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Web-Based Helpdesks?
Vanbo asks: "My job requires that I be in the field all day, and I don't have the ability to check my voicemail regularly, so I ask people to email me with problems, then I check my mail with Webmail. Lately, I have been thinking it would be much easier if people could post their problems (ala ask slashdot) to a webpage on our mailserver. I don't need something as powerful as slashcode, but just maybe something that allows them to select from pull downs of common problems, and then when they submit it, it could be emailed to me. Anyone, implimented a support system like this? Any draw backs to this approach?" Seems like a novel approach. Does this seem like a good idea to you?
Just trying to get this story off to a better start than the last one. DO NOT click on any link that goes to http://www.multimania.com/abuabu/slashdothole.html
Yes, I have seen this kind of idea being implemented, there are no real drawbacks to it, it works quite fine, depending on how important the security of the emails is going to be it will present you with a problem, but other than that it works very well, I had implemented it once, it is very good. No big draw backs.
The only problem I would see is the problem with all internet based tech-support. If your computer won't boot, or you can't get online, you are sort of out of luck. But as he said he also has voicemail, so with both the idea is pretty sound. Plus it would be pretty easy to set up. 'e-Support' is a good idea, but it will never fully replace phone support, especially for novices.
I Haven't Lost My Mind -- It's Backed Up On Disk Somewhere
My rantings, only longer and with better spelling..
-Nathan
No waaay.... Anyway, artifical life already does AI based web help desks. But it's not a discussion board. But wouldn't a trained expert system be better an a bunch of clueless AC first posters? heh... Maybe, but anyway, a-life has a lot of money. They do their own venture capital funding of other AI projects. I've used a-life's agents though and they're pretty lame, they periodically spit out ads for alife. You can be saying "you suck!" for 5 minutes and every 10th or so responce is "have you heard about alife's amazing agent technology, we've recieved so much funding blah blah..." It's actually pretty funny.
___________________________
Michael Cardenas
http://www.fiu.edu/~mcarde02
http://www.deneba.com/linux
hyperpoem.net
Check freshmeat! I've tested out several systems listed there. Most are PHP/MySQL scripts..
so they are easily customized.
I've written a simple help desk tracking system in ASP. It's nothing too complicated... and I never got around to finishing the reporting features, however it is great for keeping a paper trail of all the requests that come into the helpdesk, and a history of tasks performed to solve the issue.
It is all setup for some in depth reporting, and it's ASP so I don't claim it.
I'd be happy to post it for interested parties. Just contact me at my email... remember to nuke the spam proofing before you mail me.
Go to Byte magazine and check out John Udel's columns dealing with NNTP groupware. You may think you want something less complex than /. , but even slashdot isnt mail or newsreader based (sadly). If you want pple to post to a mailserver or use a client like that, definately read John Udel or his books. Sorry no link but i'll put one here from a search on Byte
Is not a Bad Idea Rob.....
I'm not trying to flame the faceless masses, but...
I think it would be very problematic if the main "customers" were not technically/computer inclined. We live in a world where X thousand people clicked on a VBS script without knowing what it is, then blamed Microsoft for letting them do it. So many people can barely figure out e-mail, you could be asking to trouble by giving them a more complex system to deal with.
That said, it would probably be pretty cool if it was used by sharper minded folk. Throw in a indexed stash of prior problems, and it would cut your workload quite a bit.
...
Got Warez?
Now I know what to bring up at our next staff meeting. This sounds like it would very useful to customers, but it could also be abused by them as well. As far as any other company that uses this I cant help you.
Claiming that your operating system is the best in the world because more people use it is like saying McDonalds makes
http://fsck.com/projects/rt Does pretty much what you want.
We have a system set up for the tech department at my school that is like this. We instruct people to go to our web site, and they fill in all of their contact information, as well as a quick description of their problem (hardware, software, network, user error, etc...) and then issue a description of their own.
This is all backed up to a database so that it can be sorted and later archived. A simple adminsitrative interfaces allows several techs to access this system, and mark something as theirs to work on, or delegate it to the particular person. There is also room for us techs to make comments on particular requests.
This method has worked great for us, the only problem is remembering to check it on a routine basis, and from the sounds of it, that won't be a problem for you. And obviously, it wouldn't be too difficult to tie it to an email program.
(Heck, if all you want is for the problems to get emailed from a nice interface to you, you dont even need a fancy system behind it, just a decent mailto script.)
--Ed
myself and my co-workers post summaries of problems, and when a solution is found, we just post a followup.
then there is a search engine, where we can find the information very quickly.
something like that may be helpful for you to create, especially if clients can find solutions to their problems on their own with a simple search.
there are several commercial products which do this also, but I'm a do-it-yourself type personally.
in any event, what you describe should be very simple in perl, or any similarly functioning language.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
I poured hot grits down my pants! What should I do?
orI tried to display pictures of Natalie Portman Naked, and my system crashed!
orLinux Sucks
Feed The Need[goatse.cx]
How about when the submit it, a solution to the common problem appears on a webpage. Looks to like as though all you want is a FAQ page.
Any CGI scripter worth their salt can make a web based system like this. The eCommerce sites I've made work like that... the order is sent to the retailer and another copy to the customer..... it works rather well!
I'm facing the same issues right now, and trust me, it's not the nicest field to play in. Basically, you have four options : Get commercial off-the-shelf solutions, get some open source solution (IRM and PHPHelpdesk jumps to my mind right now.), hire a developper to make one custom fit, or make one yourself.
Now, on the the debunking of my own affirmation (Trust me, I've done 4 weeks of research on that recently).
1- Commercial off the shelf : I dont know how big a user base you'll be dealing with, but since you seem to be alone, I'll assume under 250 users. The cheapest "helpdesk" commercial solution you can get with web based problem reporting goes around 5000$. And you'll have to setup your own MS SQL / MS NT / IIS to support it.
