How I searched for helpdesk among 15 solutions and ... did not find

This article should not have been: it seems like Habr is not a mournful book, and I have a private history of far from Khabrov's company. But it was on Habré that I received a not very correct attitude of one company and met already two others at the most opportune moment - at the moment when I was looking for helpdesk. I tested and went through 15 different helpdesk systems and could not choose any of them! Already experienced the whole drama? Early! In general, I boiled over, let off steam, forced my colleagues to test, exhaled a little and decided not to bomb on emotions, but to write a text about how requirements can relate to software and that developers are sometimes somewhat out of touch with reality. Although it will not work without emotions, because I was on both sides of the software: both the customer and the developer, which means I understand both. But I do not want to justify anyone. Sorry if there will be a longrid. Maybe a long one, but an action!


Duran (seemingly)

So what happened

Some time ago, I got a job as a technical director in a company. The company is engaged in the sale and maintenance of medical equipment (not the most complex, but common), works directly with many private clinics, beauty parlors, studios, dentists and so on. There are no special secrets in this business, and in principle the guys dispensed with the services of a visiting system administrator, but some change in business processes forced an experienced specialist to control and support the work of the CRM system, own server, IT-park of employees, 1C (I cried and fought back ) and so on. infrastructure pieces. Three problems were especially acute, which are very important for this article.

1. CRM in the company is very legacy - I won’t even write the name, no one will remember it here. Even the vendor does not make contact on this version and transfers arrows to the partner. However, I have some refinement tools in my hands and the system is quite reliable and conveniently arranged and perfectly stores the client base. It is very important to understand that the client base of such a company is a valuable asset (forgive me colleagues!), Because leaving even 5 clients to competitors will hurt the revenue.
   
2. The work of technical and customer support was blamed on me: hiring, and training, and support - and what did you think, a small business hires those. Dira, so he pressed the chair with his ass? Figs there.
   
3. After 2 months of point two, I died, howled, howled, and realized that I needed a help ... Helpdesk! Service desk! Ticket system! Let it be called whatever it wants, but it will save my operators from the CRM legacy (which is normal for sellers, but extremely hemorrhoids for both types of support - service and client).
   

So, I left my thoughts about buying a new CRM and migrating to it the entire base on the subcortex, and I decided to quickly install / buy helpdesk, train my girls and boys in a couple of days and dig in admin systems. It was May. Today, in December, I sign my naivety.

A short list of the 11 best systems with a recommendation for whom they are below.

Can I see everyone?

For free, that is ... not without reason

Like any employee of a Russian small business company, I started with free programs - so as not to get out of my budget, not to hold meetings, but to quickly start working and extend my experience to my colleagues. Well, sir.

Freehelpdesk - for me right away, because it is desktop. But I’m a researcher, so I rocked and picked it up. A simple, strong open source helpdesk is a familiar interface of the early 2000s. I frankly do not understand in what cases the helpdesk system is not justified in the cloud, especially of such a level (I admit that there are some requests in terms of security, but such companies are not suitable for such software).


Ticket establishment form at Freehelpdesk

osTicket - open source, very modest functionality and the title of "the most popular client support program in the world" (what ?!). But there is a cloud that crosses helpdesk from this section: the cloud is paid and costs $ 9 per person per month. In the open source version there are a lot of restrictions, without dancing with a tambourine it will not work.


Ticket window with quick ticket viewing in osTicket

Most of the advertised “free” systems are free tariffs of paid vendors with all that it implies: restrictions on terms of use, number of operators, number of tickets and equipment, etc. Well, we all know that this is all marketing, so we won’t discuss the free versions seriously.

Well, another time I became convinced of the truth that I was still learning as a developer: free software is either a trap (pay for support, installation, etc.) or a zilch (what did you want for free?). In general, I am a little sorry for those companies that come solely for reasons of free. Guys, nobody forces you to buy solutions from huge system integrators for millions, but it’s full of normal, affordable software. I’ll tell you more - almost all the solutions listed in the article are essentially the same, but you need to look according to needs.

