NOC

NOC. Especially first and second level. What are the tasked performed and
what level of expertise is required.

Also what are the strategy for outsourcing non core technical activities in
an organisation e.g. telecommunication company.

Answer:
#1 NOC - NOC belongs to IT Operations Management function and it takes care about daily activities to maintain the infrastructure and related services. However, NOC gets involved in operational processes, like Incident Management, because incidents often have root cause in network i.e. infrastructure. When setting up a NOC focus your effort on:
- creating proactive organization
- interface with other processes (e.g. Event Management, Incident Management, Change Management...etc.)
- collaborate/integrate activities with other specialist groups or functions like Application Management (studies reveal that NOC staff spends majority of their time on addressing issues related to applications, network (WAN particularly) and server s
- this gets you to the tools that you need - having majority of work with applications means that NOC is not waiting for "green light to switch off" but taking active role in performance monitoring and measurement. That should direct your activities related to tools in place, staffing level and skills
- number of levels - that depends on organizational setup, but it's important to be clear regarding keeping bureaucracy on minimum
There are a lot of other elements which are organization specific, but read the article "Is the NOC (Network Operations Center) still viable according to ITIL?" https://advisera.com/20000academy/blog/2015/04/21/is-the-noc-network-operations-center-still-viable-according-to-itil/ to learn more.

#2 When setting up outsourcing keep in mind following:
- organizational involvement - from both sides, having supplier tightly integrated in your processes as well as to integrate in suppliers processes
- clear roles and responsibilities
- implemented service management framework - ITIL or ISO 20000 are excellent foundation before you outsource to external organization
- efficiency - define and measure. This means set clear measurement points and expected result. Compare achieved against agreed targets. And - do it continuously
- keep in mind that you are still responsible for results (including outsourced activities) towards your customers.

Read the articles
"ISO 20000 Supplier Management – You lead the game" https://advisera.com/20000academy/blog/2015/03/17/iso-20000-supplier-management-you-lead-the-game/
"ITIL Supplier Management and Service Level Management – How to put the two in balance" https://advisera.com/20000academy/blog/2015/11/10/itil-supplier-management-and-service-level-management-how-to-put-the-two-in-balance/
and
"ITIL Supplier management – the third party you depend on" https://advisera.com/20000academy/blog/2013/12/30/itil-supplier-management-third-party-depend/
to learn more.