Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Support Desk Software for ITIL-Based IT Department

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the remaining-compliant dept.

Wasteofspace asks: "At my current workplace (local government, 250 user site) we are currently working towards achieving a more structured IT department using guidelines set by ITIL. Currently we are using a very poor call logging system running on a Lotus Domino Server, that has no tracking, incident management, problem management etc, and does not integrate into our current directory services (Novell NDS, soon to be migrating to Microsoft AD). Does anyone have any suggestions on a provider of an ITIL compliant support desk application, that is reasonably easy to use, has integration into an LDAP compliant directory service, and has self service functionality for users?"

80 comments

  1. (formerly)Peregrine by dreamchaser · · Score: 4, Informative

    HP's Service Center. While I hated using it, that was more the way it was implemented in the enterprise I was in at the time. Built from the ground up for ITIL compliance.

    1. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh god!

      Please stay away from it.. I use it every day and I truly hate this system. What a piece of crap!

    2. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by dreamchaser · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Eh, I've used a lot of different ones. They all suck and you'll hate them all. Again, that's mostly in the (Half assed) way they are implemented at most organizations.

    3. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are kidding right?

      SC is an ancient product, that has barly been improved for years. It a dead product.

      The only product that was built from the ground up is service desk, which I'm thinking is the one you meant.

    4. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What you are saying is generally true, we used Remedy before the company switched over to SC.

      I admit to said bad thing about Remedy when we used it, but SC really really sucks compared. I even miss Remedy.

      It's like SC sucks in a different league.

    5. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by Raedwald · · Score: 1

      Peregrine Service Centre was an appalingly awful product. I would rather saw my own leg off than ever have anything to do with it again.

      --
      Ne mæg werig mod wyrde wiðstondan, ne se hreo hyge helpe gefremman.
    6. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by dreamchaser · · Score: 1

      HP didn't even develop the Service Desk component of Service Center (yes I was referring to that particular subset of functionality). They bought it, like much of their other tech.

    7. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heck, holy hell, no fecking way, as in, "You will kill my mom if I don't use it? Bye mom!" kinda way.

      My former company got bit by the Peregrine Snake Oil Salesmen. The 5.x series was a joke. It was a huge, even more broken than Access, Accessy type thing. Sure, it ran on Oracle, SQL Server, etc etc, but it was badly broken. With a huge db within a db abstraction layer.

      Sure, its configurable, but trust me, that arcane method of goat sacrifice and lots of crossing your fingers isn't worth it. They tell you that the product is scriptable, it is not. Instead you use this horribly kludgy dialog boxes to write what they call scripts, which are more like macros within the tool. Scripts to the Peregrine folks was more along the lines of an actor's script, not a script like you or I would refer to them.

      6.x series was only marginally better, as it permitted you to use ECMA script to enhance functionality. (*Note, ECMA script modifications in the client that is NOT web based)

    8. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by QHHSThunderbird · · Score: 1

      You need to check out this company www.service-now.com All of the traditional downfalls of the Peregrine / Remedy age are addressed and more. Call Fred Luddy himself.

    9. Re:(formerly)Peregrine by The_Revelation · · Score: 1

      I work at HP in Australia in one of their Data Centres. We run a few large corps networks as well as government departments. The software we use is Clarify and Remedy. Clarify is a web based version of our customer management tool, but I highly recommend Remedy over this. Purely because Remedy runs in an app window so dealing with a number of queues or jobs simultaneously is a lot easier. The reason we use these particular programs over more run-of-the-mill Customer relationship management systems is that a lot of the problems logged through our systems are logged by the servers themselves, thus we get error tickets as they happen as well as while customers are calling in with issues.

  2. Connectwise PSA by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    My company uses it. It works okay, connects with Exchange for scheduling if you want. You can access it with Windows IE (the thing totally relies on ActiveX) from virtually anywhere to do timesheets, set up work orders, etc. www.connectwise.com

  3. Reduce Support Requests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Whenever the phone rings, tell the user to 'fuck off, learn how to use it you retarded shitnugget' in no uncertain terms. After a short term of time, your support volume will tend towards zero.

