Wondering about 1st line vs 2nd line support? Read on…

Digital transformation has numerous benefits for businesses and organisations of all sizes and across all industries. Cloud computing solutions such as Microsoft 365 and SharePoint increase productivity and collaboration, as well as driving down the cost of IT ownership and delivering more flexible operating models.

However, our reliance on technology also means that all organisations now need to invest in IT support. Whether that’s onsite IT support to fix issues in-house, or IT service desk outsourcing to handle support tickets raised by your technology users.

Find out how much IT service desk outsourcing could cost your business here >

If you’re new to IT support levels you might be wondering what you get, how much support your organisation needs, and how much it will cost. Below we explore 1^st line vs 2^nd line support to provide an overview of each.

First line support

To start with it’s not really a question of 1^st line vs 2^nd line support. All companies that use technology require 1^st line support, either provided in-house or through an IT provider. 1^st line covers the basics such as password resets, account unlocks, basic desktop support and other common IT issues that might prevent staff from getting on with work.

Increasingly some 1^st line support is offered through next gen service desks with self-serve tools that help users resolve problems for themselves. This is sometimes referred to as service level 0. With higher IT literacy rates across the workforce many basic IT issues can fixed by employees, which reduces downtime significantly. Self-serve options are backed up with support from service desk analysts to ensure that all users and support levels are supported.

1st line IT support is usually charged on a per user or per ticket basis with a flat monthly fee. More information on IT service desk pricing can be found here.

Do you need 1^st line support? If your organisation relies on technology for business operations. If staff can’t get on with their work if they can’t access their apps or IT systems for any reason. If the bottom line is effected because orders can’t be fulfilled. If your organisation’s IT systems need to be always up, 24/7 or out of hours. Yes.

Should you use IT service desk outsourcing? If your expensive in-house IT team are spending too much time resolving basic IT problems such as password resets, outsourcing first line support will be more cost effective than continuing to manage it in-house.

Get an estimate of the 1^st line support costs here >>>

Second line support

Many organisations keep 2^nd line support in-house. If 1^st line tickets are handled by an outsource provider, tickets that need to be escalated to 2^nd line are pushed to your internal IT team. However the reverse can be true as well. If your internal IT team don’t have the skills to resolve more complex issues you might retain 1^st line in-house and escalate 2^nd line to an IT support provider.

2^nd line support includes more advanced desktop support, infrastructure and network support, software errors, escalated 1^st line tickets and intermediate hardware issues. These tickets are generally less frequent than 1^st line, but often take longer to resolve and need more specialist IT skills.

For this reason, if you have a small IT team, 2^nd line support can be a challenge. IT professionals that should be focusing on more strategic work can end up spending their valuable time resolving technical issues, and this has a negative impact on their productivity. 

The skillset needed for 2^nd line support is also more specialist. This might be appropriate if your IT infrastructure is on premise and you run bespoke applications and systems that your IT team know inside out; but if you’re using the cloud or enterprise solutions it may more cost effective to outsource 2^nd line as well as 1^st. Consider too the cost of ‘on demand’ IT support for these types of tickets. Calling out a technician every time you need 2^nd line support is an expensive way of maintaining your technology.

Do you need 2^nd line support? If internal IT teams don’t have capacity or are being diverted from more value-creating projects, yes. If recruiting and retaining staff to handle 2^nd line tickets is a challenge, yes. If you require out-of-hours or 24/7 IT support for these types of issues, yes. And if the cost of resolving 2^nd line tickets is higher than outsourcing this support level, yes.

Find out here how much 2^nd line IT support could cost your organisation >

Scaling IT service desk outsourcing

One of the key advantages of IT outsourcing is that you can scale the support service and level to your needs. Therefore as your business grows, expands or contracts, you can match the service level to your requirements. This makes organisations a lot more agile and responsive, and reduces costs.

Consider how long and how expensive it can be to recruit a new member of your IT team to provide the coverage you need. If you outsource your IT service desk this can be achieved almost immediately and at a fraction of the cost.

Similarly, if your requirement decreases you can scale back the service. No expensive salaries to pay for staff that are underused.

Increasingly the working day doesn’t end when the big hand is on 6 and the little hand is on 5. Many of us work into the evening and at weekends, whether we remain in the office or work from home and other locations. It’s therefore really frustrating, and can be costly to the business, if you hit a technical problem and need IT support when the IT department has gone home.

