Network Operation Center Management
In the battle against infrastructure issues, we are the first line of defense. In order to prevent service disruptions and costly downtime, our teams monitor your network .They can either resolve issues or escalate them to your internal teams based on the criticality of the issue.
Our infrastructure management solutions are suitable for any size organization. We monitor and manage networks, security, servers, cloud instances, applications, databases, and storage systems.
Supported Services
Front Line Basic Support
Level 1 is where personnel and support teams get directly involved in technical support tasks. This tier is customers’ first direct contact with the company’s employees so it is imperative that those in charge of providing assistance are ready to fix these issues. In addition, they also know when to delegate the problem to someone higher up.
A scenario where an issue falls within the level 1 technical support tier:
A customer is having trouble navigating a banking app and can’t find a way to request a loan from the bank. Upon contacting customer technical support, they are met with an employee that walks them through the process of requesting a loan successfully. The problem was relatively simple and did not require escalation. Thus, the issue is solved within the level 1 support tier.
Advanced Technical Support
Level 2 is where things get more complex. Personnel in this category generally provide in-depth troubleshooting and backend support. Employees at this tier are usually more knowledgeable about company hardware and software tools. This ensures that the issues that level 1 IT Support operators escalate are dealt with accordingly and with a much more well-informed outlook.
A scenario where an issue falls within the level 2 technical support tier:
Upon receiving a ticket from a level 1 support specialist, the level 2 support analyst learns that a customer has tried to access their account. However, the customer has appeared to be blocked by the company’s anti-phishing software. The customer is not a scammer but the system mislabeled them. Thus, the level 2 support specialist lifted the block on the customer’s account after looking into the issue in detail. The issue has been solved thanks to the technician’s knowledge of the company’s app and automated systems.
Subject Matter Expert Support
A new NOC operator may not know where to find a procedure or how to execute it. In a more severe case, take a decision that causes equipment damage or results in critical downtime.
Make sure to implement an extensive training program for new NOC employees. Ideally, such a program would consist of one
Three weeks of classroom training followed by three weeks of hands-on training under designated trainer supervision. NOC Training Knowledge & Skills
Tweet This Guide Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Make certain experienced NOC members, preferably shift leaders, train new employees. Release trainers from all other duties to ensure that training does not fade between urgent tasks.
Update the training program regularly, and make sure it
Includes topics such as required users and permissions, known
Problems, troubleshooting, teams and relevant contacts.
Operation Center & Essential Tools
Ticketing system: A ticketing system to keep track of all open issues, according to severity, urgency & the person assigned to handle each task.
Knowledge base: Centralized source for all knowledge and documentation accessible to your entire team.
Reporting and measurements: Reports daily and monthly. A daily report should include all major incidents of the past 24 hours and a root cause for every resolved incident.
Monitoring: Infrastructure Monitoring & User Experience Monitoring
IT Process Automation: password reset, disk space clean-up, restart services etc. IT Process Automation also reduces mean time to recovery (MTTR) in critical incidents.
Knowledge & Skills
To ensure the team’s skills are used to their full potential, and kept up to date over time.
Clearly defined roles : Roles may vary between data centers and depend on team size, IT environment & tasks. Still, there should be a clear distinction between operators’ roles and responsibilities vs. shift supervisors in the NOC.
It affects decisions. Without clearly defined roles and responsibilities, disagreements between operators can lead to late decisions and actions, or to no decisions taken at all. This can affect customers, critical business services, and urgent requests during off-hours. It should be clearly defined, therefore, that a shift manager makes the final decisions.
Skills Development
Communication & Collaboration
We focus on training for new joiners. A fresh-to-be NOC operator may not know where to find a procedure or how to execute it. In a more severe case, take a decision that causes equipment damage or results in critical downtime.
In order to ensure the success of new NOC employees, we ensure that they undergo an extensive training program. Ideally, such a program would consist of one week of classroom training followed by three weeks of hands-on training under the supervision of a designated trainer
Communication between NOC members and other IT teams has many advantages. It propels professional growth, provides opportunities for advancement in the organization, and makes it easier to approach other teams when requiring assistance. But most importantly, it allows NOC personnel to see the larger picture. NOC members that know projects, services and customers’ needs, simply provide better service.
How can you improve communication? Here are some ideas.
Make sure a member of the NOC attends weekly change management meetings and communicate issues or upcoming activities, such as planned downtime, to the rest of the team.
Processes
Establish:- A clear escalation process. One method is an escalation table, which outlines the protocol and channels for escalating issues and contacting personnel with the appropriate expertise.
Prioritization: The process of prioritizing incidents is different in each NOC, and therefore should be clearly defined. Incidents should never be handled first come, first served. Instead, the shift manager should prioritize incidents and cases based on their importance and impact on the business.
Incident Handling : Both NOC operators and shift managers should know the specific incident handling process.