Helpdesk systems..but

[leegcvcc]

I know it's been covered previously and recently but I wondered if there is anyone out there using helpdesks systems for more than IT.

 

I currently have 6 spiceworks on-premise servers which serve: Maintenance team, Finance, Personnel, IT, Admin and Data Team. These work really well and everyone is used to working with them and sending email requests etc. I cannot think of a way to host multiple systems on a single instance server, even with rules and being a bit creative. It still means an awful lot of emails to everyone who is admins on the help systems.

 

The options seem to be:

Cloud Helpdesk version. This is hosted in the US and I am unsure what content might be sent (GDPR risk) by users. Apart from that, it uses their own mail system which I have had issues with before when I hosted one of the finance helpdesks in the cloud. There were mail delays at times which made it difficult to use and be relied upon. No good for our IT helpdesk and it showed to be an issue with the dept who used it. Also meant I had investigate missing emails all the time. I can migrate existing tickets which is good.

 

On-Premise Helpdesk Server:

My issue is the new spiceworks Helpdesk Server is chopped down and not as configurable. It's like an on-premise cloud version. Apart from that, I don't really want to maintain 6 servers anymore for obvious reasons. I could migrate current and historic tickets which is a plus.

 

Another helpdesk system:

It would need to be able to cope with 6 helpdesk departments. I would need email to ticket function. A portal wouldn't work and that is an obvious solution to number of issues.

 

Anyone use something similar or know anything that might be suitable?

 

Cheers

[computer_expert]

OSTicket looks like a good contender if you want to keep it on site. We moved from spiceworks many years ago.

 

We have 4 different helpdesk departments running from a single instance of OSTicket with separate email addresses for ticket submission (IT@ goes to IT, admin@ goes to the admin team etc). You can log tickets via email and a web portal too.

[jthompson]

Yeah, take a look as osTicket. Either as a single on-prem instance or a hosted instance. Whilst it has a client front end, the vast majority of our users just do it via email. That's by far the friendliest way for them. The system has some nice granular controls. It's lacking any kind of decent mobile version, however.

 

Also: you can, if you want, have multiple instances on the same web server, should you want to have completely separate systems for different departments. You shouldn't need to, though.

Edited December 3, 2020 by jthompson

[Chaniel]

I can join in the recommendation of OS Ticket, it has a lovely cost of £0 and will do what you need.

[supportman]

Microsoft Lists looks good

[Rob_D]

ManageEngine do (by the sounds of it) exactly what you want wit their ESM portal. It allows you to run multiple "helpdesk instances" on the same server with the same corporate ID, all accessible through a single portal.

 

[robyholmes]

Yeah, take a look as osTicket. Either as a single on-prem instance or a hosted instance. Whilst it has a client front end, the vast majority of our users just do it via email. That's by far the friendliest way for them. The system has some nice granular controls. It's lacking any kind of decent mobile version, however.

 

Also: you can, if you want, have multiple instances on the same web server, should you want to have completely separate systems for different departments. You shouldn't need to, though.

 

Hoping to move to OsTicket soon from Spiceworks on Prem. I've heard good comments about this theme for it which brings the user interface in to the 21st century and improves mobile use.

[jthompson]

Hoping to move to OsTicket soon from Spiceworks on Prem. I've heard good comments about this theme for it which brings the user interface in to the 21st century and improves mobile use.

 

Ooh. Is there a link?

[robyholmes]

Ooh. Is there a link?

Oops, i was meant to post it! Doh

https://osticketawesome.com/

[leegcvcc]

ManageEngine do (by the sounds of it) exactly what you want wit their ESM portal. It allows you to run multiple "helpdesk instances" on the same server with the same corporate ID, all accessible through a single portal.

 

 

I always find them a bit pricey for their offerings even with educ discounts, but their products seem really good. Suppose you get what you pay for. I'll have a look. Cheers

[leegcvcc]

Thanks all. I've have a bash with osTicket just for the fact that I love the voice on the installation demos

Looks a good product and very versatile.

I#ll report back when I get a chance to test it.

[leegcvcc]

There's never anything that totally fits the brief.

 

Would want on premise to minimise mailflow issues and keep our data in house (rules out freshdesk, hosted stuff)

Would want to be able to reply by email as an agent (rules out osTicket)

Want to use for multiple departments and not loads of servers - rules out spiceworks helpdesk server and cloud.

 

Will still look at osTicket but not being able to reply by email as an admin is a step backwards.... spiceworks was really good at that!

 

arghhhh!

 

Thanks for replies all..

[lmrogers]

Oops, i was meant to post it! Doh

https://osticketawesome.com/

 

Don't suppose you have a rough cost for this? The website wants an inquiry before giving a price.

[sister_annex]

There's never anything that totally fits the brief.

 

Would want on premise to minimise mailflow issues and keep our data in house (rules out freshdesk, hosted stuff)

Would want to be able to reply by email as an agent (rules out osTicket)

Want to use for multiple departments and not loads of servers - rules out spiceworks helpdesk server and cloud.

 

Will still look at osTicket but not being able to reply by email as an admin is a step backwards.... spiceworks was really good at that!

 

arghhhh!

 

Thanks for replies all..

We moved from Spiceworks to these: http://www.supportpal.com have been with them now for a good few years. Can set up multiple email/Depts, email replies from staff etc. not that expensive either and support has always been very helpful when I've had an issue.

