Web Based Help Desk Software - What To Look ForHelp desk software enables to offer seamless support to software products and applications online. Not long ago, the support staff had to visit the clients office to offer support or solve support issues on the telephone. The new helpdesk software that have been launched are web based and easy to implement. There are numerous web help desk software that are available in the market but some score over other because of the features available and the technology. I was checking out some of them and found that at a first glance all look good. Researching a little deep, I was able to figure out what separates a good help desk software from another. Let me share some of my observations. An IT help desk software should have ticket escalation via ticket rules as a base feature. Without this feature, a web based help desk software will not be effective and effecient. There should be ticket templates to tackle repetitive issues as it helps save the support staff lot of time. It has been found that a good percentage of support queries from clients are common issues which can be quickly resolved by using templates. The software should allow unlimited user-defined fields. This is a feature which is not available in all the help desk software that is available in the market. The system should ideally support ticket submission via web forms. The tickets raised should be accessible to support staff who have the credentials to log-in to the system. Permission based access is an important feature and this is available with almost all software that are available in the market. All tickets that are raised should generate an e-mail notification that should go to the the support staff and to the person who raises the help request. An e-mail should also be generated when the issue is resolved. The tickets should be searchable by any field. This feature makes it very convenient for a support staff to quickly find out similar tickets and give a quick resolution to a problem. Tracking and checking ticket history, time tracking, ticket printing and reporting are some of the other important features that should make a complete IT help desk software. The reporting feature is critical as reports help the management take decisions on various aspects of time and resource management. A ticket screen should contain the details about the client, the ticket information and ticket specifics. It should also have the option of creating a new contact. There are many web based help desk software available in the market. Some are based on open source technology which makes them cheaper. While buying a web help desk software you should ideally match all your requirements to the product features and then buy the product. Almost all companies customize their software to match the requirement of the client. The price factor should also be considered, because the market for IT help desk software is very competitive. Comparing all parameters, you should opt for the best software that suits your requirements. |