2- Open source: IRM is nice, PHPHelpdesk seems promising, but unless you have extensive MySQL / PHP / Apache experience, I recommend you stay away from them. They are poorly documented, and even tho the end result is nice, they seem a bit "unfinished".
3- Getting someone to develop: Now, that's my best option so far. For under 5000$, I'll have someone develop a simple set of forms + reports + agent based on our Domino server architecture. Meaning I get an already enterprise supported platform to build on, some scripting I can understand, web-based user forms, and something that can grow. The best thing is that we plan to open source the scripts once we're up and running.
4- Developping the bugger yourself: Well. This one I crossed right off. If you're anything like me, you're already overloaded with supporting your users, and dont have much free time to start hacking a helpdesk together.
That being said, my opinion is to go for option 3, find some nice person that will custom-fit a solution to your needs, and make it usable for you. That way, you get support, working solution in no time, and expansion possibilities. You dont need / cant afford / dont want to support the cheapest of the "off-the-shelf" solution out there. Trust me. Mail me if you want to discuss this some more.
Marriage is considered capital punishment for the theft of a goat in some third world countries...
I think atleast one level of priority should exist... like managment should be able to page you with the system to your Alpha numeric pager, etc... That should eliminate most concerns of using the web as being slower than real life...
While i would recommend a web based ticket tracking system, I'm not altogether sure that a fully web based support system is the answer. For one thing, it removes the personalized aspects of the support process. Customers, or whoever, may have problems letting you know exactly what needs to be done, as they may not fully know themselves. After all, that's what you're there for.
That being said. There is a really good utility that we use here at my company, a Problem Resolution support system. Users are allowed to login and create problem reports, then assign them a priority and a status (such as open, feedback, etc.) - This allows the most pressing problems to get tackled first. Additionally, when a problem report changes status, or gets closed, - both the user and the tech (or whoever) get notified via email.
While this may not be exactly what you're looking for..it's a good variant. Just remember...none of it is as good as a phone call, or better yet, being there in person.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
As you can see here.
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
We had to do something very similar to this. Basically we just modified the wwwboard.cgi script at Matts Script Archive. But I agree with several posts made earlier, there are Lots of similar programs like the one you're looking for at Freshmeat Good Luck!
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Here is my Direct Violation of Microsoft's Copyrig
Alex.
RT, Keystone, and php Helpdesk would be good starting points.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. -- Oscar Wilde
The software from Motive allows users to go to a webpage and submit incidents via a specific problem area. A general diagnostic specific to that area is then run on that local PC and sent back to the queue where it can be picked up by a qualified IT member. Right now the incident in the queue is picked up by software(not via webpage) but I can see how it might be done in the future.
Content is also downloaded to the local PC so that when Internet connectivity is down, there is some help on getting it back up.
Disclaimer: I am currently a Motive employee and might be biased towards our product.
Check out Apache Jetspeed . We are working on version 1.2 right now and it will include Project Management and iCalendar support. Should be just wnat you need. Expect about a week or so for version 1.2.
Kevin
The problem with computer based help board systems instead of getting supporton the phone, is some people can't handle the computer systems, and have questions about how to use that.
I (along with a group) actually wrote a very involved helpdesk for a nationwide company as a part of a college project, we used logins, so you could log in and post problems from anybody's computer. The helpdesk was nice, but the more important part was keeping statistics of what the IT department was doing all day, that way when their boss asked why he was paying them they had pages of reports on everything they'd done. Combined with the fact that this company was based overseas was a great solution for them, because the highups who weren't stateside could check out how the computers were working.
McAfee/NAI has a really slick setup called Total Help Desk that we've got installed at our company. It's much more cost-effective than you might think: sure, you're going to shovel $20k in up front, but the functionality is unbelievable.
It includes a lot of things you wouldn't be able to put together yourself. For example, it has a built-in knowledge base that you can search, and it automatically indexes all of the generated tickets. When you enter a ticket, or when you're working with a user, you can see all of their previous tickets at the click of a mouse, so you can see if some junior help desk flunky screwed up their system yesterday.
It has a lot of canned reports that show the average time to solve a problem, average hold time, and more.
It e-mails everyone involved when the status on a help ticket changes - for example, if I say that a ticket is fixed, that status update is emailed to me, to the user, and to the user's manager. It keeps our help desk staff from "hiding" tickets, and it keeps the users from whining that nobody has looked at their ticket recently.
It has an awesome "escalation" mechanism that can automatically escalate tickets to the right staff member based on their skill set. For example, I'm registered in the system with certain key words. If an FTP problem goes unsolved for more than 2 hours, I get an e-mail, and I know I should jump in. If a TCP/IP problem goes unsolved for more than 3 hours, our network admin is e-mailed, because she can probably help out - but I don't want to know about it. However, if any ticket is open for more than 16 hours, all of the key managers are e-mailed.
It even works as a development tracking utility. We track requests for enhancement in it, and we can see how long it takes for a bug to get fixed. The testing department loves it, because we can track how many times an issue gets bounced back to development because the coders can't code worth a damn. The contract programmers love it because they can work from home and still maintain full contact.
Before you start thinking about writing one of these, I'd strongly suggest looking at a demo of McAfee's solution. We looked at it and realized that we could put a talented coder to work for a year and not come out with a solution this hot. (The best thing is that it's all in SQL, so you can do your own PHP interface if you want. I wrote some addons in Drumbeat already.)
What's your damage, Heather?
Forgot to mention this. We use GNATS. It's under the GPL so it's definitely worth what you'd pay for it. :)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
Take a look at Call Center, Bug Tracking and Project Management Tools for Linux, which has a bunch of these.
