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An Automated Support E-Mail System?
qm_37 asks: "I work for a small software company with a growing customer base. Our current support desk system has worked well for us in the past, but is going to become very unwieldy if it has to grow any more than it already has. We're looking for a more automated system that will do things like filter and direct incoming support e-mails to the support worker assigned to that task, assign and track support issue numbers, and give us a nice searchable database of previous customer issues. We've looked at various solutions ranging from commercial software packages to PHP/CGI-based server scripts, and nothing has really grabbed our attention. We have also considered writing our own system, but the trade-off is that we need to find the time to do it. Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? Which route do you think we should take for our support system?"
We use E-Gain. http://www.egain.com (We're also a bank, so we're well funded.)
New emails get a ticket ID, and you log into a web interface to download new tickets. It keeps messages for the same ticket associated together.
It also supports autoreplies, template/scripted replies, and some non-email-related things like a knowledge base, quick-message-forwarding address book, etc.
The whole point for going with a system like this, of course, is for performance monitoring, tracking, and reporting.
--Michael Spencer
Have you considered using Kayako? It's not free, but it contains a knowledge base, and has a clean layout too. We currently use this where I work and we've never had problems.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
Look at something like this:
http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBUGZ/
or Bugzilla.
or buy some big commercial product like Peregrine Service Center.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I've used Ticketsmith for a few years now. Threaded replies, assign tickets to staff members, web based, auto-replies to the client.
Does everything you need, and nothing you don't.
If you don't mind going commercial, a very popular product is Remedy. It's extremely configurable and it can do everything you're asking and a lot more. I work for a national ISP and Remedy is what our dozens of helpdesks use.
It's better to burn out than to fade away
You should outsource your support to another country so that everytime someone needs help, they can talk to a human being. Look, how amazing tech support is.
Of course, if your rich, look into HEAT.. it does some damn amazing things...
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Just set up a simple auto-responder in your mail client. The message you need is very basic, and will provide your clients/users with enough information to trouble shoot their problem! Ohh, and it's only four characters. ;-)
"RTFM"
Bonus points if you actually include a link to the manual, but no need to go overboard...!
Okay, so that's just what I would do. Why, yes, I am still looking for a job.. why do you ask?
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
Try Cerberus Helpdesk.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
Good luck! Cheers, Joel
I have been using MySQL's eventum http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/other/eventum/featu res.html/ for the past few months and have found it very good.
It's PHP MySQL based. It supports multiple projects, email integration, supports public/private fields, custom categories, custom fields, project management (time tracking), issue listing, sorting, searching, reporting and graphical stats. It also supports SOAP (remote posting) and RSS for viewing
How small is your company? If you can afford it, Web Help Desk fits the bill. The client list is huge, and includes Apple, Filemaker, Inc., an many government and educational institutions. The software is based on Mac OS X Server (thus Apple's buy-in, I think), and you have several options for the database backend (including MySQL).
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
someone with perl experience, you might try rewriting something like Spam Assassin to search for appropriate keywords and route the mail accordingly.
Then again, I usually prefer the in house custom solutions, because when you have them finished, you end up with something better suited to your needs, and you have a strong familiarity with the system when something goes wrong.
I have been using Request Tracker for a while now and I love it, and so does my support staff and customers. It is very robust and flexible. I use Apache with mod_perl, SSL and a MySQL database, and sendmail for the mail interface. You might hit a few bumps during setup, but you should be able to work through them. There are a lot of good docs out there which walk you through the entire setup. If you haven't looked at it you should. Everything is free except the hardware and time. They also have RTFM (RT FAQ Manager) which is an addon to RT and can help you manage company wide knowledge.
If you need a serious customer support email + web based issue/ticket tracking and management system then you need to check out Request Tracker.
I am an employee
The RightNow application handles web requests and e-mail + rules based routing, as well as a customer searchable knowledge base. There are also different modules for Marketing Automation, and customer satisfaction surveys based on closed incidents + "on demand" surveys.
There are also tie ins with location management (find closest store to you) including maps/directions.
http://rightnow.com/
I'd recommend RT from Best Practical. I use it with a Postgres backend and Apache/Sendmail on the front-end, and it works beautifully. It does everything we (and you, it sounds like) need it to do, with plenty of added flexibility if you need it. Check it out.
Ticket app: http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/
FAQ Manager: http://www.bestpractical.com/rtfm/
As a number of other people have mentioned, Request Tracker (RT) is probably just about a perfect fit for your needs. I use it for a similar (but internal) setup, and it works like a charm. I'm currently using it on a Debian/Woody box with Apache, PostgreSQL, and Qmail.
Especially considering it's free (GPL), I don't know many better solutions.
Topher
now you just need to automate it . . . write a perl script that takes every question and posts it to Ask Slashdot.
Since everyone seems to have given more or less commercial-feeling suggestions, try Trac. It's a decent project-management system with a Wiki, implemented in Python running off CGI. It's mainly intended for actual PMS, but seems to work well for a support job too.
Marxist evolution is just N generations away!
We use roundup, with some minor customizations. It works very nicely, is somewhat easy to customize, integrates nicely with email, and it is free.
http://roundup.sf.net
My next customization will probably be some mechanism for techs to check "resolve and add to knowledge base" and have it dump out the discussion to a Blosxom format blog entry with a selected category. Then it becomes searchable using either one of Blosxom's search plugins or our current htdig search function (roundup supports search, but our customers don't go there unless they plan to report a problem--and resolved issues don't show up in a search by default...the idea behind roundup is to fix problems and then have them go away, not just talk about them). Blosxom with some minor mods will make a great knowledge base, IMHO, and since the format is dead simple to generate from just about anything it would be pretty easy to make it all work together.
Liberum helpdesk does pretty much everything you need. It's open-source and took me about 15 minutes to get set up:
http://www.liberum.org/
My Journal
We've made a great CMS with hundreds of features integrated... including a GMail-like mail system with searching, labeling, etc. It's also got standard SMTP support and features, like aliasing. Mailing lists as well. Check it out -- it might not be exactly what you're looking for but I'm sure it'd get the job done :p.
It's free (and Free), has commercial support if you need it, very customizable, if a little difficult to set up. But once up and running, it's been great for our company (3 people on support).
RT Home page
http://freshmeat.net/projects/requesttracker/
Check out a linux package called RT. It's a web-based / email linked tickeing system. It sends messages when support requests are sent and directs them to the appropriate email address.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
All done in Perl, handles both e-mail and web-based ticket creation, easy to hack on to change.
RequestTracker
+++OK ATH
You might want to check out IRM It's an extremely configurable asset management system with a linked ticketing system. Built in PHP /MySQL. Personally for a small company I find that it works best when not only is it free, but I can work on it myself and change even the core functions.
Hire me to build you a web-based system. I've built what has been said by many to be "the best workflow/request system ever built and used within the Wachovia Corporation." dep
"hey, could you pass me a paper towel? er.. I mean... DEPLOY ABSORBTION PANEL!"
Have a serious look at the open ticket response system (OTRS) at www.otrs.org.
We too reviewed many systems and eventually settled on otrs - it's open, quick, looks good and fulfilled our needs. As an ISP, we needed auto responders coupled with a searchable 'knowledge-base'.
OTRS is all of this and more.