Comments on: Freeware/Open Source Help Desk Software.

Question: Freeware/Open Source Help Desk Software.

NoMich — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:41:48 -0800

Freeware/Open Source help desk support ticket type of software?

I am the support division of our very small company and I would like to utilize some sort of help desk type of software. I won't have our customers starting new tickets or anything like that. It would be me opening new tickets, entering text, and then closing the tickets myself. I would need it to be searchable, but I wouldn't need it to support different languages or have chat or email or profiles or anything fancy like that.
Does anything like that exist? I have already peeped this previous AskMe question and it doesn't apply because all of the suggestions are for fancy-pants crap.
I guess I should provide some background. Maybe that will help with suggestions. 99% of our support issues are mind-numbingly easy, so it's all in my head. However, I do get calls/emails from customers with really weird problems that are sometimes our fault and sometimes not. Currently, I just save those email threads in case I run into a new customer with the same weird problem, but over the years, those emails have added up and are hard to sort through. This is why I would like to utilize a help desk system. Besides, something may happen (knock on wood) and I won't be around to do the job anymore. It would be nice to have my replacement to have access to all of this information. Dig?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:07:46 -0800

Some more options.

By: dorian

dorian — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:15:33 -0800

what we use at work: glpi

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:20:28 -0800

bugzilla is cool

By: stovenator

stovenator — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 19:01:28 -0800

We use Request Tracker, which can be a little complex to setup, but works well.

By: pocams

pocams — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:11:58 -0800

I evaluated a few systems a couple of months ago, and we ended up with OTRS. I can't speak to using it as a solution database, although it does have plenty of search capabilities, but it makes a very nice ticketing system. Some of my favorite features are the ability to receive e-mails and send canned replies right from within the system, an "auto-close if no action" function, and the POP3 checker for e-mail. Worth a look.

By: starscream

starscream — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:31:17 -0800

I set up a system using Zentrack and it's pretty useful!

By: devilsbrigade

devilsbrigade — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 23:54:22 -0800

Seconding Bugzilla. No matter how you use it, it seems to work well.

By: GernBlandston

GernBlandston — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:54:02 -0800

Bugtracker.net is pretty good:
http://www.ifdefined.com/bugtrackernet.html

By: NoMich

NoMich — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:27:20 -0800

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check them out. And smackfu, thanks for pointing out that previous question.

By: drstein

drstein — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:16:59 -0800

OTRS. PerlDesk. OSticket. Kayako eSupport (not free, but cheap and easy to get running & use)

I've gone down this road before. The problem with a lot of these help desk solutions is that they can often be WAY too complicated for a small organization.

I tried Request Tracker but it was an absolute pain in the ass to get set up and in the end, was total overkill. OSticket took about 5 minutes to set up and even in beta (few years ago) it worked just fine.

Give them all a shot. They're free!

By: jeversol

jeversol — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:58:24 -0800

Can you guys who use Bugzilla for a help desk/support tracking system pass me some of the drugs you guys do? :P

Bugzilla is great for developers and for tracking bugs. Its user interface is crap for users. Users want to be able to interact with the system in ways like RT and OTRS support. Leave Bugzilla for coders wanting to track bugs. Your users will thank you.

By: NoMich

NoMich — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:01:51 -0800

I think you need to re-read my question, jeversol. The only person using this system is me and whomever covers my duties while I'm on vacation. That's it, nobody else in this world.

By: baylink

baylink — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:47:56 -0800

I got RT running in 2 or 3 hours, and liked it a lot.

Bugzilla et al tend to run to software development; RT, OTRS, et al, tend to run to support tickets.

And while other people were *supposed* to use it, no one ever did. I still liked it.