Gnu Bug Tracking System (Gnat) has a billion (or so) user interfaces you can use with it - Tk, web, command-line, etc.
Even the high-end call-tracking systems like remedy can be (and often are) configured to email you when you get a new case assigned to you, but these are hugely expensive and it doesn't sound like you wanted to spend a lot of money.
My provider has an extensive online helpdesk. Not that I need helpdesk handholding *g*. Check out http://www.xs4all.nl/helpdesk/index.php3, PHP driven, quite good. Hey, they even support Linux! There is also a "service center" where you can change your configuration or request other services without ever calling up the provider. Bottom line, you can automate or script many functions of the helpdesk.
"In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people." --Linus Torvalds
This is a neat idea, and I'm thinking about impelmenting something similar for my users who aren't able to contact us during business hours.
However, I have personally dealt with other support departments via email and web-based help desks, and it can be tedious if either party lacks experience. If the user can't give a detailed account of the problem, you'll find yourself trying to fish out the true nature of the problem for an extended time, possibly several days. Conversely, if the people on the support end lack experience (ie they don't know how to ask the right questions), the problem is compounded.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
--Ambrose Bierce
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
--Ambrose Bierce
Check this out:
http://www.activespace.com
There's a help desk template there you can start from, which you can then customize if you need to. You can also define conditional notification rules to send email when data is added or changed...
OpenTicket
Such a system exists commercially - it is basically a marketplace for IT support. You can provide tech support for a fee, to users who are asked to direct their questions into major and minor "groups" (e.g. Linux -> Networking).
http://www.nowonder.com
This is a commercial solution, but it supports Apache on Linux or FreeBSD with MySQL or Oracle 8 databases. It also does Windows NT/MS SQL/IIS if that's your thing. It is also highly customizable, but all of this comes at a price. They have recently released their source code to us, since we are apparently a large customer of theirs. Overall, I think it's one of the best commercial solutions for what you are looking to do.
darrell
I've been looking for a project to do for my college's MQP and this seems like an interesting thing to do for it. Just what would be required for this? Right now all I'm thinking is a bunch of perl scripts, but I'm sure it would evolve to something more complex than that. What is all the stuff that needs to be stored and searched through? More importantly how big is the demand for a Web Based Helpdesk?
-Mongoose
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Well, I'll post a good comment, unlike the other 70 talking about a bunch of crap
<p>At anyrate, I downloaded PHP helpdesk a couple days ago thinking it would be good for work with keeping people up to date as far as code problems, what's being worked on, etc. However, the code was in an unuseable state, but it's also in version 0.1. PHP is a really easy language, and websites aren't that hard to do, so hopefully they'll get things working good soon. I probably had a misconfiguration somewhere also. But This is exactly what you want, it's go security too, and work with mysql, though with PHP's good database support could easily be ported to another database.</p>
-Mojojojo
good luck,
0taku
%s/windows/linux/g
...we had one email address that all users used to send their support issues (upgrades,hw/sw troubles etc etc). Of course if the network was down or something there was also phones, but email was the primary way of communication (if you machine doesn't work, the one in the next room probably does).
All the support personel there used an app which showed one folder for each technician plus one for the incoming support requests and one for solved issues. As mails dropped in to the central "Incoming" folder any free technician just moved that mail to his folder, solved the issue, replied to the mail with the solution (making it a thread) and then moved the entire thread into the "solved" hierarcy.
The users were also given lots of examples on how to write good problem descriptions etc in order to get as informative reports as possible.....this was one of the best systems I've seen....creating something like that shouldn't be too hard?
He's always told them to E-Mail before, so obviously they're able to E-Mail therefore get to a web page. There are loads and loads of problems that don't involve the ability to get to a web page. Various program information request (IE, how do I do this in Word/Excel/Acess), I need something installed in my computer, I need something removed, my monitor is acting funny, I got a weird error message, I can't connect to the LAN, disk drive isn't working, etc.... That doesn't even count the weird stuff users find wrong ;P The system does work. I work at a place where we have a web page form (Really easy to set up, only slightly harder if you want to make it look really good). It sends to an E-Mail address that sends to everyone at out office so we're all aware of the problem. It's also good for us since we're very large so they can put in if they're on a PC or Mac and what their specs are. You can put in all kinds of stuff that you might forget to ask for over the phone or they might not think to tell you about in a service request.
I've found great success with the Keystone system. It's a PHP and MySQL web-based incident tracking system that makes good use of email for notification and status reports. I believe there is also a module that lets you submit incidents via email.
www.stonekeep.com Check this out...it is a trouble ticket system that I had tested out a while back..
It was simply a serries of drop down lists where you choose your problem, and then it asks more specific questions. At any point you can stop and ask for help from the staff. Or if you are able to pinpoint the problem they offer solutions to fix it.
What they have up now is a chat feature with an area rep. for each region. A compromise between the two might be a message board. Slashcode is more news-oriented, but UBB or OpenTopic should work well. Users would be able to post in relevant topic areas, and could even read the problems that other users have.
There's one piece of software, Gossamer Threads Links that has about the best support forum that i've seen online. Links isn't oss, and they use a UBB, but still, the support model is wonderful. Not only can the people at gossamer threads provide support, but the users support themselves.
Think that was flamebait? You've obviously never met me in person...
$email=~tr/.@/
At work, we use a system called Remedy, we have around 1000 people in the region who we look after out of one central server.
Recently we have started playing around with a web page similar to what you are talking about. We use the web page to send an email to ARMailer, which in turn gets pulled into our Remedy Database.
The main thing that we use Remedy for is for escalation and reporting.
We are working on having the web page talk directly to the database so that you can update the work log and query the case information on all machines.
In your instance I think something similar might be of use, you could dump all the jobs to a database, and when you get near a terminal, jump on and take a look at a web page to tell you what jobs you have got to take a look at.
