Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application
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@scottalanmiller said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Pete-S said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@dave247 said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I've been having trouble actually finding a decent multi-department help desk solution. Google just results in the same old dead-ends. We are a small-ish company with about 60 employees yet we have something like 12 departments or so (always changing) and so our technician quantity is always high (like 40 technicians) and that is what always kills us in price.
Currently, I am trialing ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus which seems to be the best option in terms of functionality and price, but it seems pretty problematic with bugs and weird functional issues. And support doesn't seem that great so far and the community feels kind of dead.
The only other product I found that might work is something called Jitbit help desk but I haven't had a chance to really look into them yet.
Does anyone have any good suggestions?
Here are my requirements:
- Internal, multi-department help desk (not just for I/T)
- 40 technicians / users who can complete requests
- Active Directory integration for SSO
- Price under $8,000/annually
- on-premises deployment
- Microsoft Windows Server based
- dead simple/basic - just need everyone to be able to submit HD requests for different departments and have other people be able to handle and close them. No freaking bells and whistles.
"Dead simple/basic" sounds like you can have something custom made for you. A full stack developer that does both the back-end and front-end could put it together pretty quickly - if you know what you need.
Yeah, can't be done for $8K, but if there are a lot of users and the workflow is really critical, going bespoke can pay dividends long term. Sounds scary, but with one dev that knows what they are doing it's pretty manageable for something of this nature.
Hey I need a new gig, got to get away from 100 hour weeks. But yeah, you're not getting a polished product for 8K
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We've just starting using JitBit. They took the full on prem with access to source so one of the programmers has been tweaking things. I'm not a huge fan but it seems to be working.
I can't say anything bad about GLPI but it might be more than what the OP is looking for.
Request Tracker provides a massive framework to play with for ticketing and such, I'm 90% sure that one of my former gigs was using it with some minor rebranding but it is really one of those situations where the sky's the limit on what it seems to be able to do.
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@notverypunny said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
We've just starting using JitBit. They took the full on prem with access to source so one of the programmers has been tweaking things. I'm not a huge fan but it seems to be working.
I can't say anything bad about GLPI but it might be more than what the OP is looking for.
Request Tracker provides a massive framework to play with for ticketing and such, I'm 90% sure that one of my former gigs was using it with some minor rebranding but it is really one of those situations where the sky's the limit on what it seems to be able to do.
You guys started using JitBit on-premises? What don't you like about it? I've only been evaluating it for a few hours but it seems pretty simple and might do the job for us since we really only need something basic for multi-departmental help desk tickets.
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I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
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@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
Not one that I've heard of before.
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@scottalanmiller said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
Not one that I've heard of before.
There were quite a few that were there that I'd not heard of. This my first interaction with them. They've been around for quite awhile. It may be that they're more well known in the European market since they're based in the Netherlands.
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@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
We abandoned on-premesis TopDesk in favour of hosted FreshService.
Mind you, we had a really old version but there are basic things that it simply cannot do. Prime example: Merge tickets.We had a conference call to a sales rep and they "couldn't decide on how the merged ticket would look." Basically the explanation was something like: Would the more recent ticket take priority or the older one?
You CAN merge archived tickets though.I sent my shopping list to their rep that we were on the call to but never heard back. I think he may have been emabarressed by what they couldn't achieve on it.
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@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@scottalanmiller said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
Not one that I've heard of before.
There were quite a few that were there that I'd not heard of. This my first interaction with them. They've been around for quite awhile. It may be that they're more well known in the European market since they're based in the Netherlands.
Their back end for the hosted system is written in Dutch but they do provide some kind of translation ($Dutch_word = $English_word) so you can poke about. Also, they (TopDesk) must do the software upgrades (logging in remotely and doing the work). Not your team.
They also now have a SaaS version but that's not one of the OP's requirements we couldnn't get away fast enough.
(I inherited workig with it).
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@nadnerB said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@scottalanmiller said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
Not one that I've heard of before.
There were quite a few that were there that I'd not heard of. This my first interaction with them. They've been around for quite awhile. It may be that they're more well known in the European market since they're based in the Netherlands.
