Agreement Matrices

An agreement matrix contains a set of rules for calculating at what point a call or a request will be escalated, or an agreement breached. Matrices are an essential part of Service Level Management in vFire Core. They provide a lot of flexibility in configuring how different calls, requests and tasks are escalated and operate according to agreements.

Escalation and agreement breach times can be set specifically for every result in a matrix and you can create and assign as many matrices as you like, so there is virtually unlimited flexibility in configuring your system for escalation and agreements.

If you create a matrix with the dimensions Priority and Config Item Type, it means that any call connected to an agreement using that matrix will have its escalation and breach times based on the values entered into the matrix for the matching Priority and Config Item of the call.

Matrices can be based on calls, requests or tasks/approvals. They are composed of three dimensions, much like the axes of a graph. Defining a matrix involves setting its dimensions. The matrix can then be linked to an agreement on the IPK and Workflow Threshold window.

Matrices can have up to three dimensions. Typically, matrices derive escalation times based on a combination of priority and either configuration item type or call (or request) type. They may also use service as a third dimension.

Each agreement has a particular matrix that is applied when the agreement is invoked for a call. The agreement also contains rules about how the times in the matrix are used to specify escalation and agreement breach times.

Generally, calls invoke several escalation events before eventually triggering an agreement breach event. At this point, the agreement has been broken, and penalties may apply. Escalations are designed to prevent agreement breaches from occurring.

These rules apply to requests and tasks as well.

Agreement Matrices and Escalation Matrices

The different matrices you need to create are related to the type of escalation you have on your system. If you have First Call Back and Response escalation, you will need a First Call Back and a Response matrix. Remember, escalations are internal alerts used to prevent agreement breaches.

You do not have to create a different escalation matrix in addition to the agreement matrix. When creating an agreement, vFire Core enables you to use an existing agreement matrix as an escalation matrix, but applied at a certain factor or multiple in the matrix. Each time the escalation matrix is figured out by multiplying the corresponding time by the factor you choose (usually a number between 0 and 1). That allows time between an escalation and when the agreement will be breached.

For a service agreement with a company to fix software and hardware problems, all software issues must be resolved within 120 minutes. Hardware issues must be resolved within 90 minutes unless they are server issues, in which case the time is only 60 minutes. High priority calls must be fixed within half those times.

The agreement times can be factored into a Priority by Config Item Type matrix. However, the escalation times must always be smaller than the agreement times (say, half), otherwise by the time a call escalates the agreement times have already been breached. To account for this, after creating the Resolve Agreement Matrix, also create a Resolve Escalation matrix, based on the Resolve Agreement Matrix but at a Factor of 0.5, that is, one half.

The two tables below show how these matrices work. The third dimension, Service, is not being used in this example.

Agreement Matrix Normal Priority High Priority
Software 120 60
Hardware 90 45
Hardware - Server 60 30
Escalation Matrix Normal Priority High Priority
Software 60 30
Hardware 45 22.5
Hardware - Server 30 15

Creating an Agreement Matrix

The Matrix Definition window enables you to create an agreement matrix.

Before you start

Before you set up matrices, you need to determine which parameters you want to use.

You must have SLM Setup enabled within your General Access Security Role in order to configure any SLM administration settings.

  1. Select the Menu button , then Admin, and then select System Administration. The System Administration window is displayed, with a menu of options available . In the Explorer pane, locate the Service Level Management group , scrolling up or down if necessary. You may need to expand it to see all of the options.

  2. Select Matrix Definition to open the window.
  1. Select . A pop-up window New Matrix Type is displayed.
  2. In the New Matrix Type window, select the entity (Calls, Requests, Tasks/Approvals) for which you want to create the agreement matrix . Call matrices can be used to set IPK thresholds whereas Request and Task/Approval matrices can be used to set workflow thresholds.
  3. Select . A new row is added to the browse table on the Matrix Definition window with the Matrix Type field set to your selection.
  4. In the Name field, type a name for the matrix you want to create.

    5. Ensure all matrices have meaningful names such as ‘Response Escalation for Software Support’ so the correct matrices can be chosen when applying them to a contract.

  5. At X Dimension, select a matrix criterion from the drop-down list. (You may like to adjust the column widths to see all of the columns.)

    6. The choices for Dimension X are Priority and Unspecified. Generally, you organize matrices by Priority. However, if you only want to base the matrix on a Y Dimension criterion, select Unspecified.

  6. At Y Dimension, select your matrix criteria from the drop-down list. This is optional, and the fields displayed depend on the matrix type.

    7. Calls Unspecified, By Type, By Top Level Type
    Requests Unspecified, By Request Type, By Workflow Template
    Tasks or approvals Unspecified, By Task Type

  7. At Z Dimension, select your matrix criteria. If you do not want to use dimension Z, set it to Unspecified. Otherwise, select Service and then select a specific service in Filter bywhich is in the section below the definition area. After timings are entered into the matrix for the first service, select the next service for which timings need to be set.
  8. The matrix is displayed below the definition area, based on the dimensions you selected. The columns will be Priority (or Default if you chose X Dimension to be Unspecified), and the rows will be labeled based on your Y Dimension criterion. If you selected Workflow Template as the Y Dimension criterion, the rows will list each workflow template.
  9. For each cell in the table, specify the length of time when the escalations and breach occur for a particular agreement, in the format “h:mm”, where h represents the hours and mm represents the minutes of the agreement. To set a time of two hours and fifteen minutes, type 2:15 into the cell.

    10. To use the same times for several rows, key in the time in one of the rows and then use the and buttons to copy and paste the times. You can use the CTRL and Shift keys to copy onto multiple rows.

  10. Select to save the changes. Provide the Change Reasons if prompted to do so.

Renaming an Agreement Matrix

Before you start

You must have SLM Setup enabled within your General Access Security Role in order to configure any SLM administration settings.

Verify that you have already defined options for Workflow Management and the CMDB, especially priorities, types, service levels, service types and CMDB item types.

  1. Select the Menu button , then Admin, and then select System Administration. The System Administration window is displayed, with a menu of options available . In the Explorer pane, locate the Service Level Management group , scrolling up or down if necessary. You may need to expand it to see all of the options.

  2. Select Matrix Definition to open the window.
  1. Select the required Event Type by selecting on the Name field.
  2. Type over the name with the new name.
  3. Select to save the changes. Provide the Change Reasons if prompted to do so.

Deleting an Agreement Matrix

Before you start

You must have SLM Setup enabled within your General Access Security Role in order to configure any SLM administration settings.

Verify that you have already defined options for Workflow Management and the CMDB, especially priorities, types, service levels, service types and CMDB item types.

  1. Select the Menu button , then Admin, and then select System Administration. The System Administration window is displayed, with a menu of options available . In the Explorer pane, locate the Service Level Management group , scrolling up or down if necessary. You may need to expand it to see all of the options.

  2. Select Matrix Definition to open the window.
  1. Select the required row and select .
  2. Select to save the changes. Provide the Change Reasons if prompted to do so.