An Automated Support E-Mail System?

qm_37 asks: "I work for a small software company with a growing customer base. Our current support desk system has worked well for us in the past, but is going to become very unwieldy if it has to grow any more than it already has. We're looking for a more automated system that will do things like filter and direct incoming support e-mails to the support worker assigned to that task, assign and track support issue numbers, and give us a nice searchable database of previous customer issues. We've looked at various solutions ranging from commercial software packages to PHP/CGI-based server scripts, and nothing has really grabbed our attention. We have also considered writing our own system, but the trade-off is that we need to find the time to do it. Does anyone have any experience with a situation like this? Which route do you think we should take for our support system?"

First National uses E-Gain for customer email.

[Michael Spencer Jr.]

We use E-Gain. http://www.egain.com (We're also a bank, so we're well funded.)

New emails get a ticket ID, and you log into a web interface to download new tickets. It keeps messages for the same ticket associated together.

It also supports autoreplies, template/scripted replies, and some non-email-related things like a knowledge base, quick-message-forwarding address book, etc.

The whole point for going with a system like this, of course, is for performance monitoring, tracking, and reporting.

--Michael Spencer

Re:First National uses E-Gain for customer email.

[WebCrapper]

I've used both E-Gain and Kana and perfer Kana. While both are equally expensive for a smaller company, they are well worth their costs if you have a high mail volume.

Kayako?

[mind21_98]

Have you considered using Kayako [kayako.com]? It's not free, but it contains a knowledge base, and has a clean layout too. We currently use this where I work and we've never had problems.

Suggestions

[duffbeer703]

Look at something like this:

http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBUGZ/

or Bugzilla.

or buy some big commercial product like Peregrine Service Center.

Re:Suggestions

[Anml4ixoye]

I can vouch for FogBugz. We used it in my last position, and it was a great quick bug tracking system. Lots of integration capabilities, and they let you try it online free for 30 days. If you purchase it they ship you the database so you don't lose any data. A little easier to understand than Bugzilla, but only if you don't mind using ASP.

Ticketsmith

[rikitikitavy]

I've used Ticketsmith [voxel.net] for a few years now. Threaded replies, assign tickets to staff members, web based, auto-replies to the client.
Does everything you need, and nothing you don't.

Remedy

[Sandman1971]

If you don't mind going commercial, a very popular product is Remedy [remedy.com]. It's extremely configurable and it can do everything you're asking and a lot more. I work for a national ISP and Remedy is what our dozens of helpdesks use.

Re:Remedy

[SplasPood]

Speaking as someone who's used remedy, and tried to support a customized platform based around it.

STAY AWAY. STAY VERY FAR AWAY. Hire some college kids to code you a nice replacement in PHP or something.. You'll be happier.

Just my 2 cents.

tech support!

[AresTheImpaler]

You should outsource your support to another country so that everytime someone needs help, they can talk to a human being. Look, how amazing tech support is [illwillpress.com].

lots of options..

[QuantumRiff]

I have found that web interfaces for submitting requests is a pain in the ass, and end users don't like them. make sure you have email submission.. I have heard of many people using RT [bestpractical.com]

Of course, if your rich, look into HEAT.. it does some damn amazing things...

Re:lots of options..

[RabidMonkey]

I can attest to RT being great ... worked for an ISP that used it. emails would automatically open tickets and assign them to queues based on keywords. when tickets were updated (either through the web interface or by email on our blackberrys) it could (at our choice) email the user back to let them know.

best of all, it's free.

Easy!

[maskedbishounen]

Just set up a simple auto-responder in your mail client. The message you need is very basic, and will provide your clients/users with enough information to trouble shoot their problem! Ohh, and it's only four characters. ;-)

"RTFM"

Bonus points if you actually include a link to the manual, but no need to go overboard...!

Okay, so that's just what I would do. Why, yes, I am still looking for a job.. why do you ask?

Re:Easy!

[majid_aldo]

you mean this? http://www.bestpractical.com/rtfm/ [bestpractical.com]

Cerberus

[vsync64]

Try Cerberus Helpdesk [cerberusweb.com].

Call center software Linux resource page

[joelparker]

Try this listing of Call Center, Bug Tracking and Project Management Tools for Linux [linas.org]

Good luck! Cheers, Joel

Eventum - it's good enough for MySQL

[belorion]

I have been using MySQL's eventum http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/other/eventum/featu res.html/ [mysql.com] for the past few months and have found it very good. It's PHP MySQL based. It supports multiple projects, email integration, supports public/private fields, custom categories, custom fields, project management (time tracking), issue listing, sorting, searching, reporting and graphical stats. It also supports SOAP (remote posting) and RSS for viewing

Web Help Desk

[teridon]

How small is your company? If you can afford it, Web Help Desk [webhelpdesk.com] fits the bill. The client list [webhelpdesk.com] is huge, and includes Apple, Filemaker, Inc., an many government and educational institutions. The software is based on Mac OS X Server (thus Apple's buy-in, I think), and you have several options for the database backend (including MySQL).

