Level 2 (L2) Help Desk: Summary
Tier 2 help desk is the level of technical support that handles software, hardware, and network issues requiring investigation and advanced configuration.
Typical tasks managed by L2 engineers are:
- Setting up and managing multi-factor authentication and multi-tier access management.
- Preparing the digital workplace upon user onboarding.
- Setting up network’s endpoint devices (e.g., printers).
- Resolving network connectivity issues.
- Managing server upgrading and patching.
- Server troubleshooting.
- Database troubleshooting.
- Software license reconciliation, solving license activation issues.
L2 help desk setup includes steps like planning, design, choosing a sourcing model, and launch. The project requires the roles of a manager, a team lead, an engineer, and a system administrator.
Tier 2 Help Desk Setup Plan
Tier 2 IT support setup steps may differ, depending on a company’s IT landscape complexity and maturity and the service/product nature and complexity (for customer service desk).
1.Tier 2 help desk planning
- Identify the goals of your 2nd level support (e.g., prevent IT infrastructure downtime, increase app availability).
- Define the scope of your processes: issues to solve (server administration, network management, app configuration, database troubleshooting, etc.), the estimated number of tickets per month, and the number of required L2 engineers.
- Calculate the budget and create a risk management plan (to mitigate such risks as too long resolution time, higher than planned number of tickets, etc.).
2. Tier 2 help desk design
- Define Tier 2 support KPIs (e.g., average resolution time, mean time to recovery, mean time to resolve) according to the defined goals.
- Draw up from scratch or adjust the existing standard operating procedures to include standards for ticket resolution, the process of escalation to L3, etc
3. Choosing Tier 2 help desk sourcing model
3.1. In-house
Hiring and training staff
Duration: 1-3 months
- Define the qualifications a manager (technical background, team management skills, etc.) and L2 support engineers (e.g., experience with cloud infrastructures) need to possess.
- Conduct onboarding training with the hired L2 team to get them familiar with your company’s tech stack, IT infrastructure or product/service specifics, issue escalation processes, etc.
Ticket management software selection and customization
Duration: from 1 week
- Select either a free and functionally limited ready-to-use ticket management software, a paid solution with extended features (e.g., omnichannel support tool, AI-driven chatbots), or custom software completely fitting your case.
- Perform customization (for platform-based software) and integrate it with required IT systems (e.g., CRM, ERP).
3.2. Complete or partial outsourcing
Vendor selection
Duration: ~3 months
If you decide to outsource Tier 2 help desk to get reduced help desk costs, up to 24/7 service provision, and a scalable and experienced IT support team, choose the L2 help desk team that:
- Adheres to ITIL principles in delivering technical support.
- Provides regular comprehensive reporting (performance reports, incident reports with root cause analysis, etc.).
- Has a clear vision of collaboration with L1/L3 help desk teams and users, but is willing to adapt to your processes.
- Is ready to provide knowledge transfer (e.g., to L1 help desk team).
4. Launch
At this stage, the integration between help desk tiers is established. The software and its infrastructure are made ready for use, the team gets the necessary access to help desk software. Help desk demo run is performed.
Typical Roles and Responsibilities for Tier 2 Help Desk
Manager
- Plans and manages the budget.
- Decides on staffing and/or outsourcing needs according to the types and number of issues the help desk deals with.
- Defines KPIs and oversees their achievement.
- Designs or approves and oversees help desk processes (e.g., escalation, reporting procedures).
Team lead
- Establishes goals and KPIs for the team and manages their achievement.
- Plans L2 engineers’ work schedules to ensure sufficient support coverage during operating hours.
- Drives the team’s professional development.
L2 help desk engineer
- Resolves technical user issues and simple infrastructure problems and requests (network configuration, MFA management, server patch and update management, etc.), performs root cause analysis.
- Escalates technical issues to the L3 team when more detailed research on the code level is needed (performance tuning, bug management, etc.).
