Features of School Help Desk Written by lifang    January 18, 2008 10:56 Sampling of features:   Easy to use   Economical and affordable   Web-based (no client software required)   Can be scaled from dozens to thousands of users   Knowledge base and Self-help (Browse-able and searchable)   Can be customized and is very flexible   User accounts can be synced to Active Directory or eDirectory   Executive/management overview   E-mail and paging options   Scheduled reporting   On-line PDA support (Palm, Windows CE or any mini-browser with a 240 pixel wide view)   Upload attachments (documents, video clips, etc) to assist your users in the self help   Free e-mail support   Self-help OR Self-serve: We have added a new feature that you may be interested in. The help desk to date has always been self-help driven. However, we have found some schools prefer a self-serve option instead. To do this, your users simply send an e-mail to a special e-mail account that you set up. You then run a scheduled task every 1 to 5 minutes to check this special e-mail account and add the user and the ticket to the database.  Then an e-mail is sent to the user with a password and instructions to update their profile. This is easy on everyone but you do lose the self-help feature since the users can now submit tickets by e-mail. To see how this works, send an e-mail to Email for Help with a made up help desk request. (You still maintain all of the work-flow management and other features if you choose this option.) What does School Help Desk offer you: » Usability Ask our users. (See testimonials below.)  It is easy, fast and logical. » Customizable You choose the fields your users need to fill out. You can change the menus, colors, and rules. You can tailor the self-help feature to suit your users and your environment. Please don't worry, we will help you get started, plus you always have the option to change it later. » Powerful With 5+ years of helpdesk history, this software product can handle big school environments, but it is equally easy for small schools to use. Contrary to many of the other helpdesk solutions out there, SchoolHelpDesk provides a powerful tool to meet your needs now and in the future. Don't let inexpensive pricing fool you. » Self hosted installation It is installed at your school (typically one installation per district) allowing you to control the server cost. Or now we have an economical hosting option where it is installed on our virtual server for an additional $500 per year. » Quick return on investment (ROI) With the low annual fee, SchoolHelpDesk will pay for itself in less than a month. Users are able to help themselves, making better use of everyone's time.  Once you have your self-help tailored to your users, you can expect 80% of the tickets to be resolved by the user, so you can do more with less! If you depend on outside contractors to fix problems, then the simple task of organizing the problems in one place for them to know what the problem is will save them time and save you money. Don't forget: time is money. This helpdesk solution will save you time, which in turn will save you money.