EXPERT SPEAK
TRANSFORMATION MUST BE BASED ON AUTHENTIC USER EXPERIENCES
IT teams must shift their mindsets to journey-based services by using experience level agreements or XLAs , rather than relying on meeting IT service level agreements , explains Charbel Khneisser at Riverbed Technology .
Experience-level agreements , XLAs , sometimes known as ELAs are a variation of service-level agreements , SLAs that focus on the end-user experience . Whether that end-user is your employees , your customers , or both , the way they engage with , and feel about , your solution is critical .
XLAs are not simply an exercise in gathering sentiment . The most effective agreements combine the telemetry of your service with the feedback you receive on it and the emotional impact of it .
There are three key questions XLAs look to answer :
• How reliable is my service ?
• How well does it perform ?
• And how do my users perceive it ?
An XLA use case
Imagine you are at the supermarket , and there has been an update to the company ’ s loyalty app . You open it up to find the barcode that registers your account has moved . Now , instead of it being on the home screen , you need to click into another section to find it . You finish your shop and head to the checkout . It takes you three more seconds than usual to grab that barcode and
Charbel Khneisser , Vice President Solutions Engineering EMEA , Riverbed Technology complete your transaction , which might not seem too disruptive .
However , as you walk away , a queue of 10 customers forms behind you , each taking those three extra seconds swiping to their barcodes . That is 30 seconds added to the cashier ’ s processing time . Multiply it by the 1,000 shoppers the store might see in an hour , and an entire 50 minutes is wasted .
At head office , the IT team is celebrating their success as the update ’ s rolled out , the interface looks fantastic , and everything ’ s running as planned . If only they knew what was going on for the employees and customers using their app , and they could , had they implemented XLAs .
Importance of XLAs
Most organisations will use performance management software , setting telemetry SLAs that are usually met . IT teams are tasked with ensuring users can access the systems they need , when required , but that is often where their line of visibility
Experience-level agreements , XLAs , sometimes known as ELAs are a variation of service-level agreements , SLAs that focus on the end-user experience .
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