The service level agreement creates a clearly regulated relationship between the project partners as well as between the project organization and the core organization. Deviations during the provision of goods/services are identified and dealt with. Comprehensive procurements that require a call for tenders (e.g. a public tender) are carried out with the procurement module.

The project acquires various internal and external goods/services which must be agreed and steered. Goods/services acquired by the project include, for example, employee services (personnel resources), premises, IT resources, training, etc.

The need for goods/services is identified and analyzed. Based on this, quotes are obtained and agreements concluded.

The goods/services are periodically checked for compliance with the planning and agreements.

Five cases are distinguished. This task deals with the first four cases, while the fifth case is dealt with by the procurement module:

1. Procurement of internal goods/services without cost allocation
2. Procurement of internal goods/services with cost allocation
3. Procurement of external goods/services: negotiated procedure (with several offers)
4. Procurement of external goods/services: invitation procedure (with several offers and additional evaluation report)
5. Procurement of external goods/services: open or selective procedure, publication
   (see procurement module)

The first four cases are dealt with as follows:

1. Case 1 and case 2
   The procurement of internal goods/services of the core organization (i.e. without jurisdiction in the event of a dispute) is regulated with project agreements and SLAs.

The project agreement regulates the goods/services for project execution. The SLA regulates the operation of the system. A service level agreement may also be required for operation during the project phases.

1. Case 3
   The procurement of external goods/services with a negotiated procedure is regulated by means of requests for quotes, contracts and SLAs.
2. Case 4
   The procurement of external goods/services with an invitation procedure is regulated by means of requests for quotes, contracts and SLAs. With the invitation procedure, an evaluation report is prepared for evaluating the offers.

Project agreements, SLAs and contracts are drawn up according to the specifications of the core organization. HERMES generally refers to these outcomes as an agreement.

During and upon completion of the provision of goods/services, a performance assessment is carried out and discussed with the project partners. It forms the basis for any steering measures. Deviations from the agreed goods/services or from the required needs are analyzed and dealt with in the lead change management task. Changes are initiated in good time to ensure compliance with the requirements (e.g. the legal basis). Significant problems are solved via the deal with problems and benefit from experience task.

1. Establish the required role profiles (skills requirements) and the capacity requirement for human resources based on the planned tasks and outcomes, and record them as a needs requirement
2. Determine the need for required infrastructure (rooms, hardware, software, means of communication, etc.)
3. Draft internal project agreements and SLAs
4. Create requests for quotes for external goods/services, obtain and evaluate quotes. In the case of the invitation procedure, produce an evaluation report
5. Coordinate agreements with the controlling and compliance bodies and/or have them checked by them before concluding the agreements
6. Assess goods/services during and upon completion of the provision of goods/services

1. Quote request
2. Evaluation report
3. Agreement