Eleven percent of enterprises do not have any SLAs in their telecom carrier contracts, according to a newly released research by AOTMP, an authority on driving efficiency and performance into fixed and mobile telecom environments.

Only half of enterprise telecom carrier contracts contain SLAs addressing customer care. AOTMP notes that the 50 percent of enterprise telecom carrier contracts that contain SLAs addressing customer care, contain SLAs addressing customer service response times and 49 percent contain SLAs addressing customer service issue resolution timeframes.

"After reviewing the research it has become clear that enterprise opportunity exists to improve SLAs in telecom carrier contracts," said Timothy C. Colwell, senior vice president of global information management at AOTMP.

AOTMP is an information services company and an authority on driving efficiency and performance into enterprise fixed and mobile telecom environments.

Its new research indicates that although telecom carrier contracts include SLA provisions addressing technical integrity, account management/customer care performance and billing/financial performance, these items are not adequately addressed in the majority of enterprise contracts.

Billing accuracy was cited as the most frustrating factor for enterprises.

Thirty-one percent of the enterprises had SLAs addressing billing accuracy in their telecom carrier contracts. Eighty-two percent cited rate reviews and 80 percent cited billing dispute resolution reviews as the two most common relationship management activities performed.

"It would be to both parties' advantage to include comprehensive SLAs containing clear performance measurement criteria, defined remedy for out-of-scope performance and remuneration for out-of-scope performance,” said Colwell.

“Enterprises would also benefit by adding more carrier incentives (additional service awards, service winbacks and increased service volume) for outstanding performance to serve as incentives for desired performance in all areas."

AOTMP was in news last month for recognizing the success of the Employee Owned Smartphone project of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company (Nationwide).