The function of a NOC and IT Service Desk is to manage and maintain the availability of services for end users and to facilitate the restoration of the normal operation of the service in the event of incidents.
During these tasks, they must minimize the impact for end users or clients as established in the Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Although they may appear similar in essence, the reality is that they differ in certain fundamental respects. In this article we will talk about their similarities and differences so that you can learn more about these services that are so important to your network infrastructure help desk technician jobs near me.
Functions of a NOC and Service Desk outsourcing
A Network Operations Center (NOC) and Service Desk outsourcing provide the following services to the end user or customer according to what is established in the SLA:
- Risk management
- Release management
- Service level management
- Incident Management
- -Problem management
- Configuration management
- Availability management
- Security management
- Communication management
- Capacity management
- IT service continuity management
The daily activities of the NOC and Service Desk Outsourcing include:
- Receive all incident notifications and service requests
- Register them
- Proper classification
- Prioritize them according to their importance
- Problem solving
- Increased incidents and requests as necessary to maintain SLAs
- Maintain constant communication with all affected parties
- Perform all scheduled maintenance activities
The difference between an IT Service Desk and the NOC
Although many of the roles, processes, procedures, activities, positions and responsibilities of NOC and Service Desk outsourcing are extremely similar, there is a fundamental difference between these two business units: their approach.
The duties and responsibilities of a NOC are aimed at:
- Proactive management and maintenance of efficient operating states of hardware devices, operating systems and applications.
- Ensure the continuity of services.
- Respond to incidents and problems that affect them.
These objectives involve carrying out activities that normally do not require direct interaction with the end user, such as:
- Remote monitoring
- Patch management
- Changes for devices, software and services
On the other hand, the tasks and responsibilities of a Technical Assistance Service (IT Service Desk) and its staff focus on:
- The management of incidents and problems of the end user.
- It is the single point of contact (SPOC) for all end user problems.
- Identifies, documents, prioritizes, and allocates internal resources for problem solving.
- Oversees the quality assurance activities and the final closing of each service ticket.
How a NOC and the IT Service Desk work together
Despite being different, this does not imply that these two business units do not interact with each other, or that the Network Operation Center (NOC) never communicates with an end user, as there are usually situations that require problems to be freely escalated between these units during maintenance and incident and problem management activity.
In the case of SMEs, due to their size and volume of operations, it is not completely imperative that they have an official "NOC" or "Service Desk" at all, as long as there is an external provider that provides said functions following best practices. As stipulated in the SLA for the greater satisfaction of your customers, this may be perfectly acceptable.
It is completely feasible to have resources that perform NOC and service desk functions during the provision of the service, however over time it is likely that an efficient and effective expansion of the capacity of said department will be required as the base grows of service provider customers. In these cases, a good option is to outsource some of these functions to scale their operation, increase efficiency and maintain customer satisfaction.
It is also common practice for SMEs that individual resources carry out all incident and problem management activities through various levels of escalation. This implies that a resource can focus on a specific problem as it progresses from Level 1 to Level 2 and beyond, according to the client's SLA and the corresponding NOC or Service Desk escalation procedures.
There may be a time in the evolution of the service provider's business where it makes sense to dedicate specific resources to individual levels, but this may take a long time, as industry statistics reflect that:
- 90% of end-user service requests are closed at Level 1
- An additional 7% at Level 2
- The rest, 3% at Level 3
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