IT Helpdesk for MAT

[Theldron]

Hi all,

 

I am the IT Support for two school soon to be three in a MAT. I am looking for a single helpdesk that would have separate queues/ticket areas for each of the schools. Any ideas?

 

Ideally it would be free and online.

 

I am currently using Freshdesk for one of the schools.

 

Cheers

[Jawloms]

SpiceWorks. You can set it up with different sites, but they communicate with each other.

[Sibrows]

I am currently using Freshdesk for one of the schools.

 

We're using the free version of FreshDesk with different Groups configured for different sites.

 

While there are better 'pay for' solutions out there it works for us. As we grow I'd ideally like something ITIL compliant but thats not happening anytime soon

[Sonic007]

Another vote for Spiceworks. Very customisable and you can host it yourself for even more customisation.

[newpersn]

Manage Engine Service Desk Plus. Not free but works nicely with a few schools schools. You can get it auto assign to techs if they are on that site.

[CyBeRkId2002]

We have been using Hesk (free) for a while and are very happy with it. Basic but does the job!

[FN-GM]

We use Spiceworks in our MAT and we have grown out of it really. It doesn't offer things we need anymore. We have had a demo of Fresh Desk today and a Sysaid demo next week.

[Sylv3r]

We are a freshdesk user for our 6 schools. Works well and we are happy with it.

[Manny-Tech]

We used Sysaid until they went to a single priced model and it was too expensive for what we wanted. We got an in-house developer to provide exactly what Sysaid offered tailored to more of our needs.

[Sibrows]

Those using Spiceworks: Having used it in the past I liked the network auditing features but it could never cope with an average size secondary school network so we abandoned it as it ground to a halt and became more of a hindrance than a tool.

 

Have they improved this?

 

To quantify my 'average size secondary school network': around 30 printers, 400 PCs, 100 Macs.

[FishCustard]

Spiceworks is brilliant. I wish we could use it, but we had Parago foisted upon us because the school is using it for asset management. Most crap-tacular helpdesk I've ever seen.

[Wubbalubbadub]

We use Spiceworks in our MAT and we have grown out of it really. It doesn't offer things we need anymore. We have had a demo of Fresh Desk today and a Sysaid demo next week.

Please keep us updated on how this goes. We too have outgrown spiceworks. Edited September 14, 2018 by Wubbalubbadub

[FN-GM]

Please keep us uodated on how this goes. We too have outgrown spiceworks.

 

I got my dates wrong, our next demo is today.

 

There seems to be no middle ground with Heldesks. There are free ones and the reset are quite expensive!

[rich_tech]

We’re looking to dump Sysaid where I work, it’s not great I wouldn’t recommend it, we found it over exaggerates it’s functionality and it’s quite clunky Edited September 14, 2018 by rich_tech

[aliaspeter]

Freshdesk is far the best product I’ve used to date. Ours is configured to separate our different sites based on email suffix. We use the FOC version.

[gomalley]

I'm using OS ticket to support a secondary (IT and Premises) and 14 primaries, all tickets categorise based on email address and are only visible based on technician groups. Doesn't do absolutely everything but much smarter than the spice works we used to have, and no annoying adverts

[Falls]

Another Freshdesk user here fab product easy to set up and configure as you want.

[woody]

We currently use Spiceworks on-prem, but need to move to a cloud based solution which will also do assets and provision users from Azure AD. Problem is, Spiceworks hosted solution does neither and still doesn't have a lot of the features the on-prem version has! Shame but then it is free. Looks like we will have to either make a case to go to a paid product, or compromise on features.

[atcoates]

After reading this thread I've been running FOC Freshdesk and seems really good and secure etc.

[ewanc1234]

What was the outcome of your demo @FN-GM? looking to get a helpdesk system in place here but we are mac based and only have linux based web servers and we don't really want to set up a windows one (which spiceworks requires)

[leemunton2018]

We use Freshdesk for our two Schools. Works really well. Schools are separated into two groups so we can easily see what's happening at Each school. My tech deals with the jobs for the school he's at and I deal with the jobs for the school I'm at. I get alerts though for both schools so I can still make sure things are getting sorted and anything that I need to deal with I can even if I'm not actively monitoring that group.

[Olliesaurus]

I've setup Freshdesk for my MAT, each site has an itsupport@ address that's forwards to the Freshdesk address, it picks up the sender's email and assigns it to that schools group.

 

I can oversee all tickets and each school's IT staff can see there schools tickets.

 

Only downside I'm having is that when people email to say thanks for resolving ticket it will reopen the ticket, slight annoyance but it's free.

 

Know it isn't what you asked but I've also been using a couple other free services, Slack for cross site communications and collaboration among the schools and Workast for project management.

 

Well worth a looking.

[Theldron]

I have gone to Freshdesk. Was able to create a helpdesk for each school, works really well and for free can't complain at all.

[mavhc]

Slack is terrible, holds your old messages for ransom, just set up your own chat server.

 

Signed up for freshdesk just now, sign up process was kinda rubbish, had to disable adblock, didn't notice when I used autofill. Now to wait 21 days for the trial to expire...

[itmanager___]

Lots of love for SpiceWorks, agree myself.

But our MAT has asked us to use osTicket - seems pretty decent.