What Are Olas? Operational Level Agreements Explained

In today’s technology-driven marketplace, delivering superior IT service management is a requirement . As such, organizations must monitor key infrastructure performance indicators and business services, all defined in :

• Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• Operational Level Agreements (OLAs)
• Underpinning Contracts (UCs)

However, they must do this in a way that maximizes IT productivity while keeping costs low. Let’s take a look at these three, then dive deep into OLAs in particular.

SLAs vs OLAs vs UCs

• Service Level Agreements are external agreements between a service provider and a customer. They allow your organization to track performance and progress against commitments to the customer as defined in the SLAs. The agreement can consist of one or more service targets. Service targets can define penalties for noncompliance of an agreement or rewards for meeting and exceeding the specified goals.
• Operational Level Agreements (also known as Operating Level Agreements) are internal agreements that a service provider defines for internal users to meet SLAs. OLAs can also contain one or more objectives or service targets. The OLAs would be used to track internal service commitments such as the following service targets:
  • Response time for incidents or problems assigned to IT groups
  • Availability of servers supporting various applications
• Underpinning Contracts are agreements that are used to track performance between an external service provider and a vendor.

The below graphic shows how the three commitments work together:

The main difference between OLAs and SLAs is that they represent different commitments:

• The SLA underscores a commitment to the client/customer.
• The OLA highlights the commitment to internal groups within the organization.

In addition, the OLA typically has a smaller target group compared to an SLA, with more detail on technical aspects of the problem or service.

OLAs in ITIL & ITSM

In ITIL and ITSM frameworks, an OLA represents the relationship between an IT Service Provider and another part of the IT organization. It describes relationships at the operational level, including those between:

• Service Desk
• Support Group(s)
• Incident Resolution
• Network Management
• Operations Management

All of these relationships are captured in a document typically owned by the Service Management Team.