Helpdesk System - Every

[sippo]

So our trust is trying to push us to use Every for a IT Ticket System. We currently use Zendesk and absolutely love it. Used it for about 6 years.

 

Every seems very clunky. Does anyone else use it for IT? Our trust use it for their caretakers currently.

[minimoo]

I coded on an issue tracker for years that we use - site staff bought every 4 years ago and we'll likely be cancelling it at end of year. In our case, I couldn't see us making good use of Every (for its cost) and in a way, that's come back 4 years down the line as the site guy who's now in charge wants to move back to our system.

 

Ultimately, it depends on what you use it for. Every can let you record assets , maintenance programs etc - and has a function where you can find suppliers etc. So for a cost, can tick a lot of different boxes. At the same time, an asset list or issue tracker on it's basic level is a simple task - an excel spreadsheet could record assets for instance.

 

In terms of IT, I'd be looking to integrate other systems into the "issue tracker". For example, is there a monitoring system that could update zendesk automatically if a system goes offline. Or push out a SMS /Teams notification etc.

 

In that regards, I'd expect Every would be quite clunky, and the integration with apps to zendesk would be a lot more flexible/likely to exist. I'm not sure if Zendesk is free for education?

 

But i'd certainly say it's beneficial to keep with an IT system - and there's enough options available; either free and open source or for a cost. I'd like to get to a point where I have a dashboard that tells me what problems it knows about alongside what teachers report (via whatever means) - link nagios/icinga/zabbix/prtg/whatever to zendesk/pivotal/redmine/jira/github/bugzilla/whatever. I think there's more scope for doing that around those technologies then a more closed system.

 

Equally, how far does the trust go on the caretaker side - do they use it for H&S training e.g. annual ladder training or just recording issues - it might be that money could be saved. In our case, we are looking to save the money as we haven't used it enough to add value. Staff will stop someone in the corridor, ring on the phone, email or submit an issue electronically - some of our site staff aren't that great with English/phones, so it ends up that 1-2 guys print the information from every, give it to the others - at which point, all we are tracking is what jobs are still open - a stack of post-it notes on a table can do that

[synaesthesia]

It's bloody awful - our site team "use" it for site management, but now it's barely acknowledged as a waste of time and money. Clunky, slow, best avoided IMO - plenty of better ones out there. We're still on OSTicket and it's just so easy.

[keyboards]

Horrible, clunky, no Google SAML login, looks like someone knocked up in there bedroom.

[eddyc]

We had it for around 7 years and have just got rid of it. Our site team are now set up as a department on the IT Helpdesk and all query’s are logged via the same system for both Site and IT

[Netwacky87]

As an IT dept we've used Freshdesk for years (free version) and i'm just putting on our Maintenance dept...few rules in the free version and it works a treat!

[techie17]

We maybe going to Every for compliance, asset, risk/policy management and helpdesk. Your honesty opinions would be welcome

[mp4-dave]

We were forced to used Every for a year or so and it was terrible from an IT helpdesk point of view. Everything is poorly laid out, it looked terrible and it was missing most of the basic features that every other IT ticketing system offers. Our account manager/sales rep wasn't that interested in any feedback we gave them. We moved to OP Helpdesk which is light years ahead (although sadly seemingly no longer in active development).

On the flip side, our facilities manager really liked the contract management/reminders and some of that side of Every. From a ticketing point of view, it was the worst system I'd ever seen.

[techie17]

We liked the fact we could consolidate a lot of systems/processes into to one system and we were also looking at Parago for IT, Facilities and risk management.

[mwnci]

We went with Parago for premises software (for a MAT) and it was a mistake. The helpdesk was awful and not fit for purpose. Also moved our inventory onto the system which was a disaster. Felt like we were having to tweak our data to fit the system and in the process felt like we were putting up barriers between us and the data. The aim of project was to have all premises data in one place - but for us Parago was Jack of all trades, master of none.

 

We migrated the premises team to use Freshdesk (free version) and both they and all of our staff love it. It just works. The inventory has moved into a Sharepoint list, in combination with Power Apps and Power Automate and Power BI. Everything is falling into place and I'm glad that we have moved to separate systems that give us more control.

[techie17]

We went with Parago for premises software (for a MAT) and it was a mistake. The helpdesk was awful and not fit for purpose. Also moved our inventory onto the system which was a disaster. Felt like we were having to tweak our data to fit the system and in the process felt like we were putting up barriers between us and the data. The aim of project was to have all premises data in one place - but for us Parago was Jack of all trades, master of none.

 

We migrated the premises team to use Freshdesk (free version) and both they and all of our staff love it. It just works. The inventory has moved into a Sharepoint list, in combination with Power Apps and Power Automate and Power BI. Everything is falling into place and I'm glad that we have moved to separate systems that give us more control.

Thanks, thats good to know. Just out of interest, what do you use Power Automate, Power Apps and Power BI for in regards to the Assets? I'm kind of clueless when it comes to these apps!

[mwnci]

In the case of our IT Inventory, the assets themselves are contained in a Sharepoint list. Big changes coming to Lists - worth keeping an eye.

 

We use Power automate to help with processes such as disposals and audits, and we have an app created in Power Apps which we use to manage assets on the ground. We can scan a device via QR code and have also built an audit tool which allows us to 'tick' devices off when we have audited them.

 

PowerBI provides us with analytics for all of this data which gives us the overview of the data that we were missing using other tools.

 

Now rolling out the same functionality to our premises assets and compliance tasks.

[HarryMonkey]

We have been using it here for the site team and they seem to like it. The trust has now decided that we will be using it for IT. We currently use Sysaid which is ok. Every looks like it's going to cause us some headaches though, like not being able to incorporate rich text into responses, having to add screenshots as attachments etc. Watch this space !!