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Tier 3 Help Desk
Detailed Setup Plan, Key Talents and Major Cost Factors
Since 2007, ScienceSoft has been providing Tier 3 help desk services helping companies benefit from stable IT infrastructure and applications.
Tier 3 Help Desk: General Overview
Tier 3 help desk is the highest IT support level within a multi-tiered IT support system. L3 engineers resolve complex infrastructure-related requests and issues (e.g., server virtualization, planning network architecture and configuring network elements) and handle app issues on the code level.
The scope of the L3 help desk can cover user-facing software, desktops, mobile devices, operating systems, networks, databases, cloud services, back-end configurations, and more.
The team required: a team lead and L3 help desk engineers.
With deep technical expertise backed by 35 years of experience in IT, ScienceSoft helps companies resolve L3 issues, reduce help desk costs by up to 40%, and ensure a user satisfaction rate of over 96%.
Tier 3 Help Desk Setup Plan
L3 help desk launch plan and time frames greatly depend on the maturity and complexity of your IT infrastructure and applications. ScienceSoft has summarized 17 years of experience in IT support and outlined a pathway to establishing efficient help desk processes.
Stage 1.
L3 help desk planning and design
- Outline your budget for L3 help desk setup and maintenance.
- Create a list of IT infrastructure elements and apps that require L3 support.
- Determine what goals you want to achieve with the L3 help desk (e.g., introduce app code changes, implement improvements, migrate to the cloud).
- Define the size of your future L3 team, aligned with your budget and scope.
- Decide on communication channels (a service portal, email, etc.)
If your company already has an established L1 and L2 help desk, your current support and communication processes must be considered when designing an L3 help desk.
Stage 2.
Choosing the sourcing model: in-house vs. outsourced L3 help desk
2.1. For an in-house help desk: hiring L3 help desk engineers and setting up ticket management software.
Duration: 1–3 months
- Outline the list of qualifications your potential help desk specialists need to possess.
- Interview the candidates and hire professionals with relevant skills (e.g., Salesforce engineers, Microsoft engineers, SharePoint engineers).
- Conduct onboarding training so that newcomers can more easily and quickly internalize the specifics of your company and industry.
2.2. For an outsourced help desk: selecting a third-party vendor.
Duration: ~1 month
If you decide to outsource the L3 help desk function, choose a service provider that:
- Has a transparent pricing system.
- Experienced in providing L1–L3 support services. Such a vendor will help establish efficient ticket escalation processes.
- Operates according to the SLA and predefined KPIs.
- Offers convenient time coverage (e.g., 12/5, 12/7, 24/7).
- Ready to scale the team upon request.
- Provides regular and comprehensive help desk documentation (e.g., performance reports, root cause analysis of incidents).
- Experienced in your industry and IT infrastructure components you use.
- Can ensure the security of your sensitive information.
- Adheres to ITIL principles in help desk service delivery.
ScienceSoft
Stage 3.
Help desk deployment
- Designing L3 help desk processes.
- Establishing communication with L1/L2 help desk teams, development teams and users.
- Learning the specifics of IT components and applications subject to L3 support.
- Selecting, setting up and customizing ticket management software suitable for your organization.
- Launching the L3 help desk.
ScienceSoft
Boost Your Apps and IT Infrastructure with Professional Help Desk Tier 3 Services
Help desk Tier 3 consulting
Wondering where to start building L3 support processes? Let ScienceSoft guide you through the setup process painlessly, work out your help desk budget, and select optimal ticket management software.
Help desk Tier 3 outsourcing
If you need a reliable service provider to design your L3 help desk processes and make them run efficiently — ScienceSoft is eager to help. You will have clear SLAs, KPIs, SLOs, and regular reports, so you can always be sure about our world-class service.
Our Help Desk Services in Action: Featured Projects by ScienceSoft
We Always Put Your Needs First
I would happily recommend ScienceSoft to anyone looking for a transparent, reliable IT support vendor. They helped us deliver several projects and provided L3 support for our web services. They’re very effective and consistently meet all the required KPIs: we were guaranteed hotfix rollouts in under 24 hours, and they delivered on the promise.