Vendor paid solutions

“And here it is up to speed!” I thought, and, of course, in vain. My team of two people tested these systems, analyzed work profiles, talked with vendors for 2 months. I could tell a lot about the nuances of communication - for example, how a girl hung up when she learned that “we’re not buying it right now”, how the manager lied about prices, how Terrasoft managers professionally and harmoniously work (oh, I said it out loud), what a cool chain of letters Okdesk has (though you get tired of it while you choose, sign up for left mails), how specific and concise is the conversation with ZEDLine Support engineers (I haven’t attacked any sales people), how emotional the ITSM 365 consultant is (from Naumen you are waiting for scripts ) and how many vendors are lying about their products; - ) And yes, I remember everyone who did not call back.

ITSM 365 . It so happened that I have been familiar with this system for a long time as a user and system administrator, so there were few surprises. I always liked that there is a client portal, and this is one of my main requirements, there are competitive licenses - for a shift support a great way to save. This is a good ITSM system that helps manage IT assets and a little worse for everyone else. Judging by the announcements, the Customer version is coming soon - I expect to see it before we even implement anything. But this is Naumen, and Naumen is expensive. However, I will write about prices below.

Why crossed out? There are no necessary functions, it is ground under ITSM, strained constant reminder of the manager about platform. The platform is maybe cool, but I would start working, and not sawing a working help desk in my free time. Expensive.

Service Creatio is a former bpm'online, and before that Terrasoft, and I have no reason not to trust this company. A good system, which is a helpdesk, “taut” on the best patterns of a CRM system. The incident card uses comprehensive information, you can configure the standard reaction time, calculate the time spent, it is possible to configure queues with rules and templates, etc. If it were possible to give places in my review, I would give Creatio first place.

So why crossed out if you liked it? Although we are engaged in honey. equipment, teeth of 27 thousand per tooth decay do not treat, therefore, we are a small business. And it is dear to us. 1630 p. per user per month - what is more expensive than the others ?! But Terrasoft has been famous for its daring games with pricing since the time of the CRM desktop, it puts * and ... begins. In short, the cost of the minimum start-up package for new customers is 2500 USD, the exchange rate is tied to the currency, support is very paid, implementation is very paid, you need to sign a contract for a year at once and there are no discounts for you + if you have a large amount of work, you will have to pay for expanding the disk space, etc. .d. That is, in the first month, take out and put a minimum of 200-250 thousand rubles. For some, this is all revenue. I don’t know if you are a very large company - take a closer look, if it’s small, move on, it’s interesting there.

Okdesk - guys who are trying to get into the shoes of service number one, knew what they were doing, because they came from Naumen.

A good, full-fledged help desk for service companies - with geo-targeting, a personal dashboard of a client, reporting, a convenient interface for working with requests, a good set of attributes, nice informative dashboards. Separately pleased with the customizability and readiness of the company for dialogue and generally close communication (I hope, not only until the time of purchase). The cutest filling demo base with the heroes of fairy tales. Of the minuses - the brakes both on the demo and during the presentation of the manager. I figured out how many records I would have on equipment spare parts (they are serviced separately), consumables, incidents and reconfiguration requests, and decided that I did not want the system to hang during operation. Let it be easier, but it works optimally.

Why crossed out? This system was the first to buy in my rating, but some communication on Habré, ignoring personal messages with important details and denying the behavior of my manager (competent and cool, but screwed up in a couple of moments) made me wonder - how will they behave with me in further. Well and yes, for me the system is too overloaded, I do not want to pay for quasi-CRM, I have enough of mine. I may be subjective, but collectively not.

IntraService - all I want to say about this system is that the portal was created an hour and was not created, then 15 minutes and only 3-5 minutes from the third time. At the same time, the stability of the connection and the speed did not change. Well, how is that?

But I'm a stubborn guy, and tested the functionality. It seemed to me that it was more tailored for requests for revision by the vendor. The application form is overloaded (12-15 fields), the application window is highlighted (although you get used to all these colors and signs very quickly, for support a la call center it is very good). I liked the filters for selecting applications (27 filtering criteria), previewing an application, uploading to Excel (neatly), API.
Why didn’t you choose? Well, it's just not what I need + my colleagues didn’t like it. For someone, a completely compromise option. Judging by the site and dialogs with managers, the company is not replete with customers. Sometimes these are worth choosing, if only because they will have time to mess with you. But for such a price there are interesting solutions from the above.

