SLAs - can you make them waterproof?

        SLAs is an area where I always was fortunate enough to have your lawyer uncle around. He saved me from slipping under many dangerous fine-print pits and from giving away too much rope.
So keep him along for every new or old vendor you sign a contract with. Negotiating can be fun, profitable and as I have delightfully discovered even symbiotic. The trick is not to get myopic and foolish enough to approach it as a haggling war. Also, to not be intimidated by the person sitting opposite you.



        This is something I learnt from my savvy analyst comrade Sunil Padmanabh from Gartner. He would often tell me about the yawning gap on due diligence with many contracts. "Nine out of ten big-time goof-ups result on licensing, or fine-print or legal issues of a contract. It is not uncommon that companies run into legal hassles with many IT mega vendors. The reason is simple - no deep dive on details.



        Offshoots can be many from penalties or court cases to audits. This not only distracts IT's attention to legal headaches but also veers off the entire leadership into suits. It starts somewhere when a CIO tries to oversimplify licensing. Most of the time is spent on bargaining rather than grasping the details well. Early-bird discounts do the rest of the job. One can get locked down if one is not aware of all provisions and cautions.



        Vendors are also smart enough to leave everything top open judgment of CIOs instead of educating them properly, who in turn, is usually in a hurry to shortlist a vendor. CIOs usually do the bare minimum either because it is an intimidating or unfamiliar area for them. They pass on the RFP to a legal team and approach such issues in a reactionary mode- like when a sudden license audit swings by. That's why the ROI justification, for cloud-models, for instance takes a U-turn, and one finds oneself better in the relatively better comfort zone of on-premise contracts.



        One should be aware of the different kinds of licensing options or about the possible redundancies, Padmanabh advised me so well. Most contracts should be drafted in good faith, as Vijay Sethi, CIO, Hero Motor Corp would often suggest me.



        But, it is not advisable to run an IT set-up by relying on a piece of paper and opening a book of SLAs every minute of the day. Sethi was the one who defogged the quintessential reality for me. He used to ask me if I would be comfortable with opening a SLA-splashed paper on a daily basis to run my operations? I hope, you would also answer in the negative here.



        That's why Sethi passed on this approach that SLAs should be seen more as a guiding factor by both parties without letting them hamper day-to-day operations. Because if you, as a customer, start counting pennies when it comes to down-time or call-hours, someday the vendor can do the same for any not-so-unreasonable extra minute that you wish you had for an important call. Any business party can run contracts to the hilt, but it takes partners to run a good business beyond paper.



        You must recall Manu Govind, IT head, Synthitite Bank here. His view to SLAs covers some rough edges for me. There will always be a tolerance level set and assigned to vendors. But the IT team has to be careful that it is met and properly justified. Penalty-based formats are refreshing options nowadays in making vendors alert and cautious. The ‘why' of a problem, the root-cause analysis and the permanent fix-up is what a person like Govind would stress upon.



        There is so much that you will learn on the way once you start paying attention to this area and not be befuddled about it.



        And whenever you get stuck, you can always recall all the chess moves I have taught when we played those strategic boxing fights. Like the one we exchanged during our last game together - the threat should be stronger than its execution.