Certain carriers now offer MTTR metrics on individual connections as well. Whether connection-specific or aggregate measures are more useful varies by customer. Connection-specific measures provide some insight into geographic holes in the carrier's service support. Aggregate measures may provide a general sense of performance, but hide specific problems. Again, it's better to measure both than to choose between imperfect options.
PROCESS, PROCESS, PROCESS
The best SLA means little without the ability to track, report, and resolve outages. With carriers shedding customer support staff and trimming account resources, it's becoming harder to obtain assistance in these tasks. Not only is it more difficult to report and collect credits than it was a few years ago, but it's also harder to track and resolve persistent service problems. Most IXCs offer Web portals where customers can track the performance of some core services, but without monthly or quarterly service meetings with a carrier representative, it's difficult to translate that performance data into concrete action to resolve service problems.
Credit reporting requirements and processes are becoming more onerous as well. The major IXCs have operational requirements in their SLAs that, at best, discourage claiming credits and, at worst, may bar remedies entirely. Two of the Big Three IXCs require customers to file a written claim for a credit within five days after an outage occurs. This is an unrealistically short time frame. However, there's an even bigger problem: Most metrics are monthly averages, and credits are based on the failure to meet those numbers. How, then, can customers know if they're entitled to a credit based on a single outage? Form SLAs also give the carrier exclusive discretion in determining whether a credit claim is timely and meritorious, eliminating any need to be fair or objective.
Although these process problems aren't insurmountable, they can be frustrating to fix. Large customers or customers that have had some pre-existing account support with the incumbent carrier can usually negotiate an alternative, such as monthly or quarterly performance reviews and a dedicated carrier representative to push through credit requests. Smaller customers will have a harder time and must be creative in addressing the process problem. Usually, smaller customers must track and enforce SLA compliance with minimal help from the carrier, a difficult task given personnel and resource constraints.
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