Software Advice has helped thousands of IT support desks choose the right help desk software to manage their tickets and improve enduser experience. Best Help Desk Software 2. Reviews, Pricing Demos. Help desk software solutions vary in functionality, pricing and underlying technology. Weve created this buyers guide to assist potential purchasers in determining which help desk software best fits their needs. Spiceworks Help Desk User Guide' title='Spiceworks Help Desk User Guide' />Heres what well cover What Is Help Desk Software. Common Features of Help Desk Software. Why Do I Need Help Desk Software Benefits of Help Desk Software Market Trends to Understand. The Vendor Landscape. Recent Events You Should Know About. What Is Help Desk SoftwareFind the best CRM Software for your organization. Compare top CRM Software tools with customer reviews, pricing and free demos. Brush up on your IT skills. Spiceworks is the best place for IT to learn new tricks of the trade. Whole office is connected under same subnet, as its not very big office and I want to avoid any vlan stuffcomplications. Before we get started with Spiceworks I highly recommend that you check out the Spiceworks Minimum system requirements, as there are a few caveats if you plan on. Traditionally, the term help desk has generated some confusion since it can refer to two different types of support organizations teams that serve external customers consumers or businesses that have purchased goods or services from your company, and teams that serve internal customers employees. We describe these two use cases in greater detail later in the Help Desk Software Landscape section of this guide. But in either instance, help desk management software stores customer information in a searchable database, tracks interactions and automates the issue resolution process using an issue tracking system. This core functionality increases efficiency and organization. When someone contacts the service desk by phone, Web form, email or other means, the system creates an electronic trouble ticket. Technicians or customer service representatives CSRs record details about the incident or problem, or review what the customer has entered if submitted using a self service tool. The responder marks it as resolved once the issue is handled, or escalates the issue to a specialist or executive if needed. Tickets are associated with customer profiles, which include the customers contact information and potentially purchase history or assets. This allows agents to see a customers entire interaction history. Example of a dashboard from Freshdesk. With some systems, the handling process can be standardized with workflow rules and canned responses. As an agent completes one task, they might choose a follow up step from a dropdown menu and set a due date. This way nothing falls through the cracks and agents stay efficient and on track. Some systems allow users to link incidents by issue type, so responders can refer back to a resolved issue when they encounter a similar problem. Example of incident linking from Zendesk. Common Features of Help Desk Software. In addition to this core functionality, the best help desk support software vendors might offer some or all of the following differentiating capabilities. Knowledge management system. This describes a repository of descriptions to common or previously resolved problems. These resources might be available publicly via a customer self service website, or reserved for internal use by CSRs and technicians. Most knowledge bases incorporate advanced search technologies to help users find the the right answer. Some may autosuggest queries or articles as the user types. Self service. Customers use these online portals to search for solutions to their problems. Self service resources can include product documentation, downloadable patches, searchable FAQs, how to pages or forums and other types of user communities. If the customer cant find a solution, self service tools often let them submit issues online. IT asset management systemsnetwork management. Asset management tools inventory and track changes to hardware and software configurations, while network monitoring tools oversee the health of servers and other network components. These functions are sometimes offered through integrations with IT service management ITSM tools. Reporting. Management uses reporting tools to monitor overall service desk performance and agent productivity. Performance metrics frequently include total open issues issue resolutions by date, shift or agent average time to resolution customer satisfaction and more. Mobile support. Many vendors offer a mobile Web or mobile application version of their solution. Agents use these tools to manage tickets, record customer data, access the knowledge base, view reports and perform other issue resolution activities from their smartphone or tablet. Service Level Agreement SLA management. SLAs guarantee to customers that issues of a certain type will be addressed or resolved within a certain time frame, among other service guarantees. These features allow users to set prioritization triggers, automatic escalations and other custom rules to ensure applicable issues are handled in compliance with an SLA. Remote control. This module allows technicians to access and control a customers computer from a remote location, facilitating remote diagnosis and resolution with minimal customer involvement. Why Do I Need Help Desk Software Imagine an employee clicks on a Malware infected link in an email. The virus attacks their computer and systematically copies and erases all their files. But it gets worse. Call Of Duty Black Ops 2 Crack Fix Download Problems. That email was sent to everyone in the company. While IT scrambles to take calls, employees continue to open infected emails, sensitive company data is exposed and work time is lost while employees wait for help. Without the right softwareor an army of IT staffersthis problem could take a millennium to untangle. Instead, the IT responder could create a digital trouble ticket when the first call came in. As he or she figured out the solution or escalated it to the appropriate team, they could record that information in the knowledge base. Then for every subsequent call, the service desk would have the answer ready and waiting to respond with a template email. At the same time, the help desk could post that information in a self service forum or employee accessible knowledge base to cut down on calls and service requests. Once the problem was solved, management could use analytics to evaluate the response time and process to make improvements in the event of another Malware incident. As this example demonstrates, help desk software allows companies to quickly address IT crises. At the same time, organizations gain efficiency in ongoing IT management duties. This includes savings through automation, workflow tools and self service. Many systems will integrate best practices from the ITIL IT Infrastructure Library, which is a globally recognized set of guidelines for the IT Service Management industry. Properly implemented, help desk systems can improve operations in five primary ways Minimize employee work lags from unsolved tech issues Automate issue triaging, escalation and prioritization Reduce manpower costs through self service Identify and address recurring issues and,Provide transparency into every service request from creation to resolution. Benefits of Help Desk Software. Better problem tracking and organization. Help desk systems increase organization by providing a single repository for agents to enter, track and resolve cases. This prevents issues from falling through the cracks. Users also increase efficiency with workflow rules that standardize business processes. Reduced service costs. These systems automate processes so agents can handle issues faster and process more per day. This increased productivity can reduce the number of agents needed. Reporting also enables managers to identify and address drops in productivity, so they dont continue to impact performance. Increased customer satisfaction.