Web Help Desk Review

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Web Help Desk is noted as one of the pioneering solutions of the help desk industry. The web-based software was released in 1999 for the Mac, and distribution has since expanded to other operating systems. This marks Web Help Desk as one of the earliest help desk products, and it is also one of the only commercial software packages using WebObjects as a development platform (also used by iTunes and the online Apple Store). The software is developed and supported by MacsDesign Studio LLC, which is based in Fremont, California.

Web Help Desk Key Features

As the elder statesmen of help desk software, the producers of Web Help Desk know how to provide an enduring, useful product. The software can either be delivered on-premise or as a hosted solution.

  • Automatic email to ticket conversion from your existing email solution to the Help Desk system. Additionally, ticket information (including status changes, public or hidden notes, ticket reassignments, file attachments, work times, etc.) can be updated via email.
  • Auto-ticket routing to send help desk issues to the right representatives or technicians
  • Asset management: have a comprehensive record of customer hardware and software
  • Knowledge base management: get rid of common customer complaints through this self-service database available to all clients
  • A web help desk portal with a clean, convenient-to-use interface
  • Connectivity to standard LDAP and Microsoft’s Active Directory
  • Report generation to view business statistics and analysis

Web Help Desk Highlights

  • As an entirely web-based product, Web Help Desk is very easy to access and deploy. The solution can be accessed from any location through a web browser and internet connection.
  • Web Help Desk customers are provided with a community forum to share ideas and answers, video demos, a technical support desk, and one-on-one guided software demonstration with Web Help Desk experts.

Web Help Desk Technology

The Web Help Desk is Java-based, and thus can run on any server with Java 5 installed. Supported operating systems are: Apple Mac OS X Server 10.4 or later, Microsoft Windows 2000 or later, Red Hat Linux, Debian Linux, and Sun Solaris 8 or later.

Happy Customers

Customers include: Columbia University, NASA, Ecko Unltd., Avis, Apple, Great Clips, the University of California, Sony Pictures Television, Texas A&M Unviersity, US National Guard, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Pricing

The product is sold only by the number of named staff; the number of end users is unlimited. Licenses are offered for commercial and governmental/education sectors. Also, Web Help Desk can be purchased for a perpetual license or through an on-demand plan.

Bottom Line

With good reason, Web Help Desk is a widely respected, dependable product. It is a straightforward, sensible solution that succeeds by providing solid features and platform flexibility. As an industry starter of web-based help desk products, Web Help Desk beats out other solutions that simply try to tack on web functionality as an addition. A web-only focus and market experience puts this product in firm competition with any help desk solution.