1st line, 2nd line, 3rd line?

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Guru

Guru

Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Posts
5,275
Hi all,

I'm interested to know what people consider to be 1st, 2nd and 3rd line issues/duties at their office.

Please can people post their thoughts/opinions/views on this please :)

Would be interesting to see, would also be interested in knowing how much people get paid for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd line duties, but I know people may not want to say.

Cheers,

G
 
This is how it is in my head :)

1st line - Log and flog (resolve quick, common and simple requests)
2nd line - Buffer - These guys solve the problems that will take more time, and free up the 1st line to keep on top of the daily flow
3rd line - Gurus - Generally experts in particular areas that larger problems are referred to them when they exceed the knowledge of 2nd line. Or to be reffered to for advice, before being passed back to 2nd line for final closure.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
This is how it is in my head :)

1st line - Log and flog (resolve quick, common and simple requests)
2nd line - Buffer - These guys solve the problems that will take more time, and free up the 1st line to keep on top of the daily flow
3rd line - Gurus - Generally experts in particular areas that larger problems are referred to them when they exceed the knowledge of 2nd line. Or to be reffered to for advice, before being passed back to 2nd line for final closure.
Click to expand...

yea this is pretty much what its like where i work, im in the 3rd line :)
 
Are you talking in IT terms?

Easiest way I see to explain.

1st line - Helpdesk bods. Who answer the phone and logs & resolves calls over the phone.

2nd line - Visits the users for more in depth problems, such has hardware faults etc.

3rd line. - I would consider these as the more in depth bods, who run the networks, servers write applications etc.

This could probably be adapted to any type of role / organisation.
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
This is how it is in my head :)

1st line - Log and flog (resolve quick, common and simple requests)
2nd line - Buffer - These guys solve the problems that will take more time, and free up the 1st line to keep on top of the daily flow
3rd line - Gurus - Generally experts in particular areas that larger problems are referred to them when they exceed the knowledge of 2nd line. Or to be reffered to for advice, before being passed back to 2nd line for final closure.
Click to expand...



Agree, except an addition:

1st line = For people who can't be assed to read manual so have to call someone to explain words on paper to them.

I.E - RTFM users
 
This is the kind of thing I mean, but I'd like to know specific tasks that people are expected to do....

For example in your company who would do the following:

Password resets
Mail Forwards
Printing issues
Anti-spam e.g. Antigen installs/configuration/troubleshooting
Backup Restores
Backup Failure Investigation/resolution
Group Policy modifications
Application Rollouts
Anti-virus installs - Client
Anti-virus installs - Server
Watchguard configuration/troubleshooting
Configure RPC over HTTPS - Client
Configure RPC over HTTPS - Server
etc etc etc....

any anything else you can think of...

Just trying to get an idea of the kind of problems that would be 2nd or 3rd line work else where.

We don't really have a 3rd line at the moment.
 
It sounds like you have a team that covers your IT support. Surely you have different people assigned to cover the various aspects of the work?
 
Guru said:
For example in your company who would do the following:

Password resets - Me
Mail Forwards - Me
Printing issues - Me
Anti-spam e.g. Antigen installs/configuration/troubleshooting - Me
Backup Restores - Me
Backup Failure Investigation/resolution - Me
Group Policy modifications - Me
Application Rollouts - Me
Anti-virus installs - Client - Me
Anti-virus installs - Server - Me
Watchguard configuration/troubleshooting Me
Configure RPC over HTTPS - Client - Me
Configure RPC over HTTPS - Server - Me
Click to expand...

I am pretty much in control of everything lol
 
1st line - floor support. The ones who turn up at customer desks, or answer helpdesk phones and deal with generic problems.
2nd line - Deal with bigger problems, will need a problem assigned to them, teams will normally support a range of similar applications or such.
3rd line - Specialist support
 
CDj-Rossi said:
Check you.
Click to expand...

:D

Just trying to get an idea of the kind of problems that would be 2nd or 3rd line work else where.

We don't really have a 3rd line at the moment.
Click to expand...

Well where I work the 3rd line deal with anything the 2nd line cant deal with (obviously) but are in charge of the management (ie admin) of servers/networks etc
3rd line is really is the last resort as they tend to be doing other jobs in the mean time. For instance, myself, although I am 3rd line I also manage the Cabling infrastructure and implementation for my company. So obviously I cant be the first port of call every time some numting forgets his password.
I'm not very good at explaining this sort of thing tbh :p hope its of use to ya
 
How it works at our place:

1st line: Call loggers. Will go through very, very basic checks with users.
2nd line: Technical to a point but still run in a call centre so have X amount of minutes to look at a call before passing it on in order to hit their targets.
3rd line: Beginning of specialist knowledge, no time limit on looking at issues, has domain admin level access. Start of RCA.
4th line: Full-on specialists and programmers. Can and will spend time researching root cause.
 
A work in 1st line on a helpdesk, and i've got access to every single server in the university so 1st line isn't quite as run of the mill in our place as others are saying.

depends where you work really, obviously if your looking for a job what you need to no will be in the job description and most of them will be different.
 
You've gotta bear in mind that most of us are talking Enterprise/estate-wide level. Not a 2-bit local site with a handyman that fixes PCs from time to time :)

I'd like an 'I'm in control of everything' guy to manage an estate with over 100k desktops and laptops and 1000+ servers :D
 
BenhB said:
Are you talking in IT terms?

Easiest way I see to explain.

1st line - Helpdesk bods. Who answer the phone and logs & resolves calls over the phone.

2nd line - Visits the users for more in depth problems, such has hardware faults etc.

3rd line. - I would consider these as the more in depth bods, who run the networks, servers write applications etc.

This could probably be adapted to any type of role / organisation.
Click to expand...

I guess you need to distinguish IT from IS. I would imagine the networks side of things will be in IS, where as IT is the user based desktop stuff.
 
1st Line i.e helpdesk monkeys ( no offence intended)
They answer the phone and are only techincally capable of doing password resets. think they are the muts nuts and try and fix a call remotely and end up breaking something for the 2nd line to waste time to fix.

2nd Line
Fixes the cases raised by the helpdesk if helpdesk cant fix. Technically capable people.

3rd Line
Even more technically capable than 2nd Line. Fixes more technical problems. Provide support for the cases which 2nd line cant fix
 
IMO
1st line
Someone who is handed a folder of scripted conversations which solve 90% of problems.
2nd Line
Someone who can deal with the other 10% of problems - can and will visit your PC to fix it.
3rd Line
BOFH. Do. Not. Call. - In Fact don't even email - unless you know enough about IT to know that it might actually be a) interesting b) have a chance of improving their career prospects.
 
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