What response times mean in IT support.
Almost every IT support provider promises fast intervention. The difference isn’t in the promise, but in what’s actually written in the contract and how it’s measured. We’ve worked with committed response times (SLA) for over 15 years, so it’s worth understanding what they really mean before you compare two offers.
What a guaranteed response time (SLA) is.
The response time is the interval within which the provider commits to react to a request. When that deadline is written into the contract (SLA), it becomes a guarantee you can verify. A written deadline can be enforced and checked; a verbal one depends on availability in the moment.
A proper SLA isn’t just one figure. It specifies the type of incident, when the clock starts, and the channel the request is reported on. The more precise it is, the less room there is for interpretation when a real fault appears.
The difference between response time and resolution time.
Two terms are easy to confuse. The response time is how long until a specialist picks up the request. The resolution time is how long until the fault is actually fixed. A provider can respond quickly but resolve slowly, so both figures matter.
So always ask what the figure in the offer refers to. A one-hour response time sounds good, but if resolution takes days, the effect on your team is the same as a prolonged outage. With us, the real average resolution time is about 48 minutes.
Why the times need to be in the contract.
A verbal deadline can’t be enforced, because it can’t be verified. When a critical incident hits, the only thing that matters is what was committed in writing. A clear contract states the times by incident type and, often, what happens if they’re missed.
Written times also change the day-to-day relationship. You no longer depend on anyone’s availability or goodwill, because the deadlines are a committed obligation. That’s the difference between a provider you can rely on and one that responds when it can.
What times we offer and what they mean in practice.
With us, critical incidents have a guaranteed response deadline of at most one hour, and everything else at most four. These figures are contractual ceilings, the maximum limits, not the usual average.
In practice, the real figures are much better: the average intervention time is about 25 minutes, and resolution about 48. Support is available per user, on a monthly subscription, with the same times for every request.