Another technology spotlight that we would like to discuss with you is our experience with our help desk sofftware - Webtracks (made by Gritware, LLC www.gritware.com).    We have been very pleased with the versatility of the application and it has provided tremendous value to our organization.

Webtracks includes many different components including Support Desk, Computer/Peripheral Inventory, Software Inentory, Purchasing Management, and Documentation Management.   The St. Paul Group utilizes many of the components, primarily Support Desk, but also Computer / Peripheral Inventory, as well as Software Inventory.  

This software allows for flexibility in creating tickets.   A user can log directly onto the self-service portal or may send an email to a specified SMTP address in order to create a ticket.    A technician can also manually enter the ticket on the user's behalf.   In any of the scenarios,  emails are sent of to the technician(s) responsible for resolving the issue.   The technician can respond to the ticket and update it with any relevant comments, and the technician can control whether those comments are viewable or will be sent to the client.    This component is tightly integrated with the inventory modules where you can link an inentory item to the issue at hand.  At the resolution of the issue, the technician can specify additional recipients to be notified of the closure and resolution of the ticket (helpful to notify one's superior, etc.)

We also use Webtracks to keep track of our network, PC, and server inentories.    It includes a module based on Active Directory which uses LDAP and WMI to inventory PC and server systems.    Since it uses SQL server under the hood, we also have managed to import large quantities of network devices into the inventory.  
 
Even though this solution is inexpensive compared to other solutions on the market, we think that Webtracks' ability to manage large volumes of tickets, deices, or other items, makes it a great fit for small and large businesses alike.   With the use of SQL server, all of the modules work well together, alleviating the need to ever touch the back-end.     The ability to utilize custom-defined fields to meet your specific business needs is a huge bonus.

We've looked at numerous help desk products made for small businesses, and time and time again, we cannot say enough about the value and benefit that we hae derived from Webtracks.   We have been extremely impressed by their quick support and would reccomend this product to anyone.

Written by: Chris Richter