Johns Hopkins Enterprise
Service Level Agreement
Agreement Published Date: July 24, 2006 Agreement
Period of Performance: July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025
Agreement Effective July 1, 2007 (six months after SAP Implementation)
Accounts Receivable
Shared Service Center
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General Information
Purpose
The purpose of this Service Level Agreement (SLA) is to establish a cooperative partnership
between the Accounts Receivable Shared Service Center and its customers. This SLA will:
outline services to be offered and working assumptions between the Shared Service
Center and its customers;
quantify and measure service level expectations;
outline the potential methods used to measure the quality of service provided;
define mutual requirements and expectations for critical processes and overall
performance;
strengthen communication between shared service providers and its customers
Vision
The Hopkins’ Shared Service Centers will provide a shared business environment for the Johns
Hopkins University and John Hopkins Health System. The new business environment will
continuously emphasize service, compliance and productivity to its customers. The primary
goals for the service centers include:
Integrate people, processes, and technology to provide a balanced service level to all
customers. Create a collaborative environment where trusted relationships and teamwork
are encouraged between administration, departments, clinical areas, institutions and
suppliers to further Hopkins’ enterprise goals.
Leverage human resources, institutional knowledge, developing skill sets, and
technology in an effort to continuously improve service and productivity for all Service
Centers. Create an organizational structure that balances strategic and tactical efforts that
promote efficiencies.
Mitigate risk to the Hopkins’ enterprise by focusing on compliance requirements and
understanding the impact these requirements have on productivity and customer service.
Develop an integrated organizational structure that will promote the consistent
interpretation and enforcement of policies, procedures, laws and regulations throughout
the Enterprise.
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Mission
Most sponsored and non-sponsored billings will be centralized, with cash receipts going
directly to university/health system bank accounts rather than to departments. If the
department needs to create an invoice it will be a parked document and reviewed, approved
and mailed by the Accounts Receivable Shared Service Center (ARSSC). The Service
Center will also monitor, follow-up, and collect open receivables.
In Scope
Billings
Letter of Credit- billing
Non-Sponsored billings – Prepare billings for Inter Personnel Agreements (IPA)
and non-sponsored billings
Create and maintain non-sponsored customer master data records
Final approval on departmental billing (parked documents)
Receivables
Monitor, follow-up and collect sponsored and non-sponsored receivables.
Out of Scope
Student Billings and Receivables (SIS)
Large billing systems that will be interfaced with SAP
o
SOM Continuing Medical Education
o
JHH Keane
o
Bayview Meditech
o
JH Home Health Horizon
o
JH Home Health CU / TIMS
o
JHU Student Loans (ECSI)
o
Bayview RAM
o
JH Home Health HBS
o
JH Home Health MB1
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Hours of Operations
o Normal hours of operation are Monday thru Friday from 8:30 to 5:00 following the JHU
holiday schedule. The Service Center is located at Hopkins at Keswick.
Service Expectations
Accounts Receivable Shared Services and its customers agree to the service expectations,
working assumptions, and service constraints listed below. These service expectations are to
monitor the more critical elements of the service provided and are not intended to reflect the
comprehensive services offered by Accounts Receivable Shared Services.
These expectations are effective 7/1/07 (six months after the Hopkins One go live date).
Service level expectations will be reviewed after a period of stabilization.
Process
Service Expectation
Service Metric
(measurement)
Billings
Parked invoices will be released within two
business days of notification. If unable to release
invoice creator will be notified via email
Customer creation in 48
hours
Milestone Achieved
Receivables
Contact customer if invoice is over after 120
days if open invoice is less than $4,999
An annual review is completed looking at
customers who are high risk vs low risk
based on the amount of time for an invoice
to be paid.
Aging reports and notes to files
prepared by receivable accountants
Customer Service
Receivables
o
receivables@jhu.edu
o Fax 443-997-4290
Billings
o
billings@jhu.edu
o Fax 443-997-5155
o Phone 443-997-2480
Automatic response to sender
acknowledging receipt
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Working Assumptions
The Accounts Receivable Service Center will be fully staffed and funded.
Service Constraints
Workload Issues That May Affect Service Levels
Month end and year end closing activity
Fiscal reporting requirements to sponsors that are heavier at year end
Centralization of departmental billings and receivables across Hopkins entities
Conformance Requirements
Compliance with Hopkins policy and procedures, along with laws and procedures
Policy and procedures are on the Accounts Receivable Shared Services web site
http://ssc.jhmi.edu/accountsreceivable/index.html
Dependencies
Delays in receiving data from departments to the Service Center may delay billings
and cost allocation processing
Billing and Receivable accountants may not have all the required documentation to
process and collect an invoice prepared by the department and may require additional
support from the departments.
Late technical and other required reports will prevent collection of receivables
We require the approved budget amounts in order to set up annual allocations for
each fiscal year
Documentation provided by others for allocations and billings must be complete
before they can be processed
Severe Weather or Disaster
Bad weather or disasters may cause delays or interruptions in service levels
Contacts/Questions/Customer Service
The contact list on the Accounts Receivable Shared Service Center (ARSSC) website
contains contact phone numbers and email address for the staff and customer
services.
Accounts Receivable Shared Services website contains Forms, Policies and
Procedures, SAP Roles, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Glossary, Service Level
Agreement, and Other Links
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Agreement Administration
Terms of Agreement
This agreement commences on January 1, 2007 with the mutual understanding that modifications
may be required over time and the service expectations are effective July 1, 2007. All
modifications will be made in the spirit of the original agreement and be reviewed by
representatives of the Accounts Receivable Service Center customer base.
Periodic Quality Reviews
The Accounts Receivable Service Center and representatives of its customer base will conduct
periodic reviews of the Service Center’s performance against service level expectations. The
agenda for these reviews should include:
Service delivery since the last review
Major deviations from service levels
Service constraints and dependencies since last review, and planned changes to improve
service effectiveness
The Accounts Receivable Shared Service Center will also regularly assess customer
satisfaction and will use the results as a basis for changes to this agreement.
Service Level Agreement Maintenance
This Agreement will be reviewed on an ongoing basis and updated. Updates may become
necessary due to changing service needs, modifications to existing services, addition of services,
or unanticipated events.
Issue Resolution
If either the Accounts Receivable Shared Service Center or its customer identifies a substantive
breach of responsibility or other problem that requires resolution prior to the next periodic
review, both the Service Center management and customer will engage in a joint effort of
understanding and rectification of the issue. In the event this remedial effort fails, either party
can raise the issue to the JHU Controller or if that fails, the issue will be resolved by the JHU
Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration.
