While there can be great benefits in outsourcing the help desk function, it is not a decision that should be entered into hastily. The first step should always be to analyze your current function; this will prove valuable whether or not you decide to outsource. It will give you a better idea of your options: improving your internal operation, outsourcing the entire operation, outsourcing part of the operation or not outsourcing at all. If you don't have a sense of the quality and cost of your current operation, you cannot perform a good comparative analysis of an outsourcing arrangement. If you are in a start-up situation, this step entails doing a full analysis of what it would take to put the support mechanism together yourself.

In the world of business, the greatest asset is often your company's chosen niche. Many marketers spend a great deal of time, energy and resources selecting a niche which they believe is going to be profitable. There are certainly no guarantees a particular niche will be profitable but there are certain strategies for choosing a niche that has a high probability of success.

In most of the current service industry models, the help desk should be the core of the business function, not only performing problem management, but also handling the flow of information to all entities of IT. If the purpose and mission of the Help Desk has not been communicated to upper management, then the Help Desk will never fully serve the corporate environment. The Help Desk must be aligned with the mission of the company as a whole. One question most help desk consultants and sales personnel ask during due diligence is, “Does the Help Desk meet the need of the business requirement?”

Many times, personnel are placed at the Help Desk because it sounded like an interesting job, or the company ran out of other departmental opportunities due to layoffs, restructuring etc. Because these personnel had served in other areas of the company, management believed these people could handle a Help Desk position - until the phones started ringing and the quality fell. It then becomes a chore for the IT group to ask for funding for training, skilled personnel and trained customer service Managers.

Free version has a limit of 1 deparment and 1 staff. If you need more staff members to use helpdesk pilot and add more departments to it you must consider a commercial license.

Does switching from FREE to the licensed version require a total new install

What languages do you support currently? We currently support English, German, Dutch and Russian. We are working towards adding support for more languages. If you don't find one, just ask.

Will helpdesk pilot run on my server? Yes! Helpdesk Pilot is based on open source technologies that are truly cross platform. So no matter whether you are on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Unix or any other OS that runs a webserver you can have Helpdesk Pilot running for you. If you need more exact specifications, here is what is ideally required

The best way to contact the help desk is through this Website. First, check this FAQ. If your question is not answered here, submit a request for service at our request page. The second preferred method of contacting the help desk is by sending an email to helpdesk@optics.arizona.edu. Sending an email directly to a Technology Group Member is not recommended. As our internal assignments and tasks change, you may not be addressing your problem to the correct person. By sending your problem to the helpdesk address we can route your issue to the proper person. This saves you delays in getting your problem resolved.

Yes. However, while several states allow retailers to include expiration dates and charge service fees as long as they are conspicuously disclosed to the consumer, other states have enacted laws that prohibit these practices.