3
votes

I'm looking for a very solid, ideally Web 2.0 Help Desk software for my IT service company.

I've looked at various options, including Help Spot & Zendesk, however none of them really 'tick' the boxes.

Ideally I'm looking for something that doesn't require the users to signup, they can simply email our support email address and it goes into our help desk. I would like support managers to receive email notifications when they get support requests, and our normal support stuff can simply view it from the help desk.

Ideally taking into account SLA's would be great along with being able to prioritise requests from specific clients/domains.

Once someone has accepted a ticket, it would be great if they could respond via email, likewise for the customer.

Reporting & Statistics is important for us, we need to know how long it takes for us to respond to support reqests, number of requests received etc.

We don't require Knowledge bases or forums, just an easy to use support desk.

Any suggestions would be welcomed!!

2
  • BTW, what exactly do you mean by "Web 2.0". If you ask me, Web 2.0 happened about four years ago. :)
    – EEAA
    Jan 29, 2010 at 20:10
  • Haha - Ajax, Good js, not clunky html and horrible styling :-)
    – MikeT505
    Jan 29, 2010 at 20:13

10 Answers 10

6
votes

Unless you are a 100% windows shop avoid SDE from BMC. It requires activex and thus is IE only. I have to run windows in vmware just to do tickets.

1
  • 1
    plus one for sharing what NOT to use.
    – Knox
    Jan 30, 2010 at 14:05
5
votes

Have you looked at Request Tracker? It's, by far, the most powerful helpdesk software I've ever worked with. It does have a slight learning curve that you'll need to work through while getting things set up but once it's running, you'll surely find it to be incredibly stable and extensible. It supports ticket submission via web form or email, and does not require users to have an account before submitting. Like any good helpdesk software, it supports multiple queues, SLAs, time-based escalation, email replies, etc.

2
  • 1
    +1 for RT. I think everyone should take a good hard look at RT before considering anything else. It's well documented, has a decent community, great feature set, and is easily customized. Best of all it's free. Jan 29, 2010 at 21:03
  • And...commercial support is available if that's of value to the PHBs.
    – EEAA
    Jan 29, 2010 at 21:41
2
votes

I use OTRS its free and works awesome. I have used it at two companies now with no issues. Helps my team and I organized. Written in Perl and has a large community.

1
vote

We use Fogbugz for help desk/issue tracking. It has all of the features you've listed:

  • Polling email via POP to create cases
  • Email integration - respond to case and email the customer in one step
  • Time tracking/reporting features
  • Lots more...

It basically has every feature I've ever wanted in an issue tracker.

1
vote

I've found a free product called osTicket. It is free and open-source and entirely web-based. It does not require customers to setup accounts - they just use their email address. Give it a go at http://www.osticket.com. This is what our company is using right now.

1
vote

I very much liked Service-Now.com, when I was at a Managed Service firm.

0
votes

Look into Spiceworks. It does help desk, reporting, system inventory, etc. I use it and absolutely love it! and BTW, it is free.

3
  • Thanks, I've tried spiceworks, problem is its got so much we don't need, as we are a service provider we can't leverage half the features :-(
    – MikeT505
    Jan 29, 2010 at 20:41
  • I understand that. I have seen some crazy setups where service providers set up Spiceworks on clients networks and set the client server to forward up to a main server on the provider side. Then they can call and tell them about problems before they even know something is wrong.
    – Skaughty
    Jan 29, 2010 at 21:14
  • Yes there are benefits in setting up like that, but It just seems so complicated for little benefit, web-based is preferred :-)
    – MikeT505
    Jan 29, 2010 at 21:48
0
votes

If you can afford to pay, i've heard good things about Cerberus Help-desk.

If I'm remembering correctly from the last time I was able to evaluate it. It should meet all of your needs.

0
votes

You may want to take a look at Accord5's Trellis: http://www.accord5.com/trellis.

0
votes

Maybe you can take a look of BzgTracker.NET open source project for handling a Bugs. But it easily can be fit in many types of environment. Some of features are:

  1. Open SOURCE (Free)
  2. Easy to set up and run
  3. Email integration for opening NEW Bugs and Reporting (with also open source client)
  4. Nice and easy to understand API for opening new bugs
  5. Built in Query tools for advanced reporting
  6. SVN integration
  7. Attachment in the posts, prepared BUGS for printing, export to EXCEL and many others

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