Which statement best differentiates in-house vs contract maintenance regarding service levels?

Which statement best differentiates in-house vs contract maintenance regarding service levels?

• A. In-house uses internal staff; contract uses external providers under SLAs that specify service levels.
• B. In-house means no maintenance; contract means maintenance only on weekends.
• C. In-house uses external providers; contract uses internal staff.
• D. Service levels are never defined in SLAs.

Answer: (A)

The essential idea is that service levels are the measurable expectations set for maintenance work, and how they’re enforced depends on who performs the work. In-house maintenance is carried out by internal staff using the organization’s own processes. When maintenance is contracted to an external provider, the arrangement is governed by a service-level agreement that specifies the service levels the vendor must meet—such as response time, uptime, and repair targets. This combination—internal staff for in-house, external providers under SLAs that define service levels—best captures the distinction. The other statements misstate who performs maintenance or deny the role of SLAs in defining performance.

The essential idea is that service levels are the measurable expectations set for maintenance work, and how they’re enforced depends on who performs the work. In-house maintenance is carried out by internal staff using the organization’s own processes. When maintenance is contracted to an external provider, the arrangement is governed by a service-level agreement that specifies the service levels the vendor must meet—such as response time, uptime, and repair targets. This combination—internal staff for in-house, external providers under SLAs that define service levels—best captures the distinction. The other statements misstate who performs maintenance or deny the role of SLAs in defining performance.