I rather enjoy it when a blog entry triggers multiple follow-up discussions. Back on Feb. 2, I asked if 24×7 support was the new norm for help desk support. By February 7, multiple help desk and NOC (network operations center) providers were sharing their opinions on 24×7 support. Now, Do IT Smarter CEO Lane Smith is back with three rather interesting points…
According to his own internal metrics, Smith says:
- 95 percent of his help desk volume occurs during normal business hours — from 8:00 a.m. eastern to 5:00 p.m. pacific.
- Peak help desk volumes occur from 8:00 a.m. to noon pacific time.
- In stark contrast, NOC services have no real peak at all.
Smith’s conclusion: “This really does validate the argument that Help Desk is NOT a 24X7 requirement for the majority of SMBs while NOC is a 24X7 requirement.”
Do I fully agree with that Smith’s conclusion? Not entirely. I think some of those after-hour help desk calls may come in from mission-critical customers. For instance, law firms or health care providers that work around the clock. Still, I’m splitting hairs and Smith (not me…) has built a profitable, sustainable Master MSP business. So maybe he’s onto something with his analysis of NOC and help desk requirements.
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Take a look at our 
It’s been my experience that Lane’s metrics are pretty spot on. We measure most everything with our unified contact center, and our metrics show about the same.
Our model is a little different in that we don’t necessarily have a distinct group of “NOC” vs. “Helpdesk” services. As a general rule of thumb, we do not hire junior level people. We discovered through our history and our customer base that the types of “helpdesk” calls that come in are often related to NOC activities (i.e. – server, switch, firewall issues). We are able to accomplish more with less headcount at least under this model. Natually, we have the general tiered escalation path for more complex issues, but those same engineers are available for helpdesk type activities should the contact center reach a peak.
We do however provide afterhour NOC services for more proactive and maintenance activities. This isn’t necessarily performed by our general engineers, but more specific SME’s.
If helpdesk activites are required afterhours from a phone call from a customer, we do the basic on-call paging system that a lot of MSPs implement. The customer calls, leaves a message, it pages and engineer and we have an SLA to return that call. Some MSPs choose to bundle that service in the monthly cost, some do not. As MSPs scale, provided they have their own helpdesk, it’s been our experience that bringing on new hires to extend the hours of the helpdesk is how you provide that service to clients at no additional incremental cost.
John: Thanks for the details about your own approach. I suspect readers are taking notes from your comment…
-jp
Very similar to our approach for the past 11 years. Customers just don’t need 24×7 help desk service 98% of the time. Those that do say they want that level of service (law firms seem to think they need 24x7x365 service) change their minds when confronted w/ the costs involved and are then usually fine w/ what we term emergency on call, which is limited to only defined business critical issues we will address after hours. Anything else is politely declined and a ticket submitted to address the following workday.
It is overkill, but you can’t live without it either. As soon as you remove it from your quote, you increase the chance of losing the deal. Arggghhh.
We find that 24×7 is a necessity. How many times have you been working on a presentation and something is not going right and its 11pm. I know I have.
I guess it depends on the scope of the help desk. We find though our peak is mid day, our help desk starts to slow down around 8pm and winds down mostly around 11:30pm.
We do however have an overnight shift that does get a regular flow of requests for help, though mostly are aimed at application support.
The key question is how to provide this support cost effectively.
I can certainly relate. I tend to fiddle most with our web sites during the late evenings — after web traffic has slowed down a little bit. So if I break something, it tends to happen after hours. I am a help desk’s worst nightmare. So yes, we require 24×7 support. And we value it.
-jp
In my experience, on a daily basis, most SMB have little need for a 24/7 helpdesk, but it is one of those things that when they need it they really need it. Additionally, there are some SMBs that really need it regularly. So, to me the key message to the MSP is that they need to have a flexible helpdesk offering that allows those customers that need an occasional midnight call to get it without paying for full time 24/7.
Like Wayne, we find 24×7 a necessity as well. For example, a lawer working on a brief for a morning court appearance has a machine freeze. It doesn’t happen often, perhaps 2% of our calls are between 8p and midnight eastern,zero overnight, and the rest during normal business hours of 8a-8p Mon-Fri. Still, we find that clients want to have the assurance that they can call in anytime, and are willing to pay for it.
When selling managed services, I find 24×7 support to be a big factor in making the sale, and the fact that client calls are handled locally by a mid or senior level tech, separates us from business support services offered by the likes of Cox, Comcast and Verizon, who tend to use junior techs (at best), usually in remote locatiions.
For the number of late night or weekend calls our support line receives, offering 24×7 support has, thus far, not been an issue for us.
Jim Van
Logicomm
http://www.logicomm-inc.com
Jim: I know what you mean re: Local Support. Our web integrator is in the same time zone as us, less than 100 miles from my office. We’ve worked with web developers on the other side of the globe. Frankly, the local support and local perspectives were far more comforting, though I certainly realize offshore support has its place in global IT.
-jp
I agree with what Jim van has said. For me, I don’t think it’s an overkill. They are help desk support companies that are willing to assist and make people happy by simply helping them fix their PC issues.