Our tests show Target Helpdesk running on Windows 7 RC1! This, just like Target Helpdesk’s ability to run on Vista at the outset is down to its 100% Microsoft .NET managed code-based design.
Target Helpdesk on Windows 7 RC1
Helpfile update!
26 January 2009 — targethelpdeskWe have been busy documenting and creating more reference material to make it quicker and easier for you to find out about more features of Target Helpdesk! Check out the updated online help guide.
Target Helpdesk Software are also pleased to make available the help guide in PDF format for easy reference. Always be sure to check the online edition as we constantly update as we add new features.
The Value of Helpdesk Software Surveys
9 September 2008 — targethelpdeskTarget Helpdesk Software offer fully integrated Survey Management Software as an Add-In to Target Helpdesk. The classic use of surveys is to include a client satisfaction survey link in email communications to help gather views on satisfaction and perception of the helpdesk. Target Helpdesk makes it very easy to perform survey analysis using the Survey Analysis Management Tool. This tool allows top level survey-by-survey analysis, organisational response analysis, right down to individual response analysis and historical individual response analysis. On a day-to-day basis, techs can see the current perceived view at client-company and client-contact level, and if required, even at task level.
Feedback Survey Analysis Tool
It is at the individual task level that surveys in Target Helpdesk are also very beneficial to helpdesk techs themselves for saving time. Canned responses can be used referring clients to survey “checklists”. The checklist responses provided by the end-user (or client) are available at request level and provide the tech with information they need to continue or complete the task.
So surveys integrated into helpdesk software can be a powerful tool for both managers and techs. Gathering client satisfaction feedback for management and gathering checklist responses for helpdesk techs make surveys a great addition to any helpdesk. To find out more about Target Helpdesk Software survey analysis and survey integration.
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The Cost of Free Helpdesk Software
20 August 2008 — targethelpdeskWhy pay for helpdesk software? There is lots a good free software around. However, when it comes to a specialist piece of software that serves a critical element of your business, you should consider the true cost of “free helpdesk software”.
Our site often receives visitors who have been searching for “free helpdesk software”. Target Helpdesk Software provide “paid-for”, easy-to-use, enterprise-class software with full product support. Being “paid-for” enables us to continuously develop it, support it and provide a personal level of service to our clients.
If you are a one-person setup with just a handful of requests each month, then it is probably overkill to pay out for helpdesk software. In fact, in that situation, you may not even need free helpdesk software, and could quite easily manage with a spreadsheet. When the spreadsheet becomes cumbersome, you know you are ready for a proper request tracking solution like Target Helpdesk.
However, when you have a few people collaboratively working as part of a team and serving a client base where you need to monitor volume, performance, produce reports and analyse activity etc., then helpdesk software is required to manage those kinds of needs. If you choose free helpdesk software, you need to consider the true cost of that software. That is, how productive is it? Will it be working tomorrow and if it doesn’t who will fix it? Who will help you? It’s not just about the software itself needing maintenance, it’s about the constantly changing IT environment in which it exists; what happens if your server goes down and takes your helpdesk software with it? What happens when you move to a new operating system like Microsoft Vista, will it still work? If it is a hosted service, will it be available tomorrow? If it becomes unavailble, what’s happens to your data? How fast is the page-load on that web version. Is there a client-version for heavy duty workers, just like your Outlook desktop client?
Say you have an answer for all these questions, it goes without saying that a good commercial piece of software is continuously developed to meet ever changing requirements as well as ensure compliance with new hardware, software and regulations. That same good commercial software can only be sold if it can show a return-on-investment.
Let’s say you choose to use the free helpdesk software, you could easily find you spend an extra hour or so each week if not each day, manually compiling reports or performing your job slower, less efficiently than you might with an optimised solution, designed and professionally implemented and configured to suit your needs. Now lets say you have a team of people that are spending that extra unnecessary hour because they don’t really have the best tool for the job. If you have a team of 5, then that’s potentially costing you 5 hours per week. That’s almost a working day for some people after water-cooler chat 
Roll that time up over the year and you and that software has almost cost you 7-working weeks.
You know what the average salary of your helpdesk techs are, so you can quickly work out the true cost of that free software. That’s not to mention the missed opportunity for improved service through a professional self-service web portal, automated inbound and outbound mail alerts to keep techs and clients up-to-date as needed. Not to mention the powerful reporting capabilities you will find in Target Helpdesk. From that, you can take as a rule-of-thumb, budgeting 1 to 2 months of a persons salary will very quickly give you a guaranteed return-on-investment above and beyond producivity improvements within a short space of time.
At some point, we will offer a cut-down, subsidised version of our software. It will however be with an agenda to start those who do not currently have budget allocated or those who do not fully understand the value of the software. It will then serve a purpose to act as a gateway onto a full professional paid-for implementation of our flagship product, Target Helpdesk. If you wish to get a trial or more information about Target Helpdesk, then please let us know by contacting us here. We will provide you with a trial, you choose the evaluation period!
New Products Announcement
23 July 2008 — targethelpdeskTarget Helpdesk Software are delighted to announce the introduction of 4 great new products. These additions will compliment the core Target Helpdesk product and help further improve and streamline the client support operation. All products have been built with seamless integration as Addins to Target Helpdesk.
