
1. Be smarter with in-house resources
Building an internal 24/7 network operations center (NOC) service simply isn’t efficient and usually costs at least four times more than outsourcing. MSPs commonly experience very high turnover with employees who do not want to work nights and weekends. The cost of training a replacement is usually three to six months before they are self-sufficient. You’ll likely also have to hire some very expensive infrastructure resources for the “just in case” situations, taking a hit on your cost efficiency and profitability. Unless you’re in the people business, there are certain services that your in-house staff needs to deliver. An obvious benefit of building your own NOC team is that it’s dedicated to your MSP business, while a shared NOC resource isn’t. Shared resources manage multiple client environments, so you may be concerned about their focus. I understand your hesitation about shared NOC services. But consider this: A shared NOC has probably seen many of the issues and challenges you’re facing, 20 times over. They are focused on efficiency, resolving issues permanently, and driven on SLA’s and Customer Satisfaction. So while having an internal team may make you feel warm and fuzzy, it’s definitely not giving your bank account a warm feeling. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Well my clients have critical and sensitive data, making security a top priority, while other areas like business continuity and network management are close behind. I can’t trust anyone else, there’s just too much riding on our shoulders – above all, our company’s integrity.” I completely understand. But think about this: Are you everywhere in your business? Having people watch your systems internally doesn’t make it better, it just makes you work harder. That’s why selecting the appropriate shared NOC service provider is of utmost importance. As with any relationship, finding the right resource is the biggest challenge. But once you do, it can have an incredibly positive fiscal and emotional impact on your business in the following ways:- You now have extensive integration with client monitoring, ticketing systems, and other tools that allow you to serve a wider population of clients with varied technological needs
- You’ll have greater scalability without having to quickly hire and less up front expenses, which will benefit you when you sign a huge new account
- The ability to monitor 24/7 without additional on-call staff
- The ability to support a customer using a specific technology platform since most third-party NOCs already have solutions architects on staff certified on it – eliminating you from bearing the entire burden as you’ll be sharing a portion of it