NOC OPERATIONS CONSULTING CASE STUDY How INOC Helped a Digital Banking Platform Optimize Incident Management and Scalability in Its IOC

Introduction

A rapidly growing software company offering digital banking platforms to financial institutions faced significant challenges in its Integrated Operations Center (IOC). As the company’s customer base expanded, the strain on its IOC increased, impacting the center’s ability to manage incidents efficiently. With manual processes, fragmented tools, and high staff turnover, the company needed to ensure the IOC could meet the rising demand while maintaining service excellence. INOC was called in to conduct a comprehensive assessment and develop recommendations to streamline operations and improve scalability.

Client Challenges

The company’s IOC was under pressure from several operational inefficiencies, including:

• Manual Event Management: The IOC operated with two separate systems, SLAB for incident tracking and PagerDuty for alerts. However, there was no integration between these tools, requiring staff to correlate incidents manually. This process slowed down response times and increased the likelihood of human error, leaving the IOC vulnerable to missed events or delayed escalations. For example, a critical server outage could go unnoticed for longer than necessary due to delays in manually cross-referencing alerts between systems.
• A Lack of Automation: The manual nature of the IOC’s event management processes meant that many repetitive tasks were done by hand. The team lacked a unified system to automate ticket creation, event correlation, and escalation procedures. This made it difficult to track incidents from detection to resolution, with some incidents not being logged correctly, resulting in unresolved or delayed cases.
• Staffing Issues: The IOC was understaffed, with only a few key team members handling 24/7 coverage. High turnover was also an issue due to the absence of structured training and career development opportunities. Staff members felt isolated working in a remote-first environment, and the lack of standardized processes meant there was no consistency in incident handling across shifts. Team members often had varying levels of expertise, leading to inconsistent responses to incidents.

INOC’s Assessment

INOC conducted a five-week assessment of the IOC, engaging key stakeholders and analyzing the center’s technology, people, and processes. We observed that the separate use of SLAB and PagerDuty was a major bottleneck. SLAB tracked incidents, but teams constantly switched between systems to manage events without integration with PagerDuty’s alerts. This resulted in longer response times for critical issues, as teams spent time correlating incidents between the two platforms instead of addressing the underlying problems.

We also got to the root of the staffing problems. The company’s remote-first model, coupled with high turnover, exacerbated training and career development issues. Staff members lacked a sense of team cohesion, and new hires were often thrust into their roles without a training program. This led to skill gaps, especially in incident management, and contributed to increased response times. During interviews, employees reported feeling underprepared for complex incidents, and managers cited difficulty maintaining consistency across shifts.

We also found that the IOC lacked formalized incident management, escalation, and resolution workflows. Many processes relied on email communication and manual escalation, which made it difficult to track the lifecycle of an incident. For example, a server failure might trigger an email thread instead of an automated escalation process, which could result in slower response times or incidents being mishandled.

Solutions and Recommendations

Based on the assessment, INOC proposed several key changes designed to improve the efficiency, reliability, and scalability of the IOC:

• Implement Automated Ticketing and Event Correlation: INOC recommended integrating SLAB and PagerDuty with a centralized ITSM platform, allowing for automated ticket creation. By doing so, all incidents would be tracked in real-time, and alerts from PagerDuty would automatically generate tickets within SLAB, ensuring no incident was missed or delayed. For example, when an alert from PagerDuty about a server issue is triggered, a corresponding ticket would be automatically created in SLAB, initiating the incident management process without requiring manual input.
• Standardized Processes for Incident Management: INOC designed standardized workflows for incident and change management, ensuring that all incidents, regardless of severity, would follow a clear, predefined process. This included setting up Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for response and resolution times and creating automated escalation pathways to ensure that high-priority incidents were immediately brought to the attention of senior staff. INOC also recommended implementing a CMDB to track and manage network dependencies, enabling the team to identify and resolve issues faster by understanding the broader network context of each incident.
• Staff Training and Career Development Programs: INOC proposed formalizing a training program that would ensure all team members were equipped with the skills necessary to manage complex incidents. This included creating a structured onboarding program for new hires and offering ongoing training modules to build expertise in incident management tools, automation systems, and ITSM platforms. Additionally, INOC introduced a career development framework, giving employees clear progression paths, reducing turnover, and fostering a more stable team.
• Improved Team Collaboration: To reduce the isolation felt by team members in the remote-first model, INOC suggested enhancing collaboration through regular team meetings, virtual check-ins, and a mentorship program that paired new hires with more experienced staff members. This would help build a sense of teamwork, improve knowledge sharing, and ensure a consistent approach to incident handling.

Outcomes

By implementing INOC’s recommendations, the company could expect:

• Faster Response and Resolution Times: Automating ticket creation and integrating SLAB and PagerDuty would significantly reduce manual intervention, allowing the IOC to respond to incidents faster and more efficiently. The automated escalation process would ensure that high-priority incidents were addressed immediately.
• Improved Staff Retention and Expertise: With a structured training program and clear career development opportunities, staff turnover would decrease, and team members would feel more confident handling incidents, improving service consistency.
• Greater Operational Visibility and Efficiency: The integration of tools and standardized processes would provide greater visibility into the IOC’s performance, allowing for real-time tracking of incidents and improved decision-making. The CMDB would enable the team to understand service dependencies, leading to faster resolution times for complex issues.