Help desk software?

[RobbieMatheson]

Hello all,

 

We are looking at help desk software to be used in our office, we will have about 20 - 30 agents. We are currently using 'Zendesk', however I have been assigned the task of investigating other options. I would appreciate some feedback as to other help desks that are being used and your thoughts on them.

 

I have vaguely looked into 'Freshdesk' and 'Spiceworks' so if anyone has any comments regarding these help desks I would also be grateful.

 

Many thanks,

 

Robbie

[Sibrows]

Can you be any more specific as to your requirements?

 

Someone who wants to be able to inventory all of their computers and then assign tickets accordingly would be well advised to go down the Spiceworks route where as Freshdesk isn't designed to support this type of use.

 

Do you have any ITIL or equivalent requirements?

[JHLEHS]

Solarwinds helpdesk is very good, we use it at our school.

[RobbieMatheson]

We are a large academy sponsor and the help desk would be used for central services staff. As for requirements we have many that we deem as 'essential'. We have put together a list of requirements we would desire from a help desk.

 

-Web-based interface

-Smartphone access (iOS, Android)

-Centrally hostable

-Works cross-browser

-Portal accessible to end users (Should be accessible using latest version -1 and upwards of all common browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, Safari) with no degradation of service. Should also work on iPad and Android tablet standard browsers.)

-Ability to easily log support calls

-Ability to view and assign calls to other users

-Ability to set specific service levels

-Configurable e-mail triggers

-Multi group call assignment

-Escalation paths

-Audit trail

-Links to Google Apps/Drive

-Ability to attach files

-Ability to produce regular reports

-Automatic creation of assets lists

-Ability to send e-mails from the system on a specific call

[Sibrows]

And where is Zendesk coming up short?

[RobbieMatheson]

Although Zen desk supports most of these requirements reasonably well, I have been given this task to compare other options. The reason for this post was mainly to find out what help desk software other educational services are using, and any feedback regarding a particular help desk.

[Sibrows]

We use Spiceworks a lot although purely as an IT helpdesk. Apart from the cost benefit we've found the device monitoring tools very useful.

 

Having looked at several other solutions freshdesk had some nice features but we couldn't justify the cost for bits that were already there.

I realise that it doesn't have the monitoring tools it would probably have been used along side Spiceworks.

[RobbieMatheson]

Thank you for your feedback, I will investigate Spiceworks further as it does sound promising

[twin--turbo]

Used Glpi for years, does what we need.

 

Rob

[Chris_NetSupport]

Hi Robbie - Our web-based helpdesk and incident management tool NetSupport ServiceDesk is worth a look. Download free trial or there's a Try It Now option available at www.netsupportservicedesk.com.

[enjay]

We have Richmond Support Desk. Only recently started using it (was selected and implemented by my predecessor) but it seems good, and meets most if not all of your requirements. Facilities are about to start using it to track all their assets and room details (e.g. which type of light is in a room, how many chairs, when were the fire extinguishers tested, etc); it could of course do all that for IT equipment too, but I prefer Spiceworks for that as it can automatically scan hardware and software, whereas Richmond can only identify that the computer exists.

 

Spiceworks has a helpdesk in it too, so if you're starting from scratch, that might be a good place to look too.