E-Business Service Level Agreements: Strategies for Service Providers, E-Commerce and Outsourcing (Paperback)

by Andrew Hiles (Author) "Section One defines SLAs and puts them into the e-business context..." (more)
Key Phrases: latency service level, trouble ticket number, dual routers, Essential Criteria, Access Ramp, Average Packet Loss (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Your customers don't care whether it is you, your ISP, ASP, or other outsourced provider who screws up - they just know they can't do business with you when they want to. All that matters is that your e-business is failing to deliver - and that you need to hold someone accountable.

Meaningful Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are unambiguous, comprehensive, and enforceable. SLAs commit suppliers to a defined quality of service: failure to meet explicit service levels can result in penalties or even legal action.

Spectacular losses often follow e-business outages, particularly when SLAs are not in force. The biggest hit is not necessarily loss of income or profit, but impact on stock values - especially when markets are skittish. Some losses have exceeded $40 million with stock values falling by 26%.

This book offers the keys to effective SLAs with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs), which can go a long way toward averting catastrophic losses as well as day-to-day headaches

About the Author
ANDREW HILES is founder and Chairman of Survive, the international user group for business continuity planning and was a founding Director of the Business Continuity Institute, the international body for certification of business continuity professionals. He is a founder Director of Kingswell, international consultants. Having commenced his management career with the Royal Air Force, he pioneered IT systems before leaving to take up a position within the Finance Department of London Transport. Subsequently in their Central Productivity Unit he was a Senior Projects Manager and later became responsible for the business re-engineering function, implementing new services and major technical projects. He left to take up a position with the UK Post Office as their first Business Systems Consultant responsible for major projects. Andrew then joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority at the Harwell Laboratories where he managed the supercomputing, mainframe and other bureau and outsourcing services. Andrew is a pragmatic consultant and trainer in the areas of Business Continuity Planning and Service Management.

Andrew left Harwell to set up Kingswell, an international training and consulting company specializing in service management, customer - supplier relationships and enterprise risk management.

He has helped hi-tech, financial, transport and government bodies to develop and enhance Customer Support and Service Desk functions and has supported both customers and suppliers in Service Level Agreements, Market Testing and Outsourcing.

Andrew is an international speaker on service management and has featured on conference programs in the USA, Southern Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. He has presented workshops and seminars on these topics for Frost & Sullivan (Europe), IIR/ IFF (Europe and Gulf), AIC (South Africa), CEL (Hong Kong), UPOM (Middle East) and other companies having also lectured at Ashridge, Cranfield, GEC Dunchurch and Henley Management Colleges in the UK. He has broadcast on radio and TV.

He has published over 300 articles on service management and is author of two other books on Service Level Agreements.

Andrew is a Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute, a Member of the British Computer Society and a Freeman of the City of London.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Rothstein Associates (January 24, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0964164892
• ISBN-13: 978-0964164895
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,254,530 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Handy Planning Tool, January 3, 2003

By	Paul Kirvan (Tinton Falls, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

Considering all the buzz today for e-business, outsourcing and other business models, it's important to have a way of ensuring the best possible results when moving in these directions. Mr. Hiles' book provides clear insight and guidance on how to plan and implement service level agreements that ensure the best results for your organization. A useful tool is you are new to service level agreements and/or e-business.