Web-Based Helpdesks? 160
Vanbo asks: "My job requires that I be in the field all day, and I don't have the ability to check my voicemail regularly, so I ask people to email me with problems, then I check my mail with Webmail. Lately, I have been thinking it would be much easier if people could post their problems (ala ask slashdot) to a webpage on our mailserver. I don't need something as powerful as slashcode, but just maybe something that allows them to select from pull downs of common problems, and then when they submit it, it could be emailed to me. Anyone, implimented a support system like this? Any draw backs to this approach?" Seems like a novel approach. Does this seem like a good idea to you?
DON'T CLICK ON ANY WEIRD LINKS!!!!! (Score:1)
Yeah, I have seen being implemented before, and on (Score:1)
The only problem.. (Score:4)
I Haven't Lost My Mind -- It's Backed Up On Disk Somewhere
Doh... (Score:3)
-Nathan
f_i_r_s_t p_o_s_t? (Score:1)
___________________________
Michael Cardenas
http://www.fiu.edu/~mcarde02
http://www.deneba.com/linux
Freshmeat! (Score:3)
so they are easily customized.
ASP based Help Desk (Score:3)
It is all setup for some in depth reporting, and it's ASP so I don't claim it.
I'd be happy to post it for interested parties. Just contact me at my email... remember to nuke the spam proofing before you mail me.
use NNTP (Score:1)
Slashcode Lite (Score:1)
Non-tech people? (Score:2)
I'm not trying to flame the faceless masses, but...
I think it would be very problematic if the main "customers" were not technically/computer inclined. We live in a world where X thousand people clicked on a VBS script without knowing what it is, then blamed Microsoft for letting them do it. So many people can barely figure out e-mail, you could be asking to trouble by giving them a more complex system to deal with.
That said, it would probably be pretty cool if it was used by sharper minded folk. Throw in a indexed stash of prior problems, and it would cut your workload quite a bit.
...
Hmm (Score:1)
Check out RT (Score:1)
Yeah, It Works (Score:2)
This is all backed up to a database so that it can be sorted and later archived. A simple adminsitrative interfaces allows several techs to access this system, and mark something as theirs to work on, or delegate it to the particular person. There is also room for us techs to make comments on particular requests.
This method has worked great for us, the only problem is remembering to check it on a routine basis, and from the sounds of it, that won't be a problem for you. And obviously, it wouldn't be too difficult to tie it to an email program.
(Heck, if all you want is for the problems to get emailed from a nice interface to you, you dont even need a fancy system behind it, just a decent mailto script.)
--Ed
should be easy. (Score:1)
myself and my co-workers post summaries of problems, and when a solution is found, we just post a followup.
then there is a search engine, where we can find the information very quickly.
something like that may be helpful for you to create, especially if clients can find solutions to their problems on their own with a simple search.
there are several commercial products which do this also, but I'm a do-it-yourself type personally.
in any event, what you describe should be very simple in perl, or any similarly functioning language.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Anonymous Cowards (Score:1)
I poured hot grits down my pants! What should I do?
orI tried to display pictures of Natalie Portman Naked, and my system crashed!
orLinux Sucks
wrong approach (Score:1)
How about when the submit it, a solution to the common problem appears on a webpage. Looks to like as though all you want is a FAQ page.
Re:Doh... (Score:1)
And, of course, what if it's a network issue (failed NIC, cable got cut, hub lost power, etc)? The biggest question before doing something like this is what is the quality of your user base that will be accessing it?
very usable (Score:1)
Re:Non-tech people? (Score:1)
I don't think that's quite right. I watched the Nortwest Cable News report on the new lovebug variant, and not once did they mention Microsoft or Outlook, just "destroy your entire system". Nobody's blaming Microsoft for anything, they're just blaming "those darn hackers" for causing the problems.
Lot's of solution. (Score:4)
Now, on the the debunking of my own affirmation (Trust me, I've done 4 weeks of research on that recently).
