[Technical] Do you use a helpdesk system or just regular email for user-support and job tracking?

[Paul Williamson]

Hi again,

We have been using a program called Public Folder Helpdesk made by
Kalmstrom for the last 3 months and it's gone from buggy to worse
(crashing, ticket id's duplicated, emails get filed under the wrong
tickets etc.).

We used to just use plain outlook, then assign a category/colour per
email to assign who would complete that job.

The problem we found with using outlook was that if we wanted to add
notes just for the helpdesk staff, there was no way to do this. This was
the main reason we looked at a helpdesk system - A way to share
information between helpdesk staff without complicating the experience
of the requesters. 

Reasons we looked at using a helpdesk system:
- Allow helpdesk staff to make notes on each issue so other helpdesk
staff could follow it up if required
- Easy tracking of sent and received emails per issue
- Gather statistics on the types of problems encountered and time spent
on them (not a primary requirement)

I'm interested to hear what you use in your school to manage emails from
staff..

Thanks!

Paul Williamson
Huntingtower School
Mt Waverley, Victoria