Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
When thought through carefully, technological solutions for online research
can be highly cost effective. Often, return rates are as high if not higher than
traditional mailed surveys, there are no costs for transcription or data entry,
and many research applications are freeware, shareware or relatively inexpen-
sive. Applications that are purchased have a useful life beyond any given study
and can usually be upgraded for a fraction of the original cost.
Highlighting the potential for costly mistakes is not meant to dissuade you
fromventuringintotechnologicalwaters,butrathertoencourageyoutopause
andreflect,withtheinformationwe'veprovided,sothat,ultimately,yourexpe-
rience can be more productive.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) …
“I don't know what I don't know”
A service level agreement is one of those things few know anything about, or
evenknowthatit'sworthknowinganythingabout.Ifyouacceptthatthereare
times when you “don't know what you don't know,” then we encourage you to
read on. This is probably one of those occasions.
What is a service level agreement (SLA)? Isn't that a business thing? Well,
yes … and also no. An SLA is an agreement that makes explicit the expecta-
tions of two parties, formally defining a certain level of service. A formal SLA
is most often found in business arrangements. For example, a bank that
receives technical services for its online banking through an outside vendor
would have, as part of its overall contract, an SLA that defines the specifics of
its relationship with the vendor.
So then why is an SLA discussed here? Why should someone who isn't
working in a corporate environment care about an SLA? The most direct
answer to that question is that anyone who deals with anyone else to sup-
port their research efforts should consider having some type of SLA. You
may be a market researcher using one of your business servers (whether in-
houseorexternally)tohostachatandstoredata.Youprobablyhaveatech-
nical support person, who is probably a jack of all trades when it comes to
technical matters, who has been happy to help with set-up, installing soft-
ware, configuring applications, etc. Then one day your application crashes
in the middle of heavy use. You have focus groups scheduled. You panic,
because things aren't working correctly. You call your technical support
person for assistance, and he replies that he needs to finish installing the
updated version of Windows on a colleague's computer before he deals
with your server issue. To you, it's a crisis. To him, it's another task on a
long list. Negotiating an SLA prior to embarking on your study will help
