📄 SLA & Contract Guide
What Does Your IT Contract Actually Guarantee?
The hardest part of changing IT providers is not choosing the new one. It is getting your own systems back from the old one. Here is the full handover list, in writing, before you give notice.
- A response target and a resolution target are different promises — most agreements commit only to the first
- Ask whether the published figure is an average or a contractual guarantee; they are rarely the same thing
- Severity definitions decide which target applies, and the provider usually writes them
- Coverage windows matter more than the headline number — four hours inside business hours can mean next morning
- Check whether a missed target carries any remedy at all; many agreements, ours included, carry none
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SLA Basics
What Does Your IT Contract Actually Guarantee?
A service level agreement is a measurement clause, not a service description. It tells you what the provider has agreed to be held to — and, by omission, everything they have not.
- The response target is when a human acknowledges your ticket. It is not when anyone starts work.
- The resolution target, where one exists at all, is when the issue is closed. Many agreements never state one.
- Severity determines which target applies, and severity is usually assigned by the provider rather than by you.
- Coverage hours decide whether the clock runs at seven on a Friday evening or restarts Monday morning.
- Remedies say what you get when a target is missed. Silence in this section means nothing happens.
8 min
Our average first response — an average we measure, not a contractual guarantee
Acknowledgement, Response and Resolution Are Three Different Promises
Agreements blur these deliberately. Separate them before you compare two providers.
Time to Acknowledge
An automated ticket receipt. Some agreements count this as the response. It tells you nothing about whether a person has seen the ticket.
Time to First Human Reply
A technician has read the ticket and answered. This is the figure most providers publish, ours included.
Time to Begin Work
Rarely committed to in writing, and worth asking for. It is the gap where tickets sit acknowledged and untouched.
Time to Resolution
The issue is closed. Few managed agreements guarantee this, because closure often depends on vendors and causes outside the provider’s control.
Time to Workaround
A middle commitment: you are working again even while the root cause stays open. More honest than a resolution guarantee.
Measured Per Ticket or as an Average
A monthly average lets a provider miss badly on your worst day and still report full compliance. Per-ticket measurement does not.
Measured Inside Which Hours
Business hours only, or around the clock. The same four-hour number means very different things under each.
Assigned by Whom
If the provider sets severity after the fact, they also control which target they are judged against.
Enforced by What
Service credits, termination rights, or nothing at all. Check which, and check the cap.
Severity Tiers Decide Everything Else
Every other number in the agreement hangs off this table, so read it before you read the targets.
P1
Business Down
Nobody can work, or a system the whole company depends on is unavailable. This tier should carry the shortest target and around-the-clock coverage.
P2
Department Blocked
A team or a critical function is stopped while the rest of the business runs. Usually a same-day target.
P3
Single User Blocked
One person cannot work and has no workaround. Often next-business-day, which surprises people who assumed otherwise.
P4
Degraded but Working
Slow, intermittent or annoying. Frequently has no committed target at all — check whether yours does.
P5
Request, Not Fault
New starters, software installs, access changes. These are project work and belong on a separate clock.
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Who Decides
The definitions above are illustrative. What matters is whose judgement assigns the tier in your agreement, and whether you can dispute it.
Coverage Windows and What Falls Outside Them
The headline number only applies inside the window. Everything here changes what it means in practice.
Business Hours
Typically 8am to 6pm local, Monday to Friday
After Hours
Does the clock pause, or keep running?
Weekends
Often excluded entirely below P1
Holidays
Check the named list, not the phrase
Time Zone
Whose local time defines the window?
Emergency Line
Is there a separate P1 route out of hours?
Onsite Dispatch
A remote target is not an onsite target
Travel Time
Counted inside the target, or added to it?
Third-Party Waits
Carrier and vendor delays usually pause the clock
Change Freezes
Some agreements suspend targets during planned work
What Happens When a Target Is Missed
This is the section most people never read, and the one that tells you whether the promise has teeth.
1
Service Credits
A percentage of the monthly fee refunded. Common in telecoms and hosting, far less common in managed IT.
2
Credit Caps
Where credits exist they are usually capped at a small share of one month’s fee, and you normally have to claim them in writing.
3
Repeat-Failure Rights
Stronger than credits: after a set number of misses in a rolling period you may terminate without penalty. Worth asking for.
4
Reporting Obligations
Does the provider have to show you the measurements, or do you take their word for it? Monthly reporting is reasonable to require.
5
No Remedy at All
Many managed agreements state targets with no consequence attached. That is not automatically bad faith — but you should know before you sign.
6
Where We Stand
Advanced Networks does not offer service credits in our agreement. We would rather publish an honest average and be judged on the reporting than sell a credit you will never successfully claim.
SLA Questions, Answered
The questions that come up most often when we read an agreement alongside a prospective client.
Is a response time the same as a fix time?
No, and the difference is the single most common misunderstanding in these agreements. A response target says when someone acknowledges and replies to your ticket. A resolution target says when the problem is actually solved. Most managed IT agreements commit to the first and stay silent on the second, because resolution depends on hardware vendors, carriers and software publishers the provider does not control.
What is a realistic response target for a small or mid-sized business?
For a business-down issue, under fifteen minutes during covered hours is a strong commitment and under an hour is common. For single-user issues, same-day or next-business-day is normal. Be more suspicious of a very aggressive number with no measurement method attached than of a moderate number that is clearly defined and reported on.
Our provider advertises an average response time. Is that the same as a guarantee?
No. An average is a description of past performance across all tickets; a guarantee is a contractual commitment on each one. A provider can hold a very good average and still take hours on the ticket that matters most to you. Our own eight-minute figure is an average we measure and report, not a contractual guarantee, and we say so rather than letting it be read the other way.
Should I insist on service credits?
You can, but weigh what they are worth. Credits are typically capped at a small percentage of one month’s fee and require you to notice the miss and claim it in writing within a short window. A right to terminate after repeated failures is usually worth more than a credit, and monthly reporting you can actually audit is worth more than both.
Does an onsite commitment work the same way as a remote one?
No. Remote targets start when the ticket arrives; onsite targets depend on distance, traffic and whether travel time counts inside or outside the clock. Advanced Networks commits to one hour onsite across Southern and Northern California, and to remote response with dispatch to follow for locations outside the state. Any onsite promise should name its geographic boundary.
What should I ask for before signing?
Four things in writing: the severity definitions and who assigns them, the coverage window in your own time zone, whether targets are measured per ticket or as a monthly average, and a sample of the monthly report you will receive. If a provider will not show you the report format, you cannot verify anything they promise.
Keep reading: Managed IT Pricing in Los Angeles · In-House IT vs Managed IT Costs · Co-Managed vs Fully Managed IT · Changing IT Providers · Onsite IT Support
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Send us the agreement you have been offered and we will mark up the measurement clauses, the severity table and the coverage window, and tell you plainly what is committed and what is not — whether or not you end up working with us.