The Myth of Outsourcing Services

It has taken blood, sweat and tears to build up your MSP business and your customer base. Would you be putting all this at risk by working with a partner for NOC and Service Desk?

Concerns about loss of control and a potentially negative impact on customer service levels are among those most frequently voiced. These should not be issues – provided you select the right partner to work with.

In this blog, we explore three reasons why these issues should be crossed off your ‘worry’ list when thinking of outsourcing.

1. Will I lose control?
This is a common concern and the answer is No - you’ll gain more control: more control of your time and more control of your resources. 

You will retain complete control over your client relationships to. Your partner will be beavering away in the background to help you deliver on client expectations; while you have more time to manage your client relationships and develop your role as a trusted advisor. Your partner will act as an extension of your business and you will continue to call the shots.

It will also be easier to keep control of your expenditure to, and visibility of where your money is going. When you sign a contract for NOC and Service Desk delivery, it should clearly define the activities covered, and set out how your partner will work with you to deliver them. Look for a partner who offers ‘pay-as-you-grow’ billing; who operates on a fixed price basis; and uses one simple charging structure. Check that you can add and remove devices and users at any time during the monthly billing period, so you are always just paying for what you use, with no long term commitment or upfront outlay

2. Can I trust a partner with my clients’ data? 
This is an understandable concern, but verifying your partner’s credentials in the following areas should remove it as an issue.

Operating to key industry standards
Seek out a partner with recognised industry and technology accreditations: operating to ITIL standards and with ISO27001 certification for example. These are both indicators that your partner will have jumped through a lot of hoops to be able to make these claims and so maintain the high standards their clients expect. 

Keeping your customers’ data safe 
Within the UK, check that any potential partner is registered as a data controller under the Data Protection Act 1998 and adheres to the requirements of the act. Check compliance with other local data enforcement requirements and standards such as HIPAA.

Your partner should have stringent policies and security in place to ensure the safety of your customers’ data and credentials. Check that they are using an SSAE 16 Type 11 certified secure CRM system; with both your and your customers’ credentials, stored within a secure database utility. Check how data access is controlled: is role-based two-factor authentication in place? Have staff been vetted and how thoroughly?

Make sure that your partner’s service delivery centre operates to the highest security standards: what physical security is in place (biometric scanning, guarded access, CCTV?); review power, connectivity and core system redundancy; and establish how secure the infrastructure is.

3. How can I be sure my partner will deliver good levels of service to my clients?Response time and accuracy are key metrics for any NOC and Service Desk partner; normally, the faster and more efficient the resolution, the better.

Your partner’s SLA agreement must be clearly defined and consistently achieved to give you the peace of mind you need. Furthermore, if you have made SLA commitments to your customers, make sure that your partner is confident of being able to at least match these.

Quality assurance (QA) is the cornerstone on which good SLA performance is built, as it is an ongoing activity that provides valuable insights into engineer, customer and service delivery performance and opportunities.

Well-designed and effective QA programs demonstrate a company’s commitment to its clients and engineers.

I hope that this blogs starts to dispel some of the concerns and myths around outsourcing services and provide some useful information. 

Additional reading and resources from CompTIA;

Download our UK Outsourcing Agreement Template 

Download our UK Non-Disclosure Agreement 

Read out IT Industry Outlook 2016