Choosing Help Desk and Service Desk Software

With the increased focus on corporate spending it is essential that companies get the most value from any software investment. To this end it is crucial that companies understand the industry buzz-words used by vendors when trying to sell help desk and service desk software.

Web-based architecture

Virtually all vendors describe their solution as web accessible. Meaning they allow clients to login to a web-based interface to log and track support calls.

However, there is a big difference between a web enabled and web-based system.

The majority of vendors offer a web enabled version of their solution. A traditional client-server architecture is most often used as the underlying technology with a module that provides a simple web interface. This is quite different to a web-based system which does not require software installation on the client side.

This can have a big impact on performance, not to mention the total cost of ownership with a client server system. A completely web-based system is inherently more scalable, flexible and secure and requires significantly less maintenance.

Even web-based systems are not created equal. Most web-based systems are written using PHP and/or Perl meaning they use a pseudo language interpreter for page delivery. They offer none of the true integration or scalability that J2EE applications and web services provide. Refer to the related article for further details.

Browser Compatibility

While most vendors are promoting web compatibility, they differ widely in their support for different web browsers. Most support only 1 or 2 browsers (usually IE on Windows) and often require special plugins. Some also require JAVA applet downloads to perform various functions like reporting or charting. This can defeat the whole purpose of a web-based support system in providing general access to the system .

True web-based systems should support web browsers on any operating system and require no plugins or downloads for true portability and access.

Open Standards

To make the most of a software investment, it is important that any systems are based on open standards and are platform agnostic. No one wants to be locked into a particular operating system or database vendor. You never know when a vendor is going to decide to hold you captive by increasing licensing costs, which appears to be the latest trend.

By choosing a system that offers a wide range of back-end data sources, web services and easy migration, companies can mitigate the risks associated with locking into one vendor.

Integration

With technology moving as fast as it does no one wants to abandon their existing investments. So it is important that any system you choose is able to integrate into your existing environment. Not only must it run on the correct platform as discussed earlier, but ideally it should also utilize your existing infrastructure. Can it leverage existing database licenses and operate with MySQL, SQL Server , Oracle, DB2 etc? These can be important considerations to your bottom line, adding significantly to the overall cost of a system.

Another consideration should be whether the solution can integrate into your existing authentication environment. Providing client access through LDAP and Active Directory Databases is a common approach.

Can you leverage the product with other systems? This can be an important factor for the future. Does the system offer Web Services support. If we are building a large knowledge infrastructure can we leverage this into other parts of the organization. Web Services allow sharing of information using open standards and dynamic publishing and helps secure your investment.

Total Cost of Ownership

Another key factor often ignored when choosing a system is the total cost of ownership. It is very easy to choose a system based on price alone, only to find out later that it requires 12 months to implement and a full time administrator. This is particularly true of client server systems, when you consider that an upgrade to the system will require the deployment of new client software for each user and the re-implementation of all customizations. So the costs can grow quickly. Many systems also require a database administrator to keep the system running, another added cost which can affect your overall investment.

There are also many other costs to consider when purchasing a new system and these are discussed in even more detail in our associated article “The Hidden Costs of ITIL Service Management“.