    Make the only response option for web-based support queries "user is a cuntingly retardness asspoker".

  4. request tracker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    request tracker from best practical will do lots of cool stuff, even authenticate users over LDAP. http://www.bestpractical.com/

  5. Suggestions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here are some programs:
    Frontrange HEAT
    Remedy
    Footprints

    1. Re:Suggestions by hawks5999 · · Score: 1

      Front Range HEAT is being phased out and they are pushing their new Service Management platform, Front Range ITSM. My company is partnering with them and we had a tech demo of it. Seems pretty nice and flexible. Last week, one of your Remedy Devs went to training on the platform and seemed to be impressed. Find more here.

  6. Richmond by KingDaveRa · · Score: 1

    You could try these people: http://www.richmondsys.co.uk/web/Home.htm Their SupportDesk software is a little clunky at times, but it does work.

  7. HPOVSD by themassiah · · Score: 3, Informative

    Suggestion: HP OpenView Service Desk Has great MS ActiveDirectory integration which can be used to pre-populate tickets with user information, email conduits for setting up a "help@domain.tld" style interface and also support self-service webpages. The client is very easy to use. It also supports CI databases, problem tracking, incident tracking, etc.

    --
    - Sometimes you're the pidgeon, sometimes you're the statue.
    1. Re:HPOVSD by PygmySurfer · · Score: 1

      I'm an HP employee, and unfortunately I have to use Service Desk too (albeit a customized version, mangled for years by some team within our organization). If the product had some sense of stability, it might be half-decent. It continually crashes with JVM errors. Also, we often experience issues where the app thinks the ticket you're working on has been updated by some other user, when in fact it was you who modified it. Old versions (Old versions being relative - ours are all based on SD 4.5, however as I've said, they've been severely bastardized^Wcustomized) used to merely reload the ticket, new versions attempt to merge the data, usually losing half of it in the process.

      Sadly, we don't even use the Active Directory integration. The interface for the client is pretty nice (it's based on Microsoft Outlook - I know many slashdotters will be turned off by that, but it does provide a decent interface to the ticketing system). Its also extremely customizable - all of the forms can be customized to provide the data you want to display to your users. In addition, users can create their own customizable views of the tickets in the queue. Sadly, I don't think there's any method for users to create their own customizable forms (which would be handy - we have to click at least 2 tabs on a form to close out a ticket).

      If it wasn't for the instability, it would actually be pretty decent to use. Keep in mind this may just be the result of the mangling done to our version.

    2. Re:HPOVSD by Gunstick · · Score: 1

      we use SD and works ok for us. Except for the merge instead of reload, so if the popup comes, just hit F5 to reload the ticket.
      Of course if you modified since, that will be lost, so put it into copy/paste.
      This merge problem only happens to me when I create myself a ticket. So, create ticket, save, press F5. Problem solved.

      --
      Atari rules... ermm... ruled.
  8. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  9. HP's ServiceCenter (formerly Peregrine)... by RazorJ_2000 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Our company uses ServiceCenter. It's a UNIX-based app, runs off of Solaris where I work. We have 25000 employees across 3 countries, and multiple support departments (not just IT), and although ServiceCenter has its strengths and weaknesses like most s/w applications, IMHO it does its job like a charm. I keep my eyes on freshmeat.net and I haven't seen anything come out even remotely close.

    --
    pi=sigma{n:0-infinity}[(1/16)^n][(4/(8n+1))-(2/(8n +4))-(1/ (8n+5))-(1/(8n+6))]
    1. Re:HP's ServiceCenter (formerly Peregrine)... by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

      Maybe you need some diversity in what you monitor? Try "Request Tracker".

  10. Numara track-it 7.0 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the best it dept help center software. we just reviewed every solution at my job and found this one to be the absolute most complete and full of features that are actually usable. Numara Track-It 7.0 seriously takes the cake compared to everything else http://www.numarasoftware.com/

  11. Remedy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We use Remedy in-house, and everyone here swears by it. It's totally cross platform (windows, unix and linux) and supports most of the databases, and has been integrated with all of our apps. I go to the Annual User Group conference every year, and there are some huge companies that have their entire organization based on Remedy.

