Contract SLAs Favor Telcos, Study Finds

Enterprise contracts with telecommunications carriers are not up to snuff as it concerns service-level agreements, with one in 10 not containing any SLAs at all, according to a recent study by AOTMP, an information and training company specializing in telecom life-cycle management.

Well-rounded telecom carrier contracts include SLA provisions addressing technical integrity, account management/customer care performance and billing/financial performance, but AOTMP’s research reveals these items are not properly addressed in the majority of enterprise contracts. What’s more, AOTMP found 11 percent of enterprises reported not having any SLAs in their telecom carrier contracts.

Only half of enterprise telecom carrier contracts contain SLAs addressing customer care, with 50 percent containing SLAs addressing customer service response times and 49 percent containing SLAs addressing customer service issue resolution timeframes.

Less than a third (31 percent) of the enterprises surveyed had SLAs addressing billing accuracy in their telecom carrier contracts. In the same survey, respondent reported the management issues were billing-related: Eighty-two percent cited rate reviews and 80 percent cited billing dispute resolution reviews as the most common management activities.

“After reviewing the research it has become clear that enterprise opportunity exists to improve SLAs in telecom carrier contracts,” said Timothy C. Colwell, senior vice president of global information management at AOTMP. “It would be to both parties’ advantage to include comprehensive SLAs containing clear performance measurement criteria, defined remedy for out-of-scope performance and remuneration for out-of-scope performance. Enterprises would also benefit by adding more carrier incentives (additional service awards, service winbacks and increased service volume) for outstanding performance to serve as incentives for desired performance in all areas.”