Practices and problems in managing electronic services using SLAs

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to present the key areas of activity to be used for drafting service level agreements (SLAs) for electronic services and, at the same time, to present best practices and problems that arise from the application of this discipline.

Design/methodology/approach

A range of recently published (2000‐2005) works has been reviewed, in order to: a) analyse how an SLA has to be defined and applied b) identify the applicable best practices and c) identify the problem areas.

Findings

Provides guidance for the business and the Application Service Provider (ASP) when they want to engage in an outsourcing agreement by presenting best practices and problems that occur from the application of SLAs.

Research limitations/implications

Suggests further research is needed in a number of research areas such as: development of semantic models for SLAs, development of flexible pricing models in relation with SLAs, definition of SLAs in cases of dynamic service creation, etc.

Practical implications

A useful source of information both for academia and the business.

Originality/value

Provides practical insight on a specialized topic and guidance to researchers.

Citation

Fitsilis, P. (2006), "Practices and problems in managing electronic services using SLAs", Information Management & Computer Security, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 185-195. https://doi.org/10.1108/09685220610678622