    1. Re:Remedy by niekko · · Score: 1

      I've been using Remedy (http://www.bmc.com/remedy/) too. You can buy one of their nice but expensive out-of-the-box tools like BMC Remedy Service Desk. Or you can make one yourself with Action Request System in which you create forms and workflow without coding.

    2. Re:Remedy by Martin+Blank · · Score: 1

      Remedy is powerful, but its database schema sucks. Trying to troubleshoot it is a nightmare, since they don't use viable names for most of their tables (at least that's how it is for us).

      --
      You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
  12. You use only proprietary software by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1, Insightful

    So doing it your way (what you described above) is not going to happen, unless (see further)

    Keep in mind, when you evaluate things like HP openview/SMARTS InCharge/... that
    1) they cost > $50k up front for the software box alone
    2) they require a lot of consultancy to get running (ie they're not going to be operational tomorrow, and it's going to cost you)
    3) you can't save money on them, as that would mean leaving problems lying around unfixed
    4) you become dependent on one partner (as there is a BIG cost associated with working in a new guy, no matter how smart he is, he won't understand your business)

    So just hire someone to do this, and give him 3-4 beefy servers to work on. For $50k you can hire a good programmer for a year, and he should be able to get the system operational in a month at the latest. Any modifications can be done through this guy, and the system can be very specific to your business, integrate with everything you want, and it'll actually work. And you get a full-time (very) capable consultant (he wrote your system, how much more capable can someone get) for free for a year. If the system really takes off, you have a free analyst/programmer on your hands.

    Think about it.

    1. Re:You use only proprietary software by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are so not in tune with reality it is funny. It's obvious you've never worked on things in the real world because you have no clue. 1 programmer for 1 month? HAHAHAHA! Getting something that is even semi-viable that will work in a hectic environment and that will integrate with what you need in a real work environment takes YEARS, not months.

      The other thing is that if you're not a software development company, you are not in the business of developing help desk software, so why would you want to spend money on programmers and have them work on a mission critical aspect of your company, have them fix bugs or add integrations, etc when that isn't your bread and butter. It is WAY cheaper to spend $100k+ on software, get it professionally installed by consultants, and then train people on how to use it. If anything goes wrong, you can pick up the phone and yell at the company and have them fix it. That is a much, much easier way.

    2. Re:You use only proprietary software by georgeav · · Score: 1

      I belive for $50k he could get a very good software. But not hiring or regular outsourcing is the key, but freelancing. It will be quite a hassle, but no more than looking for a corporate solution installing and dealing with installing, consultancy, training ppl for using it (because you'll need one, at least to check the server and stuff) and dealing afterwards with its problems and overbloating.
      If the requirements aren't very high, a good freelancer could do it pretty easy. If not, a freelancer could customize a OSS solution especially for you; for 50k you can get a lot of programming hours from freelancers (I would go for the east-european ones, not indians).

      I used to work for a pretty big ISP which had it's entire ERP built mostly by one programmer; and it was perfect, no bloatware, just what you need, and changes implemented very quick. And it was a very good solution, because if the software is programmed inhouse or it's easy to deal with the ppl who programmed it; a simple modification that could save 10 seconds for you most tickets it's easy to implement, and when dealing with hundreds/thousands of tickets per day, that means a lot of saved time. And when you are using a large scale general purpose solution, the chances to get the modification are near 0; the best would be "ok, it will be implemented in the next version which will be released next year.." (.. and which will require a new implementation, more consultancy costs, and renewal of contract, etc). If you have a custom solution that would be tailored and constantly updated, and it will have a more lengthy "lifetime". At the current job we have Track'It 4.0 which was implemented i belive 3-5 years ago, and it's soooooo outdated; and now we have a "comitee" that it's also looking for a different $50k solution.