Berny
Curiosity was framed; ignorance killed the cat. -- Author unknown
ReqNG:
I created my own HTML forms to generate formatted email input and some perl scripts to generate weekly reports. ReqNG has it's own summary report that's suitable for distributing via email.
ReqNG http://reqng.sycore.net/reqng/
TkReq http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~jmelski/tkreq/
WWWReq http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~cvarner/wwwreq/
For departmental-level stuff, there's also the Teacup Problem Report Management System, which I wrote. It's available here. It's written in Perl, and uses the PostgreSQL DBMS as its backend. It's fairly new (released early May) so it may not show up on any catchall problem reporting sites yet.
Check out the LM-sensors project.
They have a pretty good ticketed support system. I think it's purely internal at the moment but you might be able to use it if you e-mail phil@stimpy.netroedge.com
90% of techical support is not finding an answer, or even explaining the technical part of the answer. Most of technical support is providing emotional support to a worried user, and then explaining how to fix the problem to the customer, even if they don't have basic OS skills.
My expereince is hardly exhaustive, but in technical support, we were never wondering to ourselves what "Error 678" meant, or what "Netscape can not find host meant", we were trying to explain to customers that Netscape was not thier ISP, and that it was not that "our server" was down when Netscape was corrupted.
The techincal problems of any one software program are actually pretty easy to figure out after the first week or so of using it, it is the customer service aspect that keeps most help desks buzzing.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
My organization used to have a crude ugly conference system, which left recent postings at the top and did a little bit of nesting. It was very popular, the sales people could use it to talk to each other, and yeah, it got slower every month as the number of articles grew. They replaced it with a fancy system that pretends to do lots of nesting, keep track of what you read, and everything's sorted by topics. It's flaky, hard to navigate in, forgets what you've read, and (worst) doesn't get used as much as the crude system it replaced. They'd have been much better off leaving it alone and occasionally dragging old articles to another directory (or even just trashing them after 6 months, though archiving would be much better.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I have been researching and trying out various Problem Report Management Systems lately at work in order to determine which one we should use. (Keystone would be nice if it were Free Software)
I've not yet fully documented my search and my findings, but I have to say that Double Choco Latte is definately our first choice. Were we using it simply for software development, I would have spent the seemingly considerable amount of time it takes to setup GNATS 4.0, although that is still in development, the release date of which is apparently RSN.
If your needs didn't require web based access, PRePS would be an acceptable choice as well. Heck, if they had a web frontend I'd consider it.
But I have to endorse DCL in this case. We've exchanged some emails with the lead developer, he's a great guy and they've got an incredible system. It may need a little work, considering it isn't yet fully stable/functional though. DCL is a work order system, and is general enough to fit to any trouble ticket/help desk/PRMS task you may need.
--
Gabriel Ricard
Linux Fanatic
Gabriel Ricard
Check out ExpertCity, a neat site that lets you talk in real time with an expert, and it installs client-server software which allows him to literally show you how to do something by taking control of your mouse (which requires your permission and can be disabled at any time of course). I believe the software this service is based on is at BuddyHelp.com.
I had the opportunity to try this service when they were in beta test, before they started charging and it's really pretty cool.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
The biggest problem you'll have it getting users to search for the information or state the problem properly. How many times have you answered the phone only to be told: "The computer won't work." Besides, these people called you because they didn't want to take the time (or have the time) to find the fix to thier problem. I say good luck - you'll end up making a nice way to document problems on your network or create a nice collection of information that noone outside of other computer geeks will want to use.
I worked for a vitamin supplement supplier/formulator with 100 employees and created such a system using (sorry) ASP and IIS and an Access database. It was very easy, took me less than a day to get a working version online. Basically, users logged in, submitted a 'trouble ticket' by selecting a trouble category (Phone, Internet, Goldmine, etc.), severity and provided a description.
:)
Admins could log in, assign trouble tickets to MIS staff, update status, and send email notes to originator and MIS handler. Eventually the "system" evolved with a customizable searchable phone list (we were tired of printing them out). At another company (30 emps), I took the system and added a calendar which pulled everyone's Exchange (sorry) calendar and created a "company" calendar for everyone to search/view.
Pros:
- Allowed employees/management to see what MIS was up to ("Let me drop everything and work on your problem!")
- MIS manager could log in and find out what people are up to (even from home)
- Provided company with an official way to report problems (we had none)
- Execs loved the new "technology" of web based form
- Calendar thing was really cool
Cons
- Users were afraid to use it, many thought it was confusing to log in (this was really due to people having no experience using web pages.)
- It was always easier for users to call in their problems (and not use the site)
- Easier for MIS to receive phone calls than log in and check pending work (I'm not saying this was better, just easier)
- Trouble tickets/Phone lists weren't updated by users/MIS
Eventually, to make it easier on the users, we put shortcuts on everyone's desktop that logged you right in.
You could probably set one up with relatively little cost/time and see what happens. Be sure to get constant feedback from your users to find out what they don't like about the system -- or they'll turn in to a mob of grumbling pissed off users.
If you would like to know more about how I set this up (the Exchange thing was a bitch), send me an email.
I've heard of some cool software called "INN". Not only does it do what is needed, through its "local newsgroup" feature, and has several clones and clients (some proprietary) for almost every platform, it even has a really nest feature that even allows collaboration and solution seeking outside a company on something its users are trying to organize called "Usenet".
A few of my clients have used this in the past, the web add-on is a slightly more expensive add-on ... but it's well worth it ... as a field tech it was priceless to us ... and it comes damn near preconfigured ... it's got a lot of preloaded "stock" responses to alot of problems also if your company implements a triage desk and field techs ... ... we've loved it ... the only disadvantage is that it requires an IIS server ... but that's a small price to pay for an awesome call-tracking system like that ... bemis
Most of the major help desk application vendors tout the fact that their helpdesk system is web-based as being its biggest feature. Check out the offerings from Network Associates, Remedy, Applix, Peregrine Systems, and many others.
