Where managed services providers once delivered self-service and after-hours support for beleaguered IT teams, most have now evolved to offer remote monitoring and hosting. But has their technology been keeping pace?

While IT managers agree that service level management (SLM) is critical to their organizations, many also find it intimidating. It need not be. An SLM program is what you make it - it can be formal or informal, all-encompassing or focused on key services. The point is to document required service levels for services provided to the business by the IT organization. Service-level requirements are...