What do you do if you’ve scheduled a call with a client in another time zone only to find you can’t access their details because you’ve been inadvertently locked out of the system? Or if a customer sends an urgent request, which you could result a profitable partnership, but you can’t respond because of a problem sending emails.

Find out how we work in partnership with essDOCS to provide out of hours, weekend and 24/7 service desk support for their global clients, click here >

In some situations you might decide to call your IT service desk analyst at home and ask them to fix the issue. However, they might not be able to do that remotely and therefore will have to return to the office to get you up and running again. Whether that’s an option or not, it’s not an ideal situation either way.

Do you need out of hours IT support?

How you handle out of hours IT support will depend on how much demand you have. If your customers and employees are likely to be interacting with your business in the evenings and weekends – for example small business owners who often work antisocial hours or companies whose customers who buy or use your products / services in their leisure time – you’re probably going to need some level of out of hours support.

Generally speaking if you operate in one time zone, and your colleagues do too, you might need IT support in the evenings and weekends, but not overnight. However, if you have employees working from different timezones or need to support customers on the other side of the world, or in industries like hospitality or healthcare where people never sleep, 24/7 support is probably essential.

In-house after hours IT support

If your employees generally go home at 5:30pm and evening or weekend working tends to be occasional, the first step is to ensure you’ve got some ‘self-serve’ solutions in place. Make basic documentation and troubleshooting guides available to those employees who do work from home or out of hours, so they can fix any minor problems that occur.

You could also implement an ‘on call’ system with your IT team. Usually a senior member of the IT team is designated as the person to call and they will need to be able to access your organisation’s IT systems remotely from home. If someone has been unable to fix a problem themselves and if it’s urgent and can’t be put off until the working day, they can then contact the on call person for support.

Alternatively, if your organisation has a higher demand for after hours IT support, service desk analysts can provide cover from your premises. However this can be an expensive solution as they don’t come cheap – especially when working irregular hours!

In this situation is may be more cost effective to use an external provider. That doesn’t necessarily mean that all your IT support tickets are managed by an outsourced service desk; if your business has capacity during working hours you could just outsource your out of hours requirement. It’s a scalable and flexible solution that you can dial up or down depending on demand.

24/7 IT support

As mentioned before, some companies and organisations require IT support 24/7. Multinational businesses may need a global service desk to be available to employees, partners or customers working at any time of the day or night. Companies that operate in the hospitality and travel sectors need IT systems to be ‘always up’, as do healthcare organisations where any downtime could have extremely serious consequences for their service users.

IT service providers offer a range of outsource services to ensure that systems are monitored 24/7, incidents identified and resolved, as well as 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd line service desk resolution for tickets logged by users.

To get an idea of how much a service desk would cost your organisation, click here to discover our service desk cost calculator >

As with any outsourcing partner, before entering into a contract may sure you understand the Service Level Agreement (SLA) and that you’re getting the cover and range of services you require. You may find this article about IT support service levels useful to get a better idea of what out of hours or 24/7 cover is needed in your organisation.

If you have any questions about the subjects covered in this blog post, please get in touch.

IT service desks are essential to ensure businesses run smoothly. We’ve all experienced frustration because of connectivity issues or a forgotten password. When it happens at home it might mean you can’t watch the latest series on Netflix. When it happens in the workplace the impact can be more severe. Below we share IT service desk best practices to help minimise downtime and improve your IT team’s performance.

Behind every email, every moment of connectivity, every software application and service most businesses use, are IT teams supporting them. Downtime costs money. No one wants unproductive hours, with the potential for missed opportunities and revenue loss.

IT service desks keep businesses functioning. But not every helpdesk provides the same level of support. Some users aren’t looked after as well as they should, leaving people fed up and frustrated with a lack of support. 

(opens in a new tab)” rel=”noreferrer noopener” class=”rank-math-link”>Benchmark how well your IT service desk performs, download our checklist here >

Whether you work with an internal service desk, or outsource, here are a few ways you should expect – as a minimum – to be supported when IT issues threaten to cause downtime. 

4 IT service desk best practices to improve performance

1: Self-serve tools

People don’t want to wait for a problem to be fixed. Many would rather fix it themselves, and only then if that isn’t possible, ask for help. Service desks that provide self-help tools, from FAQs to step-by-step guides and videos, are rated higher than those that don’t.

