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IT Asset Tracking and Helpdesk Software?
MJanofsky asks: "I am the IT guy for a new, smallish non-profit organization. I won't always be able to be in my office to access information about our a users machine or to get the word that there is an issue somewhere. What I am looking for is something similar to the likes of Numara Track-It!, but it is very cost-prohibitive despite having all of the features needed. What it needs to include is integration of the HelpDesk and Asset Tracking parts (i.e. a user submits a ticket with equipment associated to it via a web interface and when I view it, I get the option to view the profile of the equipment), it has to be able to use bar-codes, be web-based, and ideally under $300. It would also be nice to have auditing via the network, and remote-control features but those are in the 'if it has it, great' category. Do Slashdot readers have any suggestions in their endless wisdom?"
OneOrZero is what the college I worked at last year uses, and I was quite impressed with it. FOSS too.
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thanks perl!
At work we use Clientele by Epicor. It's an old version though, not sure what the newest one has in it but probably close to what you need.
At the place I worked before that I built a custom system that was all web-based, if you're small enough and have the available skill-set that might be a good option.
We use Track-It! and let me tell you, it's a piece of crap.
If you use keyboard shortcuts to speed up your data entry, it only saves about half your changes, and the remote control package locked up a lot of machines. The schema in the database sucks, all your users have to be entered as "workstations".
I'm so fed up with it, I'm trying to convince my boss to let me write a replacement.
I know being a non-profit can have it's own problems (multiple departments / funding sources), I'm rolling our own though I've started with assets (general) and eventually will expand it.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
I built a simple asset/inventory tracker and trouble ticket combo in FileMaker. It works fine in small environments. It's nice to be able to pull up a serial number and see the history of a piece of equipment, who used it, what problems it has had, etc.
Recently someone got fired and refused to return their laptop. I hopped on the system pulled up the serial number, date of purchase, date it was transferred to the employee, etc. Should make the lawyers happy.
Help Desk Reloaded (www.helpdeskreloaded.com) has trouble ticket, and basic asset managment. Its a free PHP MySQL app. It does not have remote control of end users desktop built in however.
Perhaps you have done this already: check with your CEO and grant writers about asking Numera to donate a license and service agreement to Track-It as a charitable contribution.
Check out IRM, a free application that does everything you asked for and more.
From the website: "IRM, the Information Resource Manager, is a powerful web-based asset tracking and trouble ticket system built for IT departments and HelpDesks. It keeps detailed information about each computer, as well as providing a trouble ticket system, an FAQ system, and a Knowledgebase. All elements are interwoven into a seamless web application."
This can be used to track machines, port switches, software on the machine and tickets. You can create custom fields and make them pull down or allow people to enter their own txt. It's good stuff, and 100% free.
Demo: http://budgester.homeip.net/~irm/irm/
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I would recommend any product that I've never used ... over Track-It!.
We use Clientele at my work too, an older version. I'm ready to implement their new version which is now called ITSM (IT Service Management).
In my opinion, it seems like they put way too much muscle behind the software when it really isn't doing anything that complex. Their support is top notch though.
If this post has multiple meanings, and one of those pisses you off, I meant the other one.
You can check out SysAid. They have a free version if you wish. And it has a remote control feature.
What I need is the features of Track-It (tickets, sub tickets, help database, issue tracking, self help/faq generation) but I also need things for a service department (time tracking, parts and most importantly INVOICE GENERATION).
-- pupkick
Have a look at OCS Inventory NG, it's an asset tracking system. It can also integrate with GLPI, which is a helpdesk system. They're FOSS. I'm thinking of giving them a go at the non-profit where I work. It looks pretty cool, the only thing that bothers me so far is the shoddy translation.
My IT company uses Avalon Business Systems' Avalon Management Suite. It handles ticketing, asset tracking, and a whole lot more (client database, scheduling, accounting, vendor integration, etc.). It's all web-based and real-time. I'd highly recommend checking it out.
