Overview
HelpSTAR help desk software is an out of the box solution. Like other help desk solutions on the market, HelpSTAR offers a variety of features to manage the total help desk process and post evaluation for total quality improvement. You can purchase a 2-person license for about $5,000. Additional licenses are in the $700 range. The product is top notch and more sophisticated than the others I reviewed. Using it was a pleasure and enabled me to do my job more effectively and I had an increased number of satisfied clients as a result.

What are its standard features?
As I am a director of support services, a product that adequately supports my organization’s needs, will not only provide a great help desk solution, but it will also increase productivity across the departments that we service. HelpSTAR provided me with a complete solution, which enabled my department to claim efficiencies throughout the organization. During bonus time, this added to my person bottom line!

Installation was a breeze, thanks to the wizards that walked me through each step. The wizards assisted with understanding the relationship between the data that I was using across the system. For example, when adding users, HelpSTAR was clear to define the user as internal or client. The user permissions allowed for a decent amount of flexibility. Within 20 minutes, we were up and running. This was the quickest installation I have seen in this type of a software platform.

The features include problem and incident management, knowledge, change and asset management. The reporting features were of interest to me as they offered data analysis that could be applied to my total organization, not just my department. Asset and configuration management are also standard with this program.

Why is their product unique?
Like other products in this arena, HelpSTAR offers many features. After using the product, it becomes clear that these features were well thought out, with great detail. Some of the other systems reviewed seemed to be more concerned with the number of features available, not the value of each to the user. HelpSTAR addresses the concerns of support staff, management, and the customer as well. This ensures that every at every touch point, the user has a better experience with the product and can get their jobs done quickly and efficiently.

What can they improve upon?
Given the sophistication lever of the product, we expect bugs and system issues to be present. The problem is that the bugs are, in my opinion, not addressed to my satisfaction. The database is not portable, like some of the other programs. Finally, despite my high speed internet connection, the web component does not run as quickly as the others that I reviewed.

What type of company does their product fit best?
This product is great for a small business, which needs a program they can grow with, and larger businesses that seek to improve upon what they are already using.

Overview
The Web Help Desk features a straightforward and intuitive, interface. The program is 100% web based and only a web browser is required to use the application. Web Help Desk allows for multiple remote access points, from any web browser. There are no additional downloads, Flash, or other plug-ins required. The system accommodates multiple platforms including Mac OS X Server, Windows 2000 Server or later, Linux, and Solaris.

What are its standard features?
The Web Help Desk has a feature that allows the user to specify parameters that will logically assign new tickets to various technicians. The parameters include geographical location, technician skill-set, work schedule and work load. This feature balances the workload by who is most qualified for the ticket and ensures that the tickets are spread among all technicians. This allows for reporting by location, department, or workgroup. Jobs can also be assigned to a particular work pool, so that the technicians can select from all the tickets in the system.

Web Help Desk allows for managing hardware and software by client. This is a feature not widely available at this time with other help desk programs. The system manages hardware leases and warranty end dates as well. Web Help Desk also has an invoicing feature that allows you to track labor, travel time, and generate instant PDF quotes. Want to offer paperless billing for your client? Web Help Desk offers your clients to download their monthly invoice right from the site or see their account balance in real time.

The integrated FrontBase server, ensures that all of your critical data is stored in a relational database, which can be used to queue for reporting purposes or download into another program. This enables the data to be analyzed by various departments in an effort to improve on efficiency across departments.

Why is their product unique?
Web Help Desk has a unique feature that converts emailed requests into ticket numbers. As the ticket is worked on, the customer receives email updates, which relays any notes, status or technician reassignment. These can be sent to dedicated e-mail accounts or individual technicians. This creates efficiencies as the help desk can be automated and not manned by live operators.

What can they improve upon?
Web Help Desk has many added features, which claim to increase productivity. They on the surface appear to increase productivity, but utilizing all of them requires additional time. It is not clear if the multiple add-ons and features are a benefit or possibly make the program too complicated.

What type of company does their product fit best?
The product seems to be applicable and expandable in a wide range of business applications. The many features may provide additional resources and utilities, but may be unnecessary for a smaller business seeking a simple starter program.

Overview
Novo’s Help Desk software offers an incident tracking solution that is applicable in most support and customer service settings. The user interface can be utilized out of the box or modified to fit your business’ needs using the customizable interface feature
 
Some of the features are automated incident routing, automatic email notifications, custom business and user settings, and reporting.  As with most of Novo’s products, the Help Desk can be combined with optional modules. The Help Desk software is a 100% Web Based Online Customer Support Software. The only requirement is a web browser. 

What are its standard features?
Novo’s help desk software is a good solution for those businesses that have no such system in place and those businesses whose current system is no longer meeting the company’s needs. The Novo central marketing theme is that it is a cost saving measure as it significantly reduces the time spent on managing help desk issues
 
The Novo Help Desk management software comes with an Intranet/Extranet web customer support portal, internet help desk software, issue tracking, inter-department service request tracking – i.e. equipment tracking. The customer submits a report, which is assigned a ticket number and placed in the queue for resolution. This enables you to save time and resources staffing inbound phone lines. The staff themselves can create a ticket as well. Customers can track the status of the ticket through the user interface.  Novo’s help desk suite also allows managers to easily track and organize ticket numbers by department or group, with the senior most managers being able to see all the tickets in the system. The administrator dashboard is a fully customized feature that allows you to sort and/or view based on specific parameters. It has the capability for drag and drop, arrange and sort. One of the best features is the ability to set up custom workflows.