Not only do these tools reduce downtime for simple queries, such as forgotten passwords, but also it means that IT teams can focus on solving more challenging problems. As a result employees can minimise their own downtime, the IT team sees a reduction in the number support tickets generated, and this has a positive impact on morale within a service desk team (and across the business). Everyone benefits from self-serve IT tools.

2: First call resolution

Achieving higher standards as a service desk means approaching each problem from the user’s point of view. Your user community needs to feel reassured that an issue will be resolved so they can get back to work. This means properly addressing their need the first time they call. If your team are finding it challenging to managed ticket volumes and meet first call resolution targets, it may be time to consider outsourcing 1st line to a Managed Services provider.

3: Measure customer satisfaction 

No area of business improves without the metrics and data to measure outcomes. 

Without customer satisfaction scores, a service desk won’t know how to measure the impact of key initiatives and services. When customer satisfaction is measured, on a monthly basis, problem areas can be highlighted and outcomes improved. Measuring this activity will also show how staff perceive help desk performance, whether it’s hitting SLA targets, and if more can be done to ensure agreed targets are met. Even when SLA targets are consistently being met, users may still have a distorted view on the performance of the IT service desk. Reporting and communicating results is an important way to improve customer satisfaction levels. 

#4: Outsource 1st line support

Managing a service desk is challenging for internal IT teams. Often IT professionals within a business are pulled in two different directions: providing service desk support, and working on projects. Deploying resources more effectively is one of the many reasons companies are outsourcing the service desk role, to give IT teams the ability to exclusively focus on value-adding projects. 

With an IT service desk partner you don’t need to worry about the cost of staffing, training, self-service portals, or whether they’re committed to hitting SLA and customer satisfaction targets. All of that should be an integral part of an IT service desk contract. The right partner for your business should provide excellent service, at a rate that pays for itself in cost savings, reduced downtime, and renewed focus of your IT team on long-term objectives.

IT service desk providers typically operate their businesses using a subscription model. Organisations pay a monthly fee based on the service level required and the support hours needed, such as 24/7 IT support, core hours only, or out-of-hours / overnight only.

To find out how much outsourcing your IT support could cost your organisation, click here for our service desk calculator tool.

IT service desk tickets are defined as 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd line, and organisations can combine different service levels, aligning them with their internal IT team’s capacity and strategy.

IT service desk pricing models

Factoring in the service level and hours required, the monthly IT service desk fee may be charged in the following ways:

Per user – a flat monthly fee is charged per user on an individual headcount basis or in scales i.e. ‘up to 5 users’, 6-10 users etc. This model is ideal for small businesses who are new to IT service desk outsourcing as it’s easy to budget for IT support and clear how much your support will cost as the business grows.

Per device – this model also works for small businesses or larger organisations that don’t require all employees to have access to their IT systems. However, bear in mind that many employees now require IT support on multiple devices (desktop, tablet / laptop and smartphones). When comparing IT service desk providers using different pricing models, make sure you have a clear idea of how many devices and users your organisation needs to provide support for. 

Per ticket – IT service desk providers that use a per ticket pricing model make it easy to ensure you have sufficient coverage however many users and devices need IT support. You’ll need to have an idea of historic ticket volumes to get an accurate idea of what your monthly fee will be; although, as with any outsourcing model, it’s a scalable option so request more coverage if you need more tickets per month.

To find out how much outsourcing your IT service desk could cost using a ‘per ticket’ pricing model, click here.

Pricing models vary between different IT service desk providers. When benchmarking providers and calculating how much their services will cost, make sure you have a good idea of what your business actually needs. For example, if a pricing structure is based on ‘per user’ that doesn’t necessarily equate to every employee in the business (some individuals may not need access to IT). If it’s per device, make sure you know exactly how many devices your organisation has, including BYODs if you need to provide IT support for employees using their own devices.

Similarly, explore your historic ticket / incident volumes including different types of tickets. If you’re thinking about only outsourcing 1^st line tickets try to differentiate between all internal tickets raised in the last 12 months so you can get an accurate idea of how many 1^st line tickets per month your business needs support with.

