The best it help desk software

With that being said, Help Desk is still an incredibly powerful IT help desk software that really caters to medium to large-sized companies who are looking to manage their own help desk solutions in house.

You can test out SolarWinds Help Desk for your organization on a day free trial. Atera is a package of software designed for managed service providers MSPs. The bundle is delivered from the cloud and it includes both professional services automation PSA and remote monitoring and management RMM services.

The Help Desk package starts with a template for a customer portal. This is the page that users will access before contacting the Help Desk. It includes a knowledge base section and the Atera management console includes a section for setting this up with information. The knowledge base creation service offers templates for adding information to the knowledge base in a range of formats. These include the option to publish blogs and news articles within the system. As well as being available for users, the knowledge base service can be used to create guides for technicians.

The customer portal page is white-labeled so the MSP can brand this with their logo or that of their customer. There is also a contacts page that needs to e set up. Finally, the customer portal contains a ticket-raising service. The ticket management function of the Help Desk will send the user an immediate autoresponse to confirm receipt and give information on problem processing standards.

The service will then route the task to the next available technician. There is a management console for the Help Desk system and the team manager needs to specify how tickets are routed. Tickets that come from specific sources can be allocated to sub-groups of technicians. The team manager can opt to receive all new tickets for approval and for manual routing. Tickets can be merged or split and they can be set up as a shared task. It is also possible to prioritize tickets and reallocate them.

The technician console in the Help Desk Shows all allocated tasks. The progress of the technician is automatically logged, for example, which tasks have been opened, which are on hold, and which are yet to be addressed.

In order to fix the problem, the technician can refer to the knowledge base. It is possible to fulfill a request by sending an advisory email or use the tools in the RMM package to investigate the system and troubleshoot.

The service can be used to forward on problems that require deeper technical analysis. This you can filter out common problems with the 1st line of support and keep experienced technical specialists focused on the really difficult tasks. Atera is a subscription service and it is available in three plan levels. You can assess Atera on a free trial. Manage acts as a hub for all incoming helpdesk tickets, time and expense tracking, project management, and sales.

Manage aims to be a one-stop solution for MSPs and provides additional integrations such as ConnectWise Automate that extend the usefulness of Manage and its help desk capability. Help Desk is at the core of Manage where your team can receive incoming tickets from email, phone calls, or through a web service portal. Tickets are broken down into three sections, Discussion, Internal, and Resolution. These tabs are designed to record your client correspondence, internal work time, and the resolution all in one place.

However, It is possible to get the appliance installed in your servers by special association. The usual configuration of SolarWinds Service Desk is completely scalable since you are charged in line with agent and in step with monitored software, so this very complete Service Desk solution is out there to small enterprises as well as massive corporations. These utilities come with a ticketing machine for resolution tracking, and a knowledge base platform to assist you to make guides and system documentation accessible to the user community and a self-service portal that may scale back the choice of calls that your service center has to procedure.

Management amenities within the service extend the package beyond Help Desk operative support via to IT carrier and facility management. The organizational features of Service Desk support incident management, problem control, alternate control, and unencumber management. That allows you to solely track the making plans, creation, and monitoring of machine extensions.

The support of change control contains the monitoring of software and its rollout and regulate around the endeavor. A Configuration Management Database logs and tracks the software running to your network. This function not only monitors software versions however data the interactions between software elements and indicators to any impact on performance that transfers from poorly built-in processes. Service Desk seemed on the top of a up to date market-wide listing, you'll download the comparison report here.

This is an excessively complete IT asset control service that integrates process automation supported by way of system finding out and AI methodologies. Both asset and drawback control services and products in Service Desk include reporting and research options that permit human intervention to activate, refine, and extend the level of automation deployed for your support strategy.

Departmental management is supported by means of SolarWinds Service Desk through SLA monitoring , which makes this instrument suitable for controlled service providers. It additionally tracks departmental purchases, gross sales, and objective attainment. It can also turn out to be a repository for best practices and support team of workers coaching subject material.

Instead, support calls may also be guided by means of scripts, directing brokers via investigation routines against a well-known resolution. The ticketing gadget will manage the routing of downside answer duties away from the frontline to third line technicians when advanced issues require detailed investigation and professional attention.

Reporting, benchmarking, and tracking options of Service Desk help you notice group spaces the place expertise is overtaxed or underused. Service Desk acknowledges the success of Salesforce and produces a taste of its ITSM system that totally integrates with that software. Samanage also integrates neatly with more than other trade packages, including Gmail , Active Directory , and Jira.

