Microsoft Help Desk Software

Certain efficient, effective and simple Help Desk solutions can many times be obtained without a complexity of software additions and without considerable integration problems. For example, the Microsoft help desk software uses the power of the exchange server in order to supply support and a ticket tracking system to the customer.

Outlook Help Desk Software

An Microsoft Outlook based solution might turn out to be the number one solution for problem solving, for many of the companies overwhelmed with customer requests, as it has been designed to be used easily and with low costs. Nevertheless, it is not recommended for a significant number of inquiries or for the help desks, which have to face a significant call volume.

The fact that it smoothly interfaces with the Web and with the e-mail, is what makes this solution a very efficient one. Thus, end users, customers or IT staff can design new tickets, by employing the forms available in Outlook. Furthermore, tickets can be submitted, created and viewed later directly in Outlook, by simply logging onto the Web. In what concerns the customers, they can access the system via the Web, on the company's site, and either fill in or submit the tickets there, or they can send an e-mail to the help test, which later converts a script to a ticket.

Help Desk Process

Once the ticket is created, it goes directly to a help desk folder, where the Help Desk staff has to organize the e-mails and assign them for follow-up and then, they have to make sure to fill out and assign the new tickets, if they find it convenient to do so.

As work begins and progresses, the technicians enter a status report, after receiving an e-mail with a link to the ticket. End users have the possibility to see what is going on with regard to their issue, what has been yet solved, even without contacting the help desk. Anyway, an e-mail will inform the end user, on when the issue will be resolved.

One can find on the market different versions if Outlook based on help desk software. The standard edition was designed to offer support to the users inside an organization, while a second one is a service provider edition, which supports customers or other people outside the organization.

Microsoft Knowledge Base

Depending on the user's needs and options, reports can be generated from an included utility named "Report Builder", from which the created tickets are normally exported to an Excel spreadsheet or to a text file. There is a data base to which tickets are imported and where a significant number of reports can be run and the performances of the data base evaluated.

A great variety of Outlook Help Desk Issues are explained and accessible due to the existence of a knowledge base. The mentioned base contains completed trouble tickets and information from the articles entered by the help desk personnel. There are also other types of functions including: automated ticket notification, list manager, ticket mode, which sets tickets to open in end user mode or help desk mode, popup user message displayed to users, help desk ticket numbering that sets up sequential numbering of tickets, ticket change color ability, and an upgrade utility that makes upgrading a simple process.

Help Desk Version

Microsoft Help Desk is compatible with Outlook 2002 and 2003 versions. The contact information of the user appears automatically on the ticket and it is extracted from the Exchange or Active Directory. After the technicians introduce information regarding their status and the information regarding the time spent, time tracking and history log features become available. The end users receive update and completion e-mails from the assigned ticket. There is the possibility for the technicians to copy tickets to their personal tasks for synching with a device that's easier to handle, such as a PDA.