Book excerpt: In an ideal business climate, all your service level agreements would align perfectly with business goals. Your company’s vision, definitions, requirements, and performance measurement would be clear. But in today’s fast-paced, complex world of outsourcing, you could use some help to make that a reality. Look no further! In A Rothstein Publishing Collection: Service Level Agreements, four key books by Andrew Hiles combine to help you achieve effective agreements. Andrew Hiles draws on decades of experience to guide you in achieving service level agreements (SLAs) that are not simply legal documents, but are strategic business-centric tools that can lead to enduring, satisfying, and profitable relationships between customer and supplier. In this four-book package, you will receive a step-by-step guide to designing, negotiating, and implementing SLAs in your organization: Service Level Agreements: Winning a Competitive Edge for Support & Supply Services The Complete Guide to IT Service Level Agreements: Aligning IT Service to Business Needs E-Business Service Level Agreements: Strategies for Service Providers, E-Commerce and Outsourcing Creating a Customer-Focused Help Desk: How to Win and Keep Your Customers These books include checklists, samples, statistics, and real-world case studies that will help you to: • Create clearly written SLAs that are unambiguous, comprehensive, and enforceable. • Balance service costs against quality for business advantage. • Provide the level of service that meets the expectations of customers and keeps them loyal. • Apply quality assurance techniques to the SLA to identify the right quality of service. • Prevent disputes between customers and suppliers. • Avoid catastrophic losses and day-to-day headaches.