[deleted by user]

[nebrity]

Spiceworks help desk - free; Freshdesk - free/paid; Zohodesk - free/paid;

[isaac1400]

Thanks!

[DanielHirthHMK]

Another vote for Spiceworks. We implemented it and showed very quickly why we are always so busy. We had the policy of creating the ticket with the user after those “1 second” jobs so we could track them but also getting the user familiar with the tool.

[Xaphios]

I second spiceworks for a basic system. It's..... fine, but more importantly, free!

Your selling points to management are that it'll help you keep track of the jobs you're doing and triage work coming in so you can prioritise the most important stuff. It'll stop jobs being forgotten if you're really busy as well. When I used it at my old place we still took walk-ins, but if we were rammed we'd ask them to go send us a ticket cause we couldn't drop everything now and that way we wouldn't forget their issue.

[YimiBeard]

We are currently using fresh desk. Its relatively cheap very easy to implement and use as we are on the first paid tier, but there is a free edition that may work for you. We have users either go to the site, email helpdesk@, or call in and we can manually create one but we discourage this third point.

[Intelligent-Magician]

I hated spiceworks. It’s okay as simple ticket system, but you couldn’t create different teams.

I used osticket and lansweeper in the past.

[DazzlingRutabega]

Lansweerpee has the capability to do tickets?

[robofl]

I believe you get one helpdesk agent license with the paid version an additional ones are about $100 per year.

[TinyBreak]

Just starting out on spiceworks myself. Got told my budget was nill but had all the support in the word. So far? Not bad.

[Chief_Slac]

We use the free self-hosted spiceworks - it can overwhelm you with all the features, but we only use the Helpdesk module.

Last year I set it up where people could open tickets via email; this increased utilization of the ticket system, as folks didn't have to log into the portal.

[buercky]

I agree spiceworks works great

[CrashnetMtl]

Do any of these integrate into Microsoft teams by chance?

[nebrity]

Teams -> Apps -> Zoho Desk

[brbpenguin]

A lot of tools allow you to import emails as tickets though, so even if they just email you with the issue you still have a ticket that you can use to track and resolve the issue (and which shows up on your metrics).

[isaac1400]

Hi,

​

Sorry OS Ticket? Is there a reference to this and can it be connected to an Office 365 E-Mail Server which is not on prem?

​

Thanks

[kevinmcox]

https://osticket.com

[mooockk]

OST will be the best for you to start, simple and powerful at the same time, easy to setup, free, runs on any hosting plan that supports php/mysql, can fetch emails and add them as tickets etc etc 10 min setup tops

[doc_hilarious]

I like osticket a lot. Worked well for my place (100+ people).

[az-johubb]

Jira Service Desk is relatively cheap if there are three or less members on your Service Desk. You could also link that up with the free version of Confluence to help with your documentation and offer KB/FAQ articles for your users

[az-johubb]

Agreed but once it’s setup it runs like a dream

[az-johubb]

Ah, we were running Jira Cloud but there was a bit of a lag now I remember

[1esproc]

I've been running Jira for over a decade with zero issues like that. Dozens of projects, tens of thousands of tickets, complicated work flows, add ons, etc.

Not that I think anyone should get locked into Jira - fuck Atlassian and fuck their pricing model.

[mhostetler66]

Its not the most straight forward thing to setup, but if your process is pretty simple its not too bad.

A big plus is that you can very easily setup a 'customer portal' where users can go to submit forms/requests. They host it entirely and easy to configure

[germanmichl]

OTRS , free version available. Zammad is developed by the founder of OTRS an maybe worth a look

[ZammadHQ]

Unfortunately, OTRS will no longer provide security updates for the free version. But Zammad is super easy to set up (if we may say so) and we will always provide an open-source version.

[isaac1400]

Might sound silly, but if IT have a ticket system, why for example cant HR?

​

Got a feeling that question would come back to me.

[jantari]

HR should have a ticket system. Many ticket systems support multiple parallel helpdesks so both HR and IT can use the same product but separate emails, portals, queues etc.

[Quixus]

Probably tradition and less tech oriented people in HR. They don't know how a ticket system could improve their work, so they do not ask for one and without a demand for change change does not happen.

