Why you should consider outsourcing the management of your critical communications network

As mission-critical organizations grow and increase staff numbers, strain on infrastructure also increases, especially when it comes to a critical communications system. Technical teams are often supporting multiple areas of the business, so providing enough resource to proactively prevent major outages or incidents involving their critical communications system can be challenging.

It is often after a major outage that mission critical organizations will take a closer look at options for a more focused management of their critical communications infrastructure. But why wait until disaster strikes? Considering your network management options proactively can save mission critical organizations time, money and stress.

Benefits of outsourcing critical communications network management

Outsourced management of your critical communications network can offer a range of benefits including:

• Industry experience and expertise: A provider that specializes in mission-critical environments is more likely to understand your specific requirements and already have industry specific capabilities and experience.
• Resources to support 24/7 response: When experienced industry professionals who understand mission critical systems are monitoring your system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, they are able to quickly identify, investigate and resolve issues at any time.
• Network resilience: Application of the latest software or firmware releases, along with security updates, ensures your network will be efficient and more protected.
• Proactive, regular maintenance: This is typically included with managed services and provides further strategic resilience by ensuring potential issues can be flagged to you and resolved before they cause issues or outages.
• Scalability: Working with a managed services provider usually means that you can quickly scale, whether that is through growth, mergers, or acquisitions, without having to employ and train additional specialist support staff.
• Cost predictability: You can budget and plan your resources with confidence, with a regular, predictable cost knowing your critical communications network will be looked after.
• Ability to refocus your team on core business priorities: After transition to the managed services team, your staff can refocus on their core business priorities and capabilities.

Things to consider when choosing a managed services provider

If you are considering outsourcing the management of your critical communications network, it’s important you go through a proper due diligence process and compare different providers to make sure you’re getting the right support.

It helps to create a checklist of the non-negotiable items you require, along with an extended list of preferred inclusions so you can ensure you are getting the service that will work best for your organization. Here are some key areas you should explore when talking with mission critical service providers:

1. How much critical communications industry experience do they have?

Validate the provider’s critical communications industry experience and longevity.

• Do they have more broad IT knowledge than specialist industry knowledge?
• Do they have direct experience with your type of system and equipment?
• Do they have a track record of working with similar organizations to yours?
• Have they been in market for sufficient time to build a knowledge base of expertise and understanding of mission critical specific requirements?
• Do the organizational values align with yours?
• Can you access customer references?
  
  

2. Service inclusions

What is included in the service?

• Do they provide 24/7 monitoring capability?
• Is there a surcharge for issue investigation and resolution?
• If scaling how are any additional charges defined.
• Will they monitor all of your devices connected to the network?
• Do they keep your system up to date with the latest software, firmware and security releases?
• Do they perform preventative maintenance?
• Do they offer regular reporting?
  
  

3. Service delivery

What do their standard SLAs look like and consider if these are tolerable for your organization.

• What would an escalation process look like for critical incidents?
• Are there regular checks and reviews of the service quality?
• Do they follow best practices in service delivery? Do they use frameworks such as ITIL to ensure consistent experience?
  
  

4. Security

How do they ensure security for both those managing your network, and security of the network itself?

• What security policies and standards do they adhere to?
• Do they have specific security qualifications?
• Who will have access to monitoring data and system information, and how it will be protected for the length of the service?

By considering each of these factors you can ensure the provider you select is a good fit for your organizational needs, and you can feel comfortable that your critical communications network will be appropriately monitored and managed, with sufficient checkpoint and reviews to support that trust.

If you are growing and want to reduce the load on your team, while strengthening your critical communications system reliability, let’s talk to see if our Managed Services could be a good fit for your team.