NOC much more than a help desk – NOC is not a Helpdesk

A lot of times there is a confusion in the companies in the market who have a general understanding of a NOC being a help desk and reducing its role and importance to a help desk. Not to say that the role of a help desk is any day less than any other service, but there are certain differences that a company should understand while dividing roles and responsibilities for both the services. It would be better if a theoretical understanding of both the services is put forward with a certain degree of clarity so that the misconceptions can be cleared off.
Help desk: A point of contact
In any situation of crisis, your MSP customers can reach out to a help desk support with regards to their computers and office network problems. A help desk can be voice-based/phone support or chat support. The help desk will validate the issue, create a ticket and perform the primary troubleshooting steps for the customers if not resolved further escalate the ticket to the concerned person or department for further remediation. NOC Help desk is more of a customer-facing role.
NOC: Proactive monitoring and management
NOC is a service where proactive monitoring and alert remediation takes place. It is completely hidden and the daily maintenance task is performed in the background. This is the RMM part of your MSP, where the NOC ensures that the backups are running the server performance is up to the mark, the proactive maintenance is performed and event log alerts are remediated within the specified SLAs.
Other difference
NOC Help desk is more of a customer-facing role would have better communication skills as compared to the NOC engineer. But on the other hand, a NOC tech would have better technical/troubleshooting skills and expertise.
A help desk would not deal with Server issues or backup issues however the NOC tech will deal with both, server issues and backup issues.
Usually, the helpdesk has a huge number of ticket volumes and if there are not enough resources in place then it would increase the holding time of the customer. This is not a pleasant experience as a customer, as it shows how less you value their time and effort to reach out to you. On the other hand, NOC has more predictable ticket volume and if a NOC is doing their job properly then it would certainly offload the work for your help-desk.  Most of the MSPs are unable to find the right match of NOC help desk. Now the problem with this proposition is that most of the Managed Service Providers do not find the help desk and a NOC that are in the same geographical area. Even a slightest of variation in the accent could result in the loss of business for the company. To get a NOC in the same location would again increase the operational costs to a much higher level, which could not be borne by every business player in the market.
The best Solution
Our understanding of the market situation and our goal to come up with solutions that meet your demand have helped us come up with the solution to integrate both the services by using our NOC services with our Chat help-desk Add-On and provide superior service that not only gives you higher profit margins but also credibility with your customers. Our help-desk interacts with end-user on chat. The availability of services at the click of a button, then creates a ticket in your PSA, performs initial troubleshooting and passes on to NOC for remediation is the most cost-efficient service available for any business firm today. You could integrate the benefits of both the services at one platform and enhance first contact resolutions and customer satisfaction experience.