Also, ilient looks AWWWFUUULLLL....or is it just me ?
From: David Lum [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 18 January 2008 21:06 To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Small IT company software application (Sorry I got carried away...) I used to use the inet-sciences tool for my help desk solution, but Ilient is also free (for up to 3 technicians) and has an inventory function that automatically tracks when software/hardware is added/changed/removed. Also has a useful tool where you can track licensing and compare it to what's actually installed on the machines. VERY nice to see when someone loaded say, iTunes, etc. You can assign assets to companies, locations, etc. Very easy to use/configure. You can install the client piece from a central location - you can browse your network and see which machines don't have the client installed, highlight them, and push it out. Has a little VNC tie-in (which can optionally be pushed with the client) that right from the help desk ticket you can launch VNC to remote to the PC (I don't use that feature, but still cool). A shortcut is created on the client PC and when a user clicks on it automatically assigns the machine name and currently logged in user to the ticket - the user doesn't even have to "log in" to the app. It also has a "screenshot" feature if the user clicks it the screen is auto-included in the helpdesk call (it knows to not screenshot the HelpDesk app). Very cool! On my Dell machines the client piece even auto-reports the machine type and Dell s/n in the hardware inventory page, as well as the last time it connected to the Ilient server. Speaking of, it's pretty unobtrusive and the Ilient server takes very little resources and easily run with on the same box as my combo WSUS/Trend OfficeScan/Backups server. It could probably run on a Pentuim III desktop... Like any good help Desk app, it can auto escalate tickets once it becomes a certain age, can send new ticket notices via SMTP (I have it send a text msg to my phone), etc etc. And these are just the features I use. It has additional functionality, and if you pay licensing it can use a SQL back end, etc. Really friggin' slick for the price, and very user friendly setup and use, which is a top priority for me. Killer functionality does me no good if I need 20 hours to figure it out since I'm not at any one client 20 hours in a week! www.ilient.com for Help Desk, and www.ks-soft.net for hardware/services/event log/connectivity monitoring, WSUS 3.0 for patching. But that's just for my night job, my day job here @ NWEA uses other stuff...(TeamTrack / Nagios). Dave Lum - Systems Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] - (971)-222-1025 "When you step on the brakes your life is in your foot's hands" From: Benjamin Zachary [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:49 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: Small IT company software application I know theres a lot of free ones. Spiceworks has a nice software mgmt app but requires domain rights and such, their help desk is simple but nothing fancy. For help desk stuff with asset tracking/control I use www.inet-sciences.com <http://www.inet-sciences.com/> all web based, includes time/billing features that can be easily imported/managed by a bookkeeper, and has a 'tiny' version that works well on phones. That made it great for us to be able to do service tickets in the field. It has a client login option for ticketing, and the client can assign an asset to it. You can set it up in help desk or consulting mode. Consulting mode carves out the inventory by company, so everyone at company A doesn't see company B's assets, or tickets. The software mgmt tool is decent, has like 20 slots + serial #'s but its all done by hand. Used in conjunction with Spiceworks reports you can cross reference it to get you going. 5 user free tech, spiceworks is free so not too bad. ________________________________ From: Oliver Marshall [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 9:55 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Small IT company software application Lo chaps, Wondering if the collective knowledge could recommend something for me. I'm after a package to help manage all the data we have about clients here. We were looking at AdventNet ServiceDesk Plus, which sounds right on paper but doesn't really work. Basically we need to manage support tickets (ie helpdesk stuff), HOWEVER the crunch is that we need to also include asset management and be able to associate an asset with a companys record, so that we can see assets belonging to companies. We also have to be able to add a lot of custom fields across the board. AdventNet Service Desk Plus does all this, but doesn't let you associate the data with a company record, as it's aimed at an IT Dept rather than an IT company servicing multiple clients. Any suggestions ? I'm thinking about going as far as to have something written for us but I can't really believe that there isn't an off the shelf solution. Olly ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
