Setting up 24/7 1st & 2nd line support (3rd party app with DB)

[scooby]

Current has a major gap on several tenders, this being a 1st & 2nd support team for a 3rd party app with database, running 24/7.

Very high level, ignoring upskilling and training, how easy is this to set up from scratch? This could be the opportunity I've been looking for to move a full company!!

My basic assumption is 13 staff (2 bods x2 night shifts + 3bods x2 days shifts on a 4 day on 3 day off type pattern+ 1 admin 9-5) so an office and comms required to be set up... So work out employee costs, services & facilities costs, incident mgmt software etc and then workout a service charge based on different SLA levels etc?

i think the hardest part is finding the staff, especially the DBA type role that will be required which wont be fully understood until incident management is agreed with the 3rd party.

[northernladuk]

I would have thought you are up against it here. Time being your biggest problem and the fact you have nothing yet there are many companies with existing support services such as this on offer + offshoring and the indian companies specialising on this.

Your price is going to be huge as you have the full amount for office space/communciations etc. Other companies will have soaked this up over time so you are not going to make a swift buck from this unless you are willing to take on other accounts. It just won't be commercially viable.

Where are your incident managers, service bods, continuity for holidays yadda yadda..

Gotta ask what you have that might make the client buy your service over the other providors as well.

There is then the issue of getting on PSL, passing clients due diligence and so on.

[scooby]

I would have thought you are up against it here. Time being your biggest problem and the fact you have nothing yet there are many companies with existing support services such as this on offer + offshoring and the indian companies specialising on this.

Your price is going to be huge as you have the full amount for office space/communciations etc. Other companies will have soaked this up over time so you are not going to make a swift buck from this unless you are willing to take on other accounts. It just won't be commercially viable.

Gotta ask what you have that might make the client buy your service over the other providors as well.

There is then the issue of getting on PSL, passing clients due diligence and so on.

Fairly much my concern, and means i may have to go in with someone else. This a large opportunity and has a lot of potential for growth.

Why me? Right place, right time, no one else does it at present as an outsource. the 3rd party seem to train the internals and they support, escalating 3rd and 4th line to the 3rd party directly. Several customers have recently been looking for the full outsource as this mean no VAT as its an E2E service, albeit under an MSA.

Got to be worth a punt with an already estabished business i have lined up, surely. Was trying to be greedy above! I want a large part of this to be mine, and the other company may just take the opportunity and cut me out if Im not careful... Now to work out how to stop that!

[cojak]

And it will depend on the size of the client - you'll need knowledge to calculate call volumes and therefore Service Desk Analyst resources.

And how much the client is willing to spend, a reasonable amount of money = the right number of SDAs and good Service Level Agreement.

If they're cheapskates = fewer SDAs and long (and not very good) SLAs.

Oh and how many incident do you want the SDAs to resolve? That will have an impact on costs as well...

[scooby]

And it will depend on the size of the client - you'll need knowledge to calculate call volumes and therefore Service Desk Analyst resources.

And how much the client is willing to spend, a reasonable amount of money = the right number of SDAs and good Service Level Agreement.

If they're cheapskates = fewer SDAs and long (and not very good) SLAs.

Oh and how many incident do you want the SDAs to resolve? That will have an impact on costs as well...

Yeah, I think there is too much just for me. I get that, but I seriously think we talking £500k+ contracts over 3yrs etc as these are MASSIVE end customer, who will be v quick to pick up the phone. I cant expand rapidly enough to peeks and troughs etc, not as a start up...

[cojak]

Just wanting you to go into this with your eyes open Scoobs. Get yourself a good with knowledge of this kind of thing and Good Luck!

[scooby]

Just wanting you to go into this with your eyes open Scoobs. Get yourself a good with knowledge of this kind of thing and Good Luck!

Hey, the reason i asked is I like to know if im being reasonable! But i'm not in this case, at least Im not totally deluded!!

I have a call set up with an established company who have 24/7 round the clock resource already. Im linked with them and this could be a good partnership!

Cheers tho chaps, I can always rely on open blunt responses in this place!