Need help understanding what an SLA means to your business?
Talk to an expert: 020 3409 9652
Understanding Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for Business Internet
There are numerous acronyms to understand when choosing your business broadband, one of the main ones being SLA. This guide explains what it is and why it might be important for your business.
What is an SLA?
A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a formal agreement between a business customer and its internet service provider (ISP). For example, your broadband provider will issue an SLA agreement that defines the expected level of service, including uptime (usually 99.9%), performance speeds, and how issues will be fixed if the provider fails to meet the agreement.
The inclusion of an SLA is one of the main selling points of business broadband, as a connection can be critical for operations, and it ensures guarantees.
Why SLAs Are Crucial for Business Internet
We’ve all experienced downtime with our home broadband, and it can be an inconvenience. This is one of the leading reasons business internet plans are preferred, often accompanied by SLA agreements, as an outage can result in loss of revenue, reduced productivity, and the potential to disappoint customers.
Why You Might Want A Strong SLA
Reliability: Provides reassurance that your internet connection is consistent.
Accountability: Holds the provider responsible if the connection performance falls short of the agreement.
Risk Management: Reduced the chances of downtime, which helps mitigate financial loss in the event of an outage.
Transparency: You understand the exact service you’re getting before any contracts are signed.
Competitive Advantage: Always be where your customers need you with an online service that delivers.
SLA Explained
Uptime Guarantee
Uptime guarantee is displayed as a percentage, but there can be confusion around what it means. As the numbers are so close to each other, the difference may seem minor.
- 99% uptime = up to 3 days/ 15 hours of downtime per year.
- 99.9% uptime = up to 8 hours/ 45 minutes of downtime per year.
- 99.99% uptime = up to 52 minutes of downtime per year.
- 99.999% uptime = about 5 minutes of downtime per year.
Businesses that rely on a connection to function should look at providers with at least 99.9% downtime per year. Mission-critical applications will fail during downtime, and may lead to loss of revenue.
Understanding Connection Performance
Latency impacts the quality of video calls and VoIP phone lines.
Packet Loss impacts the quality of voice and video - this should be below 1%.
Jitter is linked directly to real-time communication stability and should be below 30ms.
Bandwidth is the link between the providers' advertised download speeds and the guaranteed minimum.
Also Included In Your SLA
Customer Service Desk - Does it support 24/7 or only business hours?
Response Time - how quickly your provider acknowledges any fault.
Resolution/Fix Time - how quickly your provider promises to restore normal service.
What to Look for Before Signing an SLA
In some instances, the Service Level Agreement may use vague terminology, and it's important to gain some clarity on some parts of the SLA before signing a contract. Here are some common things some providers do.
Vague terminology - if the SLA states ‘as fast as possible’, it's a good idea to try and work out what this actually means.
Uptime - how does the provider measure uptime and track performance?
Customer support - if your business operates outside of normal business hours, look for a provider that offers 24/7 support.
Compensation - if something does go wrong, does the provider issue meaningful compensation?
All terms - make sure you’re happy with the terms of the SLA, especially if your business's finances rely on a connection.
Comparing Business SLAs
|
Service Type |
Typical SLA |
Uptime Guarantee |
Fix Time |
Best for |
|
Best Effort |
99-99.5% |
1-2 business days |
Small businesses with light internet requirements |
|
|
Business Fibre Broadband |
Stronger SLA |
99.9% |
8-12 hours |
Small & medium businesses that would like more stability |
|
Great SLA |
99.9 - 99.99% |
4 hours or less |
Any business that would lose money if the connection remained down |
Does A Service Level Agreement Matter?
Choosing your provider and broadband will directly impact the quality of your SLA. For some, a basic connection will be sufficient if the business can get by for a couple of days without a connection (in the worst case).
However, businesses more reliant on their connection, such as financial companies, hospitality and call centres, may want to consider investing in a leased line. Each business is different and will make a choice best suited to their requirements.