The pricing construction of SolarWinds Service Desk gives three levels of provider. The Team pack will provide you with the vintage Help Desk support functions of incident management, a data base platform, and a self-service portal.

For a better price, you'll be able to step up to the Business deal, which adds at the software version, change control, and SLA monitoring.

You can get a fully-functioning day free trial of the Professional package deal to check the machine for yourself. Once that length ends, you'll switch to any of the 3 applications, or stroll away with out responsibilities.

ManageEngine is owned via Zoho Corp. As a rule, Zoho brands all of its systems control tools beneath the ManageEngine identify. However, there is a little overlap between the identities of Zoho and ManageEngine, which ends up in Zoho Desk being available each throughout the Zoho site and the ManageEngine website. The ManageEngine solid ranks as probably the most top manufacturers in the systems tools marketplace and the range of tools that the company gives can all be built-in.

Service Desk Plus is the key ManageEngine help desk providing. It is available as a cloud-based provider or for set up on-premises. The put in edition can also be run on Windows or Linux. Service Desk Plus is packaged in three service levels. Fortunately, the cheapest possibility, Standard , is concentrated at IT help desks.

If you want so as to add greater intensity on your help desk software, it's good to look at the upper programs. These are the Professional Plan , which adds-on asset management purposes, and the Enterprise Plan , which includes asset management as well as project control utilities and ITIL options.

With the Standard package, you get a spread of filtering utilities that help users clear up their very own issues with out contacting a help desk agent. In this division, you deploy a self-service portal that features a wisdom control base. Tickets may also be raised by way of phone, e mail, or web shape. You can assign every ticket to agents mechanically, and automation included within the bundle performs usual duties run with out tying up technicians.

An important component of this on-line help heart is a searchable knowledge base. The hope is that the consumer will discover a answer in this system. However, the self-service portal may be a place the place customers can elevate support tickets. Tickets may also be assigned robotically to a person technician or to a bunch.

Business rules prepare price tag management. These rules categorize tickets and assist you to specify priority departments, equipment faults, or person groups. The industry laws shape a workflow and the assigned technician or workforce is notified by way of e mail or SMS when the rule of thumb is implemented to a price tag, kicking off a task.

Service Desk Plus can serve a central IT help desk accountable for more than one sites. You can track service level settlement objectives during the system and use usual or customized stories to help presentations of departmental throughput.

The IT support purposes contained in Service Desk Plus can be built-in with other ManageEngine infrastructure control tools to get to the bottom of issues highlighted by way of tickets. NinjaOne is a faraway monitoring and control system that is aimed at managed service suppliers MSPs but may also be utilized by IT Operations departments that experience multiple websites to support, in a package of tools that system technicians can use to observe and manage far off systems.

Ordinarily, a help desk service, akin to a ticketing system is part of the PSA package. However, NinjaRMM contains this facility. There are quite a lot of options that come with just allocating a ticket to the following available technician, or taking into account the advent of different specialist groups, every with its own queue.

Once the carrier is working, the chief has further options. The supervisor dashboard presentations the number of open tickets, their anticipated finishing touch time and date, and an SLA expectation. The manager has the strategy to reallocate, break up, and merge tickets and also allocate a job to a group for a collaborative answer.

This helps the team to keep throughout the delivery occasions for solutions which can be specified by its SLAs. The dashboard for each and every technician displays a prioritized job list and allows the statuses of each of those tasks to be queried and updated. All communique with the user that raised the ticket is saved. It can also be considered within the dashboard and it is all archived as soon as the ticket is closed for long run reference must problems stand up with the work that used to be carried out.

Requirements for development initiatives or common upkeep duties can be channeled through the ticketing machine to time table paintings for the team. The NinjaOne gadget allows technicians to discern between the workers of different shoppers and may also be tied to a far off get admission to device to provide get right of entry to to the suitable web site for the person. Other systems that can be added on include account and security services.

This means that it is imaginable to construct a crew this is unfold across many issues at the globe to be sure that technicians located in strategic time zones provide hour cover with no need to paintings unsociable hours. The machine also lets in home-based staff to join the group. MSPs and IT departments that use NinjaOne achieve versatile support techniques that open up many various working configurations.

NinjaOne is a subscription service. Interested attainable customers need to contact the NinjaOne Sales Department to request a quote. You can get entry to a day free trial to assess NinjaOne. Freshservice is a carrier desk gadget that includes complete Help Desk and incident management options.