Their back end for the hosted system is written in Dutch but they do provide some kind of translation ($Dutch_word = $English_word) so you can poke about. Also, they (TopDesk) must do the software upgrades (logging in remotely and doing the work). Not your team.
They also now have a SaaS version but that's not one of the OP's requirements we couldnn't get away fast enough.
(I inherited workig with it).
@nadnerB Are these issues that linger with the current version, or not? It would definitely remove them from the running if they persist.
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@dave247
Maybe I got spoiled on my first couple of ticket system experiences, but they were more or less annexes or complimentary to CRM / ERP systems, so you had an client centric / customer-centric view of the situation as well as the user's history... JitBit, or at least the way that we've got it set up doesn't associate the ticket to users or assets / equipment so it's not readily apparent if the problem is with the user, the HW or something else -
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@nadnerB said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@scottalanmiller said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
Not one that I've heard of before.
There were quite a few that were there that I'd not heard of. This my first interaction with them. They've been around for quite awhile. It may be that they're more well known in the European market since they're based in the Netherlands.
Their back end for the hosted system is written in Dutch but they do provide some kind of translation ($Dutch_word = $English_word) so you can poke about. Also, they (TopDesk) must do the software upgrades (logging in remotely and doing the work). Not your team.
They also now have a SaaS version but that's not one of the OP's requirements we couldnn't get away fast enough.
(I inherited workig with it).
@nadnerB Are these issues that linger with the current version, or not? It would definitely remove them from the running if they persist.
From what I've seen of the new version, it's just an upgrade to what we had. They don't appear to have made any drastic changes, just GUI, and maybe a few "catch up features"... cue the Jurassic Park Effect thoughts.
Points of note:
- Their customer portal is locked away, so you have to be a customer first before seeing anything in their walled off community.
- No backgrond automations
- Ticket visibility was a huge issue
- Lacked basic functions of modern helpdesks
The good things of the on-premesis install
- We had unlimited agents
- Can be set up for multiple departments (which we had but that department bailed and followed us to FreshService)
I found that there was a specific way of thinking to operate it and there was little flexibility (one way to do things), settings were buried and difficult to find. Granted our setup had been poorly managed for years but the sales guy couldn't convince us that there had been dramatic changes since the last upgrade (several years), or that they could meet all our "Have to have's"/Deal breakers
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@nadnerB said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@nadnerB said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@scottalanmiller said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
@Kelly said in Trying to find a good, on-premises, multi-department help desk application:
I was just talking to some vendors about this at a conference recently (yesterday). One of the ones that really caught my eye was TopDesk. I don't know if they support on-premises deployment or not, but I think the others might check the right boxes. I have no idea on pricing, but I believe they were the ones that do their licensing based on FTE count (due to having a broader focus than just ITSM).
Not one that I've heard of before.
There were quite a few that were there that I'd not heard of. This my first interaction with them. They've been around for quite awhile. It may be that they're more well known in the European market since they're based in the Netherlands.
Their back end for the hosted system is written in Dutch but they do provide some kind of translation ($Dutch_word = $English_word) so you can poke about. Also, they (TopDesk) must do the software upgrades (logging in remotely and doing the work). Not your team.
They also now have a SaaS version but that's not one of the OP's requirements we couldnn't get away fast enough.
(I inherited workig with it).
@nadnerB Are these issues that linger with the current version, or not? It would definitely remove them from the running if they persist.
From what I've seen of the new version, it's just an upgrade to what we had. They don't appear to have made any drastic changes, just GUI, and maybe a few "catch up features"... cue the Jurassic Park Effect thoughts.
Points of note:
- Their customer portal is locked away, so you have to be a customer first before seeing anything in their walled off community.
- No backgrond automations
- Ticket visibility was a huge issue
- Lacked basic functions of modern helpdesks
The good things of the on-premesis install
- We had unlimited agents
- Can be set up for multiple departments (which we had but that department bailed and followed us to FreshService)
I found that there was a specific way of thinking to operate it and there was little flexibility (one way to do things), settings were buried and difficult to find. Granted our setup had been poorly managed for years but the sales guy couldn't convince us that there had been dramatic changes since the last upgrade (several years), or that they could meet all our "Have to have's"/Deal breakers
Good feedback. Thanks.
