In legal terms, for an in-house service, the service provider is not a legal entity in its own right but rather is a department within the institution. Institutions vary considerably and which department provides a particular service or has responsibility for its day-to-day management will not always be the same. For convenience here, the term “Managing Department” is used for purposes of clarity.
The Managing Department is responsible for:
- Approving the strategy for delivery of the service, for example, the Procurement Office devises a strategy for the provision of a reprographics services to the institution or a School/Faculty identifies a Section to operate a consumables store for the School/Faculty.
- Appointing the appropriate internal service provider (Supplier Department).
- Authorising an appropriate staffing structure and financial resources.
- Approving a SLA that specifies the service and the responsibilities of the internal service provider. See A Guide to SLAs and template SLA for more information.
- Ensuring the contents of the SLA are communicated to the End Users and, preferably, obtaining their written agreement to the SLA.
- Management of the arrangement by ensuring that service levels are maintained at a satisfactory level, seeking comments from both the users and the department providing the service.
- Adjudicating on issues that may arise from end users concerning problems with the service and/or the internal service provider.
- Review, from time to time, the strategy for the provision of services.