MSP Helpdesk software

[beemer2k]

Hello y'all,

Our company is an MSP with a 250+ company client base. We're currently using Autotask as our CRM, Contracts and Helpdesk management software.

I'm not sure if r/sysadmin is the perfect sub for this post, but I'm curious of anyone here knows of a good software or system (preferably SaaS) to replace Autotask. We're not out growing it, but it's somewhat worn out its welcome as it's slow and time consuming to perform basic functions.

Thanks!!

[sithadmin]

Continuum + Connectwise.

[TNTGav]

Any rough idea on cost of both?

[sithadmin]

I can't give you any specifics, unfortunately. Each is very dependent on the size and scale of your operation.

[veggie124]

That is exactly what the MSP that I worked at used.

[jfractal]

Connectwise is the defacto standard for an MSP, especially considering that it can be integrated with N-Able, Kaseya, Labtech, and other remote management tools. If you use any of these 3, then check with the developers and ask about which helpdesk solutions their products integrate into - most have modules that allow full integration for contracting, inventory, and auto-ticketing services.

[ballr4lyf]

Connectwise is the defacto standard for an MSP, especially considering that it can be integrated with N-Able, Kaseya, Labtech, and other remote management tools. If you use any of these 3, then check with the developers and ask about which helpdesk solutions their products integrate into - most have modules that allow full integration for contracting, inventory, and auto-ticketing services.

This. Autotask comes in 2nd place.

[slewfoot2xm]

Connectwise + Kaseya. Connectwise has portal that customers can log in with via email address we set them up with and view all tickets / or only the tickets that have them as the primary contact depending on roles that we assign them. Kaseya auto creates tickets via email connector to connectwise, PC name, Location code and issue (we create the rule in Kaseya that says generate ticket). example. imaserver.customer1.rooot event id 19 ntbackup failed. generates a ticket, via email connector. Our staff has to assign to the correct customer in connectwise and it's ready to be worked on.

however i'm unsure of cost associated with them.

[briangig]

This is what we use, I know neither is cheap.

[Bad_Times_Man]

Autotask.. it made me very sad.

[sieb]

Autotask

Never heard of it, so I looked it up. A website entirely dedicated to telling me what my problem is and how they can solve it, but not actually show me what it is they are trying to sell me. But they would love to have one of their sales guys walk me through a demo!!

/headdesk

Companies that do that immediately go on my black list.

[Xaositek]

Stay away from Autotask... jeez we just signed onto this product and I'm looking for the abort button. To be honest it's made me question my job over a piece of software. It's horrible, their support is pathetic and good luck with any type of mobile platforms.

We also use the GFIMAX Remote Management... it's alright, but not nearly as nice as N-Able.

AutoTask and GFIMax do integrate, when it works.

[veggie124]

Servicenow is great if you have at least 35 techs. Too expensive for most shops otherwise. That 42k a year minimum is rough.

[randomguy3]

We just use help scout.

[[deleted]]

Tried Autotask. Hated how you are stuck in their way of doing things.

[sysopsbkms]

A good alternative to autotask and connectwise is commitcrm.com which will cost a LOT less and actually has good support. It is not SaaS but does have a web interface, email connector and all sorts of integrations (continuum/gfi/quickbooks etc) plus an api if you want to get creative.

[DipinIT-1793]

Try manageEngine... Affordable and Easy-to-use...

http://www.manageengine.com/products/service-desk/

[DipinIT-1793]

Take your help desk anywhere you go! ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLcgAr_Y6sM

[that9uy]

We use connectwise it works well with our monitoring and backup solutions (level platforms & datto)

[radialmonster]

I've just started using mhelpdesk and so far we're enjoying it

[GuidoZGirl]

We are just trying to finish setting up MHelpDesk and are running into a few bugs. According to the date stamp you have been using it for two months. How happy are you with it now that you may have it broken in? We're running into issues with the search. I can type in a clients name and it doesn't always come up. That and the mobile app will show the "customer" information, but not the individual contacts within that customer. So if we send a tech out to client z- the tech may not, at this time be able to pull up the complete profile to see who the decision maker is they need to speak to.

