Help Desk & Asset Management Software - Choosing The Right One

By Natarajan Aravind

If you are to buy a HelpDesk & Asset Management software, see the  following checklist before you decide on one.

Comprehensive Help Desk Functionality

A good Help Desk product can dramatically rise the productivity of the Help Desk Personnel (which in turn will rise the organisation's productivity as a whole). Computer users can be made to submit their requests by mail, phone or through the web interface provided by the product. These requests gathered centrally will be attended to by technicians (who already are automatically notified about the request). Adding memos/notes to the requests & viewing the history of Requests can help too.

Buildable Knowledge Base (KB)

Even before a complaint is registered, Users can be made to search a prebuilt KB which will result in time savings for the Help Desk Personnel. The KB will also result in increasing the first call resolutions. The Help Desk personnel should be able to add on to, edit & delete from the existing KB.

Asset Management

What is considered here as an organisation's Assets are typical hardware components like PCs, Printers, Scanners etc & Licensed Software like MS Office, Adobe Photoshop etc. The product should allow these assets to be well tracked & their records to be maintained - from their purchase till end-of-life. It should also allow easy software license tracking which will contribute to a significant cost saving for the organisation.

Contracts (AMCs) Management

Most hardware components in an IT organisation come under some Annual Maintenance Plan. The product you choose should allow you to create & maintain various AMCs with the various vendors. If the product reminds you days before a contract ends (say, through an auto-generated email), it will be an added advantage.

Purchasing

Your IT department is constantly in need of spendable Hardware (floppies, CDs, printer ribbons, printers, PCs etc) and software. All these needs will be typically taken care by a separate Purchase Department. Seamless tracking between the two departments is an essentiality which will result in getting the required needs on schedule & their optimal use. Also, see whether the product you choose lets you mail the Purchase Orders to Vendors & track them too.

Out-of-the-box

The product installation should go on like a breeze. Moreover, it should be put into operation with nil to minimum initial configuration & all the features should be inbuilt with no extra development effort.

User friendly UI

The product you are looking at should have a very user friendly client interface as it'll be used by all employees in your organisation. The UI should be simple & at the same time offer easy-to-use features. If the product is web enabled, it'll make things much more easier - any user can login from anywhere using just a browser.

Pricing & Licensing

Most Help Desk products in the market are prohibitively costly with many hidden costs associated with them. Coupled with this, the products' licensing models can be tedious to understand & implement. Make sure the product you choose offers affordable pricing with an easy licensing model.

AdventNet's ServiceDesk Plus offers to solve all the above & has much more to offer. The product is available at a very affordable price starting from $495 & there's a Free Edition too that can manage 25 Workstations. For further information, mail to sales@adventnet.com or visit   http://www.servicedeskplus.com

Natarajan Aravind
Market Analyst
AdventNet,Inc.
http://www.servicedeskplus.com

Article Source:  HelpDesk & Asset Management Software - Choosing The Right One

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Help Desk Software Review - Sysaid

Here is the review of help desk software, Sysaid

Screenshot of the page :

From the service provider,

"SysAid IT Help Desk Software provides a complete web-based solution for any IT department. Automate your service desk, control your hardware and software management, and implement effective systems monitoring."

Pros :

• SysAid chat features allow users to chat with any other end-user logged into the network. Users can create service requests, access service history, and save all chats.
• SysAid solutions are built on the ITIL methodology, incorporating industry best practices and customer feedback
• SysAid is simple to use, yet feature-rich, to help your company better resolve IT issues in a quick and secure manner.

Cons :

• Sysaid (the free version) is limited in the number of servers monitored to only 1.
• Clunkiness of the UI (from the user end)
• Requires some IT knowledge to set up 
• Tasks are handled through the Project Management which is an add-on module
• Sysaid does not come as a single downloadable product. It includes addons for functions like project management, server monitoring, cmdb, change management, problem management etc with seperate incurring costs.

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Top Questions to Ask Before Buying a Help Desk & Asset Management Software

By Natarajan Aravind

#5 All your hardware components like Printers, PCs etc come under various maintenance contracts with different maintenance vendors. Do you know which batch of PCs are under warranty & for what number of PCs is the warranty about to expire (so that you can plan for an AMC)? Can you split up & tell how much AMC charges do you pay for each hardware component & how much for each vendor? Can you re-calculate the costs if an AMC with a vendor is to be renewed?

#4 Typically your company gets hardware parts and accessories from different vendors. Is your purchasing done centrally? Can you get the information of all vendors & the products they offer on a single click? Can you compare prices & other information before placing an order? Can you modify a purchase order (PO), have a revision history & email the vendor the updated PO? Can you track POs till all the items mentioned in a PO arrive?