1- Commercial off the shelf : I dont know how big a user base you'll be dealing with, but since you seem to be alone, I'll assume under 250 users. The cheapest "helpdesk" commercial solution you can get with web based problem reporting goes around 5000$. And you'll have to setup your own MS SQL / MS NT / IIS to support it.
2- Open source: IRM is nice, PHPHelpdesk seems promising, but unless you have extensive MySQL / PHP / Apache experience, I recommend you stay away from them. They are poorly documented, and even tho the end result is nice, they seem a bit "unfinished".
3- Getting someone to develop: Now, that's my best option so far. For under 5000$, I'll have someone develop a simple set of forms + reports + agent based on our Domino server architecture. Meaning I get an already enterprise supported platform to build on, some scripting I can understand, web-based user forms, and something that can grow. The best thing is that we plan to open source the scripts once we're up and running.
4- Developping the bugger yourself: Well. This one I crossed right off. If you're anything like me, you're already overloaded with supporting your users, and dont have much free time to start hacking a helpdesk together.
That being said, my opinion is to go for option 3, find some nice person that will custom-fit a solution to your needs, and make it usable for you. That way, you get support, working solution in no time, and expansion possibilities. You dont need / cant afford / dont want to support the cheapest of the "off-the-shelf" solution out there. Trust me. Mail me if you want to discuss this some more.
Priority Problems (Score:1)
Re:Non-tech people? (Score:1)
Well, they should. It was all Microsoft's fault!
Sorry. Moderate me down...I just couldn't resist...
...
Web Based (Score:2)
That being said. There is a really good utility that we use here at my company, a Problem Resolution support system. Users are allowed to login and create problem reports, then assign them a priority and a status (such as open, feedback, etc.) - This allows the most pressing problems to get tackled first. Additionally, when a problem report changes status, or gets closed, - both the user and the tech (or whoever) get notified via email.
While this may not be exactly what you're looking for..it's a good variant. Just remember...none of it is as good as a phone call, or better yet, being there in person.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
There are always drawbacks to every solution (Score:1)
Built one Last Year (Score:1)
---
Use Zope's tracker (Score:1)
Alex.
There are MANY resources out there. (Score:5)
RT [fsck.com], Keystone [stonekeep.com], and php Helpdesk [sourceforge.net] would be good starting points.
Motive Software does this (Score:1)
Content is also downloaded to the local PC so that when Internet connectivity is down, there is some help on getting it back up.
Disclaimer: I am currently a Motive employee and might be biased towards our product.
Check out Jetspeed! (Score:2)
Kevin
Re:The only problem.. (Score:2)
Not all of the old days were good.
And yes, this stuff eventually got fixed in later releases.
Geoff
Talk about irony (Score:1)
Tracking of Cases (Score:1)
It's already been done by McAfee (Score:2)
It includes a lot of things you wouldn't be able to put together yourself. For example, it has a built-in knowledge base that you can search, and it automatically indexes all of the generated tickets. When you enter a ticket, or when you're working with a user, you can see all of their previous tickets at the click of a mouse, so you can see if some junior help desk flunky screwed up their system yesterday.
It has a lot of canned reports that show the average time to solve a problem, average hold time, and more.
It e-mails everyone involved when the status on a help ticket changes - for example, if I say that a ticket is fixed, that status update is emailed to me, to the user, and to the user's manager. It keeps our help desk staff from "hiding" tickets, and it keeps the users from whining that nobody has looked at their ticket recently.
It has an awesome "escalation" mechanism that can automatically escalate tickets to the right staff member based on their skill set. For example, I'm registered in the system with certain key words. If an FTP problem goes unsolved for more than 2 hours, I get an e-mail, and I know I should jump in. If a TCP/IP problem goes unsolved for more than 3 hours, our network admin is e-mailed, because she can probably help out - but I don't want to know about it. However, if any ticket is open for more than 16 hours, all of the key managers are e-mailed.