      The thing with freelancers vs. outsourcing/commercial products is that they have way less overhead. It's usualy individual professionals or small groups; no costs for the executives, secretary, accountant, sales, marketing, nice office, analysts, testers, etc. If you want something changes you will get an answer in minutes/hours, not days/weeks (because it doesn't go thru lengthy flows such as explaining to a stupid account manager what you need, the account manager sending what he understood to the analyst, analyst figuring out what the client might have said from what the acc. manager understood, analyst -> programmer, programmer -> analyst, analyst -> acc. manager, acc. manager figuring out how dumber the client is and how much he could charge, etc). It's a all-in-one solution.

      Another good approach is to take a OSS solution and hire one of the developers to custom-tailer the solution for your needs, ofcourse the resulting code most probably will be OSS also and maybe incorporated in the original application, but that's perfect, because if you need to hire somebody else for future mods you will have a lot of developers fammiliar with your application and custom code (at least that parts that got implemented in the original app.).

      Bloated commercial apps are pretty dead. It's too much of-the-shelf, and considering the diversity of IT and rate of evolution, they will become obsolete much sooner than OSS solution.

    3. Re:You use only proprietary software by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hiring one guy is a really bad idea.

      A proper implementation goes beyond the software into business processes and infrastructure management this requires high risk/reward ratio for you the decision maker. And to be effective needs a lot of work way beyond the scope of one person.

      I would outsource the whole lot first to get the implementation, legwork, processes, training etc through.
      If you want to hire a team of programmers to clone this after the dust settles in a few years then do so.

  13. Assyst by Jaseoldboss · · Score: 1

    We use Assyst which is ITIL compliant.

  14. Efecte by niekko · · Score: 4, Informative

    Efecte (http://www.efecte.com/en/) is another ITIL compliant solution with different products including a help desk management software. I evaluated their asset management software a couple of years ago and found it very robust and professional. At least at that time their prices were very competitive.

  15. Buzzword compliancy by Gothmolly · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Make sure that Gartner approves any and everything you do, for maximum tongue-in-ass effectiveness. Rolling out AD to replace NDS, looking for FOO-compliant software, all of these things are great, but will they actually work for you? Or will upper management sit around the boardroom table, masturbating furiously, at how irrationally happy the non-technical audit people are?

    btw, there's a difference between -1, Vulgar, and -1, Troll. But most of you mods won't understand that.

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re:Buzzword compliancy by Senzei · · Score: 1

      So without any disclosure of work environment, staffing situations, company needs, or pretty much anything else you arrive at the conclusion that this has to be motivated by some Gartner-powered dimwit. You some kind of fucking psychic? There could be any number of valid reasons for moving to AD. I know it feels good to talk to someone like they are an idiot, but at least try to establish that as being true first.

      --
      Slashdot: Where anecdotes and generalizations can be freely substituted for facts, logic, or intelligence
    2. Re:Buzzword compliancy by Gothmolly · · Score: 1

      Yes, I am a fucking psychic... as in, I fucked your mother.

      --
      I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    3. Re:Buzzword compliancy by Senzei · · Score: 1

      Ohh, nice one. Let me guess, you plan on following this up with some "your momma" jokes and finishing it off by making faces at me? Care to actually respond to any of the points I made, or is this the upper limit of your intellectual ability?

      --
      Slashdot: Where anecdotes and generalizations can be freely substituted for facts, logic, or intelligence
  16. AdventNet ServiceDesk Plus by jwilhelm · · Score: 1

    AdventNet ServiceDesk Plus is (or will be in the next release) compliant, has AD-integration, has a self-service solution, and is quite nice to use (both from the admin side and the user side). Check www.servicedeskplus.com for more information.

  17. GWI Software by Barkmullz · · Score: 2, Informative

    I work for a local government, about the same size, and we decided on GWI Software's c.Support. It works very well and is relatively easy to get up an runnig. It meets the requirements you mentioned.

    --
    Ronald said nothing. He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions.
  18. $50k + 1 yr.? I think not by sirwired · · Score: 1

    $50k for a good programmer that can build something that large single-handedly?!?!? In what part of the country can you find programmers that good that will work for that cheap? Not only that, the $50k miracle programmer is supposed to walk in off the street, completely analyze the entire operations of the IT dept., architect and build the whole mess and integrate into the existing systems in one year?