If you don’t have this type of data, speak to the IT service desk providers on your shortlist to get their insight into the ticket volumes your organisation may require. They’ll be able to use their experience working with similar-sized organisations and businesses in the same sector as a guide.

Remember that one of the reasons organisations outsource their IT service desk to external providers is to reduce costs and drive efficiencies. So expect service providers to be transparent about their pricing structures and keen to help you get the ROI your business needs.

Finally, consider your future needs. If your organisation is planning for growth you’ll need to ensure your IT service desk provider can scale accordingly and that the pricing model is still cost effective as you grow.

Click here to get an idea of how much outsourcing your IT service desk will cost.

Are you looking for a white label IT service desk solution? Many IT service providers will brand their IT outsourcing services to provide your customers or staff with an IT service desk.

It’s a cost effective solution that allows companies to scale and only pay for the services they require. Much more affordable than running your IT service desk in-house, and should also improve response and resolution times, and delivers a better customer service.

A white label IT service desk can also help build customer relationships and your organisation’s brand. Instead of using a generic service desk, to all intents and purposes a white label service desk looks like part of your IT department. This can enhance the reputation of your IT department internally (by improving the IT support service delivered to staff), and also your customer-facing technical support.

What does a ‘good’ white label IT service desk look like?

Sticking a logo on your service desk portal and answering the phone using your company name doesn’t automatically deliver the service levels you may want from a white label IT service desk. The service desk provider must do a lot more than simply pretend to work from within your organisation.

Instead they need to embed themselves in your organisation, talk your language, understand your objectives and culture, and have an in depth knowledge of your systems and products (if delivering technical support to customers).

If they don’t, there’s a danger that they could actually damage your organisation’s reputation by not meeting the expectations of your users or reflecting your corporate culture correctly.

Find out how we work in partnership with EssDOCS to provide out of hours, weekend and 24/7 service desk support for their global clients, click here >

So if you’re planning to outsource your IT service desk to an outsource IT support provider, and want a white label solution, look for the following:

• A comprehensive on boarding process: make sure your service desk provider invests time in understanding your organisation and ensuring they have the right information to provide a white label solution.
• Shared values: if the IT provider shares your organisational values you’ll get a much better cultural fit as their service desk analysts and their services will already be aligned with them.
• Strategic partnership approach: look for an IT service provider that wants to proactively support your organisation’s business objectives and future plans. By providing strategic advice and aligning their services with your goals, they’ll become a valuable partner as well as delivering a service.
• Quality assurance and service desk accreditation: for reassurance that a provider has the right quality controls in place and is focused on delivering a high quality service desk, look for relevant accreditation. ISO 9001:2015, ISO 27001 and Service Desk Institute certification will help you identify good providers.

For a checklist to help you benchmark different providers and find a white label service desk solution that’s a good fit for your organisation, download our IT Service Desk checklist here >

Alternatively, if you would like to speak to one of our team about your requirements, please get in touch.

If you are switching IT service providers or exploring IT outsourcing for the first time, Service Level Agreements (SLA) are an important part of making a decision to sign up with a new provider.

However, it can be difficult to compare different providers and their SLAs because they don’t necessarily follow the same format and include the same points.

The most important factor is that SLAs must be measurable. You need to know exactly what to expect for service delivery and be able to see when a provider is delivering a high quality service, or if they’re falling short.

Using SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely), use the bullet points below to help compare different SLAs and choose the right IT provider for your organisation’s requirements.

Service Level Agreement SMART goals

• Specific: SLAs must have enough detail for you to understand exactly what to expect. Each IT service that needs measurement should be specified.
• Measurable: The IT service provider should also indicate how each service will be measured against SLA targets and how these will be reported.
• Achievable: Ask yourself (and the provider) whether the SLA is realistic and the provider has the capacity and ability to meet SLA targets.
• Relevant: Do the SLA targets mean anything to you? A provider could include all sorts of measurements in their reporting, but if they’re not relevant to your business and service delivery, they could cloud the overall picture when evaluating performance.
• Timely: All IT services included in a SLA must contain a time frame against which the service will be delivered. For example, you need to know exactly when to expect IT support tickets to be resolved or when new users will be set up on a system.

To learn more about choosing a new IT service provider, read our blog post on this subject –  Considering a new IT service provider? Here’s what to look for

You may also like to download our checklist for determining whether a provider is offering a 4* service desk.