Marketing strategies are launched every day in an effort to grab the attention of the target audience and outpace the competition. Take the retail sector, for instance. Target (News - Alert) is reaffirming its position as the store of choice among the upper middle class, while Kmart is fighting back with a brilliant (and instantly viral) campaign for Shipping Pants. (If you haven’t seen the commercial on YouTube (News - Alert) – you’re missing out.)

All laughter aside, there are more than a few marketing strategies that have been used without thinking the process through to the end. The cloud communications provider that builds their marketing strategy on the Service Level Agreement (SLA) is playing with fire in a battle they aren’t likely to win. Aggressive campaigns can grab attention and even increase market share, but can also put a provider out of business if service overall falls short.

A recent Search Cloud Provider article stresses the importance of the SLA and the process that should be put in place when putting it together. For instance, both the provider and the customer should examine their strengths and weaknesses. The reliability – or lack thereof – of the provider’s system architecture must also be evaluated. After all, if the provider hasn’t invested significant resources into the architecture, they most likely don’t have it to satisfy an aggressive SLA.

The cloud communications provider must determine their technical capabilities and their budgets to understand what they can truly afford to guarantee. Telling customers only what they want to hear to close the deal will only work for so long. When the rubber meets the road in terms of performance, the payouts for failing to meet the SLA could easily render the provider as not profitable. A company can only operate at a loss for so long.

The evaluation process should include an examination of the network to understand limitations, but also capabilities. If a provider can consistently exceed the capabilities guaranteed in the SLA, uptime is better than promised. It may be a harder sell on the front end if competing against a provider with an aggressive SLA, but the long-term client is more interested in realistic performance instead of lofty expectations.

A truly effective SLA is one that is mutually beneficial, catering to the needs of both sides. Customers have to feel confident in their chosen provider, and the provider needs to be able to make money from the transaction. One party is turning to the cloud to save money on operations and the other is leveraging the cloud to drive revenue. Finding the healthy balance between the two is a necessary challenge.