 

Also has knowledge base/ documentation thing built in which is useful, tags, SLA, Macros (which are brilliant), Canned responses and a load of other stuff.

 

It's currently used in school by IT, Reprographics and the main school Admin Team and it's streamlined everyone's life.

 

We did originally look at OSticket pre 1.10 but found it clunky to be honest, however, can't comment on the latest releases

[leegcvcc]

Thanks @sister_annex

Funnily enough, it was the first help system that I looked into last week, then I got sidetracked by free osticket, and then feature rich freshdesk.

I will revisit supportpal as I recall it looked good and as you say, not too expensive. Something put me off though... great to hear it works well. Off to trial it!

[localzuk]

If you're up for a bit of effort customising, Request Tracker will do what you want too.

[sister_annex]

Thanks @sister_annex

Funnily enough, it was the first help system that I looked into last week, then I got sidetracked by free osticket, and then feature rich freshdesk.

I will revisit supportpal as I recall it looked good and as you say, not too expensive. Something put me off though... great to hear it works well. Off to trial it!

What put you off? It has a few quirks i'm not gonna lie but in most cases we've figured out how to get the best out of it for us (and the other departments that are on board with it too)

[Rob446]

Found this topic as I need a web-hosted ticketing system, but ideally one that will LDAP into our AD to get a user list and email addresses, and run a discovery agent on the network to create an asset register.

 

I've just given up with Spiceworks (old "desktop" install that my predecessor installed, and gave up on in 2016!) as it's ridiculously old hat and has a bunch of stupid restrictions that we can't circumvent - mainly that we have to use a Local Authority mandated Web Proxy and Spiceworks cannot send mail alerts when a proxy is enabled. Bizarre.

 

OSticket looks good, but can it do asset discovery etc.?

[Rob446]

Anyone used Freshdesk? https://freshdesk.com/

[simpsonj]

Found this topic as I need a web-hosted ticketing system, but ideally one that will LDAP into our AD to get a user list and email addresses, and run a discovery agent on the network to create an asset register.

 

I've just given up with Spiceworks (old "desktop" install that my predecessor installed, and gave up on in 2016!) as it's ridiculously old hat and has a bunch of stupid restrictions that we can't circumvent - mainly that we have to use a Local Authority mandated Web Proxy and Spiceworks cannot send mail alerts when a proxy is enabled. Bizarre.

 

OSticket looks good, but can it do asset discovery etc.?

 

You could look at Lansweeper, but it isn't free.

 

I pay for it and find it the most useful bit of software I've ever used, though I don't use the helpdesk aspect (costs extra for more than one person), as I use Freshdesk for that.

[jthompson]

Found this topic as I need a web-hosted ticketing system, but ideally one that will LDAP into our AD to get a user list and email addresses, and run a discovery agent on the network to create an asset register.

 

I've just given up with Spiceworks (old "desktop" install that my predecessor installed, and gave up on in 2016!) as it's ridiculously old hat and has a bunch of stupid restrictions that we can't circumvent - mainly that we have to use a Local Authority mandated Web Proxy and Spiceworks cannot send mail alerts when a proxy is enabled. Bizarre.

 

OSticket looks good, but can it do asset discovery etc.?

 

We've been using GLPI for years now as our asset register. It can authenticate against LDAP and has an email-based helpdesk included. We've used osTicket for our helpdesk rather than GLPI, but the functionality and integration with the inventory is there.

 

We use OCS Inventory NG to collect and maintain computer details automatically (it uses a Windows agent) with a plugin for GLPI that syncs computer details in from OCS. That means that you'll get serial numbers, host name, installed components, etc. pulled in automatically and updated automatically. All you have to do is manually maintain things like location and warranty details.

 

Alternatively, you could use FusionInventory in place of OCS to automatically feed asset details into GLPI. I think Fusioninventory can also do network discovery, to grab things which can't run an agent.

 

GLPI can either be on prem or hosted. You might be better off having OCS or Fusion on prem, but reachable from wherever GLPI is hosted.

[Rob446]

You could look at Lansweeper, but it isn't free.

 

I pay for it and find it the most useful bit of software I've ever used, though I don't use the helpdesk aspect (costs extra for more than one person), as I use Freshdesk for that.

 

Thanks - do you think LanSweeper would work with a very restrictive proxy? I cannot get SMTP in/out through it, we use Gmail for email - nothing onsite.

[simpsonj]

Thanks - do you think LanSweeper would work with a very restrictive proxy? I cannot get SMTP in/out through it, we use Gmail for email - nothing onsite.

 

Looks like it requires SMTP to send emails out I'm afraid.

[Katy]

Anyone used Freshdesk? https://freshdesk.com/

We use FreshDesk - replacing a shared mailbox, then Spiceworks, then osticket, then a bespoke system I wrote... wouldn't go back, it isn't cheap if you want things like customised portal etc but worth it IMO.

 

When pricing it up I did ponder over the price for a while but then compared what various departments are paying for web based stuff that is barely used, take into account how often we'd use it (all day every day) and it was a much easier decision.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Katy

[Rob446]

I've had a quick look at the free trial for OSTicket (SupportSystem?) but it doesn't support single sign-on or LDAP lookups for AD integration, so that's a non starter. I'm not getting my users to remember another login and password.

Is FreshDesk capable of that?

 

Basically Looking for a cloud hosted helpdesk solution that will send auto emails without requiring SMTP to be setup, and integrate with Active Directory for user accounts with single signon.