    Also, $50k salary != $50k cost. You forgot Social Security, Health Insurance, HR overhead, etc.

    SirWired

  19. Have a look at Infra enterprize by Anonymous+MadCoe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Infra is prety cool, ets you gong quickly, ITIL verified, etc...

    I like it, should work for an organization like yours.

    http://www.infra.be/
    http://www.infraenterprise.nl/
    http://www.infra.co.uk/
    http://www.infra-corp.com/

    1. Re:Have a look at Infra enterprize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Infra isn't too bad (I've used it before), but does have some shortfalls.

      Firstly; and this is a common sentiment, it depends on the implementation and infrastructure. We had it running over a 2Mb WAN link, and it was unusable at times.

      Second; it needs to work out of the box for you. I've heard it can be quite expensive to get basic changes done.

      Third; it is a Windows-only deal (or at least the version I used is/was). Yes, it has Web Access, but it is an Active-X delivered EXE file. So no Linux access (we got it working through WINE, but was virtually unsuable). Whether this has changed in Newer versions, I'm not sure...

      I've also used HEAT, but that was a long time ago. If I recall correctly, it was fairly customisable and was easy to use, but we didn't use a lot of the functionality... It was also with a smaller company, so that may have helped :)

    2. Re:Have a look at Infra enterprize by Anonymous+MadCoe · · Score: 1

      The current version will work without Active-X but not everything will be as flashy as it is on Win.

      What I like about it is that you get a lot of stuff out of the box, and the basic level of customization you don't need too much help with. From tehre it can be more expensive, true, but I find it not more expensive than for other tools.

      Since the OP mentioned a small-medium size organzation (250 users), I think it could be a good fit.

  20. 2 recommendations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My work uses Microsoft CRM. It works, however it will cost much more than you can imagine. $1,000 per user license. This doesn't include the server licensing (which I don't know the cost of), the cost of upgrading those servers, as well as upgrading all of the computers. A gig of memory barely handles this memory-munching monster.

    I would highly recommend investigating SUGARCRM. They have a modular system that can integrate into most setups.

  21. Clarify & Knova by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amdocs' Clarify CRM has a Trouble Management System that is in use at teh ISP helpdesk I used to work at. It works fairly well for tracking troubles across multiple support departments.

    Kanisa's Knowledge base system was also used. It worked fairly well, but requires a fair amount of technical expertice to run the system.

    The nice thing abou Clarify and Knova is that Amdocs and Kanisa are partners, and there are already integration tools fotr the two of them.

    One thing to be aware with these systems; they are both costly, but work.

  22. Avalon Management Suite by GHernandez · · Score: 2, Informative
    My company uses the Avalon Management Suite. It's great to use for ticketing, scheduling, inventory, and pretty much everything else we use.

    I'm only now looking into what ITIL is, but I'm pretty sure it supports that. Beyond that, it supports the LDAP requirement, it's easy to use, and it has a client login system. We've been very happy with it.

  23. MAX by arandall · · Score: 2, Informative

    My firm uses http://www.volchok.com/max/ for most of its' IT tracking. Very nice, easy to use interface, ADS integration, excellent logging and reporting features. It does lack user self service functionality though.

  24. Good all around option by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Check out FootPrints Helpdesk. http://www.unipress.com/footprints

    We have been using this software for ages. It's simple to use and is one of the most feature packed softwares, for the cost. Configuring doesn't require programming - you do all that via the web interface. Supports LDAP/AD/NTLM/Unix passwd authentication, links to AD for contact info, and handles network asset detection and management. They work with a number of DBs... SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgerSQL.

    Not too long ago, they announced ITIL compliance or compatibility, not certain which it is though. Whichever their site says.

    Good luck!

  25. Marval by matt_wilts · · Score: 1

    My old company used Marval. Whilst it wasn't the easiest package to configure, it was a lot better than the system we used to use, HEAT.

  26. Wrong Question by BigDumbAnimal · · Score: 5, Informative

    From Wiki:
    It is not possible to certify an organization or a management system as "ITIL-compliant,"
    Individuals can be "ITIL" certified, but a software package cannot be ITIL compliant/certified/blessed.

