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Who can use this feature?
- Available in a Work Management Ticketing application
- License Requirement: Enterprise
- Application Access: User must have access to Work Management and the specific Ticketing application to manage service level agreements
- Administrative Access:
- Global Administrators can manage ticketing SLAs in TDAdmin
- Ticketing Application Admin can manage ticketing SLAs from the Ticketing Application Admin interface
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are the terms of the contract between the service provider (internal or external) and the client or end user, and are crucial to providing quality services. In TeamDynamix, they define the level of service – the response time plus what outcomes the customer will receive within that time.
Features
- The SLA requirements can be configured for each Ticketing Application.
- Escalation steps can be added to each requirement to trigger ticket events or notifications.
In this article, we'll cover:
In TeamDynamix, there are two possible SLA requirements: Respond By and Resolve By.
- Respond By is the agreed-upon time limit, in hours, for communicating with the requestor, confirming the ticket has been received, and setting expectations; this is satisfied by changing the status to any In Process status class.
- Resolve By is the agreed-upon time limit for moving the ticket to a resolved, closed, or final status determined by your organization. Learn more about status here.
If either of these deadlines is reached, the SLA has been violated.
Each of these requirements is set in relation to the creation date and time. They can have multiple escalation steps that must be completed before a specified percentage of time has elapsed to meet the service-level agreement. If the set time limit for completing a step is reached and the step is not complete, an automatic action can be triggered.
Some of the possible actions that can be triggered by an escalation step are:
- A notification can be sent to:
- Responsible resource
- Responsible resource’s manager
- Reviewer
- Requestor
- Creator
- The priority of the ticket can be changed
- Responsibility of the ticket can be reassigned
There is no limit on the number of escalation steps per SLA requirement.
If 100% of the time passes for the Respond By or Resolve By value, the SLA has been violated, and the email system will use the Service Level Agreement Violation notification template when sending emails. If the percentage is less than 100%, the system will use the Service Level Agreement Warning notification template. Escalation steps can be set to occur after the SLA time requirement has been passed by setting the percentage of the deadline that has passed to 100% or greater.
To create an SLA:
- Open the Service Level Agreements configuration page:
- Ticketing Application Admins: In Work Management, open the Ticketing Application, click the gear icon in the top-right corner, select Admin from the menu, then Service Level Agreements in the left navigation
- Global Admins: In TDAdmin, go to Applications, select the Ticketing Application, then click Service Level Agreements in the left navigation
- On the Service Level Agreements page, click the +New button.
- Enter the Name and make any additional configuration selections:
- Active – Makes the SLA available for use
- Use Initial Responded and Initial Resolved date/time for SLA evaluation – Enable to calculate SLA based on Initial Response/Initial Resolve dates. If this option is not enabled, SLAs will be calculated based on Respond/Resolve Dates, which can be reset if a ticket is put on hold.
- Use operational hours when calculating deadlines – When selected, the selected operational hours are used to calculate deadlines. If unchecked, a 24/7 time clock will be used
- Operational Hours Set – Choose any active operational hours set (See the related article for details)
- Respond By – Enter the number of hours and minutes by which a ticket must be responded to. A ticket is considered responded to when it reaches the status class of “In Process” or “Completed.”
- Resolve By – Enter the number of hours and minutes by which a ticket must be resolved. A ticket is resolved when it reaches the status class of “Completed.”
- Escalation Steps – To configure Escalation Steps, see the instructions below.
- Click Save
By default, the Deadline Percentage is set to 100%, and there is no set action. You can configure various escalation actions to take place if, at a specified percentage of the deadline, the "Respond By" requirement has not been met. For example, actions at the 100% deadline will occur as soon as the SLA is violated.
Escalation steps are not required to update a ticket's SLA violation status.
To add escalation steps to the Respond By or Resolve By deadlines:
- On the Service Level Agreements page, click the Name of the SLA.
- Under the Respond By or Resolve By Escalation Steps, click the Edit link.
- Change the percentage of the deadline at which a ticket's current status will be checked,
- On the Edit Escalation Step page,
- Select a Deadline Percentage and any additional configuration selections
- Specify the actions to take if the deadline is not met:
- Reassign To – Reassign the ticket to the selected Group or person
- Change Priority To – Change the Priority on the ticket to the selected value
- Notify – Select individuals (by role) who will be notified
- Notify Other Email Addresses – Enter additional email addresses that should receive the Ticketing User version of triggered email notifications
- Click Save
- To add additional escalation steps, click Add next to the Respond By or Resolve By section. Repeat for as many escalation steps as needed
Note: If both a reassignment and notification are configured in the same escalation step, the system will reassign the ticket and notify the newly assigned resource as expected.
To modify an SLA:
- Navigate to the Service Level Agreements page.
- Click the Name of the SLA to modify
- Make any desired changes and click Save
Note: When editing an existing SLA, changes made to the active status, operational time setting, operational hours set, response deadline, escalation, or resolution deadline and escalation will not affect tickets that have already been assigned to this SLA. However, all tickets assigned after the changes are made will be affected.
Service Level Agreements can be applied in one of three ways:
- Through the use of an Automation Rule
This allows you to set specific criteria that must be met to apply specific SLAs
- By Setting the Default SLA on the Ticket Type
This allows you to pick one overall default SLA, and this can be combined with Automation Rules to process exceptions to that default
- Manually, when updating a ticket. (The user's application-level security role in the Ticketing application must include the "Change service level agreements of tickets" permission)
This allows users to individually override SLAs applied automatically or only apply them selectively as needed
It is common practice to apply SLAs to tickets without revealing them to your clients or customers. Be sure to review your notification templates and remove any reference to SLAs (the default notifications will include SLA-related information if an SLA is attached to a ticket).