E-business Trends Boost Enterprise Interest In SLM
by Lynn DeNoia and Jim Metzler

Published March 2001

Abstract:

Information technology (IT) departments have long discussed Service Level Management (SLM), and some have even pushed for its adoption. Recently, however, SLM has become as much a business pull as a technology push, thanks to the inexorable trend toward e-business. This is helping not only to remove some of the longstanding barriers between IT and business unit (BU) managers, but also to reposition IT as a strategic component of the business (rather than as a cost to be minimized).

In a recent study of nearly 300 organizations of all sizes in the U.S. ("Transitioning to the E-Network," May 2000, Sage Research and Ashton, Metzler & Associates), more than half the respondents said they were planning to make significant changes to their WANs, specifically to improve support for intermixing traditional data (from typical enterprise applications) with data from e-business applications. Other important goals were cited, including improvements in scope of access, reliability, performance and security—a clear indication that IT is bringing the infrastructure up to date to meet business requirements.

This will not be enough by itself, however. To ensure plans and investments are understood and supported by BU managers, IT must reach out with a more formal approach to SLM.

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