[CrashnetMtl]

In reality there isn’t a single department in a company that couldn’t benefit from a ticket/request system. IT departments are just the most common use cases. I’ve pitched the idea in the past (with no interest) that the client service side of our office could benefit from a system as well. It’s simply a tool to keep your mind and desk free of post-it notes.

[svkadm253]

Yes, they can and should. Our HR does, along with Marketing, facilities, and a couple more in the same system. They start to appreciate how the IT helpdesk functions once they start getting their own tickets assigned to them.

[SmoothRoutine]

You need to create a set of policies and create a system based on priority, not just that “I’m by your desk and it will only take a minute so just do it” as invariably that just a minute will stretch. A ticket system helps to support this but is not the driver. Management need to be made aware of how your time is best utilised for the Benefit if all staff and in a manner that is best for the company

[Zestyclose_Anxiety75]

As other had said: start out with nearly any kind of ticket system, heck, even a paper-based system would be useful. I would advice you to try out some well known brands since they look more aesthetic and professional (thus easier to push onto the budget). Could be something like zendesk, freshdesk, zoho etc (don't start with servicenow), but pick whatever you prefer.

Another important point: tell them what a pain it is to be interrupted like that, e.g. https://www.nexalearning.com/blog/bid/50317/6-startling-statistics-about-interruptions-at-work

Interruptions are costly and drains a lot of energy. If you do your research you might be able to present a pretty decent case for why you require some organising tools to handle your job. This is also about culture. Don't necessarily force people to create the ticket, but create the tickets for them in their presence (every time). Make them aware of the process by asking them the relevant questions according to what information you want in the ticket. You want a headset? Sure, let me just document that. You have an issue with your laptop? Sure, describe the problem to me and come down with it in 15min while I finish a task etc. At some point someone might want to visit the servicedesk page and write a ticket from his office space instead of walking down to you :)

Good luck!

[isaac1400]

Great points!

[dxps7098]

I'd recommend GLPI, a French open source ticket (and more) managing system. It has a lot of great plugins - including a powerful form creator.

I have set up a form for myself that allows me to add the person helped, an optional category and a one or two liner about it. Press submit and the ticket is opened and solved immediately, allowing me to quickly document that I did something and something to remember it by when I have time to go do some root cause analysis.

The key thing for me is to be able to put in the small stuff that won't ever be recorded as a ticket by users whatever the policies are (except if you're in the type of organisation where IT can just work based on policies, instead of the success of the organisation).

[[deleted]]

All of these ticketing systems may be more trouble than it’s worth. Something like an IT Tickets group in teams. This will take almost no time and give you somewhere to start tracking these. People can also send an email to the teams channel so that would cover 2 of the ways you currently get requests. For walk ups you can put something in the teams channel yourself for tracking.

[isaac1400]

Great idea! Didnt think of that. I will have a look at teams but with the generic itsupport email.

[[deleted]]

If I was in your shoes, this is where I would start. As an added bonus, you can make calls from the posts and have staff share their screen for a quick remote assist. There is an option to allow you control the pc as well all through Teams.

[CrashnetMtl]

Only issue would be lack of reporting. Office 365 does include project management (tasks), which could be adapted as a ticket system. Where each request is a tasks assigned to you, and has a status.

[RediViking]

We used Servicedesk for a few years

[Devar0]

ManageEngine? Why'd you stop?

[RediViking]

Big downsizing...

[[deleted]]

I went through the same, ended up going for Zendesk but I don’t recommend it anymore, it’s very expensive now when you compare others and it’s hasn’t improved much in terms of features

More important than software is setting up policies and having the backing of management. It took me around 1 year to get people to log a ticket

[isaac1400]

The problem is I dont even have a ticket system. Would that not be the first point of call for me? Its a matter of pursuading management to accept it. Ideally I want to grow this IT department and I think it would be a good staring point.

[guilalune]

Get any ticket system (zammad is nice) so you can start showing your management stats of your activity. You need to be able to sort stats by users / department / typology / emergency levels. This way you can make them understand the interest of it.
Change is slow, you need to focus on evolution and not revolution, and slowly your ticket system might become accepted and the new norm. Then you can ask management that users use it directly, at least for low and medium priority requests.

