How Important Is An SLA?

You hear about SLA's. Some companies demand them, some users don't even consider them, because to get one, you gotta come up off some bucks!

I am going to tell you a horror story that involved one of my co-workers. It very easily could have happened to me. I know it sure made me do some thinking about how I do business and the role the internet has played upon myself and most everyone these days.

Lance has the responsibility of agent support within my organization, Shopfort1. Lance works out of Chicago and uses cable as his internet connection at about $50/month. Same as myself except I am in Ohio. Most days he in online as much as me. Agent support is never ending, supplying things like vendor contact info, sales support, and general hand holding. A very busy job. Add in instant messaging, emails, and being the contact for all contract paperwork that goes through Shopfort1, highspeed broadband is a necessity. Well, it happened! What we all dread, not just a few hours down time but 46 hours! Almost two full days. Lance's life came to a standstill as he tried to conduct business on dial up. As anyone who has ever gone back to dial up knows, get me a stick to poke in my eyes while I am waiting! Horrible!

After hearing this awful scenario, it came to me how many businesses in this world do business on cable or DSL broadband. You may or may not know this, but there is no SLA (service level agreement). These companies will do their best to get you back up. But as to when is up to them! Think about this, if you do "any" sales at all on the internet, how much down time can you "afford"? Divide your sales by the hours worked in the week and you get an idea. Now consider a T1. Did you know T1's have uptime of 99.99% Did you know that time to repair normally starts within the hour for most circumstances and never more than four? Can your business live with extended downtime while waiting for repair. I hate to tell you what Lance "lost" as a result of these two days down. Not to mention the frustration!

Is there more cost? Yep. Is there better guarantees of uptime? Absolutely! My experience has shown that these businesses can certainly get by with this extra cost of a T1 line. After the purchase, these old DSL and Cable users are astounded at the speed and uptime they get. A few hundred dollars are more than made up by less down time and better productivity. Take some time and look at your present situation. Weigh the pros and cons. You can even call me, I'm sure there will be more horror stories by then!