How to set up an OLA in Zendesk

To set up an OLA in Zendesk with Hourwell, open Hourwell in the left bar, pick the Time with a team (OLA) template under Timers, choose the group, set the goal and calendar, and add warning and breach actions. Choose Add up every stint on the ticket for one total across hand-backs, then click Save timer. Hourwell creates the Zendesk triggers that run its actions.

What an OLA timer measures

An operational level agreement is a deadline between internal teams, such as "Engineering works an escalated ticket within 16 working hours". It isn't a promise to the customer, so it shouldn't count time while the ticket waits on the customer, and it should count only the hours the other team works. Zendesk's own group SLAs, on Enterprise plans, measure ownership time per group by ticket priority (Zendesk's article). An Hourwell timer runs on whatever conditions you choose, on any plan.

Steps

1. Open Hourwell in the left bar as an admin.
2. Pick the template. Under Timers, choose Time with a team (OLA). It starts as "Engineering OLA" with these conditions: the group is the one you pick, status is not Solved, and it pauses while status is Pending.
3. Pick the group in Runs while (all of these). Add more conditions if the OLA only covers some tickets, for example a form, a brand, priority or a tag.
4. Check Pauses while (any of these). Pending is there already. Add On-hold if waiting on a third party shouldn't count against the team.
5. Set the goal. Enter Goal: hours and minutes. The template uses 16 hours, with Warn this many minutes before at 120.
6. Pick the calendar under Counts time on: Business hours (Mon-Fri 9:00-17:00), 24/7, or one you built for the team's time zone and holidays.
7. Choose how stints count.
   • Add up every stint on the ticket: one total, for "no more than 16 hours with Engineering in all". The template uses this.
   • Start over each time the conditions start to hold again: a fresh clock each time the ticket comes back.
8. Add actions. Under When the warning time comes and When the goal is passed, click Add an action. The template emails the assignee at the warning, then adds the tag ola_breached and emails the ticket's group at the breach.
9. Click Save timer. Hourwell creates its triggers in the category "Hourwell timers (managed by the app)".
10. Start it on existing tickets. Click Start on open tickets to time up to 1,000 unsolved tickets that already match, rebuilt from each ticket's history.

Actions you can use

Emails can use {{ticket.id}}, {{ticket.title}} and {{ticket.link}}.

Seeing where every OLA stands

• The ticket sidebar shows the timer's state (Running, Due soon, Paused, Overdue, Met, Missed), time left, a progress bar and the due time in the agent's own time zone.
• Timers running lists every running, paused or overdue timer on unsolved tickets, with filters for Overdue, Due within an hour and My tickets.
• A missed stint leaves the tag hourwell_missed_<timer id> on the ticket, and the "Hourwell: overdue timers" view lists overdue tickets.

What it costs

Hourwell Standard is $3 per agent per month with every feature, after a 14-day trial. Zendesk asks for a card at install and bills monthly. See the Hourwell documentation for every condition and action.