It even works as a development tracking utility. We track requests for enhancement in it, and we can see how long it takes for a bug to get fixed. The testing department loves it, because we can track how many times an issue gets bounced back to development because the coders can't code worth a damn. The contract programmers love it because they can work from home and still maintain full contact.
Before you start thinking about writing one of these, I'd strongly suggest looking at a demo of McAfee's solution. We looked at it and realized that we could put a talented coder to work for a year and not come out with a solution this hot. (The best thing is that it's all in SQL, so you can do your own PHP interface if you want. I wrote some addons in Drumbeat already.)
Err...additionally. (Score:1)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
These already exist (Score:2)
Gnu Bug Tracking System [caltech.edu] (Gnat) has a billion (or so) user interfaces you can use with it - Tk, web, command-line, etc.
Even the high-end call-tracking systems like remedy can be (and often are) configured to email you when you get a new case assigned to you, but these are hugely expensive and it doesn't sound like you wanted to spend a lot of money.
XS4all (Score:1)
Neat Idea, not so good in practice. (Score:2)
However, I have personally dealt with other support departments via email and web-based help desks, and it can be tedious if either party lacks experience. If the user can't give a detailed account of the problem, you'll find yourself trying to fish out the true nature of the problem for an extended time, possibly several days. Conversely, if the people on the support end lack experience (ie they don't know how to ask the right questions), the problem is compounded.
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
--Ambrose Bierce
Abstainer: a weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
web-database platform w/email notification (Score:1)
http://www.activespace.com [activespace.com]
There's a help desk template there you can start from, which you can then customize if you need to. You can also define conditional notification rules to send email when data is added or changed...
another Zope product (Score:1)
NoWonder (Score:1)
Such a system exists commercially - it is basically a marketplace for IT support. You can provide tech support for a fee, to users who are asked to direct their questions into major and minor "groups" (e.g. Linux -> Networking).
http://www.nowonder.com [nowonder.com]
RightNow Web (Score:1)
This is a commercial solution, but it supports Apache on Linux or FreeBSD with MySQL or Oracle 8 databases. It also does Windows NT/MS SQL/IIS if that's your thing. It is also highly customizable, but all of this comes at a price. They have recently released their source code to us, since we are apparently a large customer of theirs. Overall, I think it's one of the best commercial solutions for what you are looking to do.
Re:DON'T CLICK ON ANY WEIRD LINKS!!!!! (Score:1)
How is this considered a security hole? If I remember correctly, browser info can be determined in lots of different ways.
The only thing I find scary is the number of
Interesting college project idea (Score:1)
-Mongoose [wpi.edu]
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
PHP HelpDesk (Score:1)
<p>At anyrate, I downloaded PHP helpdesk a couple days ago thinking it would be good for work with keeping people up to date as far as code problems, what's being worked on, etc. However, the code was in an unuseable state, but it's also in version 0.1. PHP is a really easy language, and websites aren't that hard to do, so hopefully they'll get things working good soon. I probably had a misconfiguration somewhere also. But This is exactly what you want, it's go security too, and work with mysql, though with PHP's good database support could easily be ported to another database.</p>
-Mojojojo
Re:Check out Jetspeed! (Score:1)
we wrote one too (Score:1)
good luck,
0taku
Re:DON'T CLICK ON ANY WEIRD LINKS!!!!! (Score:1)
Consider the following snippet of Perl Code:
Your Email: $ENV{'HTTP_FROM'}
You came from: $ENV{'HTTP_REFERER'}
You are using: $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}
Your IP is: $ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'}
Your Host is: $ENV{'REMOTE_HOST'}
Your Ident is: $ENV{'REMOTE_IDENT'}
You can accept: $ENV{'HTTP_ACCEPT'}
Your cookies: $ENV{'HTTP_COOKIE'}
Is this considered a security hole? It can be called in a web page and shows some private info... I didn't think so.
Where I used to work... (Score:2)
All the support personel there used an app which showed one folder for each technician plus one for the incoming support requests and one for solved issues. As mails dropped in to the central "Incoming" folder any free technician just moved that mail to his folder, solved the issue, replied to the mail with the solution (making it a thread) and then moved the entire thread into the "solved" hierarcy.
