Service Level Management Acceptance on the Rise and Linked to Business Survival

A recent study by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) reports that Service Level Management (SLM) acceptance continues to grow and that IT executives increasingly view SLM as a vital factor to business success. The 2007 comparative study shows that the number of surveyed organizations implementing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) has risen to 82% of respondents, a 26% increase since EMA’s 2003 findings.

Key findings that are detailed within the report include:

• 90 percent of end users perceived SLM as critical or important to their executives and directly tied to business survival
  
• 82 percent of organizations surveyed have implemented SLAs
  
• 79 percent of respondents cited ITIL as an adopted methodology
  
• Internal education is key to success and also one of the greatest challenges for organizations implementing SLM
  
• 56 percent of end-user respondents report having no sense of ROI either before or after employing best practices
  
• More users associate IT-business alignment with BSM than with SLM
  
• SLM and Configuration Management Database (CMDB) initiatives can coexist very nicely – as one survey respondent notes, “you can’t do sophisticated SLM without a CMDB”
  

EMA’s research reveals a marked correlation between enforcing standards and achieving results. SLM adoption, paired with the right mix of best practices, is continuing to provide positive outcomes. More than two-thirds of the respondents reported increased operational efficiency and customer satisfaction after rolling out their SLM initiatives.

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