Help Desk software recommendations

[Tallgeese]

Our firm is looking to implement a help desk solution. Hoping you folks could offer a recommendation.

Current requirements:

MANDATORY
* Comprehensive, customizable trouble-ticketing
* Remote hardware/software inventory
* Staff scheduling/resource allocation
* Robust reporting
* Historical and trending data
* Asset management (through asset life)

OPTIONAL
* MS Exchange-based
* HTML interface for staffers and/or users

TIA

 

[Neurodog]

Hi there,

I have used REMEDY and also MAGIC HELPDESK and from experience I prefer MAGIC.
We were just migrated to the new version that is only HTML and if you get errors with your internet explorer session it will close all windows plus it is slower then the previous version.

They said they wouldn't support that version anymore, so here we are with the web version.
It has all you need plus remote control + asset + reports.


Hope this helps you a little.


Neurodog

 

[djkball]

We have remedy here at company . I dont think this software is all that it is cracked up to be . I mean it could be just how we have it configured but its not that great of software . I have used other software helpdesk programs before and have found them easier and more in depth.


Also I would support magic also

 

[vi edit]

Vantive Help Desk. I think people soft bought them out. Should have all that you need.

 

[Agamar]

We use Trackit here at work. It seems to work pretty good. I little bit of a clunky interface, but very stable.

 

[mattbta]

Magic by McAfee/NAI is great. Umm....if you want an eval copy, email me. (~130MB)

 

[dbwillis]

I use Remedy here at work..its OK..but if your able to customize the layout its better..mine is locked down alot from the 'management' team.
I just use SMS 2.0 for remote control.
Remedy does have some good reporting features built in

 

[n0cmonkey]

Remedy sucked everytime I tried to use it. Keystone looked good, although I dont think it has all of the features you are looking for. But its based on PHP and mySQeeL so you should be able to modify it if you need to. Its also free under some circumstances.

freshmeat.net page
keystone homepage

 

[ScottMac]

We used to use Aspect CTI and Clarify over Sybase. About the time it was fine tuned and working well (complete with overhead status boards), we were bought out, and the new company uses Remedy (so that's what the system was migrated to). The guys in the phone pit haven't got anything good to say about it.

From the discussions I've heard, even if the front end would have been done well / properly (it's pretty lame), it would still suck bigtime compared to the Aspect/Clarify system they used to use.

Computer Associate's software was used at Interop, it seemed to have some decent features.

Siebel (sp?) is being used by a couple (pretty big) organizations I've worked with, and I believe they have a pretty good reputation. Lots of (literal) bells & whistles, status boards, paging, automatic tiered escalation & notification, web-front end for users to track the progress of their ticket, etc.

I've never had to use any of 'em, so I can't give you any direct information.

FWIW

Scott

 

[wyvrn]

I have worked helpdesk/desktop for going on 5 years. I have used Lotus Notes (customized), Vantive, and Remedy and prefer Vantive of the three. Vantive has been very very stable at the two different shops I have used it, and it is pretty customizable to the screens your company needs. You can also integrate email support into Vantive. Awesome program.

 

[SaigonK]

Vantive is very good and customisable, they are owned by PeopleSoft now.

 

[n0cmonkey]

It was a couple of years ago so they may have changed (and I could have the wrong product in mind) but Vantive sucked then. HUGE memory LEAK, not to mention slow. Hopefully they have improved though.

 

[SaigonK]

They have improved, mainly since Peoplesoft lets you program it the way you want to now.

 

[Abzstrak]

Wel, I'll throw a vote in for heat, had it implemented and loved it... very customizable and fature rich... and never a stability/speed issue. Maybe alittle pricey though

 

[DaLeroy]

Use Remedy here. It's ok, bit slow and unrealiable, but it does the job. The overall way it goes about everything tho kinda sucks. Would probably look elsewhere

 

[lowtech1]

I have uses & installed TrackIt & Lotus, but I prefer Teacup over the commercial wares.

Another is RT: Request Tracker which I haven't had a chance to play with.

Both freeware tools don't have the robust scheduling agent of commercial wares, but they both have easy to use resource allocation tables.