An SLA exists to set expectations. SLA reporting in GLPI exists to prove whether you met them. The difference between "we think we're doing well" and "here's the data" is what separates a managed service from a best-effort one.
How SLA tracking works in GLPI
GLPI tracks two clocks per ticket: time to first response (TTO) and time to resolution (TTR). Both can have separate targets by priority level. A P1 incident might require a 30-minute response and 4-hour resolution, while a P3 request gets 8 hours and 3 business days.
The SLA clock starts when the ticket is created and pauses when the ticket status changes to "waiting" (waiting for user response, waiting for parts, etc.). This pause logic matters — without it, every ticket where the user takes a week to reply would show as an SLA breach.
What to measure
Compliance percentage
The headline number: what percentage of tickets were resolved within SLA? Break this down by priority, category, and entity. An overall 95% looks good until you discover P1 incidents are at 72% and P4 requests are inflating the average.
Breach patterns
SLA breaches are rarely random. They cluster around specific categories (network issues take longer than password resets), specific times (Friday afternoon tickets breach Monday morning), or specific teams (a team of two covering a scope built for four). The pattern tells you where to invest — more staff, better knowledge base, or process redesign.
Escalation effectiveness
GLPI can auto-escalate when an SLA is about to breach — reassign to a senior agent, notify a manager, change priority. But does the escalation actually help? Track whether escalated tickets get resolved faster or just get moved around. If escalation doesn't improve resolution time, the escalation rule needs rethinking.
Presenting SLA data to management
Management doesn't want a table of 3,000 tickets. They want:
- One number — overall SLA compliance this month vs. last month
- Top 3 breach categories — where are we failing and why
- Trend — are we improving, declining, or flat
- Action items — what we're changing to address the gaps
Build a GLPI dashboard card for the compliance percentage and a monthly export for the category breakdown. Keep the report to one page. If it takes more than five minutes to read, it won't get read.
Common SLA reporting mistakes
- Measuring response but not resolution — a fast first reply means nothing if the ticket sits open for two weeks
- Not accounting for business hours — a ticket opened Friday at 17:00 and resolved Monday at 09:00 is 16 calendar hours but 1 business hour. GLPI supports calendar-based SLA — use it.
- Gaming the numbers — closing tickets prematurely to meet SLA, then reopening them. Track reopen rate alongside SLA compliance to catch this.
SLA reporting done right turns a contractual obligation into an operational improvement tool. The numbers don't just prove compliance — they show where the process breaks down.