us to define within the time period what is the start date/time and what is the end date/time e.g. based upon criteria say priority what should be expected deadline for start and end

 

The two major parameters for SLA measurement offered by SAP Solution Manager are mentioned below which are part of Response Profile:

IRT - Initial Response Time

MPT - Maximum Processing Time

 

Thus, based upon the actual situation, if we don’t see the incident IRT and MPT meeting then it is called as SLA breach or violation.

This has severe impacts based upon the contract between customer and vendor. We can build reports in Solution Manager to see the entire list of incident which are breaching IRT or MPT etc in SM_CRM transaction.

Typically, in my organization, we have seen several SAP customer’s going for a 24*7 ( i.e. 24 hours and 7 days working) support model or 12*5 (i.e. 12 hours and 5 days a week) support model based upon their specific support requirements with respect to region wise, SAP/ non SAP incidents i.e. category of incident or SAP Module wise like SD, MM, FI, etc. Therefore, it is very much possible to have a one customer who would like to have multiple SLA which means separate SLA for SAP tickets and other one for Non SAP Tickets.

Please note: Before proceeding on it further, it is assumed that the system is already configured with Incident Management and custom Transaction Type like ZMIN or YMIN is present in the system as per requirement. Please check the below links for setting up the same.

http://www.service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000608542012E

http://www.service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000608872012E

Basically, the minimum is to have a properly copied transaction type (ZMIN/YMIN) which is having the relevant status profile and other configurations with master data in place.

Further, in our example, let us assume the below 2 different Service & Response criteria for our 2 different category of incidents

• SAP Tickets – assuming 24/7 support


• Non SAP Tickets – assuming 12/5 support

 

Next blog is published now and you can check herehttp://scn.sap.com/community/it-management/alm/solution-manager/blog/2014/06/02/how-to--configure-mu...