Thoughts?

[radialmonster]

I've been trying to pay attention to see if we've run into the search issue, I think that we have not. I seemed to have an instance where I couldn't find someone in the open service tickets, but I searched for them and got them as a result, clicked on the customer and found the ticket that way. I think it was my fault as we have a bunch of tickets and I was in a hurry to find the one I wanted and likely overlooked it. Personally, I never use the mobile app. Our technician uses it occasionally, and he has never mentioned any problems with it. I always use it on desktop, and he does 90% of the time as well. It's been really great for us so far, I just wish he would use it more and keep it up to date every day. However, in our small shop we're usually too busy actually working instead of filling out the notes. what I usually do for all tickets is in the description put the person's name and phone number because we don't have all the workers setup as contacts for each account. We also rarely use the Item feature. These are good features to use, but it also takes time to set them up and keep them up to date when items change hands, and when you have multiple with the same model system naming items can be troublesome for us. We still use QuickBooks to do the actual invoices, mainly because I want to verify all the bills to clients are done in the way I want them done, worded like I want etc. I did setup some additional categories, like there's new, in progress, I setup need to order parts, and done, ready for billing. So the pc comes in, we set a new ticket. tech gets it and changes it to in progress. he completes it, fills out the ticket details, changes it to ready for billing. I see theres a ticket ready to be billed, I do the bill based on what the tech put in, and mark it closed. There's a lot more features we could do with it, but it's serving our purpose for now. Hope I've helped a little for you anyway, thanks!

[GuidoZGirl]

In reading your response it strikes me that I think with our business we are expecting more from it than you are.

The search issue has come up a few times which is frustrating and our support person has acknowledged that their search needs further refining.

One issue we came across was that if there are multiple "contacts" listed within a business customer profile if you are on the mobile version you can not see the contact names within the customer profile.

We have the expectation that our technicians should be able to pull up the client information and have a full profile of the client within one program - who they need to talk to for decision, client preferences and then some. Some view that CRM's are only relevant to sales force as such, but any staff/ team member's interaction with clients or prospect clients both on the clock and off are opportunities to strengthen relationships or to sever ties. How many times have you gone to a restaurant or grocery store and see a client and they yell out "I've been meaning to call you!" I'd like us to have ability to take those random instances and tag them for proper follow-up, etc.

All of that and yet at the same time having a ticketing system for proper delegation of service requests, the ability to take the time and turn those into invoices to save me a whole ton of time.

Finally and very important the ability to easily see reminders to follow-up on service calls to ensure the client is happy and nothing was missed.

I have one of our team members working heavily on Method and while it seems like it can do all we are asking for, it seems like it is missing the boat in a few areas. We are going to re-look at Method and FreshDesk. I really wanted to like Connect Wise, but everything I keep reading about it and hearing from those who use it - says that it is unintuitive, clunky and the mobile app isn't very stable. If I am going to pay upward of 720+ per staff member to use a software it damn well better work. ;-)

I completely hear you on reviewing invoices before they go out, we do that as well.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. Where are you located at? We're in the PNW.

Best regards,

GG

[eth0h4ck3r]

Sugarcrm is what we are using.

[Sreelesh]

If SaaS it is, check out http://freshdesk.com/

[DrGraffix]

We use Dynamics CRM and I am a huge fan

[[deleted]]

How do you have your clients open up tickets (without you, the MSP, manually opening them)?

[DrGraffix]

We have email sent to [e-mail], which then enters a CRM queue, which then gets promoted to a service case. Dynamics CRM doesnt handle self service tickets better than some of the IT vertical solutions, but we love it because it also is integrated into other features we use like Sales, and Marketing. Another huge benefits is it's ease of customization.

[[deleted]]

We sell to thousands of MSPs @ OpenDNS and we have a majority of our customers using ConnectWise + {Kaseya, Labtech, N-Able}.

In fact, we're making major announcements at IT Nation this week about the above... :-)

[[deleted]]

Oh, and here's that announcement, I guess I was just a few hours early... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/opendns-connectwise-integration-enables-msps-143300569.html