HelpDeskEddy - at this point I was playing with Sherlock Holmes, and here it is!

But first about functionality. Inside the HelpDeskEddy system, requests are created as letters. that is, you write a message inside the system, as in an email client, and after that an application is formed. All answers and comments are made out in the same way. In principle, this is what is happening at my place of work, but in a beautifully organized interface with logic. There are not many request parameters, organization of ticket and access tables is also not very convenient. In fact, it is more of a constructor system for advanced users and administrators.

Usually I slip a marketing husk, but here I saw among the clients Lamoda, L'Oreal, mail.ru, VTB, Delivery Club. Is it really possible for these companies to organize helpdesk so much? Conducted an investigation using VLSI and TAdviser, read sources, studied finances. It turned out that the company is engaged in individual custom development, including for the banking sector. As I understand it, helpdesk itself is far from the main product.

Why didn’t you choose? I did not like the logic of forming all applications as mail messages.

Eadesk - knew them a little earlier from his freelance activities, he looked now. The company refused to position itself as a help desk and became the "first CRM-system for customer support." Well, firstly, not the first, and secondly, not CRM. In fact, this is a very simple system into which all dialogs from messengers and social networks merge and dialogue is the main essence, tasks are created on it. And ... that's it. There are some chips in the settings, but the essence of this does not change.

Why didn’t you choose? This is definitely not a helpdesk, much less CRM, it's some kind of omnichannel collector. Probably, such a solution will suit some B2C from a small business. In general, a tool for collecting and storing dialogs and calls on them, but not specialized software.

Yuzdesk is similar in logic to the previous service, but more service-oriented, with SLA indicators (monitoring the quality of service, which is not bad) and elements of a ticket system. There are rules for processing applications, there are templates. The chip is the maximum of easy integration with other services. Skolkovo project, sin by the infobusiness ;-) I would say that this is a simple and optimal solution for SMM tasks of companies of various sizes.
Why didn’t you choose? Not that profile at all.

There were four more services that I looked at, two of them - hard ITSM on ITIL, absolutely IT solutions, and I don’t even want to mention two traffic from Habr to them, because the feeling that they are either dead or created on the wave some hype.

Companies with Habr

Since the end of summer, I noticed that along with the beginning of the business season on Habré helpdesk of different stripes divorced, namely two absolutely new for me and Okdesk returned, which in the final result was the last trigger for writing this article. The guys denied my complaint, did not answer in a personal email, where I indicated the talk time of our office and their manager, and generally decided that I could ignore it. Well, okay, so, to the two companies from Habr.

ZEDLine Support is a young system, which, as is clear from the blog, was developed by the RegionSoft CRM team. Considering that the CRM system has been around for many years, I was pleased that the developers are most likely not smoothie and mustard pants, that is, they don’t dunk me into the beautiful interface and there’s zero behind it, like a lot of remake. And it turned out, but here I experienced conflicting feelings.

Obviously, the developers did not take away the ideas from somewhere, as it happens, but made a decision based on their experience - in fact, I found confirmation of my thoughts in their articles. Why is this visible? The interface has the ability to customize the application form (all fields of the application), chats and statuses are concisely arranged, the main thing is the calculation of labor costs by standards, there are hidden messages between operators. I would call it a minimalistic convenient helpdesk or ticket system for small companies of absolutely any profile (you configure the questionnaire yourself). I liked this set and approach, coupled with a good price. But two things attracted me more: the first is the instant creation of a client’s office and the second is the lack of need for training. More than sure that my support staff in both directions would have trained in about 10 minutes. Well, in half an hour.

Why didn’t I choose? It’s not yet clear to me what the ZEDLine API will be. Plus, I want some kind of integration with my CRM-system, and so far they only have integration with their RegionSoft CRM. From the pleasant - there is integration with virtual exchanges.

HubEx - as I understand it, is also a young system. They attracted me right away because they were geographically close to me and it would be possible to conduct some kind of full-time study or chat in the office. But do not rush, right? I preferred the test preludes. I have to say right away: the system is interesting, specifically tailored for service. That is, if I cried about ITSM above, then there is no ITIL, only a service.

