Companies with vast resources and capital have several options for choosing a help desk system. Meanwhile companies with a tight budget can opt for open source helpdesk software. A few such options are Liberum Help Desk, OS Ticket, OTRS, Request Tracker and HelpSpot. Liberum is a web-based help desk software solution for handling customer requests in a small company.
To run Liberum, you need an MS SQL server or Windows NT/2000/XP with IIS. The application is written in VBScript/HTML for ASP. You need more than 6 MB of hard disk space (1MB for web pages+5MB for database) and a web browser. The functions available in Liberum, though less in number, are useful. Its automatic mail function allows customers to display and track problems themselves. Users can use its simple knowledge base to find solutions easily.
An open source helpdesk software solution means you can copy the source code and customise it as per your requirements. You would need to know the coding language. For example, to customise Liberum, you would need to know VB/HTML/ASP. Open source solutions are ideal, if you want to construct a web-based helpdesk software solution on your own. Most such software can be used as is because these have the basic features of a helpdesk system. For software such as Liberum, you need a server.
OS Ticket is a simple ticketing system that you can easily setup and start using. Its code is mostly written in PHP. OTRS is a trouble ticket software system that can be used to monitor customer phone calls and e-mail requests. You can integrate your customer support services, pre-sales, sales, billing, in-house IT, and helpdesk in one system. It is coded using PERL and open sourced under the GPL.
OTRS has many search options and certain other desirable functions such as the ability to retrieve mails and send pre-defined replies, an option for closing the ticket if inactive and the POP3 checker. Request tracker is another open source helpdesk software solution written in object-oriented PERL. It can be moved to and used from any computer or any operating system. Because of its enterprise-grade characteristics, it allows a team of people to work smartly and efficiently to manage tickets created by a group of customers and users.
Apart from help desk, Request Tracker helps in project management, CRM, NOC ticketing, and software development. It does this by helping users to manage tasks implemented at enterprise-level such as the detection, classification, prioritization, assignment, resolution and notification. This platform has been used by support staff, systems administrators, software developers, IT managers, and sales departments of several Fortune 100 companies, government institutes, educational agencies, and global development organizations.
The open source helpdesk software solution, HelpSpot, helps you run your help desk by doing more than ensuring that customer requests are answered on time. It provides features such as real-time analysis and request tracking. It helps you view the help desk data in various useful ways by fast reporting and quick filtering.