The hardest part for me was to find away to implement a generic option for problems not listed in my listed selection. It seems people would rather post everything as generic instead of choose the proper option. ;)
I also made the mistake of letting people issue a priority to there problem. don't do that! within a week every problem was listed with Highest priority. eventualy I let the code determine priority by user name. so the people on the mission criticle side f things where aways bumped up to the top. Not perfect, but we no longer had people listing penny-ante things as highest.
if it wasn't for the users, it would of been a great system
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Why waste time coding something that will never be used?
The answers are already out there... but users aren't saavy enough to find them and apply them - that's where WE come in.
[Connection closed by foreign host]
We have 4 technicians and about 300 employees to support. People usually call but now we're implementing a new system, they can submit a problem report form using our intranet. It then adds the request to a SQL database. Whenever the user connects back to the site, it'll show the status of his Tickets and what's happening with them. The manager sees the ticket and assigns it to someone, when it's over with the technician edits the ticket and writes a resolution. That way whenever a problem like that happens we'll search the database and find solutions quickly.
The techs have their own site in which they can view/create/edit/search for Tickets by Ticket Number, employee, description of problem, etc. Anyway it's way far from done yet but when it'll be done I'm planning on having a FAQ page and a knowledge base so users can quickly resolve their most common problems. It'll also be a great way to communicate new procedures, news, and VIRUS warnings.
We just launch eGain for this type of application to replace inResponse which is a former product of GTE Government Systems (They've been sold off and that product is no longer supported.)
This type of application if more complex that it seems at first, with syncronization of knowledge bases and track "Tickets" of question response systems.
We use it afer the user has gone through the "Self Help" system and answer the "is it plugged in" questions themselves. Then if email cannot address the problem we make phone contact and eventually send out a technician.
Our system is designed to support upto 50 operators in a normal call center handling incomming request/complains/problems.
"Karma can only be portioned out by the cosmos." -- Homer Simpson
We use Tivoli.
Generally, it sucks in the same way MS does in that you use all of it's convoluted features ("All things to all people" approach), but we don't and by logging into a company hosted site, you get a Java based version of the interface.
We just switched off of a limited version (ExpertWeb) due to priority reporting, but is more compatible as they use the MS Java engine.
Another option is to use the free Caimbridge/AT&T VNC thin client to access your internal machine via TCP/IP. I use this to access User Manager and other NT specific tools from Macs anywhere in the country (they won't send me to the London offices, Bastards!).
Hope this helps!
Im acctually in the process of customizing slashcode to do just that. so instead of storys i have clients and im breaking the threads down a little so the first level replys are problems and under that there is what you did each day to come to a solution. but i see slashcode as a excellent basis to work with. anyone interested can e-mail me at jrush@acrux.net
Web based helpdesks are definately a great idea in my opinion. When I first started out at my old company, the helpdesk was run just like yours is now. People would phone us or leave us a voicemail if we weren't there. It wasn't very productive. You'd have to listen to all of your voicemail and jot down what problems people are having and then try to prioritize them. Making matters worse is when people *do* get ahold of you on the phone because no matter how important their problem is, they've got you on the phone and will expect a fix right then and there. I wont even mention the people who manage to pull you aside in the hallway. Finally, we implemented a web based helpdesk. It wasn't anything fancy but it allowed people to log and prioritize their problem. The big plus on the tech end was that we could quickly see an already prioritized list of things to do. No more mucking through all the voicemals, phone calls, and random hallway meetings. We were able to spend more time fixing problems than figuring out what to do next. After awhile, we had a nice knowledgebase that new techs as well as some of the more computer literate employees could search through to find solutions to simple problems. As it grew we added more features to it. One of the more successful ones, depending on the nature and priority of the problem, would email an appropriate tech's cellphone with a new issue that needed his attention. All in all, well worth the time spent developing it. It requires a little user education to be successful (e.g. the fact that the little cat that you have running around your screen isn't working anymore is not a high priority issue).
This shows an example of the FaqOMatic package. Some users may be able to help other users without your input, or if you want, you can jump in when needed.
Organization: alphabetical, sometimes numerical or messy
...................
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What I'm trying to say is: if you start such a thing, be very very sure they'll leave a valid and rapid mode of contact, and urge them to give you a full description of the actual problem. Make it clear in big letters, that if you can't contact them, they're the ones up shit creek, with that paddle, and that you won't shower them should they get out.
Stefan
"Microsoft follows standards, much like fish follow migrating caribou." Paul Tomblin, in the monastery,
The truth shall make you fret. (Ankh-Morpork tImes motto)
I use the keystone help desk system. It is based on php and supports mysql, postgres and other databases. It is also free if you have less than 10 techs who can have tickets assigned to them. You can find it here. -Bill
-- http://GatheredTogether.org - Ministries Helping Ministries
There is much out there for you.
There are some PHP and Perl.
Most require an SQL server but some (like mine) do not.
The issues to look at how much load do you want to handle, how much power do you want and how complex are you willing to put up with.
Slashcode is very powerful and handles the load quite nicely but isn't very easy...
You said power isn't an issue so there is likely to be a good system that handles the load and is very easy.
My own code is very powerful and very easy but with a load it gose up and down like a yoyo... It's also still in dev...
Not the sort of thing you want on a tech support page.
Check out Freashmeat, Linux Directory, Free Code, and Hot Scripts
I don't actually exist.
Firing the guy was unfortunate for two reasons.
1- The guy lost his job, I've been there, that sucks for anyone.