The users were also given lots of examples on how to write good problem descriptions etc in order to get as informative reports as possible.....this was one of the best systems I've seen....creating something like that shouldn't be too hard?
No Doh... (Score:1)
Keystone (Score:2)
Stonekeep Trouble ticket (Score:1)
MediaOne/RR (Score:1)
It was simply a serries of drop down lists where you choose your problem, and then it asks more specific questions. At any point you can stop and ask for help from the staff. Or if you are able to pinpoint the problem they offer solutions to fix it.
What they have up now is a chat feature with an area rep. for each region. A compromise between the two might be a message board. Slashcode is more news-oriented, but UBB or OpenTopic should work well. Users would be able to post in relevant topic areas, and could even read the problems that other users have.
Gossamer Threads Links (Score:1)
Web page problem / tracking System (Score:1)
Recently we have started playing around with a web page similar to what you are talking about. We use the web page to send an email to ARMailer, which in turn gets pulled into our Remedy Database.
The main thing that we use Remedy for is for escalation and reporting.
We are working on having the web page talk directly to the database so that you can update the work log and query the case information on all machines.
In your instance I think something similar might be of use, you could dump all the jobs to a database, and when you get near a terminal, jump on and take a look at a web page to tell you what jobs you have got to take a look at.
Berny
ReqNG (Score:1)
ReqNG:
I created my own HTML forms to generate formatted email input and some perl scripts to generate weekly reports. ReqNG has it's own summary report that's suitable for distributing via email.
ReqNG http://reqng.sycore.net/reqng/ [sycore.net]
TkReq http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~jmelski/tkreq/ [wisc.edu]
WWWReq http://www.cs.ucr.edu/~cvarner/wwwreq/ [ucr.edu]
Teacup PRMS (Score:1)
lm_sensors support desk (Score:1)
They have a pretty good ticketed support system. I think it's purely internal at the moment but you might be able to use it if you e-mail phil@stimpy.netroedge.com [mailto]
Good idea, but... (Score:2)
90% of techical support is not finding an answer, or even explaining the technical part of the answer. Most of technical support is providing emotional support to a worried user, and then explaining how to fix the problem to the customer, even if they don't have basic OS skills.
My expereince is hardly exhaustive, but in technical support, we were never wondering to ourselves what "Error 678" meant, or what "Netscape can not find host meant", we were trying to explain to customers that Netscape was not thier ISP, and that it was not that "our server" was down when Netscape was corrupted.
The techincal problems of any one software program are actually pretty easy to figure out after the first week or so of using it, it is the customer service aspect that keeps most help desks buzzing.
Keep It Simple So Users Will Use It! (Score:2)
Re:The only problem.. (Score:2)
--
Trouble Ticket Systems, PRMSes (Score:1)
I've not yet fully documented my search and my findings, but I have to say that Double Choco Latte [sourceforge.net] is definately our first choice. Were we using it simply for software development, I would have spent the seemingly considerable amount of time it takes to setup GNATS 4.0, although that is still in development, the release date of which is apparently RSN.
If your needs didn't require web based access, PRePS would be an acceptable choice as well. Heck, if they had a web frontend I'd consider it.
But I have to endorse DCL in this case. We've exchanged some emails with the lead developer, he's a great guy and they've got an incredible system. It may need a little work, considering it isn't yet fully stable/functional though. DCL is a work order system, and is general enough to fit to any trouble ticket/help desk/PRMS task you may need.
--
Gabriel Ricard
Linux Fanatic
ExpertCity and BuddyHelp (Score:1)
Check out ExpertCity [expertcity.com], a neat site that lets you talk in real time with an expert, and it installs client-server software which allows him to literally show you how to do something by taking control of your mouse (which requires your permission and can be disabled at any time of course). I believe the software this service is based on is at BuddyHelp.com [buddyhelp.com].
