You can create multiple SLA policies in your service desk and enforce a different SLA policy on tickets based on specific departments or groups that you use in your Freshservice. For example, you might want to have a different SLA policy for specific customers, or for tickets related to specific departments.


A quick guide to configuring multiple SLAs:


Navigate to Admin > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies.

If your account has more than one workspace: To modify global workflows, navigate to Admin > Global Settings > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies.

To modify workspace-level workflows: Navigate to Admin > Workspace Settings > {Workspace Name} > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies.

Notes:

1. Workspace admins can create SLA policies at a workspace level.
2. Global SLA policies apply to tickets across all workspaces
3. Default SLA policy is created and enabled by default at the global level.

Order of execution: The SLA policy for the ticket is determined by the local SLA policies created for a specific workspace. If the specified conditions in the local SLA policies do not match, then it follows the global policy.  If both do not apply, then the default SLA policy becomes applicable to the ticket. 


  • Click on New SLA Policy.
  • Choose the SLA Targets for each ticket priority.
  • Select the trigger conditions (when must this rule be applied).
  • Enter up to 3 levels of escalation hierarchies.
  • Save the policy.
  • Reorder your policies with the most restrictive rules coming first.


To enforce a new SLA policy, click on the New SLA Policy button on the SLA Policies Page. You will have to define SLA targets for each ticket priority, just like you did with your default SLA policy.




Next, choose when you want this SLA to kick in by choosing trigger conditions. 



Defining Trigger Conditions


You will need to define at least one trigger condition for each SLA policy. 


You can define different SLA conditions based on custom fields. This will give users the flexibility to set multiple SLAs based on any ticket fields. You can set multiple trigger conditions and choose whether to match all or any of those conditions to trigger an SLA.


You can also set different SLAs for Incidents and Service Requests. In case of Service Requests, you can also add multiple sub-conditions based on Service Item and Service Category and choose to match all or any of those conditions for an SLA to trigger.




Remember - the order of your SLA policies is important. If you have multiple SLA policies, the first one with matching conditions will be applied to a ticket.

 

For example, consider you have a special SLA policy (SLA 1) for tickets from a specific Customer A, and you have another policy (SLA 2) for tickets assigned to Group X ordered with SLA 1 on top and SLA 2 second. A ticket from Customer A, assigned to Group X will match with the rules in SLA 1 (which is on top), and so SLA 1 will be applied.

 

You can reorder your SLA rules, and organize them in such a way so the most restrictive (strict) rules are higher up in the order.


Defining Escalation Rules


The escalation rules can also be established when creating custom SLAs. For example, you can choose who you want to escalate the ticket to when the ticket hasn't been resolved for a specific time interval. 

You can set up to four levels of Escalations, for ticket resolution and one level for ticket response.




Note: Escalation email will not be sent when the due by is set manually in the ticket.


Clone SLA:


  • Navigate from Admin > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies.
    If your account has more than one workspace: 

    To modify global workflows, navigate to Admin > Global Settings > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies

    To modify workspace-level workflows, navigate to Admin > Workspace Settings > {Workspace Name} > Service Management > Service Desk Settings > SLA and OLA Policies

    Important Note:
    Workspace admins can create SLA policies at a workspace level. 
    1. Global SLA policies apply to tickets across all workspaces 
    2. Default SLA policy is created and enabled by default at the global level. 
    3. Order of execution: The SLA policy for the ticket is determined by the local 

    SLA policies created for a specific workspace. If the specified conditions in the local SLA policies do not match, then it follows the global policy.  If both do not apply, then the default SLA policy becomes applicable to the ticket. 

  • Click the Clone option next to the SLA policy ( for eg. SLA for the network team) and the following policy will be cloned immediately.




Note: Admins can now define internal Operational Level Agreements (OLA) on tickets/problems/changes and release (TPCR) tasks. This will dictate the time within which Agents should complete Tasks inside the TPCR, ensuring continuous service delivery and compliance. More details here.


FAQ's:


1. How to disable SLA for specific tickets?

The SLA can't be disabled as the SLA is calculated from the ticket is created till it's closed. Instead you can pause the SLA timer in the ticket as per requirement. To do this you will have to configure custom status under Admin > Field Manager > Ticket Fields > Status, then turn off the SLA timer, and set that status in the ticket.