Operational Level Agreement

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The term Operational Level Agreement (OLA) denotes an agreement that is usually made within an organization between different organizational units and serves to secure a higher -level service level agreement (SLA) between the organization and a third party. Thus, in contrast to the SLA, the OLA is an internal, non-contractual agreement to secure the higher-value agreement. However, both document types usually use identical structures and contain comparable specific details on agreements on the provision of defined services (IT or telecommunications services).

History and context

Historically, OLAs were first created for IT services; now OLAs are also used for other types of services. In Germany and Switzerland, the term OLA is best known through the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

OLAs are an essential part of service level management (SLM). As part of the service level management process, OLAs are repeatedly revised and adapted to changed SLAs and changed technical boundary conditions, or they are further developed with a view to the service quality that has so far been achieved in practice.

Definition of terms

Because an OLA is a company or group-internal agreement, an OLA usually does not correspond to a contract in the legal sense, but to a service agreement. The OLA specifies delivery and service relationships between the two parties.

example

  • A service level agreement ensures high availability of a web application for a customer .
  • So that this agreement can also be complied with in the event of technical faults, the entity guaranteeing the customer, e.g. B. the service department, an OLA with an internal service provider , e.g. B. the technical department, so that a technician is deployed within a defined period of time after a malfunction report and the malfunction is rectified.
  • The fulfillment of this internal agreement is ensured internally through suitable management measures.

More information

An OLA - like an SLA - can in turn be secured by an underpinning contract (UC), whereby an external service provider (e.g. the manufacturer or maintenance owner of a system) is contractually called in under certain conditions to support the fulfillment of the agreement. Such a UC is required in the event that the internal service provider's own resources are not always sufficient to secure the guaranteed services.

literature

  • Rainer Schmidt (Hrsg.), Helge Dohle (Hrsg.): Implement ITIL V3: Design, control and improvement of IT services. Symposion Publishing GmbH, Düsseldorf 2009. ISBN 978-3-936608-84-7

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