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We use it at the school I work at. It's decent and if you can code asp, you can customize it fairly easily. It's free for up to three "techs". Since you are small, ther three tech limitation shouldn't be an issue for you.
http://www.inet-sciences.com/
I can't help with asset tracking, but at work, we use OTRS to manage our entire IT support ticketing system. Multiple queues, complete email integration, LDAP support, and a host of other features make it one heck of a solution. Oh, and it's free :)
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
I created a decent SQL schema for our asset-tracking system, which has basic fault and maintenance logging for computers, but is more geared towards managing our licensing. Currently there's no front end and I do all the work using SProcs and views. Lesson here is: building such a system is more complicated than you think, and you will most likely fall into scope-creep!
That said, does anyone know a way of automatically detecting software packages installed on a Windows PC?
"If he were a plant, people would roll him up and smoke him."
We're working on a hosted helpdesk solution that includes time management, resource tracking and software and hardware asset tracking. Due to go live in 2007:
http://www.vhdesk.com/
This is probably offtopic, considering your price range and requirements, but I'm sure someone could find it interesting...
;)
We have CA Unicenter installed at work: asset management, software delivery, remote control, helpdesk... It chews on 60-80 MB of memory on client PC's, and upon a forced install from the sysadmins, the client software somehow nerfed my copy of Visual Studio so I had to reinstall. We also use McAfee, which tends to chew on 40-50 MB RAM. Most of the computers in my company are equipped with 128 MB of memory, some even with 64. My machine has 512 MB, and even with that, it slowed down considerably. I had the CA services deinstalled (admin passwords do wonders), and someone detected it in about 10 days. However, after changing the PC network name and deinstalling again, I never received a call from the sysadmins. Either they are clueless, or the software couldn't handle it. I don't mind
I don't know much about the rest of the package, but the helpdesk software is confusing and hard to use. It won't even integrate with LDAP (though it does integrate with AD).
So if someone wants to give you a sweet CA Unicenter deal - run away from it!
At my organisation, we went with two open source projects,OCS NG and GLPI. OCS NG is a client-server solution that uses a client, written in php, but compiled as an exe installer and running as a service on Windows (There's also clients available for Solaris, Linus and OSX), that collects information on hardware and software from the client computer (the source is avaiulable and you can edit it if you want). The OCS NG server collects the data from the clients via an xml-rpc call and sorts and stores them (you can delete clients, filter software into categories etc). The GLPI server is the main helpdesk and tracking app. It works hand-in-hand with the OCS NG server and is really good, and provides detailed data on clients, plus the ability to do financial info on them and reporting.
We have both running on a gentoo server and the level of control is excellent.
The downside is that both are from France. The English translation is less than perfect (but we're in switzerland and so we use it in French). I can only recommed the software though. No licensing issues or huge costs from proprietry vendors adn the ability to modify the source code is a god send. We modified GLPI to print labels via an xsl transform of the xml output to xslfo for Apache's FOP.
Where I work we use RMS ServiceDesk in conjunction with Centennial Discovery. The best feature of Discovery, when it works, is that it is able to discover network port attachments. You can create a hierarchy to represent buildings, floors, rooms, or whatever, and see at a glance what devices are where, as well as be alerted when a device has moved.
If you only have a shoestring budget in this arena, either you go with OSS, or do it yourself.
It seems that all HD sofware companies are out to get as much $ as they can ( most often per seat... so your 300$ goal is not going to happen )
And if you think track-it is expensive, ive seen a lot worse..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Worst pile of dog crap I've ever seen. OMG! I thought the bad app we had prior was bad, I mean really, really bad....but trackit is bad on a level that makes one shiver. Another case of where people with no technical knowledge pick applications instead of letting the people that have to work with it suggest something(else in this case).
http://webhelpdesk.com/
We've had it for just over a year, done 12,000 tickets, entered inventory for 150 sites and are pretty happy with it. It's not open source, but it is multi platform coming with easy installers for Win, Mac OS, Solaris and Linux. I've run it on Mac to trial and currently Win in production.
