SLA deadline

The SLA deadline represents your ultimate commitment to your clients. It is the time by which a job must complete the processing step that the SLA measures.

Most jobs do not have to complete their workflows to meet the requirements of their SLA. For example, some jobs could meet the requirements of their SLA if RICOH ProcessDirector prints them by a certain time. The jobs could stay in the RetainJobs step for 72 hours after they have been printed. The requirements of the SLA have been satisfied when the jobs finish printing.

When you define a service policy, you include information that RICOH ProcessDirector uses to calculate the SLA deadline. RICOH ProcessDirector supports these deadline calculation methods:

  • Elapsed time

    Calculates the deadline by adding the value of the SLA duration property to the checkpoint start time for the job. The checkpoint start time is when the job started processing for the purposes of the SLA.

  • Specific time

    Calculates the deadline using the Number of days and SLA target time properties. The SLA deadline is set at a specific time, regardless of the time the job arrived in the system.

    Note:
  • RICOH ProcessDirector calculates the SLA deadline only when you choose a deadline calculation method and enter values for the corresponding properties.
  • SLA deadline does not use estimated durations or the deadline set by the Change Deadline action or a SetDeadline step in the workflow that processed the job.

RICOH ProcessDirector lets you choose a step in a workflow to represent the end point of the SLA commitment. That step is the SLA target step. The SLA target step could represent:

  • When the job finishes printing.
  • When the printed output is delivered to the inserter line.
  • When the job has been inserted and is ready to be picked up.

When a job completes the SLA target step, RICOH ProcessDirector records the time as the SLA target step time and compares it to the SLA deadline to determine the SLA outcome:

  • If the job completes the target step before the SLA deadline, the SLA outcome is recorded as Met.
  • If the job does not complete the target step before the SLA deadline, the SLA outcome is recorded as Missed. RICOH ProcessDirector adds a black dot to the Schedule risk column for the job in the Jobs table.

    You cannot change the SLA outcome after is has been calculated.

Parent topic: Service policies