"ITIL" standard helpdesk solution?

[Janx1975]

Hi all,

 

I have just taken up a role as senior network technician at a high school and,after my first week observing, can see that I will need to bring in some basic administration systems for processes.

 

Top of the list is getting a working helpdesk/ticket system in place - temporarily I have put Spiceworks up (as its free) as teachers can continue to email "IT" and so from their perspective there is no change.

However, Spiceworks doesnt split calls into "service requests" and "incidents/problems" from what I can see - does anyone know or are using something that allows this feature, so that calls can be prioritised that way?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Tech1]

I've recently used both SysAid and Every and both are fantastic helpdesks. Not cheap I'm afraid, but you get what you pay for.

[Norphy]

If you have a System Center license (for SCCM, SCOM etc) it might be worth looking at System Center Service Manager. That can do ITIL and it's a system that Microsoft originally designed for their own internal helpdesk.

 

If you want free and ITIL, some open source systems worth looking at are:

 

iTop - https://www.combodo.com/itop-193

GLPI - GLPI Project – Open Source IT Asset management and Helpdesk software

OTRS - https://community.otrs.com/otrs-community-edition-help-desk/

 

OTRS is not the most pleasant of systems but the other two are good.

[JackCPickup]

osTicket is a great solution. Plenty of customisation can be done or not done to get a solid system.

[synaesthesia]

Indeed OSTicket is a great, free solution for exactly this, we've been using it for some time now and very happy with it; you can set up queues as you see fit, differentiate between tickets easily and it's wholly customisable.

[Janx1975]

Thanks I will have a look into OSTicket

[PlantHead]

We're going through the same process of trying to identify a new helpdesk system for IT and for our estates team. The problem we have with OSticket is that they don't seem to be aware of GDPR or acknowledge any need to make their software compliant. Its a shame because when we trialed it we liked it.

At the moment we are looking at Freshdesk/service, which is meeting most of our reqs.

Edited May 30, 2018 by PlantHead

[dbu]

Another vote for osTicket, we use it across all areas of the school, not just IT.

[synaesthesia]

We're going through the same process of trying to identify a new helpdesk system for IT and for our estates team. The problem we have with OSticket is that they don't seem to be aware of GDPR or acknowledge any need to make their software compliant. Its a shame because when we trialed it we liked it.

At the moment we are looking at Freshdesk/service, which is meeting most of our reqs.

 

OSTicket is free software, hosted by you. You are the data controller & owner, it doesn't leave you. Where does GDPR come into it?

Edited May 31, 2018 by elsiegee40

[dbu]

Bit harsh synaesthesia , there is a cloud hosted edition too if you can’t or don’t want to host your own and depending on what you are using it for it may not be compliant ... But as you say , host it yourself and the data is all yours.

[synaesthesia]

Maybe true but so many jump on that bandwagon with little thought to it. Clearly the cloud hosted version isn't free, and as it's a US company they have no requirement to comply, but obviously that would have an affect if you wanted to consider it's cloud version use over here.

 

If you want a laugh as to how naive and ignorant some people are with regards to the topic have a look at their forum; some great examples of blind panic. "OMG your company will be ruined if you don't make it compliant" (not joking). It's hilarious.

 

 

Still, I will apologise for that post, which has since been edited, too many assumptions made on my part - feels like every time someone needs software there's an obligation to "go for the best free solution" rather than asking for more details/requirements.

 

Lots of scripts around for OSTicket (hosted by yourself though) to comply with everything needed and much of it can be done in house with only the most basic googling, but something like ZenDesk is hugely popular for a fully hosted & managed solution, not silly expensive & UK based.

 

With some form of irony I don't think Every is fully compliant for some reason but can't for the life of me remember why; we do use it but only for site staff.

Edited May 31, 2018 by elsiegee40

[PlantHead]

It is a school requirement that all software conform to GDPR in that there should be a bulk user deletion tool or a user anoymisation tool. As a basic requirement it should be simple and quick to search for user data and be able to delete it, or produce a report on it. We are also looking for a hosted solution.

Thanks for the reply though.

[elsiegee40]

It is a school requirement that all software conform to GDPR in that there should be a bulk user deletion tool or a user anoymisation tool. [/Quote]

That's not strictly true. There are plenty of cases where that is not a requirement.I'm sure @GrumbleDook can elaborate

[Blue_Cookeh]

It is a school requirement that all software conform to GDPR in that there should be a bulk user deletion tool or a user anoymisation tool. As a basic requirement it should be simple and quick to search for user data and be able to delete it, or produce a report on it. We are also looking for a hosted solution.

Thanks for the reply though.

 

You could just do that yourself in the database... it's just MySQL

[GrumbleDook]

A few things ...

the cloud hosted version has to comply to GDPR as data subjects involved are EU Data Subjects.

 

Secondly, for the school hosted version, you are Data Controller and data processor ... you set it to comply with your retention schedule. If you need to keep ticket information (including user details) then you keep it.

 

Look at the purpose for processing ... in this case to manage and run IT services within the school.

 

Then look at the lawful basis for processing ... if you don’t manage IT what would happen? So many thing to put in here but first would be your own GDPR compliance as you couldn’t ensure the security of data within the school ... that bit is a legal obligation

 

How long do you need it for? 1 year after the ticket is raised? 2? 5? It is up to you but justify it. Do you need to keep the user associated with it? What do you record? Incidents? Problems? Tasks? If tasks does that include setting permissions on different systems? Would you need to know that after an employee has left (yes ... look at both limitations and historic allegations), so you are starting to understand that you need to keep info for a certain period of time.

 

It might be that you opt to ‘change’ the name of the user with the service desk as a way of anonymising ... maybe 3 years after they left employment?

 

Remember that it is your school that assesses it and makes a judgement call.

 

For students ... again? Do you want to delete users and tickets or just anonymise? Change the names? DB changes?

 

There are ways.

[MartinT]

We use LANsweeper Helpdesk. Nice browser interface that we place on every desktop to allow problem reporting. Links with main LANsweeper so that users and assets are selectable. Keeps a good record of problems reported by user and asset.

[clodhopper]

We use Vision Helpdesk (https://www.visionhelpdesk.com/)

 

It's really good, have on prem version.

 

They are very supportive of educational establishments

[jmak]

We're using Spiceworks cloud hosted and they've updated their privacy model and data protection to meet GDPR. It's not the most comprehensive solution, but it's very simple to use and easy to set up. Depending on how you configure it, it could be ITIL compliant.

 

The Manage Engine product also looks good - it's more comprehensive, but more complicated... Pricing is very attractive (free) if you're a small department and looks good value of you're a bit bigger and need to pay.

[synaesthesia]

An excel spreadsheet could be "ITIL" compliant; it's procedure that matters there, not software ability.

[auntkeppy]

Our company is looking at Systems Center Service Manager very seriously for our Help Desk tickets. We have the server in place and have started some simple customizations. We are interested in talking with a company that actually uses Service Manager for their Help Desk (incident management). We'd love to take a peek at it in action and get feedback on how we proceed on our end to get this functioning. Do you - or do you know any companies that would be willing to share info with us? I feel that we have a good handle on what it can do for us already. Thank you!