IT Helpdesks - WebHelpDesk Pro, ServiceDesk Plus or Other?

[JonThompson]

A little background – We currently use Outlook with mail categories as a way of people requesting jobs, and /or reporting problems. (Email is sent to an ICT mailbox, all technicians can access it).

 

Now that our schools BSF is ICT implementation only, we get to manage the network (instead of a private company) but have had to sign up to certain standards.

One of these standards is that we must have an FITS and ISO 2000 compliant helpdesk.

 

Basically, we have been given the opportunity to use Unipress WebHelpDesk Pro helpdesk software free for a year (our authority would pay the cost) as long as we provide formal feedback to other schools, and if the trial was successful, this product would be recommended to other authority schools in the BSF programme.

 

My question is this – Do any other schools use WebHelpDesk Pro, and if so, have you had any issues with it? Would you recommend it? Any pitfalls? Overall experiances (admins/end users) etc…

 

My boss was also looking at ServiceDesk Plus as an alternative. Again, anybody use this? Is it any good? Pitfalls? Etc…

 

I’d also be interested in whether you would recommend one over the other or, if you’d suggest a free alternative like Spiceworks for example?

 

Cheers.

[fiza]

Vote for spiceworks from me. They have just released version 6.2. Good free product with community forum for support.

[jmak]

Just set up spiceworks here. At the minute it's just me raising requests - want to make sure it works before people start raising tickets about the help desk not working

 

Having worked in places where we paid millions to set up customised CRM systems, I have to say I'm impressed. Integration with AD for user log in, raise tickets by email, manage from smartphone, customisable user web page. Only thing I haven't got working yet is the desktop gadget - although not completely convinced I want to start adding win 7 desktop gadgets for all users anyway. All for the price of seeing a few ads.

[bazil2013]

we've been using Spiceworks for 2 years now, can't fault it!

[Theblacksheep]

Service Desk too big and clunky for teachers, needs to be simpler.

[Iosoma]

In the past I have used Spiceworks which is very good. Recently we have moved to Zendesk though and staff find it much easier to use. I like the idea of having a service that will still work if the whole site is down... and we have aligned it to ITIL.

[mrforgetful]

OSTicket here.

 

It's free and a lot lighter than Spiceworks if you don't desire all the extra gubbings.

[TronXP]

OSTicket here too

[ticker]

service desk plus here for the last 6 years, i agree most of the features are not need by a school but it can be customised to fit your needs etc. I like the reporting function and we have just set up our site team up with another version of it.

Also if you get the version without assest management for us on a 5 tech licence it only worked out at 600 quid.

Edited May 15, 2013 by ticker

[MicrodigitUK]

Free help desk setup here. GLPI and OCS inventory.

 

Only tricky part was configuring it for staff to understand. Stripping back the interface to basic input fields. GLPI dose also generate tickets via email by watching a mailbox.

 

Has all the things a school needs like AD integration. But one downside is most oh the GLPI documentation is in French.

[markwilfan]

We've used webhelpdesk for 3 years and couldn't imagine my life without it now. If you do go for it go for mysql back end, front base is naff. Any specific questions just shoot away. Our site team use it too with a different incoming mailbox

[Nick_Parker]

We use Zendesk and I've got it setup to work via email.

Staff email to a specific address which logs the ticket for them.

I get an email with all the details and I can reply to the email which updates the ticket and notifies the user.

I can also change the ticket's status (Pending, Open, Solved) by including keywords in the reply emails.