3 min read
Value Level Agreements: The next evolution in managed services
In the ever-changing landscape of managed services, Value Level Agreements (VLAs) have emerged as a key transformation driver , shifting the focus from traditional service levels to business outcomes and value realisation. As organisations strive to maximise their investments and deliver meaningful business results, VLAs offer a new paradigm that aligns managed services with customer strategic goals.
What are Value Level Agreements (VLAs)?
VLAs represent a significant evolution from the standard Service Level Agreements (SLAs). While SLAs remain essential for tracking performance against technical service requirements, VLAs go a step further by measuring your business outcomes. This approach ensures that managed services not only meet technical standards but also deliver agreed, tangible business value.
This value-led approach is designed to address the unique needs of individual customers, identifying pain points, inefficiencies, and growth suppressants within their IT estates.
Some real-world client examples include:
| Customer problem | What Version 1 delivered | Positive impact |
|---|---|---|
| The client needed to improve their procure-to-pay process and allow requisitions to be raised on behalf of the requester. | We implemented a combination of new approval rules, creation of a customised role and additional roles assigned to users along with some new scheduled processes which removed manual work. | The client now utilises best practices in the system and the overall ‘procure to pay’ business process is improved. |
| The client wanted a one-stop shop for all approvers to be able to see all outstanding approvals in one place. | We implemented Oracle Digital Assistant (using OOTB Approver Skill) to facilitate this with no additional license costs. | Users (including busy senior users) can now see and action all their outstanding approvals from one place – with the potential to extend functionality to Teams/mobile devices. |
| The client’s payroll team had to manually enter RTI Starter Declaration details from information supplied by new joiners on a paper form. | We proposed using the seeded self-service RTI Starter Declaration functionality to have employees enter the required data themselves as part of their onboarding process. | This resulted in significant time savings to the client’s payroll team. The estimated reduction in time by not having to manually key the data was around 0.5 to 1 day per month. |
Why choose VLAs?
In today’s competitive business environment, organisations need more than just reliable managed services. You need partners who can help you achieve your strategic goals and drive business success. VLAs offer a proactive approach to managed services, ensuring that every aspect of your IT estate is optimised for maximum value and business impact.
By adopting VLAs, you can unlock hidden business value, improve efficiency, and achieve better results.
Key benefits of VLAs:
- Tailored to your needs: Each VLA is customised to address the specific challenges and opportunities within your organisation. Key areas for improvement are identified and solutions implemented that drive business value
- Focus on business outcomes: VLAs shift the focus from merely meeting technical service levels to achieving business results. This includes a wide array of values, from improved processes to critical application response times
- Pro-active service: Business-driven VLAs are measured against an agreed set of outcomes and tracked through to value creation
Pro-active, repeatable process – VLA in a Day
A pro-active, repeatable process is necessary to ensure your services continually evolve to deliver against your business needs, and not just your technical service requirements.
To underpin this aim, our four-step approach to defining VLAs begins with gathering key customer data in a jigsaw. We then identify potential VLA use cases tied to business value, map out value versus feasibility and effort, and prioritise the VLAs with set KPIs. Finally, a solution statement is created to clarify the problem, metrics, and expected benefits.
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VLA jigsaw
Bringing together key pieces of information from across the customer’s organisation, as well as from the IT industry and best practice/experience within Version1. The target here is to define the potential areas of value for the customer.
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Use case matrix
Identify use cases with a clear understanding of the users impacted and the potential benefits. Version 1 work with our customer’s designated stakeholders to collectively gather the business value factors, the users impacted, and the benefits realisation.
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Value versus feasibility map
A process step whereby the customer and Version 1 plot the value versus the feasibility of each VLA use case. Create a process map where needed to break the VLAs down. This will highlight the VLAs to do now, which to park and which to remove, Agreed KPIs will be put in place.
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Benefits realisation statement
Each VLA will have a solution statement created (or PRFAQ) which will clearly define who the customer is, the problem is is intended to resolve, the prioritised benefits to be realised, and the metrics against which the VLA will be measured.
Version 1 has integrated VLAs into our ASPIRE Managed Service framework. By leveraging our expertise and the ASPIRE framework, we can help you realise value at every stage of your managed service lifecycle and deliver against meaningful performance indicators.
Customer Success Story
“We never felt this confident and ready to maximise our adoption of new features before Version 1 and if I were to contribute it to one specific reason, I would say it’s because Version 1 and the SIA are so well-aligned in terms of values and standards.”
Ben Harrison, Senior Manager – Operational Service Improvement, Security Industry Authority
Partnering with a managed service partner with experience, expertise and proven results will allay concerns about your support and maintenance.
With Version 1’s ASPIRE Framework, we can help you move beyond traditional SLAs and embrace the future of managed services with VLAs.
Visit our ASPIRE Managed Services website page or read our VLA datasheet for more information.
More about the author
Marcus Cox is the Head of ASPIRE Managed Service offerings, and with a laser focus on business outcomes, he ensures our ASPIRE Managed Services align with industry best practices and meet the unique needs of each customer. Marcus has extensive experience in managing complex technology environments, optimising architectures, and driving operational efficiency. His expertise spans a diverse range of technologies and service delivery models. He is committed to fostering strong client relationships and continuously improving our ASPIRE service offerings.