Service Level Agreement

This agreement is made between the Council’s ICT Department and the service users of the Council, including the East Dunbartonshire Health & Social Care Partnership (EDHSCP) and East Dunbartonshire Leisure Trust (EDLT).

The agreement covers the provision of ICT Services by ICT to the business areas & partnerships of the Council. This agreement remains valid until superseded by a revised agreement. The agreement will be reviewed bi-annually and any changes will be presented to the appropriate Committee for approval.

The purpose of this document is to ensure that all service users of ICT are aware of and understand the current Service Level Agreement (SLA) that the ICT Department work towards. This document also outlines the process for any escalations, complaints and details the current ICT structure.

The ICT department operates an on-site ICT Service Desk, contactable by Web Self- Service, Email, Telephone or in person. All Incidents, Service Requests and Change Requests must go through the ICT Service Desk. This is to ensure that accurate records are kept and adequate reporting against the relevant SLAs can be achieved. The preferred route of contact is via the Web Self-Service portal.

ICT Service Desk Hours

The ICT Service Desk is available as detailed below:

• Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm The ICT Service Desk is not available:
• Friday 5pm – Monday 9am
• Weekends
• Bank Holidays.

The ICT Service Desk Self Service portal is however available 24/7 365 days a year. All employees have the ability to log into the ICT Self Service Portal to log new Incidents, Service Requests and Change Requests. Employees also have the ability to update and review progress of their own Incidents, Service Requests and Change Requests.

Incidents

As incidents come into the Service Desk they will be allocated a priority and associated target response time as follows:

Priority will be defined by the ICT Service Desk Analyst logging the incident, in consultation with the user, following the collection of specific details including impact on Service provision. The priority may only be escalated by the employee’s line manager to the Corporate ICT Support Leader, Education ICT Support Leader or the ICT Support Lead.

Target Resolution is the timescale ICT will restore service and is determined by the incident priority. Restoring service may include workarounds or provision of appropriate loan equipment, which will allow the employee to carry out business critical tasks.

Service Requests and Changes

Service Requests

A Service Request is a small, low risk change that can be implemented in a short governed timeframe, ie Password reset
Service Requests will be processed according to the same priorities and timescales as for incidents.

Standard Changes

These are changes that the ICT Department carry out on a regular basis, and therefore follow a specific process. Fulfilment times are subject to the volume of incidents, ICT resource availability and in some cases underpinning third party contracts. ICT Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to complete standard requests within 5 working days.

Non-Standard Changes

These are changes that are not carried out regularly and require further investigation and may carry higher risk, cost or complexity. Due to the potential higher cost and risk, the ICT Department have an authorisation process to follow. Non-standard changes should be submitted to the ICT Service Desk using the Change Request form on the HUB. Technical Assessments are carried out for all Non-Standard Changes operating within 10 working day SLA. Once the Technical Assessment has been completed, the Non-Standard Change is then presented to the Change Advisory Board (CAB) for authorisation to proceed with the Change. Timescales for implementation will then be agreed and communicated with the customer.

New Employee Request

These requests are completed using the New Employee Request on the Hub. In doing so, these are submitted to the Line Manager and then onto ICT for creation. The new account / device allocation and creation follow the same Service Level Agreement as Standard Change. This is a 5 working day SLA.

Communication with Users

The ICT Service Desk / ICT Support Analysts will maintain effective communication with the user throughout the lifecycle of an Incident, Service Request, Standard or Non-Standard Change. Communication will be either by telephone, in person or by email, and all contacts (attempted or actual) will be recorded within the ICT Service Desk Self Service portal.

Escalation

Customers wishing to escalate the priority of an Incident, Service Request, Standard and Non-Standard Change should do so by informing the IT Service Desk in the first instance.

If further escalation is required, this should be to the Corporate ICT Support Leader, Education ICT Support Leader or the ICT Support Lead who will take relevant details relating to the Incident, Service Request, Standard or Non-Standard Change, check the history and speak to parties involved. A decision will be made based upon these facts and all parties advised of that decision, together with reasons behind the decision.

If escalation beyond the ICT Support Lead is required, this should be directed to the Executive Officer – Customer & Digital Services.

Complaints

Complaints should be directed to the ICT Support Lead either verbally (in the first instance) or in writing (document or email). The ICT Support Lead may subsequently request that verbal complaints be put in writing.

As a minimum, the following information should be included:

• Brief description of the complaint
• Customers that are / have been affected
• Named IT support staff, where possible
• Contact point for communication. 

The ICT Support Lead will aim to resolve the complaint to the complainant’s satisfaction within ten working days and communicate progress throughout the lifecycle of the complaint to the complainant.

In the event that the complaint is not resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction, it will be escalated to the Executive Officer – Customer & Digital Services.

Customer Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the customer to provide the following information as a minimum when logging an Incident, Service Request, Standard and Non-Standard Change on the IT Service Desk;

• Name
• Department
• Contact Number
• Confirm Asset Number (if appropriate)
• Description of the issue
• Current and/or potential impact e.g. number of staff affected It is the responsibility of the user to:
• Notify the IT Service Desk immediately of a fault on any IT service or any potential breach of security
• Record any information which may assist in the investigation of the incident (e.g. error messages)
• Remain courteous to the employees dealing with the incident
• Request escalation if required by following the appropriate procedure
• Adhere to relevant policies and procedures relating to IT use, equipment maintenance and security, as documented in the ICT Acceptable Use Policy
• Assist in the checking of data and system integrity following service restoration, system upgrades and enhancements, and access by third parties
• Log out of the network and /or specific systems promptly when requested to do so by the ICT Department

All ICT applications covered by this SLA will be available for use during the following hours:

• 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays The ICT Department do not provide ICT Support during:
• Friday 5pm – Monday 9am
• Weekends
• Bank Holidays.

Additional hours of onsite support may be provided by prior arrangement with the ICT Support Lead to cover important Corporate and Educational events where necessary.
 
A minimum of 2 weeks’ notice must be given for such service extensions to allow for coordination and availability of staff to resource.

Availability and performance measures for systems will be calculated on the basis of supported hours only.

In providing the identified services, the ICT Department will endeavour to meet the following Service Level targets:

Performance against these service levels will be detailed as part of the HIGOS Quarterly Reports which are presented to the Policy & Resources Committee.

• SLA – Service Level Agreement that ICT work towards. Priority 1 High, Priority 2 Medium, Priorty 3 Low
• VIP Customer – VIP customers are members of the Council’s Corporate Management Team, Council’s Senior Management Team, School Senior Management Team, Elected Members, EDLT Senior Management Team, Integrated Joint Board Senior Management Team
• Customer/User – ICT users supported by EDC ICT
• Customer Facing Application – EDC Website, School Website, Online Bookings, GIS
• Council Wide or Major Applications – BACs Payment Processing Application (Experian), HR/Payroll Application (iTrent), Social Work Application (Carefirst), Enterprise Remote Working (Total Mobile), Financial Application (Oracle eBusiness Suite), Education (Seemis), Cashless Catering (CRB), GLOW.