Helpdesks/Service Desks - Likes and Dislikes

[OspreyO]

What are people likes and dislikes with helpdesks/ServiceDesk solutions.

We are looking replace ours, and I've been roped (unwilling) to get involved in the process. While I've a fair bit of experience of them in the past, I rarely use one these days. I know the solution chosen will be largely dictated by those in management as a tick box exercise as no really takes any interest in it. Still it would be nice to avoid any major gotchas.

 

[BongoHunter]

I like ones that are built on API first principles - which typically mean automation/integration is a lot easier.

I also prefer solutions that are licenced by people who work on / resolve tickets - rather than the number of people who might want to open tickets.

Support for your SSO provider of choice is a big plus

Oh and cloud / SaaS all the way these days for help desks IMO

 

[Dolph]

Auto and canned responders, variety of contact channels aware, decent reporting functionality, cloud based these days.

The biggest thing is recognising the complexity (or lack thereof) of your organisation, and choosing something that is both flexible enough to manage it and simple enough to not require you to configure every option to have a single ticket queue work correctly...

 

[Throrik]

Biggest thing that I can suggest is to speak to the people who use the service/help desk every day, on both sides the 'customer' and the 'support' side and find out what they like about the existing one, what they don't like and what they want in their ideal solution. Those on the coal face will have a lot of good ideas in my experience.

 

[d_brennen]

We use Zendesk and an org we're closely aligned to uses Freshdesk. Both fine for our needs. IIRC Fresh is cheaper. About 80% of tickets are via email and the rest are created by our agents based on phone calls

 

[FredFlint]

I just created a Ticket System Application, a few company's that used Zendesk wanted to save some money are now using it. Ended up creating a mobile app also and am now doing a website version.

Spoiler: picture

 

[bledd]

Recently moved to Halo, it works well for us!

https://haloservicedesk.com/

Seems pretty customisable and there support on hand for help setting it up. They seem very responsive to suggestions and requests.

 

[glenimp617]

ManageEngine servicedesk (cloud). I'm not a fan to be honest. It's overly confusing and slow.

 

[aceface57]

Topdesk is worth a look, ServiceNow if you want to pay more. As long as it supports automation, office 365 integration etc.