2- The real problem didn't get fixed by firing the guy. (not the segment)
The source of the problem is the processes in your IT and Ops worlds sound pretty broken, and although firnign the poor guy made a few people happy and inflated the egos, it did nothing to prevent the same scenerio from happening again. Thats too bad. The real problem was broken process, not the fact that some slacker was focused more on talking to his girlfriend than giving world class support. Midville School for the Gifted. Tell you exec's to stop trying the same things, yet expecting different results.
Don't just whine about poor internet privacy and freedom policies,
There's a freely available C-based app called
Jitterbug which does bug tracking for Samba,
but it would work fine for what you describe -
it has a web based interface, and good email
support.
I like it.It's a monolithic C program, so
it's both difficult to customize, and also
easy to compile and install.
Building humanistic processes around product is not the right way to get better support, in this case support infrastructure, policies and procedures.
Mine for artifacts, get your requirements down, build or at least outline your process and THEN go get your tools.
Case and Point
Take Clarify or Remedy, both great tools for their applications, but different in longer term functionality and flexibility. Many smaller shops get sucked in by marketeers and pick up a product like one of these two. Then their dot com IPO's and instantly they have a much larger company to support and the tools they had work cut it any longer. What do they do? They run our an buy more tools without re-engineering the processes. This results in IT headaches and much wasted time.
What happens next? They look to something like Web based support engines. Good in their own right, but very possibly wrong for the application they are trying to implement it for. Result is more poor service with unhappy customers/users and a overworked IT or support staff.
Build the process and then get the tools, don't let your customers/companies get sucked it by the latest cool thing they read about in Forbes. That's the way to seriously kill productivity in the support world.
Don't just whine about poor internet privacy and freedom policies,
And it works, sort of. It works well for me, and it works quite well for my more computer capable clients, but some other clients:
Not that those problems are really majors, but they get in the way, and so they don't always submit their problems.
What I need to do is let people e-mail their problems into it, and exactly how to achieve this is churning away in the back of my mind at the moment.
I've also done a WAP gateway on it so that I (and others, because the whole company uses my system now) can enter timesheets and lookup jobs and such with a WAP phone.
If you're interested in the code I'm sure we can dig something out. It uses Apache / PHP / PostgreSQL and handles through to the billing stage.
E-Mail me if you want more information.
Andrew.
If your managing a user base of anything over a couple hundred workstations, Clarify is not the right tool. Go with Bendata, Remedy, or even some of the IBM products that run on the OS/390's, but stay away from clarify, It's a major pain in the neck.
Don't just whine about poor internet privacy and freedom policies,
Trouble tickets need to be private, and any indication of problems presented to the public should not be combined with a public response web-board. I learned this one the hard way. :(
Look for KEYSTONE online, it runs under php3 uses Mysql and is free to use for small departments. is open source and better than anything out there. (Even the commercial overpriced stuff) Use Keystone, it works and is great. (It has one drawback, if your Network Operations center is a bunch of MS nuts they wont let their precious exchange server talk to that nasty Linux/Freebsd box running keystone.. at this point get a dial-upservice for the box and it will send the email out the pop3 on the isp.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
keystone does all of that.
and it is far more robust than anything NAI can come up with.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I actually created a system for this purpose from scratch, for an ISP I used to work for. I may be a bit biased, but I thought it worked pretty well. :) I did it back in the day using cgi-lib.pl/Perl. It was nice, I designed it with case logging so that any user could simply view a list of open helpdesk tickets, click on one, get all the details and the log of all actions on it, and add their comments/updates. I used a flat text file database of my own devise for this sytem. And it worked quite well for the small scale.
I'm now designing a similar system for the company I'm currently working for, only this project, I'm using mod_perl and MySQL.
So in a word, yes, web-based helpdesks are workable and good. You can use them from any web browser, anywhere in the world.
The web-based Help Desk idea is a good one. My bit of input is: Forms, in the case of Help Desks, are a VERY good idea. For example: Have the user enter their name, location, general area of problem on a drop-down list (boot problems, device driver errors, I (the user) have no idea wtf is going on, etc.), a rather large field to input the error message they have encountered, and whether they can do their work at present or not. (Yes, I am leaving alot out, but it gives general idea of what I want to convey).
eBugStomp.com is a website that may fit your needs. It is a free web application that allows creating databases for tracking software bugs but can be used for any situation where issues need to be tracked and resolved. When entries are created or updated, mail will be sent to you.
This being my final year of high school, we were allowed to do senior projects, basically, dedicate a whole year to do anything we want. And I decided to teach myself perl, and create a website keeping track of computer issues. It's a very simple setup, and not hard to follow. Its just a few perl scripts, tying into a simple database (nothing as complicated as mysql, or anything like that, its just a % database). If anyone is curious, and wants the scripts, just email me (moop2000@yahoo.com) and ask for it.
Michael
In case of Emergency, Curl up in the Fetal position, and lick a Bible for comfort!
Go check out SafeHarbor. It's a cool place that's located at a Nuclear Power Plant in Washington State.
All emails to helpdesk@(mydomain).com are put into a "slot wheel" where they are divvied out among all helpdesk crew when they check their emails. In a way that keeps "dead" support guys from getting emails, so none are dead ended.
I wouldn't be able to code this unfortunately as I have no idea on how to make or modify a mail server.
When the pack animals stampede, it's time to soak the ground with blood to save the world. We fight, we die, we break our cursed bonds.
Chris 'coldacid' Charabaruk Meldstar Entertainment
Request Tracker is a very useful web tech support program. It is available at: http://www.fsck.com/projects/rt/index.ht ml
Of course, this technique won't work if your computer can't boot or you can't get Internet access, but it's not intended to solve those problems. Frankly, I think it's a stupid idea, because it's only going to convince the user even more that they don't need to read the manual.