Why is their product unique?
Novo has a knowledgebase software add on, to enhance the customer experience by providing self help to the customer. These can be purchased together as the Novo Custom Customer Support Suite. The knowledgebase saves money and time by reducing call volumes, manage repeat issues, allow your high level technicians/engineers working on valued added projects. Other software manufacturers have the ability to develop a knowledge base, while Novo has one ready to go, out of the box.

What can they improve upon?
Novo has done an excellent job of offering a solution that has just the features you need and the ability to upgrade and add on in the future. There is not much to improve upon in this reviewer’s opinion.

What type of company does their product fit best? 
Given its ability to expand and be combined with Novo’s other products; it appears that this software is geared towards large companies, whose needs are very specific. This does not mean that it is not applicable for small to mid size businesses however.

Overview 
I have been working IT helpdesks for years. Kayako’s interface actually allows me to enjoy my job. I have been using this product since 2006. Over time, the product has improved year over year. The user interface is very intuitive and easy to use. Kayako is one of the best support ticket and knowledge base solutions on the market for the price you pay. 

Established in 2001, Kayako had a loyal following in the web based support desk industry. They are a privately held company, based in Punjab, India and Boise Idaho.

What are its standard features?
Kayako sets the pace for its competition by creating a support desk system with three expandable modules, SupportSuite, eSupport and LiveResponse. These three modules create a complete support interface solution, which can support any website. The suite offers ticket and email management, complete with an array of features such as desktop alerts, tasks lists that can be shared or private, and the standard calendar. Their content publishing comes complete with help resources and a knowledgebase that can be programmed to send automatic responses with ticket. The SupportSuite provides the tools necessary to manage a ticket support system, live chat, and visitor monitoring into your existing site. While many software manufacturers claim seamless integration, Kayako actually walks the talk. You can manage your support ticket system from multiple sources, within one system.

While many support ticket systems are user friendly on the front end, Kayako can claim ease of use on the front and back end. Your customers will love the straightforward interface when navigating the system, submitting for support tickets, and searching the knowledge database. With Kayako, real-time visitor monitoring and news publishing are within reach and easy to do. As all of its competition, Kayako has a handy calendar as well.

Not sure if Kayako’s solutions are for you?
They offer two types of free trial, a hosted trial, or trail with a temporary license so you can test it in your environment.

Why is their product unique?
When compared with other solutions, Kayako wins hands down for the price and easy user interface. Their modules also set them apart from the competition as they can be added or modified as the customer’s needs change over time.

What can they improve upon?
Kayako’s development and support team is based in the United States and abroad. Unfortunately, they are not very responsive to help requests. It could be the time difference, but as they already have offices in Boise Idaho, probably not. Obtaining a license takes a long time as well.  It seems that they answer tickets, so that it a plus.
What type of company does their product fit best?
Kayako’s simplicity translates well in a small, medium, and large business setting. Their flexibility makes the software easily adaptable to a wide range of businesses and industries. To date, more than 30,000 companies use Kayako’s solutions to improve their help desks and sales and operations departments.

Overview
H2 Desk is another innovative and reliable web based solution from OnClick Solutions. On Click Solutions develops software solutions for small and medium sized business. Their products seek to fill the gaps that other products possess. OnClick provides solutions specifically for small and mid size businesses.

Once again, Onclick has hit the mark with H2 Desk, a web based help desk solution designed to efficiently service your customers. The application allows the user to customize the interface and build a complete knowledgebase. It has a real time chat feature and enables your customers to open support tickets, with a click of a mouse.

What are its standard features?
H2 Desk’s standard features are the ability to create and manage tickets, a knowledge base, and the ability to manage and configure the system and users. The IT staff or remote users can access the features. The customer can easily generate a ticket number with attachments. This makes sending screenshots an option, which is very helpful in IT situations. The customer can also review the status of the ticket in real time. E-mail updates are automatically delivered to the customer. Staff members can search tickets, personalize their settings, perform operations over multiple tickets simultaneously, and automatically route tickets to certain departments as needed. The knowledge base is an area where the staff can add articles and other information for the customer to use.

Configuring the interface and the user properties is quite easy. The user interface can be customized with custom headers and footers, attachment options, and problem escalations. The options only require a basic HTML knowledge, which any IT staff member would likely possess. Managing departments and individual users is another simple process. The ability to assign or change individual and departmental permissions allows for customization among the entire organization and supports many internal processes that may exist.
It is worthy to note the extras that the program has such as a private messaging and chat interface for the H2Desk staff, tickets statistics to measure efficiency and areas for improvement, and of course, a calendar.

Why is their product unique?
Out of the many help desk systems I have reviewed, H2Desk’s user interface is by far the best. It is intuitive and straightforward. It is important that the customers can use the interface, without needing a help desk to walk them through it. H2Desk has provided a no nonsense interface that even someone with a minimal computer skill set can navigate. Another feature is the canned replies that you can set up for certain ticket types or users.

What type of company does their product fit best?
As OnClick Solutions specifically manufactures for small and medium size businesses, this the target application for H2Desk.

What can they inprove upon?
It seems logical that the support for a support system would be efficient. With H2Desk, the product support appears to be added because it was a necessary feature. While this is not a tremendous issue because the system is so easy to use, it is a weakness nonetheless. In addition, customers are not able to request a lost password without creating a ticket and having a staff member resolve the problem.