Here’s a simple rule-of-thumb we use that illustrates why you need a NOC + Help Desk if you want to grow.  We call it the ’30 percent rule’. Here’s how it works.

For every 100 end-user points you take on, count on about 30 users calling you every month. 30 percent isn’t a hard number. In our experience it fluctuates between about 20 percent and 32 percent.

The actual number isn’t the key point. The fact that you are going to have a predictable and steady stream of end-users calling is the important fact. This has big implications for your resourcing.

If you want to grow and take on larger contracts you’ll need a strategy for addressing these calls and meeting service level agreements. You’ll need a NOC and Help Desk capability.

Build it and they will come

You may have the technical know how to build your own NOC + Help Desk capability. Going that route leads to an expensive proposition. You’ll need to front-end the cost of ramping-up on the support staff, training, hardware, and software that’s required to provide these services directly.

Many take on these extra costs and financial risks in anticipation of winning bigger contracts. Sometimes that boat never comes in and the MSP is left with the cost without the new revenue.

Practice what you preach

Ironically, building and owning your own internal NOC + Help Desk solution echoes the same considerations that you use to rationalize an outsourced hosted managed services solution to your end SMB customers.

Like most MSPs, you’ve probably said something like this to a potential customer:  “Why invest the time and effort to design the complex monitoring and management hardware and software, and ramp-up on the various complex technologies required to manage your IT environment when all of that is available as a turnkey outsourced managed services solution today?”

You face exactly the same rational with a NOC + Help Desk: why invest the time and effort to build that capability and provide those services directly when you can partner with someone who has made that their core business?

The bottom line

Providing valuable technology solutions and skilled resources to customers is your core business and focus.

Building a NOC + Help Desk capability with round-the-clock support in multiple time zones and languages is not.