5 Ways Your MNS Provider Should Be a Trusted Co-Management Partner

As an I&O leader, you answer to your stakeholders for the delivery of business services. These services are delivered by the infrastructure, the management of which is shared by your in-house IT resources and your managed network service (MNS) provider. Your MNS provider provides the operational support to maintain the IT infrastructure – freeing up your internal resources to address other critical functions.

Of course, when anything happens that affects or interrupts service delivery, you get the call – you are responsible to address the issue. Whether it’s the corporate IT team or your MNS provider’s Network Operations Center (NOC) team fielding the call, the end result is that you share a common goal – to rapidly restore service and normalcy.

And that is just the tip of the iceberg for why your MNS provider should be your trusted co-management partner. Here are five other key reasons to consider:

1.    Dealing with Infrastructure Issues

The core competency of your MNS provider is the ability to effectively and efficiently manage your network infrastructure. This involves the use of service delivery platforms, support for business functions, and the staffing to proactively care for the health of the infrastructure. When there is a degradation of service or an outage, this competency is the key to rapid remediation and minimal interruption of business flow.

2.    Dealing with Hosted Cloud Providers

These days it is not unusual to have one or more business services delivered via a hosted cloud provider. From a visibility perspective, your ability to monitor performance ends at the edge of the provider’s delivery chain. When there is an issue, the first step is to ensure the problem is not in your internal infrastructure. And if that is the case, it becomes necessary to engage with the cloud provider to let them know there is a problem on their end.

Your MNS provider is perfectly positioned to address both these needs. MNS providers with manufacturer certifications are even more effective in communicating with external providers since they have the proper technical credentials.

3.    Dealing with Strategic Planning

I&O leaders face the dual challenge of addressing tactical day-to-day operations while also being responsible for the evolution, optimization and improvement of the IT infrastructure. Your MNS provider should have a wealth of experience in this area since they typically work with multiple clients and have exposure to the latest trends – whether  hey be problems or solutions – in digital transformation and service delivery.

An MNS provider that understands your business model can be invaluable in tackling the demands involved with strategic planning that is relevant to your unique needs.

4.    User Experience and Customer Experience

The end-users of your business services, including your employees and customers, are the ones that undergo the experience of actually interacting with your systems to meet their needs. It follows that ensuring satisfactory levels of User Experience (UX) and Customer Experience (CX) is a primary requirement for the smooth conduct of business. Your MNS provider should be a key partner in this activity.

MNS providers that have the ability to layer UX management on top of their monitoring stack are especially adept at tracking systemic behavior across the user base. This makes it possible to deliver near real-time remediation of issues that specific user communities may be experiencing at any point in time.

5.    Stakeholder Management

Managing the IT organization invariably involves dealing with senior management stakeholders who may not be the most technologically literate. In order to deal with non-technical decision makers, it is necessary to formulate the messaging in business terms that are more easily understood. Being able to provide a measurable outcome is a powerful driver to facilitate effective decision-making across the enterprise.

Your MNS provider should help you with this – after all, they are in the business of technology. They understand the infrastructure, but they should also help you with communicating the message in terms that focuses on the technology of business. For example, how this particular investment delivers upon a desired business outcome.