Well, its a little unorthodox, but if you have

[Khaspir]

someone with perl experience, you might try rewriting something like Spam Assassin to search for appropriate keywords and route the mail accordingly.

Then again, I usually prefer the in house custom solutions, because when you have them finished, you end up with something better suited to your needs, and you have a strong familiarity with the system when something goes wrong.

Re:Well, its a little unorthodox, but if you have

[galaxy300]

Speaking of unorthodox, my IT department uses a slightly customized blog to manage our helpdesk tracking. Email submission goes straight to the blog, which the manager then assigns to the appropriate technician via the "categories" field. We use the comment field and the "email to a friend" function liberally until the ticket is closed.

It sounds weird at first, but it works so well it's almost silly that we didn't think of it earlier.

Another nice thing - it runs on a Linux server using a PHP based syste

RT: Request Tracker from Best Practical

[zamboni1138]

I have been using Request Tracker [bestpractical.com] for a while now and I love it, and so does my support staff and customers. It is very robust and flexible. I use Apache with mod_perl, SSL and a MySQL database, and sendmail for the mail interface. You might hit a few bumps during setup, but you should be able to work through them. There are a lot of good docs out there which walk you through the entire setup. If you haven't looked at it you should. Everything is free except the hardware and time. They also have RTFM (RT FAQ Manager) which is an addon to RT and can help you manage company wide knowledge.

If you need a serious customer support email + web based issue/ticket tracking and management system then you need to check out Request Tracker.

RT

[Door-opening Fascist]

I'd recommend RT [bestpractical.com] from Best Practical [bestpractical.com]. I use it with a Postgres backend and Apache/Sendmail on the front-end, and it works beautifully. It does everything we (and you, it sounds like) need it to do, with plenty of added flexibility if you need it. Check it out.

Re:RT

[mrcpu]

RT is pretty powerful. We have something like 200k tickets in our database, and it hums right along.

Request Tracker + RTFM

[dagnabit]

Ticket app: http://www.bestpractical.com/rt/ [bestpractical.com]

FAQ Manager: http://www.bestpractical.com/rtfm/ [bestpractical.com]

Request Tracker (RT)

[Christopher Cashell]

As a number of other people have mentioned, Request Tracker (RT) is probably just about a perfect fit for your needs. I use it for a similar (but internal) setup, and it works like a charm. I'm currently using it on a Debian/Woody box with Apache, PostgreSQL, and Qmail.

Especially considering it's free (GPL), I don't know many better solutions.

Non-commercial

[E_elven]

Since everyone seems to have given more or less commercial-feeling suggestions, try Trac [edgewall.com]. It's a decent project-management system with a Wiki, implemented in Python running off CGI. It's mainly intended for actual PMS, but seems to work well for a support job too.

Re:Non-commercial

[majid_aldo]

for a more rudimentary approach, you could just use some sort of discussion system with each thread being a 'ticket' in itself.

Re:Non-commercial

[ScrewMaster]

If you have a Python script that helps with PMS, I would recommend that you sell it to a pharmaceutical company for a million dollars and retire young.

Re:Non-commercial

[E_elven]

Haha. Not that kind of PMS.

Besides, I'm pretty sure that Skynet was programmed in Prolog or Lisp.

Roundup

[SwellJoe]

We use roundup, with some minor customizations. It works very nicely, is somewhat easy to customize, integrates nicely with email, and it is free.

http://roundup.sf.net

My next customization will probably be some mechanism for techs to check "resolve and add to knowledge base" and have it dump out the discussion to a Blosxom format blog entry with a selected category. Then it becomes searchable using either one of Blosxom's search plugins or our current htdig search function (roundup supports search, but

Windows Solution

[samael]

Liberum helpdesk does pretty much everything you need. It's open-source and took me about 15 minutes to get set up:

http://www.liberum.org/

www.beyourown.net

[shadowxtc]

We've made a great CMS with hundreds of features integrated... including a GMail-like mail system with searching, labeling, etc. It's also got standard SMTP support and features, like aliasing. Mailing lists as well. Check it out -- it might not be exactly what you're looking for but I'm sure it'd get the job done :p.

We use RT (Request Tracker)

[Kronen]

It's free (and Free), has commercial support if you need it, very customizable, if a little difficult to set up. But once up and running, it's been great for our company (3 people on support).

RT Home page [bestpractical.com]

RT

[bergeron76]

Check out a linux package called RT. It's a web-based / email linked tickeing system. It sends messages when support requests are sent and directs them to the appropriate email address.

RequestTracker!

[NateTech]

All done in Perl, handles both e-mail and web-based ticket creation, easy to hack on to change.

RequestTracker [bestpractical.com]

IRM - The Information Resource Manger

[Lokine0419]

You might want to check out IRM [stackworks.net] It's an extremely configurable asset management system with a linked ticketing system. Built in PHP /MySQL. Personally for a small company I find that it works best when not only is it free, but I can work on it myself and change even the core functions.

Hire Me...

[dep01]

Hire me to build you a web-based system. I've built what has been said by many to be "the best workflow/request system ever built and used within the Wachovia Corporation." dep