Help Desk Services for Investment Firms

Our L1 help desk agents support employees throughout the user lifecycle.

During onboarding, they handle:

• User account creation.
• Assigning permissions.
• Digital workplace setup.
• Provisioning new users in trading platforms or portfolio systems using role-based templates.
• Software license management.

During offboarding, agents manage:

• Account deactivation.
• Mailbox archiving.
• Data transfer.
• Revoking access to databases or distribution lists.

L1 help desk sets up and manages mission-critical investment systems and devices, covering tasks such as:

• Configuring and troubleshooting trade terminal access on laptops, tablets, and mobile apps.
• Configuring multi-monitor setups, keyboards, and shortcut keys for trading desks.
• Assisting with virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) session issues, especially for remote analysts and portfolio managers.

Our agents provide first-line support for Microsoft 365 apps (e.g., Teams, Outlook, OneDrive), Slack, Zoom, and other business tools and handle tasks such as:

• Resolving generic errors in Excel (e.g., Bloomberg, FactSet, and other plugin crashes, internal macros conflicts).
• Assisting users with secure file-sharing platforms such as Intralinks, Firmex, or other Virtual Data Rooms (VDRs).

Our L1 agents help employees follow company security protocols such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), password resets, and reporting phishing attempts. They also handle email-related issues, such as investigating spam false positives or blocking malicious websites.

Agentic AI is becoming standard in frontline support: Gartner expects it to autonomously resolve ~80% of common service issues by 2029 and cut costs by ~30%. To augment the human help desk, ScienceSoft can add an AI agent, tuned to your support rules and policies. Benefits you can expect include:

• Near-instant response to common questions (e.g., password resets) over chat or voice.
• Human-like experience — the AI agent can interpret multiple languages, typos, and phrasing variations.
• Smooth handoffs to human agents thanks to ticketing integration capability.
• Quick launch using our AI-ready knowledge base.

Our L2 engineers troubleshoot trading and portfolio systems by:

• Resolving data flow errors in Bloomberg, Refinitiv, and other investment system integrations used in Excel templates.
• Investigating failures in order routing or execution blotters, such as dropped FIX messages in execution management systems.
• Correcting missing or delayed portfolio dashboard updates caused by feed errors or NAV delays.

• Working with Legal and Compliance to ensure pre-trade rules execute correctly and do not block legitimate trades.

At this level, the help desk resolves advanced problems in everyday business applications. Typical tasks include:

• Troubleshooting email delivery failures, email client misconfigurations, and cross-device synchronization issues.
• Resolving licensing and complex activation errors.
• Handling compatibility issues across operating systems.

ScienceSoft’s L2 team investigates and resolves user access problems, such as account lockouts, that cannot be solved at L1.

This may involve log analysis, cross-system checks, and coordination with the L3 infrastructure support team. They also troubleshoot endpoint access, resolve internet connectivity problems, and verify network settings.

L2 engineers assist with maintaining core IT systems. This includes supporting major OS upgrades, deploying patches, applying system updates, monitoring infrastructure, and managing backup jobs (verifying successful completion, resolving failures).

At L3, our engineers provide code-level troubleshooting and configuration fixes for both investment platforms (e.g., trading systems, market data integrations) and enterprise applications (e.g., Microsoft 365, Slack, Zoom). Typical tasks include:

• Diagnosing reconciliation errors between internal systems (e.g., investment accounting, portfolio systems) and custodians.
• Analyzing FIX log traffic between Order Management Systems (OMS) and prime brokers; resolving trade reject codes.
• Debugging latency in trade dashboards caused by memory leaks or market data query bottlenecks.
• Resolving broken API connections that affect reporting tools pulling portfolio exposure and P&L data.

• Troubleshooting Python scripts used by quantitative analysts for strategy backtesting.

Our L3 engineers tackle complex infrastructure challenges to ensure a stable, secure, and scalable IT environment. Typical tasks include:

• (Re)designing and implementing IT infrastructure components.
• Preparing and configuring servers, operating systems, and network security controls (firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems).
• Designing and implementing backup strategies (schedules, retention, disaster recovery).
• Integrating with cloud services (e.g., Azure, AWS) and optimizing cloud resources and licenses for maximum cost efficiency.

• Investigating complex performance issues and implementing root-cause fixes.