The Surveys AddIn lets operators seek additional information from end-users by using a survey as a checklist request. In the more classic fashion, surveys can be used to obtain feedback on performance and satisfaction. Information is available in realtime data and graphical format.
The LiveReport Designer lets managers define both day-to-day, monthly reporting information. Reporting can be viewed as charts or data grids. So whether you need an adhoc query based on ticket requests for a customer, service contract or asset or you want current view of requests for your top 3 clients, LiveReports Designer is the answer.
Report Server allows you to define who gets what information, when. Scheduling reports means you can save even more time. Run any report and request that report to be sent to you, your team or a client in the format you want, when you want. Have yourself and each client receive a regular pdf on outstanding requests or recent performance.
CRM Mailer Build on your customer relationships by designing personalised emails and targeting all or a group of your customers and end-users. CRM Mailer comes with FREE 100 emails per month for existing Target Helpdesk Enterprise Edition users.
The above prodcuts will be available from August 2008. For more details about these products, please contact us.
Helpdesk Software Selection
3 July 2008 — targethelpdeskLeading the hunt for the best helpdesk software to recommend to your manager? Or are you the helpdesk support manager looking to compile a shortlist of products to trial for your team?
Here are a few points to consider when selecting your next helpdesk software.
Step 1. The Product
Choosing the right helpdesk software for your support team is so important. Your whole team will be using it day in, day out. It’s not the sort of software you can each choose your preferred tool to use (though thats a nice idea!) such as one person might prefer WinZip while another might prefer to use WinRAR and both get to the same end. It’s also not a piece of software that you can switch out at the drop of hat, such as the whole team use a utility like WinZip this week and maybe next week you all decide to use WinRAR.
Helpdesk sofware is much more important because what you choose will determine not only what your team spend each of their working day using, but will determine how they perform. As helpdesks tend to serve end-users or external clients, its pretty important that your helpdesk team performs optimally, especially as most helpdesk support teams are always so busy. For your team to perform well, you need a helpdesk solution that is easy-to-use and well thought out whilst also cost-effective to satisfy the purse.
Step 2. The Vendor
Once you have considered the tool, its also important to consider the company behind the tool. When you need help, what kind of help are you going to get? Can you call and talk to someone. Each time you call, is it a different person? The best way to find out how well a company responds, is to email or call them during your trial! Try it with us! What you want is some continuity of personell dealing with you, someone you can talk to if you wish and ask advice. You want a company that does not just send quick meaningless responses by email (we have all experienced that and we all know how frustrating being a “number” can be so you really dont want that kind of support for your own helpdesk!)
Aside the customer service delivery, Target Helpdesk Software offer professional services from implementation assistance to get you up and running as fast and smoothly, offer training to get your team up to speed without delay if required and offer professional services for custom development and consulting.
Step 3. The Platform
This is simple but not always obvious. You want to take advantage of latest technology, which is why we built Target Helpdesk, 100% on .NET. It’s stable, reliable, high performance and goes pretty much anywhere Windows goes. Using latest .NET technology for example, meant we were Vista compatible and now Windows Server 2008 compatible without changes. This is simply because, with a 100% .NET application, the application only talks to the .NET framework and the framework in turn deals with the Operating System.
In terms of operational platform, don’t make the classic mistake of thinking web-only will make things easy. How many times have you spent most of your day at your desk using Outlook Web Access (OWA)? Probably not many when you have Outlook client available. OWA has its place and is great for when you are out-and-about. You want your helpdesk support team to be productive and that means a desktop client will almost always outperform the web-only. The web-only is an easier sell, quick single install and access everywhere. We have a Web Portal for both operator and client access, but we recommend and still find our users much prefer the desktop client, just like they prefer Outlook client. In fact, we have migrated clients from web-only solutions to our solution specifically for the productivity of the desktop-client.
Target Helpdesk is designed by support professionals, for support professionals, used by us every day as both a CRM system and helpdesk system for supporting clients. Target Helpdesk is designed to do much more than just call logging. It monitors and reports performance, shows the value you add and saves you time, every day. Check out our features page. As a company, we provide personal service right from when you start a trial to implementation, support and account management. Try us and see! As for the platform, Target Helpdesk is built 100% on .NET, desktop, windows service and web portal. We continue to aggressively develop the product to ensure it continues to meet the changing needs of business, your business of delivering great service that is.
If you are tasked with implementing a helpdesk system, contact us. Whether you just want to discuss your project or get assistance with setting up a trial, we will be happy to help you.
Welcome!
2 June 2008 — targethelpdeskWelcome to the Target Helpdesk Software Blog!
We will use this resource as an informal complement to the formal website – http://www.targethelpdesk.com
We will post information about Target Helpdesk including latest news, updates as well as brief discussions and scenarios on how to get the most from Target Helpdesk. We will cover areas that are IT service management “hot topics” all with a view to helping you gain more insight into us and your helpdesk software.
We hope you will find this more “informal” information a valuable addition to the more “formal” web site information and help guides already available for your helpdesk software.
Please feel free to offer comments and suggestions.
