Network Management - How to Lose the Frustration, Not the Control - best practice guide
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best practice guide Network Management – How to Lose the Frustration, Not the Control
best practice guide | Network Management – How to Lose the Frustration, Not the Control So much of your organisation’s success depends on the technology and the services that your ICT division delivers to the business. As an ICT decision-maker, you’re compelled to cope with a shrinking budget and fewer resources. Ultimately, you’re responsible for a network that must be available and working at maximum capacity to keep the business operating at its best. Yet, you also need to lead its evolution with an eye on the future. It’s no wonder you’re feeling a little anxious! The problem is, the more time and resources you spend on keeping things up and running, the less you have left to develop your network in line with business goals such as reaching new markets, or offering new products and services. Managed network services have been touted as a possible solution to your conundrum. But you’re worried about that too: trusting a service provider to operate your network – the platform for your business – feels a lot like giving up control of its strategic development. Is there a way to remove the burden and the frustration of day-to-day network management without adding to the anxiety by fear of losing control?
best practice guide | Network Management – How to Lose the Frustration, Not the Control
Warning signs
It’s not that easy for an in-house team to 3. Your service levels don’t 5. Your business unit heads are
keep all the balls in the air. Here are seven improve, which causes engaging with outside providers
signs that your network management increased downtime Often, they’ll source IT-as-a-service options
burden may have become too heavy to Your division works in crisis mode all directly from a provider without involving
handle on your own: the time, so keeping your network up the ICT division. The perception is that the
and running leaves no time to make service they get there is more responsive
1. You lack management tools, or improvements. Of course, dedicating entire and prompt, and therefore suits their
use them poorly resources to improvement is out of the immediate requirements better.
This is a discipline on its own. The proper question, because you need all the hands
selection, configuration, management, you can get to constantly ‘fight fires’. 6. Your users complain that they
and use of network management tools All of this leads to increased downtime, have a better ICT experience at
require specialist skills. Poor use of these poor change and event management, home than at work
tools can result in, at best, a lack of and extended repair times when things Today’s employees – particularly younger
diagnostic support information, and at go wrong. generations – tend to be more technology
worst, incorrect or misleading information, savvy and connected at home than before.
which defeats the object of having them. 4. Your costs are escalating ... As a result, they’re more demanding and
Management tools are also expensive to not decreasing have a low tolerance for inconsistent
have in-house if you don’t have a large It’s becoming more and more expensive to services or underperforming technology.
number of assets. manage your network in-house because
you lack scale in your ICT division. You 7. Your customers complain
2. You’re not using all your hire expensive experts to deliver low-end about not getting the same
technology to its full potential services, because you just don’t have the services as available at competing
Your IT division is just too small to properly budget to make a distinction in skills levels. organisations
run and manage all your advanced Everyone in your division does everything. Without improving your infrastructure
technologies, so the return on those with strategic and tactical considerations
investments remains unrealised. The vendors in mind, it’s hard to keep your competitive
from which you’ve bought the technologies edge. You’re starting to fall behind the
can’t help either, because their contracts market in terms of launching new offerings.
don’t include operational management.best practice guide | Network Management – How to Lose the Frustration, Not the Control
Losing face, losing trust, The only thing to fear is fear itself Decide which services and functions you
really need to do yourself, particularly those
losing say It’s time to reconsider. It’s time to ask for that have the most important strategic
If you recognise your organisation in any, help. If your question is still whether it’s value. In other words, offload more of the
or all, of these symptoms, you should see possible to rid your cash-strapped and regular operations, such as break-fixing
this as a cry for help. Your anxiety about understaffed ICT division of the burden and monitoring, while retaining more of
losing strategic control of your network by and frustration of day-to-day maintenance the strategic functions, such as researching,
sourcing management help from outside without giving up control of your network’s planning, and development.
may be causing you to lose control of your strategic future, the answer is a resounding
yes. It’s possible to do so in three wise steps: Keep in mind: handing over more
operations instead. And the outcome of that
operational control is not the same as
might be more far-reaching than you expect.
