The signal-bearing medium of claim 11 wherein the operations of receiving a selection of a new value; receiving an updated value; receiving an updated cost estimate, receiving an updated value for the service provider cost estimate, displaying the selected new value, the updated value and the updated cost estimate, and displaying the updated service provider cost estimate are repeated until a combination of an acceptable value for the at least one service variable, an acceptable value for the at least one service level attribute, an acceptable value for the cost estimate and an acceptable value for the service provider cost estimate are reached, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving from the prospective service provider an indication that the selected particular service level agreement and the combination of the acceptable value for the at least one service variable, the acceptable value for the at least one service level attribute, the acceptable value for the cost estimate, and the acceptable value for the service provider cost estimate form a service level agreement acceptable to the prospective service provider;

and transmitting the indication to a prospective service customer.