Managed Services Lessoned Learned

Nortec has been offering Nortec 24/7 Managed Network Services for four years now and we have learned several lessons. Nortec 24/7 Managed Services includes remote monitoring, remediation and patch management. Not all managed services are the same so this brings us to our first lesson learned:

1. Be clear on what managed services are included with your service agreement:
a. Monitoring
b. Remote remediation
c. Remote patch management
d. Exactly what servers, switches, routers, desktops are to be managed

2. What will the escalation process be if the problem cannot be resolved remotely:
a. Contact you to resolve issue
b. Send field technical professional to resolve the issue

3. Notification and reporting:
a. You probably do not want emails daily on all issues
b. You may want emails and even a phone call on major server issues
c. You should meet quarterly, semi-annually or at least yearly to review reports and discuss what is working and not working

Remote managed services are the way of the future. Communications is the main issue. Be clear on who is doing what and you will have tremendous success.