7 qualities of great remote network management partners

The trend of adopting hybrid and multi-cloud platforms coupled with an increasingly agile and mobile workforce is helping to fuel digital transformation. But it’s also increasing the complexity of IT infrastructure management. This makes implementing processes for carefully monitoring your technology vital to your business' success.

Effective network management is essential for maintaining your IT infrastructure—and addressing issues before they impact your business. Your network supports every aspect of your organization, from facilitating point-of-sale transactions in retail to enabling important video calls for your CEO. So selecting a remote services partner with the expertise and credentials that align with your strategic goals is also essential. Thorough research and careful consideration at the outset can contribute significantly to a successful partnership.

Here are seven values to look for in a remote services partner:

A great partner is customer-first

A great partner focuses on you and your network needs. This means being proactive and always accessible, whether you are a small business or large multi-national enterprise. An engaged partner follows up on queries and lets you decide how and when issues are resolved. Look for a partner who provides a single point of contact: a known person, not just an automated system.

Your remote services partner should be dedicated to customer experience. One way to gauge this is by asking if they have an overarching CX strategy to drive continuous improvement across their business. Do they conduct customer surveys? How do they respond to survey results? Examples of formalized CX practices can give you valuable insight into a partner’s commitment to your needs.

A great partner has the expertise

Your partner should be the expert in the room. Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, with networks becoming more complex and hybrid in nature, and with physical, virtual and cloud-based infrastructure delivering software-defined networks. This means your partner must have diverse and ever-evolving capabilities to guide you—now and into the future.

Agility is key here. Your services partner should be willing to deliver the solutions of your choosing and skill up, if necessary, to work with new technology providers. You shouldn’t have to switch partners just because your current partner doesn’t have experience. A great partner should be flexible, adaptable to sudden changes, able to train and mobilize the right people and capable of creating a service based on your needs.

A great partner has an innovative tooling strategy

A fundamental part of remote network management is the underpinning tools and software platforms strategy. It dictates the level of visibility into the service and can drastically affect the flexibility of the service. For example, a partner who limits themselves to commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) won’t be able to adapt as quickly to new technology. But a strategy based on open-source components with in-house software developers and a DevOps approach gives the service the flexibility to evolve with your requirements.

An effective remote network management service is invisible. But you’ll still need to know how well your IT infrastructure is performing and be able to gain insight into the quality of your network service. At a minimum, your partner should provide you with these functions:

• Portal—Your customer portals should be easy-to-use, interactive, intuitive, feature-rich and visual, to give you confidence that your partner has proper visibility into your infrastructure.
• Reporting—Monthly reports should be detailed and easy-to-navigate, describing the service you’re receiving and highlighting both good and potential problem areas. Insist on high-quality, useful information.

You should be able to request automation via e-bond integration between your IT service management platforms and your suppliers as a standard offer. You should expect seamless communication between your service desk and theirs.

The remote network management tools should enrich the service experience. Before you choose a partner, go beyond the marketing materials and ask to see a demonstration of their tools in action.

A great partner has global reach

A great remote network services partner does more than remote work—you’ll invariably need local technical resources at some point. Surveys, smart hands support, rack and stack/equipment installs and more require on-site presence. If your business is international, that could be a challenge, especially at sites without IT staff like restaurants, gas stations and isolated business offices. You’ll need a partner with global reach who can visit all your locations when needed, delivering a consistent experience wherever you are.

Global reach also offers cost benefits and the ability to access global talent pools. Partners with globally diverse operations centers have the resources to align the right talent with the right tools and knowledge. Letting your partner take on this responsibility will save you considerable time and resources because you don’t have to manage multiple partners.

A great partner has a network of third-party resources

Your services partner should have access to a portfolio of third-party service partners. This means your partner can scale rapidly to meet your unique timelines, expertise needs and location needs without you having to manage a diverse set of partners yourself. A strong partner will manage their relationships seamlessly as if those resources are part of their organization and offer you the same scope of services with the same service levels and quality expectations that they provide with their own resources.

A great partner is flexible and transparent

The levels of support for remote managed services are varied, from simple proactive monitoring and alerting to fully outsourced network management. Companies want flexibility from their service partners to meet these varying needs. Partners should offer solutions with a straightforward and transparent pricing model, offering functions including:

• Named service managers
• Service-desk customer advocates
• Customer technical leads

Tooling costs should be included in the pricing model so there are no surprises when it comes time to sign the contract.

A great partner focuses on the big picture

Remote management is just one aspect of the services strategy required to ensure availability. A great partner should offer a comprehensive solution encompassing design and deployment, as well as 24/7 monitoring and management. Look for a partner capable of delivering end-to-end services to help you transform, deploy and manage your network infrastructure.

Using a partner to deliver your remote monitoring and management frees up your staff to focus on your customers and achieving business objectives. With the right partner, you’ll gain peace of mind to concentrate on what you do best: delivering exceptional products and services to your customers.