All of the features of the facility — for users, support technicians, and bosses — are accessed via any same old browser. It also includes the processing energy to run the software and cupboard space for records and paperwork. All verbal exchange between the more than a few person types and the Freshservice platform is secure through encryption. Accounts and all of their related cupboard space on the Freshservcie server are protected by way of access credentials and encryption.

The Freshservice Help Desk support function contains interfaces that facilitate get entry to by means of users, workflows for job control and regulate and supervision features for managers. A self-service portal represents the front-end of the Help Desk. This starts with an index page, which features a searchable knowledge base. The platform supplies a framework for the information base, which the technicians of your corporate will need to populate with user guides, terminology definitions, and FAQ.

Users can lift support tickets by way of a internet form within the self-service portal. This triggers the ticketing software. Users can also contact the Help Desk by the use of electronic mail , with emails going without delay into the Freshservice machine. Each won electronic mail triggers the creation of a receipt affirmation and the queuing of a role for the support crew. Other get entry to channels come with in-person service and a phone hotline. In these instances, the support operator will wish to get entry to the portal and create a ticket.

The ticketing system creates a queue, which is able to prioritize duties for allocation. The prioritization process can be enhanced via a service stage agreement implementor. These elements will then affect which tickets get prioritized. The SLA enhancement also influences the surroundings of points in time and the crowning glory tracking and escalation engine of the platform. The Freshservice gadget then allocates tickets to technicians in keeping with technician availability and capabilities.

The job allocation workflows in Freshservice shows just a part of the automation of this platform. The time management and team supervision sections of the platforms are other automation examples. Each technician gets a dashboard , which helps the ordering and management of several duties that may be lively concurrently. The management screens of the carrier enable the team chief to oversee the team with minimal efforts, because of performance metrics and a communication channel through a live chat carrier.

Freshservice is charged for by means of subscription and is available in four editions. You can get a free trial of Freshservice to check it out for your self. If you want a loose help desk machine that you can get right of entry to within the cloud, then take a look at the Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk. This application may be to be had in an offline edition, which will also be put in on Windows and Mac OS.

Spiceworks also makes a free network monitoring tool , so you'll be able to get numerous system management from this corporate with out paying a penny. A significant good thing about the cloud edition of the Help Desk is that you'll get right of entry to it from any place with an web connection.

You can get to the dashboard on a tablet or smartphone. Mobile get right of entry to to the program is a huge benefit in case you have a small crew and your most sensible experts are frequently on the go. It additionally way you can keep on best of support efficiency whilst out of the workplace. You may wonder how Spiceworks makes any cash if it gives away all of its software.

The solution is that its programs are ad-supported. You might find the promoting panel in the dashboard just a little irksome. The main screen of the dashboard is customizable and adapts to other roles. The system will generate new tickets in keeping with emails and assign every activity to an operator.

Alternatively, you'll allocate paintings manually. Messages sent to and gained from the consumer seem in chat layout even though the communication is thru electronic mail. The operator can close tickets as soon as the complaint has been addressed. The application ships with some standard file codecs included.

Self-service features include the ability to tailor on-screen bureaucracy to let the user specify an issue in writing. A knowledgebase feature reduces the number of problems referred to support group of workers. The Spiceworks Help desk integrates with Active Directory.

That permits it to employ gadget authentication routines to verify the users who ship queries. Tickets can be break up to permit more than one workflows when a solution calls for a range of skill units. It is imaginable to centralize support throughout a number of sites, which means you can use the Help Desk machine to serve exterior purchasers. The Spiceworks Help Desk is a smart resolution for small- and mid-sized networks. Its capability can be expanded via plugins to be had for all Spiceworks tools.

This library of functions is evolved by the Spiceworks Community, so an ever-expanding selection of utilities complement this help desk device. Zoho produces accounting software and has an excellent methods administration software division.

Zoho Desk is its help desk providing. This instrument is accessed on the Cloud. It helps each external shoppers and other departments of the company.

Support operatives get a dashboard that organizes open tickets by way of time period. These classes want to be defined through control, however they display which tickets are past due, that are nearing their crucial answer time, and which might be new with various time on the clock. The number of open tickets that each operator has to deal with is shown, and these are categorized by timeframe.

The management console includes analysis tools that include reports on demand over time and the turnover of each support team member. Specific tasks can be automated like work allocation and problem notifications. Zoho offers a day free trial of Zoho Desk to test drive the system. Zendesk is very widely deployed on websites that offer subscription services. For example, this help desk software is very widely used in the VPN industry.

