Edit

Share via

Create enhanced SLAs

Note

Enhanced service-level agreements (SLAs) created in the web client are deprecated and replaced with Unified Interface SLAs. Learn more in SLAs in web client are deprecated. We recommend you to migrate enhanced SLAs created in the web client to Unified Interface. Learn more about migrating SLAs in Migrate SLAs.

  1. Make sure that you have the Customer Service Manager, System Administrator, or System Customizer security role or equivalent permissions.

    When you activate an SLA, a corresponding workflow is also created. For every action you perform on the SLA, you must have permissions to perform the same action on workflows. The SLA is applied in the context of the permissions that the owner of the SLA has.

    Check your security role

    • Follow the steps in View your user profile.

    • Don’t have the correct permissions? Contact your system administrator.

    You can create standard SLAs in the Copilot Service admin center app by performing the following steps:

  2. Go to Service-level agreements (SLAs).

  3. In the site map, select Service terms in Operations. The Service terms page appears.

  4. In the Service-level agreements (SLAs) section, select Manage. The All Service Level Agreements from Unified Interface view is displayed. You can switch between various system views using the dropdown list.

  5. To create a new SLA, select New.

    Note

    If Copilot Service admin center is available in your organization and you try to create an SLA in the web client, a deprecation message appears with an option to create the SLA in Unified Interface. No message is displayed if Copilot Service admin center isn't available.

  6. Optionally, to edit an SLA, select the SLA from the list of records, and then select Edit on the command bar.

  7. If you're creating a new SLA in Unified Interface, you see the Create SLA dialog box. Type a name for the SLA, and then select the entity for which you want to create the SLA.

  8. Enter your information as follows:

    • Applicable From: Select the field that specifies the date and time from which the SLA items are calculated. For example, if you select the Created On field, calculations start from the time the record is created.

      Note

      You can have multiple SLA KPIs within one SLA. The start time for different SLA KPIs within an SLA is set at the SLA level and can't be different across SLA KPIs. The start time is determined by the Applicable From field value.

    • Business Hours: Select a customer service schedule record that defines your support organization's business hours, which is useful for SLA time-tracking calculations. If a business hours record (customer service schedule) isn't selected, work hours are considered to be all day, every day.

    • SLA Type: Select Enhanced.

      If you're creating an SLA for an entity other than the Case entity, this field is automatically set to Enhanced and can't be changed.

    • Allow Pause and Resume: Select Allow if you want the SLA to pause during the time the record is on hold. For each entity enabled for SLA, you can select each status that is considered "on hold" by using the Service tab of the System Settings dialog box. More information: System Settings dialog box - Service tab

  9. Select Save.

  10. In the SLA Details section, select Add (Add button.).

  11. Enter the following information in the SLA Item form:

    • Name: Type a meaningful name.

    • SLA KPI: Select the KPI the SLA item is about. For example, if you're creating a KPI for sending the first response within a specified time, select the First Response By KPI option from the dropdown list.

      For example, select First Response By KPI in the SLA KPI field, and set Failure After to two hours from the time the record was created. If the record was created at 09:00, the Failure Time field of the SLA KPI Instance record is set to 11:00, assuming business hours are all day, every day.

      Tip

      If you're creating an SLA for a Case entity, by default you have two options to choose from in the dropdown list. If you want to track other KPIs for a case or if you're creating the SLA for entities other than the Case entity, ask your system customizer to create new fields (of type Lookup) that refer to the SLA KPI Instance entity.

    • In the Applicable When section, define the conditions when the KPI is applied. Conditions can be based on primary entity or related entity fields.

      For example, the conditions might be as shown in the following image.

      Customer (Account) Category equals Corporate; Case Priority equals High.

    • In the Success Criteria section, specify the conditions to define when the KPI is considered as met. For example, the condition might be as shown in the following image.

      Success criteria for an SLA is Case First Response Sent equals Yes.

      Note

      • Before you specify the failure and warning actions for an SLA, save the SLA item record.
      • If the conditions configured in the SLA fields conflict with each other, the SLA is canceled before it meets the success or failure criteria. For example, if the Case Status field is set as Active in the Applicable When section and is set as not equal to Active in the Success Criteria section, the SLA is canceled when implemented.

    • In the Success Action section, select Add Step, and then specify the actions that you want the application to take when the success criteria are met before the violation time. For example, select Add Step > Change Status, and then in the first dropdown list, select Case, and in the next dropdown list, select Information Provided.

    • Under SLA Item Failure, in the Failure After dropdown list, select when the SLA items are considered as failed. For example, if you select 1 hour, the KPI is considered as failed if the first response isn't completed within one hour of the time the case was created. One hour is calculated based on the value in the DateTime field that you select in the Applicable From field of the SLA record.

    • In the Failure Actions section, select Add Step, and then specify the actions to be taken if the success criteria aren't met and the record exceeds the specified failure time. For example, to mark a case for escalation when the KPI fails, select Add Step > Update Record > Case > Set Properties. Now in the case record, change the value of the Is Escalated field, and then close the case form.

    • Under SLA Item Warning, in the Warn After dropdown list, select the time when a warning is to be raised that the KPI is nearing violation.

    • In the Warning Actions section, select Add Step, and then specify the actions to be taken when the KPI reaches the warning time. For example, to warn the case owner that the KPI is nearing violation, select Add Step > Send Email > Create New Message > Set Properties. In the email record, specify the email details, and then close the email form.

      Note

      The time for failure and warning is calculated after considering the business hours selected in the SLA record. If a business hours record (customer service schedule) isn't selected, work hours are considered to be all day, every day.

Samples for creating enhanced SLA KPIs

The following sample SLA KPIs for the Lead entity can help you get familiar with creating SLAs for other entities.

Sample 1: Contact the customer

This sample SLA KPI tracks whether the salesperson contacted the customer within a specific timeline.

Applicable when Success condition Failure time Failure action Warning time Warning action
Rating = Hot Status = Contacted 1 day Send an escalation email to the sales manager 16 hours Send a warning email to the salesperson
Rating = Warm Status = Contacted 2 days Send an escalation email to the sales manager 1.5 days Send a warning email to the salesperson
Default Status = Contacted 7 days Send an escalation email to the sales manager 5 days Send a warning email to the salesperson

Sample 2: Take action on a lead

This sample SLA KPI tracks whether the salesperson has taken necessary action on the lead within a specific timeline.

Applicable when Success condition Failure time Failure action Warning time Warning action
Rating = Hot Status = Qualified or Disqualified 2 days Send an escalation email to the sales manager 1.5 hours Send a warning email to the salesperson
Rating = Warm Status = Qualified or Disqualified 5 days Send an escalation email to the sales manager 4 days Send a warning email to the salesperson
Default Status = Qualified or Disqualified 15 days Send an escalation email to the sales manager 12 days Send a warning email to the salesperson

Important

  • We recommend that you don't create or update SLAs by using Dynamics 365 for Outlook. Use the Customer Service app for this purpose.
  • Make sure you don't have too many SLA items in an SLA because that might negatively affect the create and update operations on the record on which the SLA is applied or reevaluated. We recommend that you have no more than 15 SLA items in an SLA for performance reasons.
  • The SLA business logic relies on SLA KPI Instance record values, so to avoid any conflict, we recommend that you don't create plug-ins or processes to directly update the SLA KPI Instance record values.

Enable entities for service-level agreements
Troubleshoot issues in SLAs