    Also, seeking a help desk package does little to implement ITIL goals as you must manage all aspects of IT Service to gain the benefits of the ITIL method. You can just take one part and hope it gives you all the benefits. You have to have all the major bases covered: (Configuration management, service level management, etc, etc, etc.)

    You might be better off jumping in head first to get all the benefits. At least that is the preaching of the ITIL literature.

    1. Re:Wrong Question by jpostel · · Score: 1

      Soooo true. I work for a configuration management software company. *Shameless plug for Configuresoft*. You would pretty much guess that we help customers with the configuratiom management part of their quest for "ITILification". If someone mentions ITIL in a meeting with a customer, there's a 50-50 chance that we end up trying to convince the customer that we know what ITIL means, since there are various degrees of their own ITIL knowledge. I understand that they are just making sure we are not blowing smoke, but when I was an corporate admin/engineer, I rarely survived 5 minutes of a BS meeting with a vendor without feeling the need to call them on it. There was actually very little need to challenge them though, since they would usually dig their own hole. Coming from the vendor side now, I see that you must set the terms and vocabulary on the table early to avoid any of those types of issues.

      --
      Ummm, Jon, aren't you supposed to be dead...? - Otter(3800)
  27. Re:$50k + 1 yr.? I think not by the_B0fh · · Score: 1

    Has anyone mentioned "Request Tracker"? I have no idea what ITIL encompasses, but I do know that as a ticketing package, it sure beats all those expensive crap out there.

  28. Build a real Domino app by Yakman · · Score: 1

    Get one of your Domino developers to build you a real service desk system on top of Domino. Domino can talk to LDAP for authentication / lookups, and already has all email, workflow and security built into the platform.

  29. TechExcel HelpDesk by djwavelength · · Score: 2, Informative

    I work for a company (TechExcel) that makes HelpDesk software. We have implemented several ITIL configurations.
    Here's a link - TechExcel HelpDesk

  30. RT by jrockway · · Score: 1

    http://www.bestpractical.com/rt

    Whatever features it's missing, I'm sure they'd be happy to add for you at way less than what the above recommendations cost.

    --
    My other car is first.
    1. Re:RT by eggsome · · Score: 1

      Snipped from a reply to me by BP about a fortnight ago...
      ---------------

      Hi Xxxxx,

      Thanks so much for your kind words about RT. We love to hear when it
      has been useful for folks.

      While we very much want RT to be a tool that helps organizations be
      ITIL compliant, we're not currently planning to go down the road of
      forcing a default RT installation to fully push ITIL processes on end-
      users or of paying Pink Elephant for ITIL certification. We
      currently have the ITIL spec in the files for RT and we are very
      happy to help organizations get RT set up to match their ITIL
      processes, as well as other organization specific processes.

      Best regards,
      Keri Shaughnessy
      Best Practical Solutions

      --
      If they made a movie of your life, would anybody buy a ticket?
  31. Request Tracker by Fuzzy+Bo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Where I work (local government, 250 user site, Parramatta, NSW in Australia) we had the same request for an ITIL-compliant helpdesk system. We chose RT because it was a) free b) fit into our system c) we could buy the O'Reilly book and d) there was a support community for it.

  32. ITIL Call Logging by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I work at a South Australian Government Health Department, we, along with almost all of the other SA Gov health services are implementing ITIL in the workplace along with the Call logging and incident managment software. We are currently using HEAT, which I can say is a very nice program, all the layout and fields are fully customisable for the specific organisation, and it can support multi support departments in the one server.

    There can be a few annoyances with the alert moniter, but with the automatic call esclation and email alerting when jobs are not acknowledged it can do a very good job at keeping things managed, in order and make sure jobs are completed in a timely manner. (Except when you have to listen to your manager go on about the email system spamming him because he doesn't gets around to acknowledging or closing his jobs.. And he is the one who is meant to be implementing ITIL in the workplace :P)

  33. WebHelpDesk by csoto · · Score: 1

    Give it a try. It's the simplest I've seen. Our guys love it. But most importantly, the company fixes issues almost on the spot, and our annual maintenance is very reasonable. In short, it's one of the easiest bills we pay.

