Case Study: Best Practices In Managing Outsourcing Service Levels

IT plays a critical role in the development programs of DLR (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft-und Raumfahrt), the German aerospace center. DLR relies heavily on its IT organization to provide its institutes with computer technology, in platforms ranging from PCs and mobile devices all the way up to high-performance computing. In this highly scientific environment, the reliability of outsourcing services is critical, so DLR places a high value on the health of its outsourcing relationships and the strength of its vendor management capabilities. Based on this importance, DLR IT built its service catalog with a specific focus on its alignment with business needs, and it built its service management on a best practice process and system management framework that monitors end-to-end (E2E) availabilities of the main services from an end user perspective. Combined with a strong service credit model, DLR IT achieves higher service quality transparency based on E2E end user views and a strong business focus in the service delivery.