I think there should be an incentive for support - if the solution to the problem can't be found in the documentation, the support call is free. That has a double benefit: the software vendor wants to make the manual as complete as possible, and the user wants to save money by reading the manuals first.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
The company I work for (CompuTech Business Solutions, http://www.ctbsonline.com) recently had me and another guy working on a web-based help-desk system, written in ASP using MS SQL (if I had my way it'd been PHP/MySQL, but oh well) The idea is, users call our 800# and the guy who answers the phone (who doubles as our computer room operator) enters the info into the database w/the web interface and assigns it to the appropriate associate. It assigns an ID to that task, that we give to the customer so they can track it on our website, it also emails that associate w/the URL and with the info on the call. Among other things. Along with, of course, a web-based interface for the user to enter a call himself (rather than calling help desk number) It's really nice, ties into our billing database, and our time-tracking database, among other nice features. It was really worth the time the two of us spent creating it. If anyone's interested in such a system email me, I'm sure we could work out a very nice price (considering we never considered selling the system before...)
Jeremy Campbell
campbellj@ctbsonline.com
http://me.theocities.net
Free Web-Hosting for Christian Ministries/Organizations:
http://www.theocities.net
This seems like just another boring "Ask Slashdot" to me. Who even cares about this, execept the poster. Don't you guys even get any interesting stuff anymore?? Perhaps you ignored the interesting stuff a little too long and no one is submitting anything interesting anymore? The all-time low was the question about which 3-button mouse to use. I know for a fact I have submitted more interesting stuff than this that has been rejected.
Maybe you guys just have to much money in the bank and don't give a shit anymore?
Moderate this down as soon as possible. You don't need Microsoft to tell you that you don't what this post on Slashdot!
You just wish your ID was as low as mine! I used to be proud to have such a low id, but not so much now. Slashdot most
Is it just me or are these ask slashdot questions getting more stupid every day?
The system allows staff members to log on over our network and submit work orders on-line through our webserver. One of the techs here wrote a database program that catalogs all of the work orders and prints them out.
This really helps in identifying problem areas (high school students like to break things) and helps us come up with possible solutions to those problems. (like breaking some fingers off)
Check our Technology page to get some links and whatnot. (I know it's a really crappy page, so don't blame me for things I have no control over)
"Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know."
-- Ernest Hemingway
Apple has pretty good web-based support, although this is probably larger scale than needed for most jobs. However, it is a good way to automate fixes to common problems.
The sysadmins use it to delegate tasks among themselves too, I believe. Although I'm not completely clear on the infrastructure on their side.
Unfortunately we're behind a particularly nasty firewall here, so it's no use posting the URL. But, basically, I believe it's a great idea for all concerned. Of course, as many people have already commented, it's not much good if you've got a major problem and can't access the help desk in the first place. But it's a good first point of call for more benign problems.
"No Neal, after you" - Buzz Aldrin
Well, the aforementioned guy surely didn't do anything to help the situation. It can be crude but firing him also prevented him to talk to his girlfriend while at work other times, perhaps provoking some serious problems then. Surely sux. Been there too. But if you were at fault, then can't really complain.
*** SIGNATURE WANTED. BIG REWARD. It's name is "Bubba"
~
~
:wq
Another problem with the type of users you are describing is that a fairly large majority prefer spending their energy filling themselves with rage and self-righteousness to even looking at any sort of manual or FAQ. They want to talk to somebody who knows how mad they are, and they want answers right away.
Your PDFs seem to be corrupt. Can't download them properly
beautiful women hate sigs
For a web hosting company I worked for. ... Yeah.
Management decided it wasn't worth the time.
So
Our organization uses Keystone as a helpdesk/trouble ticket solution. It's fairly easy to set up and get going (but not brain-dead out of the box, there's some tweaking needed to get everything working). It's worked out fairly well so far (maybe 20 active users and 300 tickets within a month and a half of use), but it is a bit clunky around the edges and takes some full-time maintenance to tweak it.
------------------
"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - Major Mike Shearer, UK
Darn, that's not right. I posted from work and the PDFs are output by Adobe Create PDF - so they ought to be fine. I checked the dl myself an dno problems. Dunno what's up then . .
It's available at http://www.math.duke.edu/~yu/wreq/.
It's good in that you can see past queries along with answers posted by the support staff(almost like a self generating FAQ).
wrighty
void russian_roulette(void) { char *target; strcpy(target, "bullet"); }
I have evaluated most of them. Keystone is the best. I have been useing that system for a while now.
... that are intended for web-based "collaboration" would do this for you right out of the box and offer things like full-text search as well. We've run WebBoard and SiteScape in applications like this, but it all depends on budget ....
My company has been using a web-based help request system for 3 years now. It has really helped us grow our helpdesk staff from 2 (with 50 users) to 5 (with over 300).
We don't try to sell it as the only means of help, but we stress these advantages to our users:
- If it's not in the list, we might forget about it.
- If it is in the list, all of the helpdesk staff knows about it, not just the guy/gal you called.
- Someone looks at the ticket list every 5 minutes or so, which isn't usually true of our email/voicemail
- We are required by the system to give real feedback when we change the status of a ticket, so the user is kept up-to-date on the progress.
Additionally, such a system allows us to see everything we need to do, and prioritize. We can also see what's in progress (through the comments in each ticket), and help out if needed.Our users will usually even place "dead machine" help requests with other users' computers, just because they know it helps us, and in turn helps them.
To sum it up, the success of a web-based support request system depends on the helpdesk staff and the user base, not the system itself. If it's not worth it to the users, they won't use it.
(and now the shameless plug: I'm porting our very company-specific, Microsoft-based system over to PHP with MySQL. When the system is done, it'll show up, for your downloading pleasure, at http://www.smacky.org/)
I've been through the Microsoft web circus, talked to live techs of other vendors, and am now in training for phone support.
