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

Andrew Hiles, Hon FBCI, EIoSCM

Jun 2016 · Rothstein Publishing

About this ebook

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 new 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, FBCI, EIoSCM, is known internationally as a business continuity (BC) practitioner, trainer, author, and consultant to corporations and governments. As a trainer of new generations of BC leaders, he was among the first to provide truly international training in enterprise risk management, BC, and IT availability management in some 60 countries, as well as successfully pioneer BC training in Africa, the Middle East, China, Pakistan, and India. Hiles has authored, edited, or contributed to 15 books and has written over 250 published articles on BC topics for leading international magazines. He is founding director, first fellow, and Honorary Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute (BCI). In 2004, he was inducted into the Business Continuity Hall of Fame by CPM Magazine.