Zielservicegrad

Zielservicegrad is a term used in German-speaking business contexts to designate the target level of service that an organization commits to deliver to its customers. It represents the planned performance indicator used for planning, monitoring and contractual obligations, commonly expressed as a percentage (for example, on-time delivery rate) or as a time-based criterion (response time, uptime).

It is part of service level management and SLA practice. The Zielservicegrad is established based on customer requirements, historical performance and available capacity. It is used to set expectations, guide resource planning and evaluate performance over a defined period. The corresponding Ist-Servicegrad indicates the actual achieved level; gaps trigger corrective actions or contractual penalties as defined in the agreement.

Measurement and calculation are typically described in the contract. Zielservicegrad is calculated as the share of service instances meeting the defined target within the agreed window. A common formula is: Zielservicegrad = (number of fulfilled service instances within target / total number of instances) × 100%, with specific inclusions and exclusions defined (for example holidays, outages, approved exceptions).

Examples by sector illustrate its application. In logistics, a Zielservicegrad of 98% for on-time deliveries; in IT, 99.9% system availability; in customer service, a targeted first-response within one hour in a defined share of cases. Variants may use absolute counts, time windows or quality dimensions, and targets may be adjusted over time.

Limitations include dependence on external factors and the risk of optimizing for a metric at the expense of the customer experience. Proper governance involves multiple metrics, data quality controls and periodic review of targets.

See also: Service level agreement, Ist-Servicegrad, Servicegrad.