I was fascinated by working with cards in HubEx, a mobile version of the system and, most importantly, QR codes. That is, you glue QR stickers on your equipment and the equipment passport to the application is reinforced with this code. All service agents can be seen on the map, it is easy to track operating time and movement (sin by personal affairs, I know). But, alas, HubEx looks much worse for office support, and installing two systems is expensive and problematic in support and maintenance.

Why didn’t you choose? Because I did not find a way to optimize the system for my company in order to provide automation for both field engineers and internal support staff. Well, yes, a little expensive.

Members on one list

• ITSM 365 is an expensive, configurable solution, while more focus on IT assets.
  
• Service Creatio is a good functional solution for medium and large businesses. Great sales and high prices.
  
• Okdesk is a good functional helpdesk with an attempt to get closer to the CRM world. Overloaded interface, hangs. Competent managers.
  
• ZEDLine Support is the most universal solution for small businesses, it is easy to deploy and does not require operator training, flexible settings, labor costs accounting.
  
• Yuzdesk - SMM-solution or helpdesk for B2C-sphere.
  
• HubEx is a good solution for service and field support agents, the logic of working with equipment (passport, QR codes, cards) is perfectly implemented.
  
• IntraService is an incomprehensible solution, but with admin tools.
  
• Eadesk - SMM-solution, sharpened by the integration of customer circulation channels (instant messengers, social networks).
  
• HelpDeskEddy - for those who like to work through mail. Basic helpdesk, which will solve the problems of communication with customers on request.
  
• Freehelpdesk - open source, desktop, simple. In 2019, I do not see him on the market.
  
• osTicket - open source, paid solution in the cloud. Customizable import system, modest functionality, telephony and mail are available.
  

What did I want so much that nobody suited me?

This is me looking for helpdesk

But right there is nothing complicated.

• To make the system convenient for field engineers and for internal support.
  
• There should be a client cabinet with the easiest access.
  
• Application statuses, communication with the operator - strictly written.
  
• I do not need social networks, CRM and a la CRM inside the helpdesk - I do not want to overpay for what is already there.
  
• It is unclear how, but I would like to implement telephony.
  
• Supporters should not touch CRM, but CRM should “see” applications or at least create a contact.
  
• A plus would be tracking service agents on a map.
  
• You need a monthly fee and the ability to refuse licenses or competitive licenses.
  
• Modifications are not needed yet, but in the future they should be.
  
• Desirable - a good search on tickets with different search criteria (filtering).
  

Difficult?No. But it happens that the market is full of software, but it’s difficult to choose. By the way, with CRM it is the same with CMS, and even with virtual PBXs. Everything is smooth on paper, but forget about the ravines.

Sweet prices

So, I needed a system without a mobile version for 17 operators. I chose the most suitable tariffs in terms of functionality, comparable to my goals. The price spread came out as it came out - you can see it in the table. I must note that some companies offered discounts for various reasons. So, for example, HelpDeskEddy indicated on the website that when paying for a year, you need to pay only for 10 months, and ZEDLine Support when paying for a year gives a 15% discount. Another company offered a 20% discount, but said it was a closed topic (yeah, secret to the whole world), I won’t publicly declare it. And the conclusion, you know which one? Ask!

^{At the request of workers: the cost of the cloud per year of ownership, for 17 users, taking into account discounts on the site or offered by managers of development companies, in rubles. That is, once a year, my office will have to pay this amount.}

I will not judge the adequacy of prices, but in general, almost everyone considers them reasonable. In any case, investing in helpdesk and ticket system is investing in intensive growth. Soon I will return to this task :-)

At the moment I have suspended the choice of a ticket system or helpdesk for my company, we work on the basis of mail and instant messengers. This is not the best way, problematic and unsafe, but so far familiar. I wrote a post for a long time, and by the end I was already tired, so I was not too lazy to compare tariffs and draw conclusions about systems with one list. But somewhere in the depths of my programming soul a vile client question has ripened: dear developers, and for whom are you developing your software? Do you copy other people's ideas or analyze demand? Do you draw conclusions after feedback? Feels like at least half - no. So I'm waiting for the helpdesk of a dream, I continue to torment my support.

Choose wisely!