Complaints about the helpdesk were making Robert's life tougher day by day. On one side, his technicians were complaining about their troubles in managing their daily requests and on the other side, it was the users who did not have a formal process raising new tickets. Robert was unable to solve these problems with the existing help desk.
Complaints about the helpdesk were making Robert's life tougher day by day. On one side his technicians were complaining about their troubles in managing their daily requests and on the other side it was the users who did not have a formal process for raising new tickets. Robert was unable to solve these problems with the existing help desk.
Robert Kolowitz is the Director, Information Systems for OpNext, a leading designer and manufacturer of fiber optic components. He is the person responsible for overall balance in Opnext's IT service, from defining an effective process for the technicians to maintaining user satisfaction. In all these, having an effective help desk software was a key factor for his success.
Initially, OpNext were using Spiceworks, a free IT Helpdesk application. "It wasn't robust enough and a proper request categorizing was missing. We were also not able to track asset inventory and software licensing", commented Robert. Opnext wanted a category-subcategory-item model to classify all the requests, which would make it easy to identify and manage requests effectively. The first call resolution rate for the requests was low and the complaints from the users and technicians were high.
Robert decided to search for a new help desk application in order to raise IT service levels. He evaluated a list of help desk solutions including Symantec Altiris, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, BridgeTrack(ScriptLogic), Service-Now, Numara Foot Prints, BMC Magic etc. Price was a major factor for selecting the help desk as Spiceworks involved no cost. A decision made on pricing alone wouldn't have solved the existing problem. By changing the help desk, he had to make sure that he addressed all these problems and give his technicians a tool that was easy and effective to work with.
During the final stage of the evaluation, the choice of help desk came down to two; Numara and ManageEngine. He decided to go with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus as it o ered 90% of all the features of the big 4 at just 10% of the price. It provided him with all those which he was missing in his old help desk. He was quite impressed with the request approvals and notifications. The pre-defined request templates in ServiceDesk Plus make my life whole lot easier now. It gives me a clear picture of what the users have and don't have", he says.
Now it's almost a year-and-a-half since Robert moved to ServiceDesk Plus as his IT help desk and managing the IT service is no longer a headache for him. "My technicians are happy now, which makes me even happier. It has helped me change the culture of the users in using the self-service rather than walking up to the desk", says Robert with enthusiasm.
Robert is using ServiceDesk Plus now to manage the IT services in OpNext's other locations like East Coast, New Jersey & Fremont. With ServiceDesk Plus and the process that he has defined, meeting the Service Level Agreements is a not a tough task.
ServiceDesk Plus is web-based helpdesk software that helps you manage all your communications from a single point. It offers an integrated Request management (Trouble Ticketing), Asset management, Purchase order management, Contract Management, Self-Service Portal, and Knowledge Base. ServiceDesk Plus packs all the modules at an affordable price.
ManageEngine o ers simple, easy-to-use IT and Facilities Management products at a price that every business can a ord. It is thoughtfully built with SMBs in mind and eventually scales for large businesses. The ManageEngine 90-10 promise gets you 90% of the features of the Big 4 at 10% of the price.
