What Is Help Desk Software?

Help desk software is, typically, a web-based solution for IT departments or consulting firms to manage the list of clients, their "tickets" (aka "support cases"). Clients send in their "tickets" and the IT-staff resolves these tickets. It is a way to help both the IT staff and clients by associating tickets to the relevant clients and making sure that no client is left behind in his/her inquiries. There are many features that go with help desk software, such as email-to-ticket conversion, separate portal for technicians and administrators, surveys, knowledge-base, file-attachments and more.

The strength in help desk software lies in the ticket management. By allowing technicians to access their own tickets as well as group tickets by some criteria, technicians work more efficiently. Additional features for seeing flagged tickets, viewing recent tickets, and searching tickets in general improve the productivity of IT firms as a whole. Other sections in the menu bar of help desk are easy to follow for the technicians, and it is possible to import data from different platforms as well.

The software for help desk is available as a SaaS (software-as-a-service) version or an on-premise solution. As the name implies, the SaaS version runs remotely on the server, so technicians are free from worrying about their tickets even when they happen to be travelling. On the other hand, on-premise is restricted only to installed software apps on a server or a network. Currently, the future of help desk is in SaaS version, so the client tickets can be answered in timely manner anywhere, anytime.

Another benefit about SaaS version for help desk is in its simplicity. Because SaaS version requires no software update or bug fixes and operates entirely on the web, there is no worry about manually updating each computer with the software for help desk. Furthermore, storing tickets information makes it secure and difficult for the reach of hackers.

Several SaaS versions of help desk also have their mobile app, which lets technicians to access tickets without having to carry laptops with them. SaaD is affordable and customizable, so it is easy to IT firms to implement this web-based help desk into the actual usage.