Step1: Free up some cash by losing strategic control. Consider sourcing
You may already be losing the trust of cutting costs in the right place only service elements that fill the most
your business to deliver new and forward- glaring gaps in your operational support
Look inside first. It’s becoming a widely
thinking services. And that’s only the first model. For example, you may want to
known fact that the biggest part of what
step: once trust is lost, so is influence. tackle after-hours services first and need
your network costs you to own has nothing
Before long, important top-level decisions skilled night-time resources to be managed
to do with how much you pay external
about the vision, mission, and evolution on your behalf. The point is, you decide
service providers for things like basic
of the business as a whole might be what you’re comfortable with, and then
maintenance and support services. In fact,
bypassing the ICT division altogether. Harsh find a service provider that can deliver.
if the way you operate your infrastructure
as it may seem, your seat at the boardroom Sourcing managed network services
is already showing the danger signs we’ve
table may be disappearing as we speak. needn’t be an all-or-nothing affair.
discussed, the worst thing you can do is
to reduce the level of help you get from
Step 3: Pick the right partner
outside. You can only save so much by
‘It’s time to soothe skimping on service contracts. This might be the most crucial of all the
decisions you need to make. A provider
your anxiety of Probably as much as 85% of your
budget goes to your internal ‘run’ costs,
of managed network services isn’t the
same as a provider of basic maintenance
losing control, and that is, you’re spending it on in-house services. A vendor, for example, may look
engineers, logistics, vendor management,
realise that you have management tools, and training … much
after only its own brand of technologies in
your network, and has no visibility or say
of it to little effect because, chances are,
nothing to fear but your internal systems and processes are
over the rest.
Nor is a managed network service
fear itself.’ immature. And as your network grows in
both size and complexity, the problem just provider the same as an outsourcer. In
gets worse. The bottom line is, take a long, an outsourced model, the provider is
hard look at how you do things internally. both responsible and accountable for the
Try to standardise and streamline as much infrastructure. The provider therefore owns
as you can, while also reducing your the strategy and the financial management
contract costs. This freed-up budget can and, after consulting with you, provides a
then be spent on strategic development service back to you at a negotiated service
initiatives to evolve your infrastructure in level. With a managed network service,
line with advances in the industry. you retain financial and strategic control …
and you’re still accountable. The service
Step 2: Don’t sweat the provider is responsible only for the day-to-
small stuff day operations.
Systems and process standardisation It’s time to soothe your anxiety of losing
usually makes it glaringly obvious that control, and realise that you have nothing
many of your most valuable in-house skills to fear but fear itself. Know that you’re
and resources are being wasted on simple, not alone either. Increasing numbers of
day-to-day tasks. These may just as well be organisations in your position today are
assigned to an external services provider seeing managed network services as the
you can trust to offer you predictable costs best way to improve service levels and
and guaranteed service levels. reduce costs … without losing strategic
and financial control.best practice guide | Network Management – How to Lose the Frustration, Not the Control
How mature are your
‘The most important requirement for a
operational support successful network is therefore a mature set
systems and processes?
of operational tools and processes, but
Even more reason to pick the right
services partner are the findings with the majority of organisations still at low
of Dimension Data’s Network
Barometer Report 2014. Among levels of maturity, the risk of unnecessary
other data sets, the Report analysed
support service requests handled
downtime is high if they haven’t
by Dimension Data’s Global Service
Centres, which were logged against
employed better help from outside.’
client devices under management.
It found that the great majority of
incidents (84%) were not caused
by network devices, but by factors
Tough questions to ask a 4. W
hat does your global footprint look
like? Will you be able to serve me
outside the remit of an ordinary potential service provider
locally in all the countries in which
maintenance contract. In addition, when considering its managed my organisation has offices?
maintenance levels for these devices network services:
varied depending on their lifecycle 5. W
hich technologies and vendors
stage – newer wasn’t necessarily 1. Are you able and willing to customise do you cover? What is your level of
better. The most important your service(s) to suit the gaps I’ve expertise and certification in each?
requirement for a successful identified in my operational model? 6. H
ow do your service and its delivery
network is therefore a mature set of How much? model measure up to other services
operational tools and processes, but 2. How is your service packaged/ in the industry? Do you have any
with the majority of organisations constructed? Tell me about the service independent or industry analyst-
still at low levels of maturity, the risk elements and what they cover. driven comparisons?
of unnecessary downtime is high if
3. How is your service delivered? 7. H
ow many, and which, other
they haven’t employed better help
Tell me about your systems and businesses of my size do you
from outside.
processes and how they measure up already serve?
to industry standards.
‘Increasing numbers of organisations in your
position today are seeing managed network
services as the best way to improve
service levels and reduce costs … without
losing strategic and financial control.’
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