Slashdot Mirror
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?"
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.
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.
Seconded.
My boss and I worked on getting it set up for the upcoming school year. We were on phone with tech support about every 30 minutes because we didn't know about mundane minutae for turning on option X or why module Y wouldn't work. The manual is written in clear English, but it doesn't really say how to do much.
If only it was free software, we could fix it, but it isn't, so it will continue to have bugs such as the UTC bug, and the "i don't feel like saving what you type if you tab to a field, rather than use the mouse" bug.
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!
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.