#3 You might have entered into contracts with various vendors. Do you maintain & keep track of all your maintenance & support contracts in one place? How about having soft copies of actual contracts that are available to you through a web browser and is always a single click away?

#2 Your company has a variety of hardware like PCs, printers, scanners, OHPs etc and a plethora of software ranging from MS Office to Adobe Photoshop (all of various versions). Are you still using spreadsheets & manually tracking all these assets? Can you tell whether all the software you have comply with licensing? Can you tell how many of these hardware components & software copies are available with you at any instant? Can you tell how much of these are under utilized or not utilized at all?

#1 Your employees come up with different service requests ranging from "Not able to print from my PC" to "Cannot send mail". How do you ensure that such requests are taken care of by your support staff, that too efficiently? How do you ensure none of the requests fall through the cracks? Is there a Knowledge Base which can offer self-help for the employees? How do you keep track a high volume of requests?

AdventNet's ServiceDesk Plus offers to solve all the above & has much more to offer. The product is available at a very affordable price starting at $495 (there's a Free Edition too) backed by a company that has set a benchmark for customer care & support. For further information, mail to  sales@adventnet.com or  visit our website  http://www.servicedeskplus.com

Natarajan Aravind
Market Analyst
AdventNet,Inc.
http://www.servicedeskplus.com

Article Source:  Top Questions to Ask Before Buying a Help Desk & Asset Management Software

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Help Desk Software Review - BMC Service Desk Express

Here is the review of help desk software, BMC Service Desk Express.

Screenshot of the page :

 

From the Service Provider,

"The No. 1 choice for ITIL-aligned service management processes. Reduce complexity and make customer support, change, asset, and request management a seamless integrated process."


Pros :

• Simple User Interface: reduces staff training time and speeds problem solving processes.
• Built-in Process Flow Taskbar: simplifies service desk functions.
• ITIL-based Incident & Problem Management Applications: speeds resolution times and identifies IT infrastructure defects. 

Cons :

• BMC ServiceDesk Express has some complex licensing models with additional costs for some high level functions like problem, change, knowledge management and self service.
• BMC ServiceDesk Express costs more than $3, 500k for each concurrent user with basic modules plus each addons priced individually.
• Pricing structure is dependent on the number of users 
• BMC ServiceDesk Express provides separate addons which are charged from $10 per concurrent user to more than $ 3,000

For detailed feature by feature listing of BMC Service Desk Express,

 

BMC Service Desk Express Review

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Help Desk Software Review - Helpstar

Here is the review of help desk software, helpstar.

Screenshot of the page :

From the service provider,

"We’ve been in the service management solutions business since 1988. Since then, our helpdesk software has been licensed to over 3,500 organizations around the world. We help all types of businesses, ranging from those with a hundred employees to those with tens of thousands. We take pride in the fact that we are recognized as a worldwide leader inhelp desk, workflow software and business process management."

Pros :

• Helpstar delivers a web portal that allows users to access the help desk from anywhere in the world.
• HelpSTAR has a 45 day unconditional money back guarantee if your company is not satisfied.

Cons : 

• Too expensive with some incurred costs.  
• Lacks essential help desk integrations and customizations.

For detailed feature by feature listing, check Helpstar Review

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ITSM Webinar Series 3 : Improving service quality - ServiceDesk Metrics

Here i am sharing information about an ITSM webinar which should not be missed by you...

"The ITSM webinar series, organized by ManageEngine, with Rob England (a.k.a IT Skeptic) as the speaker, will be presented in a 6 part series. 

The third part of the ITSM series of webinars is titled "Improving service quality: Service Desk Metrics". This webinar discusses in detail about various metrics that have to kept in mind when measuring service quality. 

To Walk the Talk

Rob's presentation will be followed by a brief demo of ServiceDesk Plus, wherein you will understand how to effectively achieve what was spoken during the webinar." 

Check out the other Webinar series on ITIL

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Help Desk Software Review - Web Help Desk

Here is the help desk software review of webhelpdesk.com

Screenshot of the page :

 

From the service provider,

"Not all help desk software solutions are built alike. The web-based Web Help Desk user interface is a breath of fresh air — easy on the eyes and easy to deploy."

Pros :

• The official website is really clear with all features listed with comparison between editions.
• Provided with the online web demo with free trial option.
• Fully web based help desk software
• Provides integration with apple remote desktop and icalendar.

Cons :

• Basic Business Impact and Urgency which determines the Priority is missing in Incident Management in Web Help Desk.  
• Asset Scanning is based on third party applications and it will incur extra cost to the client in Web Help Desk.  
• Web help desk includes remote desktop support for apple and not any other platform. 

For detailed feature by feature listing, check Web Help Desk Review

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