I had the opportunity to try this service when they were in beta test, before they started charging and it's really pretty cool.
Re:ASP based Help Desk (Score:1)
An e-helpdesk that is good for keeping a paper trail, not suprising the paperless office is doomed huh ?
Or was that meant to be audit trail
Sorry to be a such a pedant
Lazy Users (Score:1)
I did just that (Score:1)
Admins could log in, assign trouble tickets to MIS staff, update status, and send email notes to originator and MIS handler. Eventually the "system" evolved with a customizable searchable phone list (we were tired of printing them out). At another company (30 emps), I took the system and added a calendar which pulled everyone's Exchange (sorry) calendar and created a "company" calendar for everyone to search/view.
Pros:
- Allowed employees/management to see what MIS was up to ("Let me drop everything and work on your problem!")
- MIS manager could log in and find out what people are up to (even from home)
- Provided company with an official way to report problems (we had none)
- Execs loved the new "technology" of web based form
- Calendar thing was really cool
Cons
- Users were afraid to use it, many thought it was confusing to log in (this was really due to people having no experience using web pages.)
- It was always easier for users to call in their problems (and not use the site)
- Easier for MIS to receive phone calls than log in and check pending work (I'm not saying this was better, just easier)
- Trouble tickets/Phone lists weren't updated by users/MIS
Eventually, to make it easier on the users, we put shortcuts on everyone's desktop that logged you right in.
You could probably set one up with relatively little cost/time and see what happens. Be sure to get constant feedback from your users to find out what they don't like about the system -- or they'll turn in to a mob of grumbling pissed off users.
If you would like to know more about how I set this up (the Exchange thing was a bitch), send me an email.
Re:Doh... (Score:1)
Perhaps he does tech help for a database system, or some client program, like a word processor. In which case, if the computer isn't working, getting some application to underline something is the least of the user's worries.
This solution is wonderful, lot's of companies offer something similar for technical help:review the faqs, or the online "knowledge base", and if all else fails, send email.
I think it's great, and more often then not I find the exact problem I'm having with a link to a patch that fixes it.
----------
Re:ASP based Help Desk (Score:1)
Even better.. (Score:1)
BlueOcean TrackIT! (Score:1)
Hardly a novel approach... (Score:1)
I've done this. (Score:1)
I also made the mistake of letting people issue a priority to there problem. don't do that! within a week every problem was listed with Highest priority. eventualy I let the code determine priority by user name. so the people on the mission criticle side f things where aways bumped up to the top. Not perfect, but we no longer had people listing penny-ante things as highest.
if it wasn't for the users, it would of been a great system
Web-based help desk = pointless (Score:1)
Why waste time coding something that will never be used?
The answers are already out there... but users aren't saavy enough to find them and apply them - that's where WE come in.
Re:Doh... (Score:2)
My company uses a voicemail system, with voice calls answered by a machine in far distant New Jersey.. Late last month, I had trouble with one of the local LAN segments, and not having the key to the wiring closet meant I needed to 'call it in' so they could send someone from IS down the hall with a key.
Called it in at 9am. At eleven, I called back to inquire about the holdup. (No LAN, no work!!). At one, I called IS directly (which is a no-no) to let out some frustration. They hadn't heard of any problems! IS kindly offered to call NJ for me, and sent someone over with a key so I could fix the problem.
What happened? Why didn't they call me back?
My message had said (And I quote) 'The operations segment of the LAN, in xxxx, Michigan, has gone down. It's in the closet, cuz I've checked it out to the breakout. We're dead boys, so send over a key and card this one under now or my ass gets it cuz I cant do squat.'.
The moron tech who got the trouble ticket pulled my name up in the database, saw MS instead of OPS/IS/TS, and emailed me inquiring about my qualification to make the determination because he was on the phone with his girlfriend. At eleven, he emailed again inquiring about the closet location. (He had already done it once without a bounce! Email only works when you're connected to the network right??
At three, they fired him.
