Published offer and review boundary
The official MSP help desk page describes white-label delivery, multiple contact channels and operating windows ranging from eight-hour schedules to continuous or after-hours coverage. Its workflow describes work in MSP applications and escalation according to the agreed arrangement. Reviewed 2026-10-06.
The page also presents examples of pricing models and typical ranges. Those examples do not establish a binding 31West rate for your environment. Request a scoped quote. A published general cost comparison is not evidence of the savings your MSP will achieve.
Choose the queue before the coverage window
Create a small anonymized ticket sample from a normal week. Separate incidents, access requests, application questions and work that needs an onsite technician. Record arrival time, channel, client, escalation and handling effort. The same sample should go to every candidate, with confidential client details removed.
| Buying situation | Boundary to settle | Useful acceptance evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Your staff retain daytime tickets | Night-to-day ownership and unresolved work | Handoff with a named accepting owner |
| Your L1 queue needs relief | Which actions can close without internal review | Approved runbook and ticket audit trail |
| Several clients use different applications | Supported tenant and application combinations | Tenant-scoped access and test tickets |
| Calls are the main workload | Identity checks, hold time and escalation routing | Call scenario and linked ticket record |
These are evaluation scenarios, not claims that the service has passed them. A broad white-label offer can still need different rules for two clients in your portfolio. Put exceptions in the statement of work before projecting utilization or staffing savings.
What to compare in the proposal
Ask whether the proposal buys shared queue capacity, a named engineer, a volume allowance or another model. Identify what the billable unit includes and what happens when the allowance is exceeded. Request onboarding, holiday, extra-channel, minimum, renewal and exit charges in the same response sheet.
For an after-hours proposal, specify timezone, daylight-saving changes, weekends and client holidays. A coverage window describes when a service is available; it does not establish an individual acknowledgement or restoration deadline. Use the five-clock SLA worksheet for the severity matrix.
Record whether the provider can make a change, only recommend it, or needs your approval. A password reset, workstation software installation and server restart can require different authority. Require an escalation owner for each blocked action rather than treating a ticket transfer as resolution.
Integrations need a workflow test
The provider's tool references help you decide what to ask about. They do not prove your product version, custom fields or client permissions will work. Prepare a nonproduction tenant and test ticket creation, priority mapping, duplicate prevention, updates, attachment handling and access revocation. Keep failures visible in an exception queue.
Use the RMM and PSA worksheet to name the actor, permissions and destination for each step. Ask how remote sessions and communication records join the PSA ticket. Request a sample report that reconciles the ticket count to the invoiced unit.
Unknowns to resolve before selection
This review does not establish a current contractual minimum, full fee schedule, severity-specific SLA, certificate validation, staffing locations or data-processing boundaries. Office or market positioning should not be treated as proof of where your support work will occur. Ask for the relevant agreement and security attachments, including the legal entity responsible for delivery.
If a requirement is mandatory, mark it unresolved until a dated document or controlled test supports it. Missing public evidence is not a verdict against the provider. It is a reason to ask the same question of every candidate.
Next step
Compare the ScienceSoft help desk profile if it is also under consideration, then use the directory to select candidates. Build one matched RFP and normalize quotes with the help desk pricing guide. Our methodology explains claim labels; send a sourced correction when a field changes.