ScienceSoft has been vital to our company’s growth in ecommerce over the last 3 years. We rely on the team for a variety of Magento support tasks, and they always deal with our problems fast. This really helps us move on with our business, and no technicality holds it back. They are a very versatile company in terms of the number of services they provide.
BPC had to outsource a Tier 2–3 support team. ScienceSoft has been filling this role for over a year, and their work has made all the difference for our IT operations. They are true engineers who think long term and propose strategic decisions instead of micro-fixes, and, what is equally important, they carry them out as planned.
With their assistance, we optimized a significant part of our IT infrastructure and reduced the share of manual work.
Why Customers Choose Us: ScienceSoft in Facts
- 17 years of experience in help desk services.
- 16 years in ITIL-compliant IT service management.
- 750+ IT professionals on board.
- Practical knowledge of 30+ industries, including healthcare, retail, manufacturing, BFSI, telecoms, and more.
- Strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Amazon, ServiceNow, Oracle.
- Convenient time zone coverage aligned with clients’ business hours: 24/7, 12/7, 12/5, 8/5.
- SLA and KPI-based help desk services delivery, adjusted to customers’ business needs.
- ISO 9001-certified mature quality management system.
- Unfailing information security management system based on ISO 27001 certification.
Tier 3 Help Desk Team Required for Efficient Support
The Tier 3 help desk team size generally depends on factors such as infrastructure and apps complexity, required competencies of help desk engineers, time coverage, and more. When delivering L3 support services, ScienceSoft outlines the following roles involved in help desk projects:
L3 help desk team lead
- Designs and oversees L3 help desk processes and activities.
- Works out KPIs and schedules for L3 support engineers.
- Assists L3 help desk engineers in resolving complex issues.
- Monitors L3 help desk teams and prepares monthly performance reports.
- Outlines the ways to improve teams’ efficiency and organizes necessary training for L3 help desk engineers.
L3 help desk engineers
- Diagnose escalated L2 issues and provide a resolution.
- Troubleshoot L3 issues.
- Conduct code reviews and code analysis.
- Deliver hotfixes and implement change requests.
- Perform root-cause analysis.
- Develop, maintain and update L3 support documentation.
Sourcing Models for Tier 3 Help Desk
Techs We Work with in Our Help Desk Projects
Cost of Tier 3 Help Desk
The cost of tier 3 help desk services for a midsize company ranges between $200,000 and $300,000 per year. As the cost includes infrastructure and application support, we can provide separate cost ranges:
| Infrastructure support | Application support |
|---|---|
|
Infrastructure support
~$250,000/year for a 500-employee company. ~$400,000/year for a 1,000-employee company. ~$800,000/year for a 2,000-employee company. |
Application support
~$35,000/year for a stable midsize application with a small rate of minor change requests. ~$80,000–$160,000/year for a midsize application with frequent and substantial changes. ~$200,000/year for a large enterprise application (usually in perpetual evolution). |
L3 help desk setup and maintenance costs will depend on a large number of factors, including:
- The complexity of IT infrastructure and applications to be supported.
- The size of the L3 help desk team.
- Help desk time coverage: 24/7, 12/5, 12/7, 8/5, after-hours support.
- Help desk sourcing model: outsourced vs. in-house.
- SLA terms: response time, first contact resolution, tickets per month, etc.
- Setup, customization and a monthly fee for ticket management software.
Want to estimate your budget for Tier 3 help desk?
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In the meantime, would you like to learn more about ScienceSoft?
- 17 years in IT support: check what we do.
- 4,000 successful projects: explore our portfolio.
- 1,300+ incredible clients: read what they say.
About ScienceSoft
ScienceSoft is an international software development and IT support company headquartered in McKinney, TX. Since 2007, we have been providing multitier (L1–L3) help desk outsourcing services and help companies enjoy their robust IT infrastructures and applications. Being ISO 9001 and ISO 27001-certified, ScienceSoft ensures the high quality of the provided support services and the security of the data entrusted to us.