Help Desk Software

If your help desk needs involve 100 – 100,000 users, help desk call tracking and ticketing software can increase your efficiencies and help to provide better customer support. But before begin the long and sometime tedious evaluation process, it’s very important that you first develop a set of evaluation criteria based on the features and benefits that are most important to your help desk requirements. Having evaluated a multitude of help desk, ticketing and CRM systems for IT support organizations, the following is a list of criteria that I’ve utilized with great results:
• Generate a requirements document that includes identification of current policies and procedures
• Define your specific needs against how your agents will utilize the new system
• Define escalation, call routing, and queuing needs
• Identify and define your back end system integration requirements
• Define business objectives, reporting, and critical tasks that may need to be altered at a moments notice

How the Agent will use the Software

Evaluation of the software package should take into consideration an agent's perspective on how they will utilize the system as this will affect how well the system works for your organization. This may include;
• Is the information easy to log and are calls easy to handle?
• Is the agent call flow easy to follow between screens and easy to enter into the system?
• Does the system allow for the agent to manage their time effectively?

Can a callers history be easily accessed by an agent when needed? The software should have an easy to use GUI that is completely customizable and scalable.

Help desk software evaluation tools and checklist

Help desk software evaluation tools and checklist
Evaluating help desk software in effort to identify the best product for your help desk requires a detailed needs analysis checklist and product comparison spreadsheet.

There are many useful tools available on the web that can help develop this comparison spreadsheet, but we’ve added a few key items such as;

Agent Usability
Help desk functions
General
Client Maintenance
Contract Maintenance
Asset Management
Asset Ticket Service Management
Incoming call functions
Reporting
Web Help Knowledgebase
Integration Capabilities
Security
Pricing

System integration points

Web-based interfaces provide access to help desk systems that are easy to use and a great customer experience.

If you experience many e-mail problem notifications, you might want to consider a help desk software that automatically logs e-mail request thus reducing costly data entry by agents.

CRM’s are excellent tools that enable enterprises to have a 360 degree view of a customer and the interaction the enterprise has with that customer. Things such as asset tracking, training, or a knowledge base, can be integrated to fulfill the requirement.

Reporting, key to the organization

A help desk software’s reporting feature should be simple and easy to use and include graphs, exporting of data, and provide details on performance measurements that the organization defines. Help desk software usually provides canned reports and allows for customization as needed.

Be sure to include specifications about operating systems, hardware requirements, if you require Software as a Service or other features you find during evaluation. Also, don’t forget to get a clearly defined proposal that outlines costs, licensing fees, maintenance costs and any other hidden charges that may be added such as integration fees or special API costs.
Good luck and be sure to post your comments on how your evaluation went.