ADP

Hi All,

Im guessing 1st line is helpdesk type stuff, can anyone explain the other 2 / how they vary? thanks

Andy

chiark

When we provide services, 1st deals with the users, 2nd deals with stuff that is indicative of a technical fault and they determine whether it's service/hardware/software and 3rd is the actual grunts who determine nature of specific fault.

Does that make any sense?

As an example, we provide a solution to a hosting company who in turn deliver a service to the great unwashed (or public, as they're known)

Public phone someone for first line support (how do I do this, my coffee holder's broken, ...) who filter out the idiots and where necessary put a call into second line support.

Second line support is the hosting company, who determine whether the server's down or something's happened at their end, or whether it's application related.

They phone the application support (3rd level) which is us.

YMMV

Nick.

ChrisB

1st line screens the call, tells the user to reboot and generally stop being silly

2nd line checks the user has rebooted, tells them to do it again and stop being silly

3rd line reboots the server and swears no-one else has the problem.

S55 HOT

1st line is a call centre who log the call & tell the user to shutdown the app & restart - when you call back they tell you to log off & back in again - when you call back again they tell you to reboot - next call you should physically power off your PC then boot up - finally if they have a knowledge base they may be able to find a similar fault and offer some useless advice.

2nd line are know a little about everything and can try to fix fairly basic errors, can identify application bugs vs, data pproblems vs. user error

3rd line is usually the development team who don't usually dirty their hands with support, but if the problem is serious enough they may just lower themselves.

MarkO

Not true at all. We're always ready to leap into action to help support a user[1].

[1] Disclaimer: if you, as a user, are not female, slim, attractive and wearing a low-cut top, the response times may be longer.

dsmith

I'm design and get called in for 4th Line (i.e. where the 3rd line guy thinks my design is sh*te but doesn't dare say so )

By the time we get round to looking at the problem we're on the next phase of the platform so its gone away anyway

Deano

jamin

Seems to differ quite a bit from workplace to workplace.
Places I've been to..
1st line: Answer Helpdesk phone, log calls fix faults over phone if quick and simple
2nd line: Go out and do stuff like hardware, look at problems that cannot be dealt with via telephone
3rd line: Look after servers, network admin etc
Apologies to anyone in 4th line, I've never heard of that before, just development team etc!

[Edited by jamin - 9/26/2002 12:38:32 PM]

Dirty_Den

As said above it differs wildly from company to company and the nature of the company itself. Depends upon whether the support team support an end user product or not I guess. I work in first line support for our company - but I don't tell customers to reboot - ever!

1st line:

Developer support. (Myself and the rest of my team). We support developers (our customers) using our J2EE, C++ applications servers and application server 'value add' tools.

We provide support such as:

i) helping customers rewrite/debug their code
ii) showing customers how to use a particular API in our product/the Java SDKs
iii) provide backup to the consultancy teams on customer sites
iv) identifying bugs in our products and logging defects as appropriate.
v) Act as an advocate for the customer and 'make the case' for new functionality to be added to the products, when a customer has asked for it.

We also tend to fix more simple defects in the products, identify what code in the products are causing the defects and also write release notes for the products. We also supply patch releases to customers and QA the patch releases.

Phew - where do I get the time to surf SN?

2nd line:

Development. Customers don't get to talk to them! They develop new products/more functionality for the products and fix the majority of defects identified in the products by support.


Den

[Edited by Dirty_Den - 9/26/2002 3:30:52 PM]

Denzil_Dog

or in my case, something like this

1st line = me

2nd line = me

3rd line = me and the boss if he can be assed (usually too busy d-loading ****)

Jodster

My thoughts are the same as Jamins. I'm third line but have known to do second if the user has a good pair of duds.

roadrunner

Thought 4th line was pre-sales....the guys who ponder about what colour to use in their diagrams

dsmith

Mr Road-"I'm angling for a slap"-Runner

I may ponder what colour the clouds in my network diagrams look like but I'm definately not pre-sales (and dont swear like that again )

Essentially (to answer the original question) the skill level rises through 1st to 3rd(4th) level support. The harder a problem is to solve the further its is escalated.

The majority of network problems we see are ususally fixed by the 2nd line guys getting links fixed, minor config changes etc. 3rd line guys get recurring problems or more complex ones (maybe in specialised areas). In our particular situation if they cant solve something or believe its an actual desing issue (i.e. its working as designed, but the design is not whats required) it finally lands back with the design team (who ignore it).

Deano

S55 HOT

Surely design teams don't ignore things - they just get assigned a very low priority - but are still really useful features and will be incorporated in a future release..........

NotoriousREV

Thats it, your P45 is coming [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

You haven't made me a coffee for over half an hour, put down that origami R1 kit and do something useful. I'll be playing on my virtual train set, so don't disturb me!

Oh, and I don't want to talk to any customers this afternoon!

stevencotton

Being 4th line sucks.

roadrunner

LOL @ Deano

Be fair Deano, I didn't say what type of crayons 4th line guys use nor did I mention about the milk breaks entitlement however pre-sales is another word for network design therefore I must conclude that you DEANO are a rogue