The moral of the story: Even if the users can reach you only by carrier pigeon, if you've got a good tech on the other end of that Avian Transport Protocol it's worth the delay. Don't bitch about having to make a coworker call it in or email it if it actually gets dealt with correctly. There are too many seat warmers in the profession these days!
Our HelpDesk (Score:1)
The techs have their own site in which they can view/create/edit/search for Tickets by Ticket Number, employee, description of problem, etc. Anyway it's way far from done yet but when it'll be done I'm planning on having a FAQ page and a knowledge base so users can quickly resolve their most common problems. It'll also be a great way to communicate new procedures, news, and VIRUS warnings.
We just launched eGain (Score:1)
This type of application if more complex that it seems at first, with syncronization of knowledge bases and track "Tickets" of question response systems.
We use it afer the user has gone through the "Self Help" system and answer the "is it plugged in" questions themselves. Then if email cannot address the problem we make phone contact and eventually send out a technician.
Our system is designed to support upto 50 operators in a normal call center handling incomming request/complains/problems.
Re:There are MANY resources out there. (Score:1)
The service is free. There is a library of apps already available to choose from, one of which is a Support Manager. Or, you can create your own using a cool web-based drag and drop interface.
The apps are all web-based, and it only takes about 30 seconds to set it up. Email notification is built into it from the start.
Pretty slick.
Tivoli (Score:1)
Generally, it sucks in the same way MS does in that you use all of it's convoluted features ("All things to all people" approach), but we don't and by logging into a company hosted site, you get a Java based version of the interface.
We just switched off of a limited version (ExpertWeb) due to priority reporting, but is more compatible as they use the MS Java engine.
Another option is to use the free Caimbridge/AT&T VNC thin client to access your internal machine via TCP/IP. I use this to access User Manager and other NT specific tools from Macs anywhere in the country (they won't send me to the London offices, Bastards!).
Hope this helps!
Working on slashcode to do just that (Score:1)
Makes life much easier (Score:1)
Debian Faq O Matic (Score:1)
Easy in IIS with ASP (Score:1)
...................
Re:ExpertCity and BuddyHelp (Score:2)
I use VNC for the exact same thing. Only I'm the expert. :-) It sure beats trying to explain how to do something over the phone. Just log in and fix it.
Re:It's already been done by McAfee (Score:2)
They're still doing on-sites, aren't they? Might make for an interesting 'day off' if you like sitting in the same room with your vendors. Lying fucking whor.... Sorry. Had HP in the other afternoon.
Re:The only problem.. And another. (Score:4)
What I'm trying to say is: if you start such a thing, be very very sure they'll leave a valid and rapid mode of contact, and urge them to give you a full description of the actual problem. Make it clear in big letters, that if you can't contact them, they're the ones up shit creek, with that paddle, and that you won't shower them should they get out.
Stefan
"Microsoft follows standards, much like fish follow migrating caribou." Paul Tomblin, in the monastery,
Re:The only problem.. (Score:2)
Technical support for large Beowolf Clusters is not handled the same way as support for my mom's PC. My mom doesn't just need a different level of support, she wants a different style of support.
If her computer is working, she knows how to use the web to get technical help.
Re:There are MANY resources out there. (Score:1)
I've looked at several of these but the main thing that keeps my firm from using them is not the cost, or the service levels, it's the security.
Most want/need as a standard, port level senders and receivers, I'm not willing to open up the possibility of 31337 haxor type kiddies getting into my network.
I recommend keystone. (Score:1)
Re:ASP based Help Desk (Score:1)
I know there are many products that do this out there today, hoever this is the first one I've seen that does it dynamically and is pretty simple to navigate through.
There are many posabilitys (Score:1)
There are some PHP and Perl.
Most require an SQL server but some (like mine) do not.
The issues to look at how much load do you want to handle, how much power do you want and how complex are you willing to put up with.
Slashcode is very powerful and handles the load quite nicely but isn't very easy...
You said power isn't an issue so there is likely to be a good system that handles the load and is very easy.
