2nd Level Support Definition

[Fabien]

Does anyone have somewhere a 'business-proof' definition of 2nd level support, or do you know who has a good one?

Thanks !
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BR,
Fabien Papleux

Accenture
Technology Consulting | Service Excellence
Red Badge Certified

Twitter @itilgeek

[Guerino1]

Hello Fabien,

I don't know what you mean by "business proof" but I'll give you a loose definition.

Level 1 is usually first line of defense and represents the organization that either fields the call or event that comes in via multiple channels (Phone, Monitoring Platform, Email, Web Forms, etc.). This organization tries to perform a quick assessment and do what they can based on documented processes for dealing with the Product, Service, Asset, etc. in question. Common examples of L1 teams include Help Desk and Network Operations Center (NOC).

Level 2 is usually some form of "dedicated support". This is common in large organizations where they separate development from support organizations, typically to free up development to work faster and not be bothered by Incidents and also to keep developers from accidently modifying things in the Production environment.

Level 3 is typically the "expert" for the system that exists within the enterprise. Many times, this is the development, engineering, or Product Management & Ownership organization.

Level 4 is typically the "Vendor" for the Product, Asset, Service, etc. If the vendor is the internal development, engineering, Product Management & Ownership organization then it stops at L3 for them. However, when something is provided by a third party, the internal relationship management team will commonly manage Level 4. These relationship managers are typically in the Development, Engineering, and Product Mgmt & Ownership organizations.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
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[Edited by Admin to remove link]

[mikevanleuken]

By "Business-proof" I am guessing you mean how can you relate it to any aspect of the business, not just IT.

1st level support are the people that field the calls (telephone, web, whatever). If they can resolve the issue right then and there, great. If not the issue is referred to 2nd level. If they can't resolve the issue it goes to the next level.

A simplification of the the levels in IT generally are:
Level 0 - Web FAQS, self-service, etc.
Level 1 - Call Center / Help Desk / Service Desk or whatever you call it.
Level 2 - Deskside / printer / network technicians who actually go out and visit the client.
Level 3 - Sysadmins, database analysts, etc.

To relate to any other part of the business just ask who the issue goes to next if your first human point of contact cannot resolve the client's issue.

[Cekir]

SS 5.3.2 and 5.8.2 give you the list of second line group tasks, maybe this would be helpful.
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Krzysztof (Chris) Baczkiewicz
IT Standards Support
Eracent