During my career as an IT Professional, I was always in the market searching for simple software solutions that are very effective with a learning curve that is not steep. Help desk software should be no different. It should be simple and robust to use. The help desk software at Manage Engine fits into the category of simple IT Help Desk Software because of its ease of use and simplicity.
Before deciding to move to this product for the IT help desk, the company I worked with used a similar product with several modules integrated, including a portion for the help desk. Still, IT needed its own software that was not integrated with other departments in the company. The CIO recommended that IT have its own help desk software. I gladly complied with his request. The shared software was not easy to use, though. Several classes and training had to be set up with the vendor to bring the employees in the call center and IT staff up to date to use the software effectively. In other words, you almost had to be a university graduate to use this software. In my opinion, software should be simple and effective to use.
I’ve investigated many IT help desk software and did several proofs of concept with thirty-day trials of several software products, including Service Desk Plus by Manage Engine. After the 30-day trial, we purchased the software right away and never looked back. We chose this product based on my professional recommendation. At the company where I worked, software purchases were not automatically approved. Every product before purchasing had to go through an approval process. Three quotes from different vendors always had to be provided. Of course, at times, my upper manager would bypass my opinion and choose a vendor they were more familiar with. But my recommendations always was chosen once I was able to sell to them the reason why a product would be more beneficial to the company.
With the service desk plus software at Manage Engine, you could have used the software right out of the box without reading the user’s guide. But it is always good to read the manual first though. For some strange reason, whenever I am trying to install a new software product, I always try to do it first without the instructions. If I get stuck, I usually revert to the instructions or user guide. I guess that trait is present in almost every true IT person.
Product Overview and Features
If you need simple IT Help Desk Software, then Service Desk Plus is all you need. This software will assist you with administering your day-to-day incidents without putting out fires. It will make you and your team look like seasoned professionals as you deliver top-notch customer service to the business.
Several flexible plans are available. The standard plans have all the basic tools you will need, like incident management, self-service portal, SLA management, and Help desk reports that will make you look like a professional in meetings. There is also a professional version that includes asset management and other tools. Then you have the enterprise versions that include the standard and professional modules and several other modules.
No need to be concerned with your SLAs or service level agreements. You will be able to manage these levels more effectively by assigning incidents to qualified technicians immediately after they are logged into the software. Your users will also receive automated emails letting them know the status of their incidents.
Service Desk Plus provides an in-depth oversite of your open tickets and the history of those closed in a central location. As a team leader or manager, you will have an in-depth oversite of your team tickets and their performance. This software is not new to the market. It was in existence for over ten years and counting. I’ve used it for over five years at my previous employer.
Product Benefits
Service Desk Plus can easily integrate with other IT management and administration software. You can deploy it at your establishment or use it from the cloud. Cloud application of the software is easier than installing on-premise, though. But if you have access to a VMware or Hyper V environment, it is better to turn up a server and run it from your environment for better performance.
One major benefit of Service Desk Plus is that it is ITIL compatible directly out of the box. This means you will manage your incidents using industry standards developed by the ITIL organization. Your users will have the option of creating tickets via email and phone calls. Another option available is the ability to create tickets using a web-based self-service portal.
Product Endorsement
With Service Desk Plus no never have to be concerned or worried about the performance and trustworthiness of the product. Companies like Honda, Disney, Dell, ABC, and many other popular establishments use Service Desk Plus, so you know it is good. I’m endorsing it also as an IT Profesional of over twenty-five years. I’ve used it daily to manage incidents and see in one central location the status of all tickets and who is working on the tickets.
Product Installation Overview
There are two available options for using Service Desk Plus software. On-premise and Cloud-based. If you install the software on-premise, you can either install it on a stand-alone server or a virtual server. White papers, articles, videos, and user guides are available in the Manage Engine site resources section to assist you with on-premise installations. Your server specs will be basic. All required is a minimum of 16 GB of ram and a 4 to 8-core server with an intel Xeon chip and about 500 GB of SSD storage.
Conclusion
Service Desk Plus is a simple IT help desk software that will work to fulfill your needs as a manager or team leader of the help desk team. My life was so much easier once I started using this software. This software is so easy to use that you can use it directly out of the box from the cloud. The learning curve is so easy.