My own code is very powerful and very easy but with a load it gose up and down like a yoyo... It's also still in dev...
Not the sort of thing you want on a tech support page.
Check out Freashmeat [freshmeat.net], Linux Directory [linux-directory.com], Free Code [freecode.com], and Hot Scripts [hotscripts.com]
Re:Doh... (Score:1)
Doh! Inc. (Score:2)
Firing the guy was unfortunate for two reasons.
1- The guy lost his job, I've been there, that sucks for anyone.
2- The real problem didn't get fixed by firing the guy. (not the segment)
The source of the problem is the processes in your IT and Ops worlds sound pretty broken, and although firnign the poor guy made a few people happy and inflated the egos, it did nothing to prevent the same scenerio from happening again. Thats too bad. The real problem was broken process, not the fact that some slacker was focused more on talking to his girlfriend than giving world class support. Midville School for the Gifted. Tell you exec's to stop trying the same things, yet expecting different results.
Try Jitterbug (Score:1)
Jitterbug which does bug tracking for Samba,
but it would work fine for what you describe -
it has a web based interface, and good email
support.
I like it.It's a monolithic C program, so
it's both difficult to customize, and also
easy to compile and install.
Having good tools is one thing (Score:1)
Building humanistic processes around product is not the right way to get better support, in this case support infrastructure, policies and procedures.
Mine for artifacts, get your requirements down, build or at least outline your process and THEN go get your tools.
Case and Point
Take Clarify or Remedy, both great tools for their applications, but different in longer term functionality and flexibility. Many smaller shops get sucked in by marketeers and pick up a product like one of these two. Then their dot com IPO's and instantly they have a much larger company to support and the tools they had work cut it any longer. What do they do? They run our an buy more tools without re-engineering the processes. This results in IT headaches and much wasted time.
What happens next? They look to something like Web based support engines. Good in their own right, but very possibly wrong for the application they are trying to implement it for. Result is more poor service with unhappy customers/users and a overworked IT or support staff.
Build the process and then get the tools, don't let your customers/companies get sucked it by the latest cool thing they read about in Forbes. That's the way to seriously kill productivity in the support world.
I've implemented one... (Score:2)
And it works, sort of. It works well for me, and it works quite well for my more computer capable clients, but some other clients:
Not that those problems are really majors, but they get in the way, and so they don't always submit their problems.
What I need to do is let people e-mail their problems into it, and exactly how to achieve this is churning away in the back of my mind at the moment.
I've also done a WAP gateway on it so that I (and others, because the whole company uses my system now) can enter timesheets and lookup jobs and such with a WAP phone.
If you're interested in the code I'm sure we can dig something out. It uses Apache / PHP / PostgreSQL and handles through to the billing stage.
E-Mail me if you want more information.
IT exists as Open source (Score:2)
Re:Doh! Inc. (Score:2)
Dell has something like this already (Score:2)
Of course, this technique won't work if your computer can't boot or you can't get Internet access, but it's not intended to solve those problems. Frankly, I think it's a stupid idea, because it's only going to convince the user even more that they don't need to read the manual.
I think there should be an incentive for support - if the solution to the problem can't be found in the documentation, the support call is free. That has a double benefit: the software vendor wants to make the manual as complete as possible, and the user wants to save money by reading the manuals first.
Re:Lot's of solution. (Score:2)
Re:The only problem.. (Score:2)
A web based FAQ or Knowledgebase is a much better idea, although I've found that most users are too lazy to look through the help, let alone try and find the answer on a webpage, and would rather phone the support desk and get an answer from them, so it may just be a wasted idea anyway.
Re:The only problem.. And another. (Score:2)
So provide a form with the information you need, and refuse to submit it if it's not filled out.
They have that at a client's site, and it seemed like most of the people used it, but then called if they didn't get an answer back within 10-15 minutes. So unless you're really committed, or put an "Average Wait Time" up on the page, you'll probably still get most of the calls.
Later,
Blake.