NOC Services: Should You Partner or Build Your Own?

Few MSPs have the resources to run their own NOC (Network Operations Center). But as you take on new clients and dial up your offerings a few notches, you may want to consider delivering the services of a full-fledged NOC.

The NOC is the control center of large IT operations, providing visibility across the IT landscape day and night. As such, a NOC is very resource-intensive, especially when clients require 24/7 monitoring and support.

Most MSPs are small businesses with limited staffs. For them, building and operating a NOC is hardly feasible. So you have two choices: continue with business as usual or figure out a way to expand your capabilities to accommodate more and bigger clients.

If you’re content with business as usual, that may serve you well for a while. However, technology tends to become commoditized in time, and that goes for managed services too as more and more competitors try to elbow their way in.

In managed services you don’t just compete against other small businesses; your competitors include giant communications companies that can bundle managed services with phone and Internet service. Those giant competitors are few in number, but they can cover a lot of territory.

Fighting Commoditization

By partnering with a vendor for NOC services, you can fight commoditization while competing with the giants on a level field. If it’s 24/7 helpdesk support your clients need, you can deliver. If what they require is an immediate response to system failure no matter what time of day or night, you can deliver. Indeed, you can look like a giant yourself because the staff at the NOC will respond to your customer on your behalf and, if you so choose, under your brand. So it always looks like it’s you who is attending to the customer’s needs.

And you can achieve that without shelling out the big bucks for all the sophisticated monitoring equipment and highly skilled staff that a proper NOC requires.

A NOC partnership also allows you to continue operating the business as you have been. Especially if you’re a VAR making the transition to managed services, you may not have the experience or staff to keep a watch on your customers 24/7. By partnering with a vendor, you don’t need to add staff to do it.

Some NOC vendors offer a menu of services from which to pick and choose. You get the option to transfer some or all of your day-to-day functions to the NOC staff, including patch management, troubleshooting, malware scanning, disk maintenance, and data backup.

The more day-to-day tasks you hand off, the better you can focus on customer acquisition and strategic consultative services that help build your brand as a trusted IT advisor in the eyes of your customers.

In summary, partnering with a NOC vendor generates plenty of benefits for MSPs, including:

• Expanding the business without adding headcount
• Providing round-the-clock services to customers who need them
• Delivering peace of mind to customers
• Competing with much larger providers
• Steering customers through strategic IT investments

MSPs have plenty of partnering options for NOC services. Do your homework, check your partner’s track record, and make sure their services map to your customers’ needs.

To learn more about options for NOC services as well as best practices in managed services, download our free guide, MSP Matters: A Roadmap to Enduring Business Success. 

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