Using COBIT and the balanced scorecard as instruments for service level management

In today’s service-driven economy, organizations increasingly rely on third parties for a variety of information technology (IT) services. However, organizations often are not pleased with the service received and sometimes are dependent on third parties whose future is uncertain, especially in this period of time characterized by economic decline. This article will show how organizations can respond to this problem through service level agreements (SLAs) and service level management (SLM), supported by mechanisms such as COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and related Technology) and the balanced scorecard (BSC). The main conclusion of this article is that an appropriate SLM process should be in place in the organization and that, to avoid problems of not getting the service(s) required, service levels should be expressed in business terms. Implementing an SLM process is not an easy and quick task. An approach using supportive mechanisms such as COBIT and the balanced scorecard may help in defining or fine-tuning the SLA(s). The first part of this article provides basic definitions of SLM and SLA and briefly describes the components of the SLM process. COBIT also is introduced as a framework to support the SLM process. Finally, the balanced scorecard concept is tailored to measure and manage the SLM process.