    --
    There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
  34. Ca ServiceDesk by Hyperhaplo · · Score: 1

    Service Desk and RT3 are very comparable. Service Desk does have 'a better front end' - but you can do more with RT3 (and RT3 is cheaper). I can't comment on CA support for Service Desk but I will say that they take a hard line in some areas (eg: We will not do that / fix that or address that) as you would expect from a large company (even if you do have a support contract with them).

    You CAN customise ServiceDesk (as you definitely can with RT3) - but any front end changes you make in the future you will use when you upgrade. CA ServiceDesk 6 is nearly at the end of it's support cycle. You'll be looking at version 11 at least.

    Bottom Line: If all you want is a ticket tracking tool then either will do. Small company? Going on the cheap? Go RT3. Large company, *need* corporate level support, product must be up? Both Best Practical and CA have support - but CA is more recognised and your management is more likely to go with them - especially if you already have CA products and can get a 'discount'.

    --
    You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
  35. NOT WebMethods by Hyperhaplo · · Score: 1

    Do. Not. Under. Any. Circumstances. Use. Methmethods.
    Actually, that is a misnomer. It implies that you can use webMethods and that you can actually get it to work (without spending excessive amounts of cash getting it functioning - let alone processing a few million transactions).

    --
    You have a sick, twisted mind. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.
  36. Why not use a wiki? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Saw a lot of posts about software that costs a lot of money, why not get something like twiki.org and pay someone to write a small call center app? All that's really needed to be done is to make a form that a phone operator can easily fill out and have it entered into the wiki.

    You get searching for free, and you can point the caller to it so they can see action done. Also they can look up information on the wiki itself.

    I'm not sure why it needs to work with LDAP, is there a particular reason?

    1. Re:Why not use a wiki? by PygmySurfer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      ITIL-compliant involves more than being being able to open tickets and use them to track issues. It should have asset-tracking, user management (ie when Joe calls to open a ticket, entering his name should immediately populate the ticket with all of his information), change management (tracking what changes were made to hardware/software when), in addition to incident and problem management (Joe can't get his email). To build a truly enterprise-ready solution on top of a wiki would take a ton of work, I'm sure.

  37. Cerberus Helpdesk by rndinit9 · · Score: 1

    We use cerberus at work. (University) http://www.cerberusweb.com/ http://www.cerberusweb.com/free_version.php RT is nice too if you got peeps that will work with it to make it work for you.

  38. Re:$50k + 1 yr.? I think not by PygmySurfer · · Score: 1

    ITIL encompasses everything from your help desk to your change management processes. I'm not very familliar with Request Tracker, but it appears to just be a ticketing system. An ITIL-compliant solution like ServiceDesk or Remedy would include methods for tracking customers, problems, change management, etc.

  39. Quantum by mokeyboy · · Score: 1

    Software used at Queensland University of Technology for this was/is Quantum. I'm not there anymore but from memory, it does all you ask.

  40. anyone try altiris's solutions by philo_enyce · · Score: 1
    i've been looking into the altiris service desk a bit, but haven't had an opportunity to see it in action. anyone out there use it and like it?

    philo

    1. Re:anyone try altiris's solutions by thompsonconsulting · · Score: 1

      try clickright.com They have a product called CTS Service Center. It was developed around ITIL best practices. I've seen a demo of it, and was very impressed with the ease of use and price. I have implemented it in several of my customer organizations.

    2. Re:anyone try altiris's solutions by thompsonconsulting · · Score: 1

      sorry... that url is www.clickright.net or www.buchanan.com

  41. SupportWorks perhaps? by Maimonides · · Score: 1

    There aren't that many well-proven solutions out there that are ITIL-compatible and are used by Local Authorities, but one I'm aware of is Supportworks from Hornbill (http://www.hornbill.com/). They're a British company and have lots of Public Sector customers, so should be suitable. They're also reasonably priced, so I understand, and well-liked by their customers.

