While there are plenty of help desk software solutions for companies with lots of resources, what do you do when the budget is tight (or for all intents and purposes, non-existent)?

You might want to consider an open source help desk software solution.

Gnomie Dwight shares a wealth of info about help desk software options in the open source realm:

There are a couple of help desk software options out there that are open source:

osTicket

Help Center Live! (incorporates osTicket and a LiveChat)

We have been using a modified phpBB forum software installation. There are plenty of modifications out there to make it do what we want.

Plus, we gain the benefit of being able to use BBcode in our correspondence. Telling someone to type something at the command prompt is clarified greatly by using the [code] [/code] tags.

The customer can print out a printer-friendly version of the support ticket, and we have a searchable history. The on-screen formatting makes sense (very user-friendly in this regard). We can send a private message to a usergroup of customers hosted on a specific server that experiencing problems, and when they log in to the support site to create a ticket, they will be greeted with a pop-up telling them they have a message–explaining the problem, that we’re aware of it, and are taking care of it. There is also a modification to set forum permissions so that users can only see and reply to posts that they create–which eliminates privacy/confidentiality issues. Yet another MOD notifies admins who subscribe to the forums with an email whenever a new ticket–or a reply to a ticket–is posted.

We looked at some other packages like kayako e-support, but they just didn’t quite achieve what we were looking for. The modified phpBB forums work like a charm, and it’s easy-to-use.

Turning a general purpose forum into a customized help desk software solution can take a bit of work. For modifications, Dwight recommends phpbbhacks.com.

But phpBB is not without its faults. First and foremost, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using the latest version of the software (earlier versions have been compromised). You might also consider having your help desk forum hosted with a high-quality firm that will automatically keep the software up-to-date.

To be sure, browser-based help desk software isn’t for everyone. Following on the points noted in last month’s piece on help desk software, Gnomie Alan responded:

I’ve yet to see ANY browser based app that is very usable, and for good reason: Browsers were meant to do just that - browse. HTML forms are a very poor substitute for an interactive GUI. I don’t see why people bother with them.

Don’t get me wrong, HTML forms work great for shopping carts, because there’s less interactivity needed there. For Helpdesk software and other more interactive tasks, just say no to browser based.

That having been said, if that budget is tight, an open source HTML help desk software solution still just might be the ticket …

Related: Defect Tracking Software

[tags]help desk software[/tags]