Manually keeping track of all of your Service Level Agreements or SLAs can be a very time-consuming and inefficient process. Moreover, you definitely do not want your customers to start complaining about delayed deliveries or slow processing for example.
A handy solution for this problem is implementing Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP in short. ERP is essentially a package of computer software with lots of different modules, each of them supporting one specific process of your business. These modules can keep track of things like current stock or can assist you in the financial administration of your company.
Where, back in the old days, a business would have to use many software programs to support their activities, ERP bundles it all in one efficient package, thereby reducing the need for many different databases for each program and increasing work productivity greatly.
With correct implantation of a well-designed Enterprise Resource Planning system, business owners can dissect their SLA?s and implement all of their obligations and rights into an ERP. For example, an internet service provider might want to include their mean time to repair or mean time between failures in their SLA?s with clients. These two measurable numbers can all be tracked in certain ERPs.
When, for example, a customer believes the internet service provider has not repaired a client?s internet connection in time, the ISP may consult the ERP to see whether or not they took longer than the mean time to repair stated in the SLA. Moreover, the internet service provider can keep track of, for example, their mean time to repair and intervene in time and take measures to reduce that number when it has gone over the mean time to repair stated in their SLAs with clients, thereby preventing conflict with their clients.
ERP can work both ways too. It can track payments you have received and show you, for example, which customers are paying on time or which customers are having frequent delays in payment, allowing you to discuss the matters with the client in question.
And although, these program packages may seem very complex and difficult to get into, the reality is far from it. ERPs have gone through a big overhaul in terms of design and user-friendliness.
Nowadays, ERPs have well designed and easy-to-use dashboards with fully intellectual report systems allowing users to gain true intellect and vision on all of their SLAs with ease.
Because of the fact that ERPs utilize real time tracking systems, business owners will always know what exactly is happening in their company immediately, enabling any business to meet any SLA in time.
However, be sure to enlist the help and advice of an expert in the ERP business to ensure you get the right ERP system for your type of business without overpaying or over complicating things. There are many different ERP providers, some better than others and some more expensive than others. It?s very important to perform a cost-benefit analysis to figure out which ERP system would work best for your business and activities and get you on your way to much more efficient SLA tracking.