I prefer the human touch. I want to be there for those who do.
The wonderful (and not so wonderful) experiences I have had with help desk techs (those times I have been too stupid to figure it out on my own) have encouraged me to offer what I now know and everything I can learn to others lost at sea.
I use web help and it is good, and just like any tool, it should be developed and deployed to make our technolives less frustrating.
'Looking back to a better day, feeling old and in the way.' -David Grisma
I administered a Remedy Action Request System for a few months. We used an Oracle backend database and (arg) NT IIS for the web portion. However, it does run on SunOS/Solaris SPARC machines. This may be a little overkill for what you want though.
If you search "HELPDESK" on freshmeat.net, the first hit is a pretty good web problem tracker. http://www.jrobst.freeserve.co.uk/helpdesk.html It requires apache and MySQL (may work with Postgres or others).
If all you needed was a list of problems to choose, a description field, username, etc.., you could whip one together in a day or so using libcgi++ and some simple javascript. Email me at kwanlowe@netscape.net if I can help further with this.
And the cost of that prodcut is more than most peoples homes. There are simpler products out there that are webbased and functional for what he is asking. Check the PHP site and look at projects there are 2 I think there the most advanced being keystone. There is also a group on sourceforge working on a product called php helpdesk I liked there idea and I plan on contributing as much as I can to their project. If you have money to burn check out the Support Magic Product I have used it before and it was adiquate but it was very pricey and the liscencing got even worse as we put more people on it. Eventually we were forced to hire a programming group to create our own from scratch because it was more economical that owning Support Magic.
I wrote a web-based helpdesk for my employer, Mad River Local Schools. It works really well, and we enjoy it a lot.
However, we don't allow staff members to post to it.
Why? We don't want it to be flooded with comments like "I can't print" and "The server isn't working". Somehow, non-techies don't have a clue how to correctly report problems, and can make MORE work for the support staff. (By having to figure out what they meant to say.)
I've even gone so far as to write a "knowledgebase" front end to the helpdesk, which allows people to search for a solution to the problem on their own based on closed incidents.
You can see the "public" front-end here to allow staff members to check on the incident status, and the knowledgebase here. And yes, you can see a demo of it here, and download the code here if you want to hack it up.
introduce cookie-based login/authentication for
both end-users and IT staff.
that way, when they login, the first view they
get will a list of all tickets relevant to them:
1. end-users would immediately see all tickets
they've opened and what the status is
2. IT staff would see all tickets that they've
been assigned or are working on. (a second view
would take them to the complete queue)
Cisco has what it calls its Open Forum where one can post a question in the hopes that one of its multitude of engineers would pick it up and post the correct answer.
Works for them.
Just a few things, to be more specific.
-Obviously, if there is a serious problem the user can PAGE me, as with any emergency. This is for NON-critical situations. (I didn't think I need state this origionally, but I guess I should have been more specific.)
-Also, the system is not a replacement for the pager, cell, or voicemail, but a way that the user can get better service by being able to submit easily information about the problem that will help it to be resolved and prioritised.
-I won't be the only IS Manager using it and the others think my FreeBSD boxes are magical, thus it needs to be configurable without editing perl or php scripts.
Next, I see the system being more of a flowing form, more dynamic.
Ex. The first page would have name, property, and a pull down of general problems. If they choose "I am not getting email." then the next page asks more detailed questions about that topic to help, such as "Can you browse the web?"
This would help in getting rid of posts of "it doesn't work" You could even maybe have the system prioritise based on the answers.
If I wanted to be real slick I can get it setup to email a pseudo user via qmail (vanbo-pager@xxxxx.com) that forwards to my pager if the post meets certain criteria.
Purchasing software is probably not an option as everything has to go through Corp. Accounting Officer Judy (known Judge Judy). If it's not budgeted nothing see's any money, and the IT team has little if any budget (had to buy my own tools, etc). Also, there is the aspect that if I get this setup, I would like to use a free software setup on my freebsd boxes, and be able to contribute my work back the the communite for others.
Surely, someone has scripted a simple perl script that posts to email, that could be easily be setup for this...
VANBO
The biggest problem with most users is, that they only tell you, at first contact: "It doesn't work!"
So provide a form with the information you need, and refuse to submit it if it's not filled out.
They have that at a client's site, and it seemed like most of the people used it, but then called if they didn't get an answer back within 10-15 minutes. So unless you're really committed, or put an "Average Wait Time" up on the page, you'll probably still get most of the calls.
Later,
Blake.
We use a program called Keystone to do bug tracking in various products. Keystone uses a mySQL back end and PHP to drive the web pages. It's not as feature-rich as something like Clarify, but it gives you the ability to manage bug reports.
A dyslexic man walks into a bra.
I build one a few years back with Filemaker Pro. It worked really well and all you need is a mac or a pc to run it. I also am working with PHP and python and I'm sure I could build one that would work with email and web pages for trouble ticket entry. I also am working with Avantgo and wap to create web software that would work with a web phone and a Palm. You could put a modem on a palm III and get your tickets without a computer. Use email to update tickets or use the web. These are very easy things to do.
bakey@headgap.com
If you're interested in seeing the product in action, please check out http://www.magictsd.com/ , and look for the Buy/Try button. I would suggest doing so as early as you can, before California wakes up. :-)
Magic Total Service Desk is the only 100% browser based helpdesk solution that provides all of the functionality you'd expect from a client/server application in a browser. This is done through the use of Microsoft's DNA architecture and COM objects. The product is fully customisable and designed to be used remotely.
I'm happy to speak with anyone directly who is interested in the product - I'm a Systems Engineer for Network Associates working primarily with the Sniffer products, but also with Magic. Get in touch!
Snifferchick