What Helpdesk Platforms are IT Service Providers Using
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@garak0410 said:
@IRJ said:
@garak0410 said:
@IRJ said:
@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
The discussion in the IT group about ManageEngine's ServiceDesk+ becoming free, both locally installed and hosted, brings up a great topic for the IT Service Providers and MSPs - what helpdesk platforms are you using? And what ones do you think look really interesting?
I've been using Spiceworks and it is pretty much 99.99% my use. No one uses it...they walk into my office, call or e-mail. But I do use it to track my historical information per workstation and to attach purchases and to keep track of them. ServiceDesk+ looks interesting.
I would talk with the C levels and get them to enforce the use of tickets. Once they hear the reasoning behind it, my bet is they support you.
I've tried. There is a method to the madness here and popping emails to me is their most preferred way to go. But I'll keep trying...
Do you have an email address setup to automatically create tickets?
Yes and they are aware of it. Change is a hard thing around here...
They wont change, if you dont make them
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@IRJ said:
@garak0410 said:
@IRJ said:
@garak0410 said:
@IRJ said:
@garak0410 said:
@scottalanmiller said:
The discussion in the IT group about ManageEngine's ServiceDesk+ becoming free, both locally installed and hosted, brings up a great topic for the IT Service Providers and MSPs - what helpdesk platforms are you using? And what ones do you think look really interesting?
I've been using Spiceworks and it is pretty much 99.99% my use. No one uses it...they walk into my office, call or e-mail. But I do use it to track my historical information per workstation and to attach purchases and to keep track of them. ServiceDesk+ looks interesting.
I would talk with the C levels and get them to enforce the use of tickets. Once they hear the reasoning behind it, my bet is they support you.
I've tried. There is a method to the madness here and popping emails to me is their most preferred way to go. But I'll keep trying...
Do you have an email address setup to automatically create tickets?
Yes and they are aware of it. Change is a hard thing around here...
They wont change, if you dont make them
Yes. Has to be policy.
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I kinda hijacked myself, but has anyone used osTicket before?
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I looked at it years ago but didn't deploy it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
I looked at it years ago but didn't deploy it.
I would have used Spiceworks, but a Widows VPS is so expensive
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@IRJ yes. The windows requirement for SW is pointless and massive. It makes the cost so high for no reason.
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It took me a little over an hour to install OSTicket on Ubuntu. If I knew anything about Linux, I probably could have done it in less than 20 minutes. Even with my lack of Linux knowledge , I was able to install it so I am happy.
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@technobabble said:
I've been using Zendesk for my clients for a few years. I am on the verge of routing all emails to Zendesk, that's how much I like it.
I started using RepairShopr in October of last year. I still use Zendesk since we offer other non standard IT services. Using Zendesk also allows me to determine what really is a billable ticket vs a question or "nevermind it works now".
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I'm starting to test iTop; it's open source, runs on Linux or Windows (uses PHP and MySQL), has positive reviews, and online demo looks very promising. It is a full ITIL platform so it's has Configuration, Change, and Service Management components, in addition to Incident Management.
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@jasonh said:
I'm starting to test iTop; it's open source, runs on Linux or Windows (uses PHP and MySQL), has positive reviews, and online demo looks very promising. It is a full ITIL platform so it's has Configuration, Change, and Service Management components, in addition to Incident Management.
Thanks for sharing. I checked the demo out. That is way too much for what I need. It definitely looks pretty cool.
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@IRJ You could always just use it for the ticketing system. During the initial setup you can disable the modules you don't use, and there's two ways to configure the ticket systems (one that strictly follows ITIL, and one that's more traditional)
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@IRJ said:
I was under the impression that I was the only person that didn't use SpiceWorks anymore. I guess I was wrong
Spiceworks isn't what It used to be in V5/V6. 7 Just is bad. I think the problem might be them trying to do too much at once, and doing none of it that well. We still have it installed but don't use it right now.
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@thecreativeone91 I'm hearing that more and more. Not nearly as many people using it as anyone thinks. The people who are using it are all the newbies that aren't in the community.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@thecreativeone91 I'm hearing that more and more. Not nearly as many people using it as anyone thinks. The people who are using it are all the newbies that aren't in the community.
I have it running at most clients, just for the scanning and down alerts, I really need to find a better solution. I hate wasting a Windows License.
I have the helpdesk enabled at one client only because I have not had the time to turn up my own real helpdesk.
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@JaredBusch that Windows license thing is a huge deal. Everyone always blows it off with a "SMBs only run Windows" but that's so not true, especially in this day and age with virtualization. And any technical MSP knows to use the right tool for the right job. Sure 99% of SMBs run Windows but 100% of SMBs don't want to waste money for no reason. Running Windows doesn't mean you have spare, otherwise useless licenses sitting around. The cost of SW is actually quite high when you consider the licensing headaches. And since you either need a VDI license, a server license or to run it on a physical desktop it is far more costly than people really admit.
Running SW "right" means a Server 2012 R2 license virtualized with some serious disk subsystem to keep it running smoothly. That's far from trivial if you are an SMB. That's more cost than many put into their entire IT infrastructure!
