XDSL redefines its SLAs, simplifying the fine print and adding ‘service experience’ guarantees – a first for SA

Says Danie Fourie, director XDSL: “Legal and technical jargon can obscure the actual benefits of an SLA, leaving a business at risk. For example, few realise that a 99.9% uptime SLA may still legally leave the business “down” for nine hours if the SLA is defined over a 12-month period. Our SLA matrix spells out – exactly – what clients will receive, allowing them to make informed choices that meet their business needs. The addition of a service experience component adds a new dimension.”

The SLA matrix clearly differentiates between product guarantees and service experience. Says Fourie: “Customers that just want the best possible price with only first line support (e.g., small businesses or resellers) can have that, while businesses that require service guarantees can define those. Larger enterprises with mission critical systems, such as retail banks, may place greater value on service levels and the total service experience. When systems go down and thousands of customers are affected, they in all likelihood will require ongoing communication throughout the critical period, direct access to third-line or executive level support, and proactive monitoring and support. Our SLA matrix ensures that happens.”

XDSL’s SLA matrix offers customers a number of defined levels of guaranteed service including uptime, response time and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR). It also defines service experience such as level of support, reporting, proactive monitoring, allocation of a dedicated account manager and access to management.

Enter the matrix

XDSL’s new SLA matrix identifies the five levels of service customers can select from, namely Starter, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Each service level indicates a specific uptime guarantee, response time and MTTR. For each level, the “service experience” is also defined in terms of a number of features, including:

• access granted to first, second and third line support,
• the allocation of an account or project manager,
• pro-active monitoring,
• end-to-end management,
• levels of failover and firewall protection,
• reporting,
• Quality of Service (QoS),
• firewall protection, and
• bandwidth guarantees.

XDSL has also combined their offering with more value, including:

• Free hosted PBX,
• Free Voice over IP (VoIP) Lines,
• Free virtual server.

Pricing remains highly competitive.

Focus on service experience

Concludes Fourie: “Over the last 12 years, XDSL has built a national network that is backed by management services in nine data centres. As the ISP market grows, however, the differentiator will no longer be who has the best network, it’s going to be about who can offer the best service guarantees, value for money and the best service experience. The experience component we offer in our SLA matrix is something completely new in South Africa and a differentiator for XDSL in this market.

“XDSL’s strategy is to focus on service guarantees and especially on delivering the best total service experience. Our new product and pricing is designed to support us to achieve these goals and to help our customers tailor their experience with us.

For more information, visit www.xdsl.co.za