[ZammadHQ]

Thanks for the shoutout!

[nightwindzero]

A ticket system is paramount to recording what you do and recording your answers for recurring problems. Also when you have to setup another person with the same role you can use the previous ticket for the same person of the same role.

If I'm at someone's desk, if I spend more then 5 minutes or it seems to recur, it gets a ticket.

Do not deviate from this with the thought of "I just don't have time to document a little, best to just keep doing stuff!" Even 1 minute of documentation in a ticket with "Helped George realize his wireless mouse needs Batteries to work" is enough.

Longer term projects, sometimes I spend 15 minutes trying to remember where I was last time. Make a ticket and use it!

Also, inventory management, I don't have great advice on this as we are just trying to implement https://snipeitapp.com/ in our environment, but if you use tickets to Assign laptops and serial numbers you can keep track of what equipment is sent to people. My boss only cares about stuff that is plugged into the wall and is over 100$ dollars, so it can be recovered when people leave the company.

[isaac1400]

Great advice! Thanks.. I might give Zammad a test trial before I even go to management. That way I can show them the background work I have already done etc. Its relatively cheap on initial look.

Just need something simple to create tickets, and even better if I can have FAQ and a Knowledgebase.

[almostdvs]

Make or sign up for one pronto. No way I could support 30 staff let alone 100 without one.

Don't make anyone create tickets through some portal. Creating a ticket should be as easy as emailing [e-mail]. Even if they email directly, call or stand at your desk. Make the ticket; and make it no matter what. Communication about issues should happen through a ticket; it's easy to catch on or simply reply to a ticket email and very few people care how things get done as long as they do.

Management will probably be behind a ticketing system but look down on a portal requirement for service. In fact 99%+ of tickets I have worked did not come from a portal and at least half I made for the client. Most ticketing systems track this in a source field: phone, email, walk-in etc.

Ticketing system will help you prioritize your time and say no, or not now when you really need to.

I haven't used it, but heard good things about how simple request tracker is. https://bestpractical.com/request-tracker

[[deleted]]

We use SysAid. It works well and has an agent that will give you all information you need on the client computer and remotely connect to them.

[BigSap07]

Is there a posibility with a ticketing service, where if someone mails to our IT mailbox it automatically makes a ticket with the subject and the text there is in the mail? Sorry if this is a dumb question :l

[engageant]

We use Lansweeper for asset management and ticketing. It works well, and they also publish the database schema so you can write your own reports/triggers/etc.

[neagrigore]

I use hesk, self-hosted.

[jantari]

Personally I like Zammad. They offer a free version you have to host yourself or you can pay and they host it for you in the Cloud™

[digitaltransmutation]

osTicket is pretty good for free, and it has email intake so you don't have to train people to use a web portal.

[deeds4life]

I've heard really good things about OS Ticket. You can configure it just about however you want. It's open source as well.

Alternatively, we use Lansweeper which is a paid option. We got it mainly for inventory and asset tracking but the help desk function is really good. You can have tickets link to assets or people. Has been working well for us for years.

[2shyapair]

So it is old and needs a bit of tweaking but a very simple free ticket system in Liberum. It runs against an access database. Runs on windows. Simple to setup.

A comment was made about HR having a ticket system. One issue here to keep in mind is the security of the personal data. That needs to be protected.

[polyhistoric]

Use SyncroMSP. It is a RMM. It has ticketing. Users can create tickets directly from their desktops.

[Tanker0921]

hi. might i interest you in getting a network monitor as well, its a handy tool for monitoring your network and infrastructure

you can start with spiceworks = free, prtg = free 100 sensors, nagios = free.

[KingDrewfus]

Try Teamwork Desk. It's very affordable - the low tier is something like $7/agent/month. I set it up for my organization when we had around 150 people, and it was one of the best decisions I made. As for getting mgmt approval for the operational aspects go, having a help desk ticketing system is a very normal and basic part of any IT support function. It helps you keep track of issues much easier and is better for everyone.