Establishing a GSOC

Creating and maintaining a GSOC infrastructure requires both an initial and an ongoing investment. Planning and design, build-out, and staffing are the three major phases to establishing a GSOC.

1. Planning and Design

When planning and designing a GSOC, the foremost task is to choose the appropriate technology platform, system provider, and redundancy configuration. The next step requires determining the overall number and locations of primary GSOC facilities along with local redundancy plans. (Each facility needs an alternative within 50 to 75 miles as back-up.) Then, the company will need to review the geographic footprint of facilities to be monitored to determine the optimal GSOC configuration across regions. Scope of service is also important to define up-front. Some GSOCs intentionally do not provide service calls, while others do. Finally, companies should carefully consider which, if any, other functions (facilities management, logistics, and so on) will be integrated into the GSOC functionality.