IT Ticketing System

October 11, 2011 12:06 PM

Im looking for a good Ticketing system for our IT department. I want end users to be able to email or login to create tickets for the IT department. Suggestions? We are currently using spiceworks but i wanted to know what else is out there that is really good. TIA!
posted by flipmiester99 to computers & internet (18 answers total)

Siebel is awful, don't use that.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 12:10 PM on October 11, 2011

RT
posted by duomo at 12:12 PM on October 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've had a lot of success with multiple clients using Service-Now.
posted by noahv at 12:12 PM on October 11, 2011

JIRA isn't bad
posted by wongcorgi at 12:17 PM on October 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

We use Zendesk. We don't delve into it deep enough for me to either rave or rant, but it surely seems to accomplish most of what our small IT dept needs.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 12:22 PM on October 11, 2011

JIRA (as a user) seemed alright.

For larger scale and ITIL compliance - Remedy is widely used in a lot of large corporations. I saw a horrendously poor implementation recently and that turned me off the product a bit. But it is quite powerful and (from what I hear) there are better (and far more user friendly) implementations out there. It is probably far more expensive.
posted by justlooking at 12:29 PM on October 11, 2011

Seconding the suggestion for RT. It is really solid.
posted by dgran at 12:30 PM on October 11, 2011

Web Help Desk is very easy to setup, and users can both email the system or login to the web console to generate and view tickets.
posted by Horselover Phattie at 12:45 PM on October 11, 2011

Thirding the suggestion for RT.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:53 PM on October 11, 2011

Zendesk is what we use. While it's not the cheapest, it is really, really nice in my opinion. Your specific needs are going to direct your choice considerably, of course. They offer a free fully functional trial, so you can check it out.

We ended up with Zendesk for a variety of reasons. Though it costs more than some comparable services, the integration and offerings are really top notch, and it comes with actual support that responds usually within an hour or so if you have questions.

One of the really cool things they just came out with is voice integration, which lets users call directly into Zendesk, attach to a logged-in agent, and auto-create a case. It does voicemail transcription and call recording. Very smooth.
posted by odinsdream at 1:07 PM on October 11, 2011

RT is free, which is nice, and it works alright for the price, but we certainly had our share of issues with it too.
posted by karizma at 1:21 PM on October 11, 2011

I've used Fogbugz as a ticketing/bug system in the past and been quite pleased. It's reasonably priced, stable and has many nice features.
posted by Jacob G at 1:36 PM on October 11, 2011

Kayako.
posted by tra at 1:45 PM on October 11, 2011

We use Kayako Fusion, which is their full package. For a smaller shop, you might only need Kayako Resolve. To be totally honest, no one at work is very happy with the new version of Kayako (we upgraded from v3 to v4 about a year ago). They took a very solid product, easily the best ticket system I'd ever used, and "Web 2.0'd" it. It's much slower, and the UI is just horribly clunky compared to the previous version. That might not matter to someone coming to it for the first time, but we're not thrilled with the new features. The knowledgebase component to Kayako, which was never their best feature, is now even crappier than before (I'm the technical writer, so the KB is my domain, and I curse at it daily).

We also looked at Zendesk, which looks like a fantastic product. If they had a self-hosted version, we'd probably be moving from Kayako to it. Unfortunately, they are hosted only, which rules them out for us. However, that might not be an issue for you. If not, give them a try, you can sign up for a free trial.

I've also looked at OTRS for a ticket system at a previous job. If you want an open source ticket system, it might worth looking at.
posted by ralan at 2:21 PM on October 11, 2011

Do you have time to do setup? Do you have the ability to host it locally? Are you and/or your boss cheap? RT is for you. It's really slick, even if you throw it up without a lot of setup, and there are various methods of getting help (free googling and pay-for support)

A previous question thought that RT was "way overboard" what they needed, but it's completely customizable, so it can grow as you do. Don't need to authorize to several authorization servies? Don't need multiple queues with custom scripts? Don't turn them on!

On the "paid" side, I've used both Numara Track-It and Footprints, and they're solid, however the maintenance costs are astronomical if you let it slip and the need to buy an additional licence the next year. Learn from my mistake, and know that it's not a "one-time" licence fee. You need a new licence, they make you upgrade to the latest version (by paying all your maintenance fees) and THEN you can have the licence.
posted by cathoo at 5:17 PM on October 11, 2011

OTRS is free and phenomenal. I am a big, big fan.
posted by bfranklin at 5:34 PM on October 11, 2011

I've used and liked RT in the past.

I currently use Numara Footprints; my mother often admonished me that if I didn't have anything nice to say...
posted by togdon at 8:31 PM on October 11, 2011

Yep, RT.
posted by wenestvedt at 12:34 PM on October 13, 2011