Book excerpt: Your customers don't care whether it is you, your ISP, ASP, or other outsourced provider who screws up - they just know they can't do business with you when they want to. All that matters is that your e-business is failing to deliver - and that you need to hold someone accountable. Meaningful Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are unambiguous, comprehensive, and enforceable. SLAs commit suppliers to a defined quality of service: failure to meet explicit service levels can result in penalties or even legal action. Spectacular losses often follow e-business outages, particularly when SLAs are not in force. The biggest hit is not necessarily loss of income or profit, but impact on stock values - especially when markets are skittish. Some losses have exceeded $40 million with stock values falling by 26%. This new book offers the keys to effective SLAs with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs), which can go a long way toward averting catastrophic losses as well as day-to-day headaches.