Read how an N-central Audit and Remediation project from Inbay resolved more than 97% of stale and misconfigured alerts for US IT outsourcing and consulting firm Winxnet, enabling the company to leverage N-central in a more efficient manner and improve staff productivity.
Winxnet had invested in SolarWinds MSP N-central, but felt they were not getting as much out of that investment as they could be. As with any RMM tool, a certain amount of fine-tuning of N-central is required if you are to realise all the benefits you expect.
Specifically, the company was finding it difficult to manage proactive alerts by exception because of stale and misconfigured server and network devices – and this was beginning to impact customer satisfaction levels.
Winxnet’s Senior Vice-President of Services Steve Martel explains the problem.
“Our support team was being flooded by proactive alerts, many of which could have been screened out as not relevant or as having a very low threshold. They weren’t being filtered out because of stale and incorrectly configured N-central alerts and thresholds. This alert ‘noise’ was having an impact on our ability to proactively manage customer networks and was starting to cause customer satisfaction issues. Plus, of course, our staff were not being as productive as they could be.
“As one of the biggest SolarWinds MSP Super Elite Partners we considered carrying out the N-central audit and remedial work required in-house, but ultimately determined that it would be more cost-effective to partner for the work rather than ‘burn cycles’ from existing staff.
“We had a shortlist of companies we considered and we also asked international MSP peer group HTG for their recommendations, based on our project needs. HTG recommended Inbay. This recommendation, together with positive references, price flexibility, their ability to start the engagement right away and direct expertise with N-central led us to select Inbay as a partner.
Project goals
“This was a short-term project that connected participants across three continents. Inbay focused on an N-central audit and remediation clean-up of the Windows server, Windows eSXI server and network devices we manage for our clients. The aim was to identify and fix the root causes of systemic ‘noise’ and reduce the number of NOC tickets, in order to increase staff efficiency and improve customer satisfaction.
Working with Inbay
“When you work with a partner for the first time, there is inevitably a level of uncertainty with the unknown. But Inbay partnered well with us, keeping us abreast of project status through regular meetings and project status reports – and we found the Inbay team professional, diligent and flexible regarding our requirements. The project was completed within the agreed schedule – indeed with a few days to spare.
Success factors
“I put the success of the project down to Inbay’s technical N-central expertise, combined with excellent project management that ensured team members remained on task with the defined project plan and milestones. The project started with a thorough audit to obtain a baseline. We then gave Inbay’s engineers work direction and prioritisation each week – and they executed this work against the defined plan.
Project achievements
“Following the completion of the project, we saw a 25% reduction in the number of alert tickets and an increase in our ability to proactively address server and network problems.
“By the end of the project, more than 97% of stale and misconfigured alerts had been corrected and the clean-up effort gave us a significant lift to leveraging N-central in a more efficient manner and also improved staff productivity.
“We have also leveraged the best practices learned through the engagement and have updated customer onboarding templates, based on some of the findings.
“Our experience of working with Inbay was positive and met all expectations and I would recommend Inbay to other ITSPs or MSPs for N-central audit and remediation.”
If your team is being overwhelmed by N-central alert noise, Find out more about Inbay’s N-central Audit and Remediation service.