    1. Re:SupportWorks perhaps? by muftak · · Score: 1

      I used it a while ago and it was ok. Written in php and runs on apache, so portable and easy to modify.

  42. RTFQ posters... by Smoking · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So here we go again. People always complain loudly when someone posts a stupid question, but here I see about 95% stupid answers:

    - First: there's no such thing as a ITIL compliant software package. ITIL is not a standard it's a collection of best practices.
    - Second: The FQ (f**cking question) says 250 users and local government. That scream we're broke from the beginning.
    And all I see here are proposal for some crappy $50k packages (Openview, remedy), requiring at least the same in consulting to get up and running.

    It's completely possible to tailor your usage of nearly any worth its salt task tracking / helpdesk software package to your interpretation of the ITIL guidelines...
    There are plenty of software packages filling your requirements: request tracker (OSS) and JIRA (proprietary) are the two first examples coming to my mind. But please not Openview,remedy or other "fill the resellers pockets" crapware....
    Sorry for the rant, ha!
    Q.

    1. Re:RTFQ posters... by fastgood · · Score: 1
      there's no such thing as a ITIL compliant software package. ITIL is not a standard it's a collection of best practices.

      The burning question -- when I reach some call center in India that cannot resolve my issue in 10 minutes, am I going to be able to tell that they subscribe to the ITIL philosophy? Am I really going to care whether they do, and is the company outsourcing to this call center really going to care about those internal practices either?

  43. A good domino (and non-domino) option by deathsquirrel · · Score: 1

    I use Footprints by unipress now and pretty well hate that. I've used remedy in the past plus the ticketing systems built into half a dozen CRM tools and they also were pretty unpleasant for the most part. If you are on domino now and will be there for awhile I'd recommend at least looking at http://www.gwi.com/ as they have a product that's about as good as possible on Domino. The .Net version is quite a bit better than the Domino version so if you aren't stuck on Domino for this purchase you should definitely give it a look. I worked there a couple of years ago and, at that time, it was incredibly cheap compared to most similar products.

  44. answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    assyst from Axios Systems - it was built from inception around ITIL. Check out Gartner and Forresters review of them if you want an independant opinion. It's also used at a lot of local government sites.

  45. ITIL Support Desk solution by thompsonconsulting · · Score: 1

    Visit www.clickright.net or www.buchanan.com They have a product called CTS Service Center that was developed using ITIL best practices. It is easy to implement, easy to use, and not expensive.

  46. Where I used to work... by infosec_spaz · · Score: 1

    We used shittyworks http://www.shit.com/ It really blew, and if you logged in just right, it could suck an blow at the same time. Come on folks...

    --
    ----- I have bad karma for a reason! -----
  47. Re:$50k + 1 yr.? I think not by OeLeWaPpErKe · · Score: 1

    But if you find something like SMARTS or Netcool or HP Service Center for $50k that will be equally impressive. Hire the main developer of an opensource ticketing system may be a nice compromise.

  48. Check out ITSM by Front Range Solutions by Compunexus · · Score: 1

    Check out ITSM by Front Range Solutions. It is a scalable modular package. It was built from the ground up to be ITLS compliant. It can be customized to meet your needs however great. There are a number of large enterprises using it, some on a global scale. It has a famous "little brother" called Heat. Last time I checked however, Heat was not ITLS compliant, but nearly so. If you are going to move toward ITLS, then you should alsoget involved with the Help Desk Institue. The white papers on best practices and the local chapters can help you answer the tough questions about what to do. You are not only changing your software but your IT culture. You need to know what the best practices are, and how to use them or your IT culture will cause you to slip back into your old ways like a smoker who tries to quit with out help. Upper management has to be in lock step with IT and have a "no shortcuts, no exceptions" policy to get you there. If not, after the dust settles, you are just left with a very expensive version of your old system.

  49. ITIL Helpdesk solution by mx4 · · Score: 1

    I have been using Alloy Software's Asset Navigator. It's a great product, ITIL compliant, AD freindly, scaleable using SQL (I have started with the Access version first) and Web enable option for users to help themselves. Check it out.