The most noticeable features of Zendesk are its ticket management system and its live chat facility. Webform , live chat , and email are centralized in the console, so the operative only needs to access one point to communicate with customers instead of having to swap between the email system, a chat app, and the web interface. Although SaaS and cloud storage providers widely use Zendesk , it is also suitable for in-house support departments , including an IT help desk.

Zendesk Suite is a package of support utilities available on the cloud. The suite includes a knowledge base platform , which can be your first port of call for users in trouble.

Many calls to the IT help desk originate from users who just want to know what directory to save work in and which printer is the closest to them.

So, creating user manuals and a troubleshooting guide on the company intranet will ease pressure on the support team. Although live chat is probably more regularly regarded as a sales channel, using this feature for IT help desk provision can speed up the problem resolution process.

All communications between a user and a support team member are logged in the system under a ticket number. That ticket can be forwarded to specialist staff or split to create multiple workflows. The user is given the option to close a ticket , and if an operative closes the ticket without permission, the user can reopen the issue. The involvement of the user in deciding whether a job is finished supports team members who tend to close a ticket rather than deal with it.

It is also possible to add in a user or customer satisfaction survey during the ticket closure process to monitor staff performance. You can set goals to reduce the time each issue takes to resolve, identify the most common issues that provoke calls to the help desk, and track SLA performance. The standard reports produced by Zendesk support analysis and agreement performance delivery, but you can also create your own customized report formats. The pricing model of Zendesk is entirely scalable.

You pay a monthly subscription rate per agent. This makes a very high-quality support desk system available to the smallest of enterprises and you just add on more agent subscription as your company grows. Zendesk offers a free trial of the service so you can give it a run-through before committing any money. Dameware is a division of SolarWinds. That company takes the top spot in this list of the best tools for IT help desks.

However, Dameware Remote Support is a tool that you should consider to enhance the performance of your support technicians. This is an on-premises system and is priced per technician. It can be installed on Windows and Windows Server environments. However, it is easy to expand your coverage just by buying in more agent licenses. As the name of this tool suggests, it enables your technicians to access user devices, explore issues, and fix problems.

DameWare Mobile includes the same remote control mechanism used in the desktop version of DameWare Remote Support, so it allows IT pros and end-users to share the desktop screen during remote support sessions. Although the Dameware system can be used for customer support, the issue of control over remote computers is easier to implement on in-house equipment.

So, you can expand the use of this software beyond the boundaries of your company , but this strategy is probably better suited to internal support functions, such as an IT help desk.

The software includes a range of network analysis tools, such as Ping and Traceroute. These enable technicians to check on possible network issues if a user query sounds as though its cause is outside the endpoint device. The Remote Support tool is shipped with a number of pre-written analysis and inventory reports, but you can also specify your own customized reports.

Security features of the tool include the enforcement of 2FA , and you can get access to devices that are powered off or in sleep mode. SolarWinds operates a user community, called THWACK , where your team leaders and technicians can get tips and troubleshooting advice from fellow owners of the Dameware Remote Support system. The company offers a day free trial for Dameware Remote Support.

It acts as a self-service platform in both searchable troubleshooting pages and in a chat window format. However, it is an interesting utility, which, as an add-on to your ticketing system, can drastically reduce calls to the IT Help Desk and maximize the capabilities of unqualified help desk agents.

The AI-driven knowledge base approach of Agent. This means you could outsource your help desk functions to a call center once you have the knowledge engine of the system correctly set up. However, that approach would require a very comprehensive mapping of all the technical expertise in your IT support department. That encompasses not only the information on how to fix a problem but the process of decision making that derives the probable cause of a problem.

In some instances, that can lead to very complicated paths. As most support technicians know, some problems are caused by an unexpected combination of errors, and it can be tough to isolate each contributing component. The Agent. An effective support scenario implemented with Agent. This uses the Auto-pilot facility of Agent. The module asks questions of the user, successively narrowing down the problem to arrive at a solution.

Once the solution phase begins, the Auto-pilot requests feedback from the user on the effectiveness of the suggestion. This process repeats until the problem is solved. The Auto-pilot can be dressed up to pose as a real person. This can be achieved by implementing the utility through a chat window and giving it a human name. If no Auto-pilot solution works, the user should be passed on to a support agent and at this point, your ticketing system should kick in. Again, this contact can be performed through a chat screen , or it can be carried out over the phone.

The support agent has access to the other format of Agent. This facility uses probability to guide the agent through investigation and solution options.

