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Choosing Help Desk Software
January 27, 2010
With over 100 Support Desk vendors in the market, packages ranging from free to over $5,000 per advanced user (i.e. Technical Support Rep or Customer Support Rep) and a vast list of structures, web services, and features to evaluate, selecting the right helpdesk software for your business can be a time sucking and frustrating process.
The purpose of this post is to attempt to and make easier the process for you. This industry brief will deal with general issues that everyone in the help desk software market should understand prior to making the final selection. Understanding these issues will help you make a more knowledgable decision.
Customer Support Software - Architecture
The issue that seems to generate the most confusion in our industry is client/server web-enabled solutions (C/S) vs. 100% web-based solutions. In general, C/S architected solutions are dying breed. At one point, an awesome step up over main frame solutions, C/S technology has been phased out due to the availability and rewards of web-based solution structures. The main reason some helpdesk software businesses continue to sell C/S solutions is due to the conclusion that they do not have the development resources to adapt their elder product to a web-based architecture. Some of the rewards that web-based solutions include over C/S solutions include:
- No client-side software set up, updates, or support
- Log in from anywhere, anytime with any browser
- Access to all features and functions at anytime and from any place
When you begin to demo different customer support software solutions please take note if you are required to load code on your computer to starts the demo. If so, you are not dealing with a business that gives a web-based solution. True web-based structures need only a web address in order to do a demo.
So, if the business emails you a 5 MB exe. file to demo their solution, you are not seeing a 100% web based customer support software solution. The file that vendor is sending you is either front ending a C/S system or is a entire canned demo on your desktop. Make sure you evaluate the solution you are going to purchase! If you do purchasea C/S solution, please take note that web-enabled add-on modules wont give you full access to all of the features when you are in a browser on the web.