What is the difference between an SLA and a regular IT agreement?

The agreement covers the general terms, such as price, term and liability. The SLA describes the service level: which priorities exist, how fast someone responds, what the service hours are and how reporting works. The SLA is often an annex to the agreement.

What response time is reasonable for an SME?

It depends on how dependent you are on IT. A short response time for critical outages, within a few hours, is common, with a longer one for questions and changes, often one or more working days. More important than the number is that priorities are clearly described and that there is also an agreement about updates and resolution.

What if my IT partner does not meet the SLA?

Discuss it first using the reports: which tickets ran late and why. Check whether the agreement says anything about compensation or the right to terminate after repeated failures. If it does not, raise it at the next renewal.

Should I keep admin access myself if an MSP manages everything?

Yes. Always keep a break-glass or admin account in your company's name, well secured and stored separately. That way you can always reach your own environment, even if the partnership ends or your IT partner cannot be reached.

An SLA with your IT partner: what an SME should agree on response times and handover

Email is down and nobody can send invoices. You call your IT partner and hear that someone will look at it tomorrow. Is that reasonable, or should someone have responded within the hour? The answer is in your SLA, the service level agreement. Many SMEs only find out during an outage like this that the agreement is vague, or that there is none at all.

Why an SLA is more than a list of response times

As long as everything works, nobody looks at the SLA. Only during an outage, an invoice that is higher than expected or a switch to another provider does it become clear what was actually agreed. A good SLA prevents arguments at those moments. It describes not only how fast someone responds, but also what the service covers, what you need to do yourself and how you get out again.

For an SME without its own IT department this matters even more. You depend on one party that has access to your Microsoft 365, your laptops and often your domain name as well. Clear agreements protect you, but also the IT partner, because both sides know where they stand.

Priorities: what counts as urgent?

The basis of every SLA is a set of priorities. Without a clear description, everything is urgent for the person reporting it and nothing is urgent for the helpdesk. A common set looks like this:

Critical: the whole company or a large part of it cannot work, for example no email, no internet at the office or a suspected hack or ransomware.
High: one or a few employees cannot work, or an important system only half works.
Normal: something does not work properly, but there is a workaround, such as a printer that acts up or a slow application.
Low: questions, changes and requests, such as setting up a new employee or a shared folder.

Check whether the SLA says who sets the priority and whether you can escalate a ticket if you disagree. Also agree that a security incident always gets the highest priority, even if people can still work at that moment. A compromised Microsoft 365 account cannot wait until tomorrow.

Response time and resolution time are not the same

Many SLAs only mention a response time. That is the time until someone picks up your ticket and contacts you. It says nothing about when the problem is solved. A one-hour response time for a critical outage is good, but you also want to know what happens next: is someone working on it continuously, when will you get the next update and what is the target for a fix or a temporary workaround?

A resolution time is harder to promise, because some problems sit with a supplier, such as an outage at Microsoft or your internet provider. A fair SLA therefore gives a target time and describes what the IT partner does when the problem is outside its control, for example raising it with the supplier and keeping you informed.

Also look at the service hours. A four-hour response time within office hours means a ticket raised on Friday at five in the afternoon will only be picked up on Monday. If that is too late for your business, agree what is possible outside office hours and what it costs.

What does the fixed fee cover?

Many IT partners charge a fixed fee per user or per device per month. That is easy to follow, but only if it is clear what is included. Ask at least:

Whether helpdesk questions are unlimited or capped at a number of hours.
Whether onboarding and offboarding employees is included. A fixed joiner and leaver procedure saves a lot of separate hours.
Whether updates and patch management, monitoring and backup checks are included.
What happens during a major incident. Recovery after ransomware can take days; is that in the fixed fee or billed separately, and at what rate?
How projects are priced, such as an office move, a new server or a switch to another system.

It is fine if not everything is included, as long as you know in advance. An SLA that leaves everything open leads to surprises on the invoice.

Reporting: do you know what is happening?

An SLA without reporting is hard to check. Agree that you receive a regular overview, for example monthly or quarterly. It should show the number of tickets, whether the agreed response times were met, which updates were installed, whether backups succeeded and which risks the IT partner sees. Such an overview is also useful for your cyber insurance and, if it applies to you, for NIS2 supply-chain requirements.

Handover: how do you leave?

The part that is most often missing is the exit. What happens if you move to another IT partner? Record in the SLA or the agreement:

That you own your Microsoft 365 environment, your domain name and your data, and that the domain name and DNS are registered to your company.
That you always have your own break-glass account or admin account, so you are never locked out.
That the IT partner keeps documentation of the network, accounts, licences and settings, and hands it over when you leave.
Which notice period applies and what the handover costs.
That the old partner removes all access after the handover, including partner relationships in Microsoft 365 and remote management tools.

An IT partner that is confident in its service has no problem with clear exit terms. If a provider refuses to put them in writing, that tells you something.

How to check your current SLA in half an hour

Take the agreement and go through these questions: are there priorities with a description, is there a response time per priority, are the service hours clear, do you know what the fixed fee covers, do you get reports and does it say anything about handover and ownership? Every no is a topic to discuss with your IT partner. Also take your IT incident plan: the phone numbers and arrangements in it should match what the SLA says.

What Floor ICT does

Floor ICT records in the customer agreement which priorities apply, the response time per priority, the service hours and what the fixed monthly fee covers. We always treat security incidents as the highest priority. You receive a regular overview of tickets, updates, backups and points of attention. The Microsoft 365 environment and the domain name stay yours, we keep documentation up to date and we agree in advance how a handover works if you ever leave. As your MSP we take day-to-day management off your hands; you stay in control of the agreements.

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