This is probably going to be exactly the same path taken by Auto-pilot. However, the inclusion of the human element at this point can help improve the interaction between the user and the AI inference engine. When all of these defenses fail, the ticket can then be passed on to an expert who, with the log of all of the facts unearthed during the Co-pilot stage, will already have much of the investigation taken care of.

This investigation assistance will significantly reduce the time that each expert needs to dedicate to support tasks. However, you will need to populate the knowledge base, and that task can take quite a long time. N-able MSP is a division of SolarWinds that focuses its efforts on providing support products for managed service providers.

Each MSP can be expected to serve several companies simultaneously. The service comes with a brandable customer portal , which enables the employees of the supported company to raise a support request ticket and receive feedback on the progress of the problem resolution.

The portal is also accessible through a mobile app. Functions included in the N-able MSP Manager are a ticketing system , which creates access points for users into the support team through email or from the customer portal. The manager also queues queries form users and allocates them to technicians.

The time information that comes out of the ticket management system automatically flows through to a billing system. MSPs using this system can generate their invoices from within N-able MSP Manager, or export the data through to a specialist billing system. N-able MSP offers a day free trial of MSP Manager so you can put the system through its paces before you commit to sign-up for the subscription service. This package can be used to support in-house departments or customers and their staff.

The dashboard of the service can be tailored so that you create different screens for different roles. This gives call center staff access to the same system as technicians and managers without revealing functions and data views that could compromise data security. The system copes with a range of communication channels including calls, email, chat, and web forms.

The agents who field initial calls can be given a searchable troubleshooting system that enables them to identify the problem. If a ticket needs to be allocated to a back-office technician, the system carries through records of contacts and actions that have already been performed.

A deeper technical knowledge search facility is available for technicians that give access to corporate-wide applications. A troubleshooting option is specifically tailored to field agents. Managers can allocate staff to support calls either in-house or out in the field. That allocation can also be automated. In the automated task allocation scenario, you need to set up groups of competence so specific problems are allocated to members of specific groups.

Managers get live metrics in the dashboard that show current activity in the IT Help Desk Department and tickets that are open but not currently being worked on.

You can set up workflows to set a path of actions and designate collaborators on a ticket. The progress along that critical path is visible in the management dashboard. Standard administration tasks, such as logging and archiving can be performed automatically.

The system also has a library of standard reports that cover all of the metrics you are likely to need for presentations to executives.

It is also possible to create your own customized reports. The most expensive package is called Enterprise Contact Center and it includes a chat facility for communication with users. Their software reach now also extends to customer service productivity tools and support.

As the name suggests, this support system is delivered through the Cloud. Although the focus of this platform is to serve external customers, the software can also be used for an IT help desk or other in-house support services. The user contact with the IT help desk begins with a self-service portal.

This can be used as a location for a troubleshooting guide, a FAQ page, and a searchable knowledgebase to encourage users to fix their own problems. If the problem is higher than the user can cope with, they can use many channels to contact the IT help desk.

The first of these lies in the self-service portal, where there is a ticket submission form. This portal also lists open tickets, progress, and any communications that were carried out on the ticket. Other channels for contact include phone, email, chat, and social media platforms.

Back end functions for the IT help desk include ticket creation, allocation, and tracking. Tickets can be split into sub-tickets for shared efforts, and duplicate tickets can be merged. The management dashboard provides another view on the ticket database, offering analysis functions on historical data as well as live reports on ticket statuses and team member workloads. SAP Cloud for Services charges on a subscription basis and it is pretty pricey.

You can request a free trial of the system. You are unlikely to change all of your hardware just so you can install the perfect IT Help Desk support software. There has been a strong move in the software industry over the past two years to provide software-as-a-service over the internet. This development has led software vendors to charge for a subscription rather than a perpetual license. This pricing model creates more flexibility in the scale of provision and can help spread out the cost of the software.

It would take a long time for you to investigate and assess every IT help desk solution, which is why we have created this guide to the top IT help desk tools. They include examples of different support options. For example, some businesses manage to avoid providing any live support because they find that self-service systems are sufficient. It is important to also invest in network monitoring and error prevention system tools as well as effective help desk software.

This combination of problem prevention and self-service tools drastically reduces customer support costs. Do you already use an IT help desk system? Leave a message in the Comments section below to let the rest of the community know about your recommendations. One of those functions is the Help Desk. The Help Desk is the technical team that users contact when they have IT-related problems. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comparitech uses cookies. More info. Menu Close. We are reader supported and may receive a commission when you make purchases using the links on our site. We have investigated various support systems on the market and narrowed down the field and narrowed them down to the best IT help desk software and support tools.