With enterprises choosing to multisource rather than rely on large, big-bang outsourcing deals, IT professionals are struggling to manage a growing number of service level agreements (SLAs).

In a report released earlier this year, Gartner said businesses are partnering with a larger number of service providers and managing a bigger portfolio of SLAs.

Federal Court of Australia technology services director Graham Harrison has more than 10 SLAs and says the problem of managing them is exacerbated when there is a high turnover of account managers.

"We have more than 10 SLAs in place for specialty IT services such as firewalls and remote secure access, only the help desk and network management is kept in-house," Harrison said.

"It really comes down to the commitment of your account manager and having a good relationship; you need to make them understand your business."