Third Level Support

Valuemation Business View: Third Level Support

The Third-Line Support role is usually reserved for external suppliers and vendors; however, it may be an internal technical group if they possess specific knowledge required; e.g. network support, voice support, database support, hardware maintenance, etc.

A good example of Third-Line Support is a printing service that may be provided by an external provider or vendor, and disregarding the in-house expertise that the IT department may possess, they are contractually forbidden to try to fix anything relating to printers. In that case, the external provider or vendor has to be contacted for support when something goes wrong with the printing service.

If that Third-Line Support function, for which expertise in narrow fields is required, gets provided by in-house experts, you may reserve the Fourth-Line Support role for external providers and / or vendors.