The unemployment rate in the Information Technology sector is hovering under 2%. Which means that technology companies need to be very resourceful on utilization of their existing human resources. Automation is playing a large role in freeing up technical staff from repetitive and repeatable tasks, however the growth of the overall industry exceeds the rate at which automation is reducing workloads. Add to that the fact that engineers are still needed to program and build the automation, it calls for a compelling case for technology firms to find ways to partner for growth and sustainability.
Managed Service Providers (MSP’s) play a large and vital role in the overall technology space. MSP’s introduce, implement, support and maintain technology for businesses, putting them at the forefront of the ecosystem and industry. Now, more than ever, the war for talent for MSP’s is a hot topic within the industry. So, what can MSP’s do to win this war, while continuing to sustain and grow their businesses?
The MSP NOC is a centralized services delivery center which caters to all non-customer facing aspects of what an MSP does for their clients. NOC stands for Network Operations Center and handles mostly alerts coming from automated tools and software that the MSP deploys to manage client systems. Examples of such activities include handling alerts on customer servers, networks or sites going down, backups failing, critical services stopping etc.
- Essence of time: While the MSP may consider the NOC activities to be an integral part of what they do, the fact is that this takes away a good chunk of time and effort available to them in terms of engineer support time.
- Spread of alerts: NOC alerts come in with varying frequencies across the day and night via automated alerting tools. It is hard to predict when critical events may occur, and hence staffing for the NOC becomes a challenge.
- 24x7 Coverage: Most end-clients are demanding 24x7 to be the new 8x5. Small MSP’s cannot make that commitment to their customers due to resource constraints. This may mean them losing out on lucrative opportunities with larger customers.
- Resource fatigue: NOC resources need to follow process and procedures to a tee. This is an extremely repetitive course, often leading to resource fatigue and dissatisfaction for engineers who want to be exposed to different challenges and technical problems every day.
- SLA Adherence: Most MSP NOC’s aren’t constituted of a dedicated team, but rather a shared resource that may also be doing Helpdesk tickets. This may lead to missing critical customer alerts which may have SLA’s associated with them. Missing SLA’s may have financial penalties associated with them and potentially loss of clients.
ProVal Tech provides MSP’s with outsourced NOC services that work seamlessly with MSP tools and platforms, ensuring 24x7 coverage and addressing issues as they occur. Our NOC Services have enabled MSP’s to offer true 24x7 support, improve SLA’s and efficiency in delivering managed services to their customers.