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is RT at http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/ and RTx::AssetTracker at http://atwiki.chaka.net/
RT is a very powerful open source ticketing system, and RTx::AssetTracker adds adequate asset tracking to it. You would probably have to do a bit of work to get it to work with barcodes (or just use a barcode scanner with the
cursor on the right page - most just send standard keyboard type input IIRC).
It's all open source, written in Perl, and really just works very well. And if it turns out to be inadequate, you'll learn enough from the experience to have a much better idea of what you actually need.
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I highly recommend AdventNet ServiceDesk Plus (www.servicedeskplus.com). They have a version that is free for one admin, but I would be willing to be that as a non-profit you may be able to get a sever discount on additional seats as well. It is a wonderfully designed program, the interface is quite nice, and it is very stable and full-featured. Take a look at it (we use it where I work and it's been one of the best investements we've made).
The most pervasive one I've seen is RT.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
Do any of these systems support barcode scanners?
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These work well together. This will bust your budget a bit but it is good stuff. Footprints http://www.unipress.com/products.html and Centennial Discovery http://www.centennial-software.com/ FP runs on Window$ or Linux and is perl based. Discovery is sweet in that it will do what it's name implies. It will find hardware on your network (rogue AP's are a problem where I work). Check them out...:)
Hi. I've just installed GLPI helpdesk (open source) which so far has been easy to install & fairly easy to configure. It uses PHP & MySQL & has a minimal inventory system as well.
However GLPI can work in tandem with OCS Inventory (which I haven't installed yet). OCS is also open source, & includes client agent app's for Windows and Linux that report hardware, software etc.
Adrian Hicks
Download a Demo Version: http://www.download.com/Asset-Navigator/3000-2651_ 4-10374256.html
Limitations: 10 computer nodes, 1 admin account
Manageengine Servicedesk Plus. Reasonable licensing (and the free version might work for your company). Support is good, and asset discovery is automatic on your network (and easily linkable to users, who are also automatically discovered). So far, it's been an excellent program.
... http://otrs.org/ for ticketing, http://ocsinventory.sourceforge.net/ for hardware tracking and http://glpi-project.org/?lang=en for software license tracking.
The ticketing and asset pieces aren't integrated and you might be able to get GLPI and OCS to work with a barcode scanner if the scanner will dump to a text field in the web page. I haven't had your specific needs but I thought I'd tout what worked for me, since I haven't seen them mentioned.
Just because you are not paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you.
Spiceworks is another option, its an odd ad based asset tracker, shows various google ads on the side depending on if your on like the servers tab or the PC tab etc. Free, web based and it can automatically detect your installs and collect the data on them for you (including like what software is installed etc)
For remote admin I use UltraVNC from sourceforge, nice package but freaks people out when I take over on them
There is a software I am aware of that does exactly all this, and is right now taking off for the medical sector ....to be able to follow from start to finish all the demands for new materials etc.... also has a web based interface and easy to use
master configuration UI fro seperating roles and groups for tracking.
I think the link is http://www.gesco.info/forfaits_en.asp
This is probably more of a solution for people who are already using drupal.
The drupal CMS, has a Light CRM module which may provide an adequate helpdesk.
I suppose you could build an assett management system with drupal's flixinode module.
I have been using Liberum helpdesk (http://www.liberum.org/) to manage the helpdesk portion of my job. It's free, has a very simplistic interface for users, and can store requests into a knowledgebase if you choose to do so. The two+ years I've used it has proven it to be a reliable solution.
Check http://www.easycmdb.com/ - it's web based, OSS based (though not Open Source) and quite cheap from what I understand.
I'll second all of the endorsements for RT, OTRS, and IRM. We're currently using a combination of RT and IRM for our IT helpdesk and asset tracking needs though we're looking at converting over to OTRS from RT.
However I think Kayako SupportSuite might be worth a look. We're switching our customer support department over to it from Cerberus Helpdesk and it looks pretty nice. While it isn't FOSS the license cost is fairly reasonable ($500/year per server). It's all AJAX and PHP with source code so you can make your own modifications. A fair number of companies seem to be using it to power their support sites.
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DCL. Double Choco Latte is pretty good. FOSS and I like it too!