IT Service Level Management: Practices in Large Organizations

Abstract

We survey actual practices of IT SLM (Service Level Management) in large organizations. The survey is based on a comprehensive analysis framework, called ESLAM (Extended Service Level Analysis Model) that considers (a) service level variables, that are what SLM measures (b) service information system, that processes information on service level technology, and (c) service organization that defines roles and procedures to run SLM. The survey was based on face to face interviews to both IT intensive (Banks and Telcos) and non-intensive (as Railways) organizations and has considered also context variables, as size and organizational shape, to develop correlation analysis. The survey has identified key drivers of SLM maturity and shown that IT intensive organizations, as banks and telecommunications, develop a more mature SLM. Also SLM maturity is unrelated to organizational size.