Introduction
In the competitive environment of today, managing your contracts regarding outsourced activities like IT, operations, maintenance and facilities management are more than ever an important issue. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are being applied as a highly effective way to manage and control the relationship between the service provider and the end-user, both internally and externally. It manages the expectations of both parties, sets out the parameters of responsibility and offers performance indicators. Creating and managing formal agreements with suppliers of equipment and maintenance services requires not only a complete understanding of the business requirements and organization needs, but also depends on keeping up-to-date on contracting.
This training course will ensure that you understand how to decide rationally what activities to outsource and what not, how to select the best contractor and how to evaluate the delivered performance of all parties involved. You will understand the different contract types, the pros and cons of SLAs, avoid the potential pitfalls and improve the performance. Balanced scorecards to measure the contractor performance, used in several branches will be discussed. Through a combination of teaching and group work, you will leave the course with practical tools & practices to develop improved SLAs.
Objectives
This is a very interactive training course and it will give you a detailed overview of how to develop and implement contract (esp. SLAs) - what to include and what to avoid. It will highlight the benefits and pitfalls of SLAs, and alternative approaches, using case studies and exercises as illustrations.
Participants attending the seminar will:
- Understand basic outsourcing considerations
- Learn the features, functions and benefits of lean contracts
- Understand the different contract types and when/how to apply them
- Understand the basics of SLAs
- Learn how to define service levels
- Understand how to monitor the contractor performance and relate the performance to penalties and rewards
- Learn how to develop and negotiate a contract – the contracting cycle
- Understand negotiating tips & tricks
- Learn how to manage SLAs during the contracting period
Training Methodology
This course will be conducted along workshop principles with formal lectures and many interactive exercises. The exercises will cope with different areas like operations, maintenance and IT.
Organizational Impact
- Ensure that you get the most out of your SLAs: you will be able to improve, negotiate and realize better SLAs
- Avoid potential pitfalls regarding developing and establishing SLAs
- Save the company time and money from irritation
Personal Impact
By attending the seminar, participants will add value to themselves. They will thus be able to plan and develop a future career.
Who Should Attend?
The training course will benefit all professionals negotiating contracts (SLAs) and managing relationships with internal and external suppliers. Teams who have been assigned the responsibility of establishing SLAs will find it extremely useful to attend this course as a unit.
SEMINAR OUTLINE
DAY 1
Outsourcing Considerations
- Introduction to program
- Introduction delegates
- Asset Management - roles and the relationship with contracting
- Considerations in outsourcing activities – what to outsource and what not?
- Outsourcing models
- Case study regarding outsourcing
DAY 2
Basic Elements of a SLA
- Introduction to different contract types – when to apply what contract type?
- Lean contracts
- What is SLA?
- Parties involved
- Assessment of Service levels – current & required
- Defining Key Performance Indicators to monitor the performance of all parties involved
- Use of Balanced Scorecard with SLAs
- How to relate payments and rewards to contractor performance
- Is SLA always the right solution? – partnerships
- Vendor management
- Interactive exercise regarding service levels & performance indicators
DAY 3
Developing the SLA
- The contracting cycle
- The tendering process – modern ways of tendering
- Costing the service
- Choosing the right contractor
- Writing the SLA – SLA templates
- Review the draft SLA
- Implementing contract management & delivery – how to make it work
- Interactive exercise regarding review of existing contracts
DAY 4
Negotiating the SLA
- Everything is about expectations
- Defining the negotiation objective
- Determine your primary, alternative and elegant currencies
- Negotiation ploys and tactics – tips and tricks
- Interactive exercise and role play regarding negotiating
DAY 5
Final Workshop
- Development of a SLA in an extensive workshop
- Wrap-up
