Oncall Management for Startups

A typical team with more than 5 engineers or more than 10 customers start to face a lot of operations asks from either external system or customer requests or internally requests . This calls for an ask to develop a process around oncall systems to streamline all these asks. But in a world of tools, most of the tools cost a lot. We go through this article on what common problems, one has to solve for oncall

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List of Oncall and Alerts Problems

Teams need robust scheduling tools that enable them to create and manage on-call rotations, ensuring that there's always someone available to respond to urgent issues. Round-robin scheduling is a common approach, where team members take turns being on call.

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Efficient Scheduling

Teams need robust scheduling tools that enable them to create and manage on-call rotations, ensuring that there's always someone available to respond to urgent issues. Round-robin scheduling is a common approach, where team members take turns being on call.

Prompt Alerting

Timely notifications are crucial for engineering teams. Real-time alerts through channels like Slack or email help them stay informed about critical incidents, system failures, and other urgent matters.

Alert Assignment

When alerts are triggered, they should be automatically assigned to the on-call engineer. This ensures that the right person is immediately aware of the issue and can take prompt action.

Alert Acknowledgment

To avoid missed or ignored alerts, teams need a system where on-call engineers can accept or acknowledge the assignments. This confirms that the alert has been received and is being addressed.

Ticketing Integration

Many engineering teams use project management tools like Jira or Linear to track and manage their work. Integrating with these tools allows teams to create and follow up on tickets directly from the on-call scheduling and alerting system.

Reporting and Analytics

Regular reports provide valuable insights into team performance, incident trends, and response times. Daily or weekly reports help teams identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions.

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Types of Oncall Requests

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Oncall requests can vary widely depending on the nature of the business, the industry, and the specific role of the oncall engineer. However, some common types of oncall requests include:

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Managing Alerts from Infrastructure

• Investigating and resolving alerts generated by monitoring tools for infrastructure issues such as server outages, network problems, or storage failures.
• Analyzing log files and performance metrics to identify the root cause of the issue and determine the appropriate course of action.
• Coordinating with other team members, such as system administrators or network engineers, to resolve complex infrastructure issues.

Alerts from Analytical Tools (Mixpanel, Stripe, Amplitude)

• Troubleshooting alerts generated by analytical tools used for data analysis
• Subscription tools like Stipe, LemonSqueezy etc

External Requests from Customers (Slack Connect, Zendesk, Intercom)

• Responding to urgent requests from customers or clients experiencing issues with products or services.
• Conducting remote diagnostics and troubleshooting to identify the cause of the problem.
• Providing technical support and guidance to customers to help them resolve the issue.

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Internal Requests within the Team

• Assisting team members with technical issues they encounter during development, testing, or deployment of software applications or services.

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It's important for oncall engineers to have a deep understanding of the systems and technologies they support, as well as strong problem-solving and communication skills, to effectively handle and resolve oncall requests.

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Pagerduty and Opsgenie are way too Expensive 

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Despite these straightforward needs, companies still face a minimum of  flat rate of $21 per user per month with PagerDuty/Opsgenie  which may not be financially justifiable for all, especially when simpler, cheaper alternatives could suffice.PagerDuty offers three core services: on-call scheduling, alerting, and paging. While these features are vital for many support teams, the monthly cost of $21 per user can be expensive, particularly for larger teams.

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For example, a company with 25 users would spend approximately $6,000 annually just for basic on-call scheduling and alert management.

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Despite their straightforward needs, companies are subjected to PagerDuty's flat rate of $21 per user per month, which may not be financially viable for all, especially when there are simpler and more affordable alternatives available.

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Why Pagerly is Preferred for Oncall Management

Pagerly streamlines and simplifies the entire on-call management workflow, allowing teams to operate seamlessly within their preferred communication platforms such as Slack and Teams.

Pagerly is already supporting multiple startups to have an oncall system without breaking pockets

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Pagerly's feature-rich platform empowers users to:

• Craft On-Call Schedules: Create round-robin on-call schedules that ensure fair distribution of responsibilities among team members.
• Attach Alerts: Integrate Pagerly with your monitoring tools to automatically receive alerts within Slack or Teams.
• Define Escalations: Set up escalation policies that automatically notify backup on-call members if the primary on-call is unavailable or unresponsive.
• Group Multiple On-Calls: Combine multiple on-call schedules into a single, cohesive view for better visibility and coordination.
• Assign Alerts to On-Call Users: Seamlessly assign alerts to the current on-call user, ensuring prompt response and resolution.
• Generate Tickets: Generate tickets in project management systems like Jira or Linear directly from Slack, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
• Access Reports: Analyze on-call performance and ticket trends through comprehensive reports, helping teams identify areas for improvement.
• Acknowledge or Reject Notifications: Empower on-call users to acknowledge or reject notifications, enabling better control over alert management.

• With Pagerly, teams can collaborate efficiently, communicate effectively, and stay on top of on-call tasks, all within their preferred communication tools.
  
  

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Save 70% costs with Pagerly

For a typical company with four teams, the annual cost of using Pagerly would be around $1,500.

This represents a substantial 70% saving compared to the $6,000 that would have been spent with PagerDuty.

This cost-effectiveness makes Pagerly an attractive option for companies looking to streamline their expenses without compromising on functionality.

Pagerly emerges as a budget-friendly alternative that caters to the essential needs of tech support teams without the hefty price tag. With a pricing model of just $39 per team per month, it covers all the necessary functionalities that most teams require.

Committed to Support Startups

We at Pagerly are committed to supporting startups by streamlining and ease up their operations flow with minimal costs .

We also provide 24/7 full support without any additional costs.

Reevaluate your on-call scheduling and alert management systems to uncover substantial cost savings. Explore cost-effective alternatives like Pagerly, which provide necessary functionalities at a fraction of the cost compared to pricier platforms such as PagerDuty. Before committing to high-cost SaaS products, assess your team's real needs and explore more economically feasible options that maintain quality and efficiency. At Pagerly, we prioritize supporting startups by streamlining their operations with minimal expenses.

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References

1. Why Oncall Roster is needed - By Jeet

2. Create Rotations on Slack - Pagerly

3. Alert Management on Slack - Pagerly

4. How to Set On-call Rotations - Pagerly

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