Best help desk ticketing system?

Hm. That worries me about SysAid support. We are down to SysAid and Web Helpdesk, trying to make a decision.

Web Helpdesk looked nice - probably because it looks like a straight up mac program. It was also double the price of SysAid.

Exchange's impression of their tech support/CS makes me leery though. SysAid was my pitch, and it seemed to go over well. The price is right for 3 seats too.

Can you share your story Exchange keys? I'm interested to hear about this - I might tell my boss to put a stop on our purchase.
 
Glad to hear you're considering Web Help Desk- i've been getting on really well with it.
 
I looked through your blog, only saw your impression on 3 different packages. What was your impression of SysAid versus WebHelp?

SysAid seems like it gets the job done. It's not a glam option, but if I want to take a field out, I can do it in a minute. Our needs are pretty basic - I'm not too worried about support, but it's the principal of not wanting to get in bed with a company that has shit support.

That said, I was kind of put off by the mac-esque UI. There's something about a non-Apple program trying to imitate that is just...annoying. It's like the old adage that sex sells - updated for 2011 - Apple sells.

I really wish that Zendesk had a local version. It had a pleasing UI, and a good balance of features and usability. The weird LDAP integration and hosted nature was the nail in the coffin for us though.
 
SysAid didn't even come up in my searches actually (I do wish i'd made a note of all the packages/demos i tried but i only remembered those which were contenders). In fairness it looks alright but it's rather cluttered (i expect that's customizable).

I'm not sure i quite get the mac/apple reference. Are you referring to WHD? I find the interface pretty good (simple yet effective). I found out the other day there's an iPhone app too which is pretty cool/handy!

I have to admit i'm in the fortunate position that i'm the sole user so there is zero cost for WHD. It seems to offer just the right balance (being simple yet at the same time powerful). Everything else i looked at either seemed too complex, miss vital features/functionality or was beyond my budget.

Interestingly I seem to remember having exactly the same issue when searching for an accounting package/solution!
 
I've only had one issue where I need to call SysAid for support and they helped me pretty quickly. It wasn't even a problem, just needed to know how to get the SR emails to come to me. For day to day use I have had no trouble with the software at all. SysAid also has an iPhone app :)
 
Thanks for the impression.

Yes, I was referring to WHD with the aesthetics. I honestly don't care, that wasn't my evaluation criteria, it was just a personal observation. It did put me off a little however. I'm not sure how that reference could be missed though, right down to their homepage design cues - navigation bar, iOS style buttons, and even the oblong high gloss buttons on the help desk UI itself.

I'd say you are very fortunate in that position, being a sole user. Scaling WHD up to n number of admins would be very costly.

That said, I'm all about the best tool for the job. In our case (doubling the expenditure) I didn't see enough value add for us, aside from the UI differences.
 
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We use ServiceNow. I hate it with a bloody passion.
 
One heads up on SysAid. I had my boss place the order for a Pro license, 3 Admin Accounts.

However, when you perform the installation you are required to create a non-domain Administrator account. This is fairly important, as you can't disable the account.

I frowned a little bit at this. This was not something I even thought of as we purchased. We have 3 people that will use the software, so having 3 'seats' for admins is important. Granted I do understand why it exists, and why it is necessary.

The idea of having 3 active admins for the base Pro price is a bit misleading. Consider it a PSA for anyone in the market. I'll update this as I hear back from them, but for now if you have 3 people on site and want to use LDAP, plan on buying Pro + 1 seat I guess? :rolleyes:

Update 9/15:
I called SysAid, got tired of waiting for them to contact me about this. Turns out you do NOT need to keep that account. I tried numerous times to delete the account to no avail Tuesday, but after speaking to a tech I tried it again, and lo and behold, it was gone.

I noticed the same thing when modifying rights - I promoted my login to admin and it kept popping up saying I didn't have rights to do this or that. Today I can do anything I need to. Strange, but it might explain why I was unable to delete the account immediately after promoting my own login. Just wanted to update this for posterity, SysAid came through.
 
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J32P said:
Just out of curiosity, was JIRA one of the possible candidates? If so, why did you pass on it?

Also, I looked at the demos on Parature, doesn't seem bad at all. However, with that said, the people in charge here are very cheap.
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It was, however honestly I did not feel like attempting to set it up as a ticketing system. We use it extensively as a bug/issue/task tracker though. In the end I needed something browser based that just worked out of the box or needed very little upkeep, with support we could lean on. I wear too many hats already.
 
+1 for OTRS, it's what I settled on.

Also, I haven't seen mentioned: http://osticket.com/ Very basic and easy to use/setup, but no major customization unless you are a coder and write them yourself.
 
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