With over 100 Support Desk vendors in the market, costs ranging from free to over $4,000 for every advanced user (i.e. Technical Support Rep or Customer Support Rep) and an overwhelming list of structures, web services, and features to evaluate, selecting the right helpdesk software for your organization can be a time sucking and aggravating process.

The reason for this article is to attempt to and simplify the procedure for you. This industry brief will address common issues that everyone in the help desk software market should understand before making the ultimate selection. Considering these issues will help you make a more knowledgable conclusion.

Issue Tracking Software – Architecture

The issue that tends to generate the most uncertainty in our industry is client/server web-enabled solutions (C/S) vs. 100% web-based solutions. In general, C/S architected solutions are dying breed. At one point, an great improvement over main frame solutions, C/S technology has been phased out due to the availability and rewards of web-based solution structures. The main reason some helpdesk software businesses continue to sell C/S solutions is due to the fact that they do not have the development resources to convert their elder product to a web-based architecture. Some of the advantages that web-based solutions include over C/S solutions include:

• No client-side software set up, updates, or support

• Log in from anywhere on the web, anytime with any browser

• Full access to all features and functions at anytime and from anywhere

When you begin to demo different customer support software solutions please take notice if you are required to load code on your computer to starts the demo. If so, you are not doing business with a business that offers a web-based solution. True web-based architectures need only a web address in order to see a demo.

So, if the vendor emails you a 5 MB exe. file to try their solution, you are not seeing a 100% web based helpdesk software solution. The file that vendor is emailing you is either front ending a C/S system or is a complete canned demo on your computer. Make sure you evaluate the solution you are going to buy! If you do buya C/S solution, please take note that web-enabled add-on modules wont give you full access to all of the features when you are in a browser on the web.

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