Network guys

[Lonskils]

I'm about to embark on a new job as an IT director of an Accounting firm that spans 8 locations in West TN. They have no IT dept and have just used contract guys, for the most part, the last 20 years, but have in the past year grown exponentially and need a full time IT dept and so I'm going to be starting at ground zero and wanting to do it "right"

What I need when I walk in the door is a good to great ticketing software that can be used in multiple locations including their homes, if necessary, and I'm not going to go with something like a Spiceworks solution as it's drab, over complicated for the end user and doesn't really meet my needs.

Any suggestions?

[Aindayen]

Congrats on the new role Lons!

[Wresh]

Here is a list of some...

http://www.softwareadvice.com/crm/help-desk-comparison/

We use Salesforce a LOT at work for leads, opportunities and sales for our commercial division. I use it because it is REALLY easy to connect to their database to pull data out for creating reports through Tableau using SQL, but I am not sure if that particular one would be good for what you are looking for an IT ticketing system solution. With all of the geeks in Hoss, I am sure you'll get some good responses.

Grats on the new gig too!!

[Zeyla]

Congrats on the new job Lons! I used FrontRange Solutions HEAT many years ago when I worked at Boise State. It was OK, a bit of a pain to setup, but the interface was decent at least. I would second the recommendation for Salesforce, I try to keep up with the latest tech trends and even through my company doesn't use a ticketing solution, I have heard a lot of good things about Salesforce through my industry magazines, newsletters and trade shows. I'm sure you can demo the product and see if it is a fit for you.

[Lonskils]

Thanks for the information folks and thanks for the congrats as well. Each office has around 30 people in it, but they also work from home and during tax season they have to have 100% uptime regardless of the hour and so I have to have a ticketing solution, if for nothing else a way to keep folks from calling me at 1 am and not knowing what the Hell they are talking about.

And yes, it's gonna be cool. They are giving me an entire floor and they want to have a fully staffed IT dept that they can also use outside the firm for clients. They are basically creating a new company and bringing me on as an equity partner. If you ever wanted to live in West TN and need a job, I'll let you guys know when I start hiring!

[Valdis]

My company uses AutoTask which is pretty easy to use. It's also cloud based so if they need to make a ticket from home there's no difference in use.

[Tenelen]

I have used Jira and Ontime before. They are both project ticketing systems but have seemed to work well for our purposes.

[Lonskils]

Thanks you two. I like this cloud based ticketing system Val!

[Valdis]

Yea, I have used SiteHelpDesk and CA's ticketing solution which is just as bad as everything CA puts out. Also AutoTask has a Youtube channel with videos explaining how to do just about everything.

[Xuen]

I'm looking for networking with guys too, let me know what you come up with. Thanks!

[Ktul]

Hi lons!

Grats on the new gig. I am the director of operations for a IT company and have used several CRM, RMM, and PSAs. If you are looking for simplicity for ticket creations, time tracking, assett management etc Look into Commit CRM, very cheap. If you need something more robust, Autotask and Connectwise are great but they all have their pros and cons. AT and CW combine CRM and PSA, Commit is more a CRM but it is capable of being used as a PSA with some tinkering. The cons on Commit is lack of intergration with RMM remote managements, like LPI/AVG Mangaed Workplace, labtech, N able.

On a side not, the business vertical that drives me crazy is finance, and accounting. These guys generally have 10 versions of lacerte, quickbooks etc, alot of software maintenance is needed. If you want to pick my brain you can email me at keith.c.wyse@gmail.com. Not sure when I will be back to the forums so dont pm me !

[Ktul]

One last thing. If you are going to have a staff over 7 or so, and running a helpdesk with escalations via skillsets Autotask or Connectwise. AT is great but not really customizable, CW is very customizable. Both offer hosted solutions.

[Lonskils]

Thanks Tool.

The way we are doing things though is everyone as we merge moves to Thompson CS and while there are a lot of updates for that, I can live with it as I only need to update it on 1 server and it effects all since I'm using Ctirx XenApp.