Always looking for a better way to manage my business’ help desk queue, about two weeks ago I bought a copy of the AxoSoft OnTime 2006 software after a $495 to $5 price cut was posted via Robert Scoble. OnTime is designed as a bug tracking system, but Steve Richard’s OnTime 2006 review discussed how it is completely customizable. Both the interface and data store are so customizable that Steve reworked OnTime to manage his personal tasks according to the “Getting Things Done” organizational system.

For just $5 (current and regular price is $495) the 5-user version of OnTime was worth a test as a replacement to our current mixed system of customized (and fragile) Exchange Forms in a Public folder and the non-customizable and no-longer being updated Intuit Track-It software. Only an hour after purchasing OnTime it was running from our existing SQL Server instance with both several Windows clients and a working web interface installed. The installation process was as simple as it can get without not prompting you for any information. The basic installations of Track-It and FrontRange’s Heat helpdesk software were more far complicated and fragile, and neither of those products’ base versions even included the installtion of a web-based client or reporting system.

Customization of OnTime was equally as impressive as installation. Field names, like “bugs” - in the interface here, can be changed within the program’s interface and persist everywhere (data labels, in reports, even menu names and items). With multiple related data categories I quickly configured the system to track Help Desk calls, ongoing tasks, and a basic KnowledgeBase. All three are displayed separately, but with the Projects tree view setup to match our current Exchange forms heirarcy of the network (ie: desktop-, networking-, server-issues, and their sub-items) we can tie them together and better track resources and the cost/benefit of hardware, patches, etc.

Despite all the benefits I forsee, we haven’t fully implemented OnTime yet. A lot of SQL DTS work is required to migrate data from our current systems and the normal management bureaucracy has raised issues related to documenting, training for the help desk staff (aka: documenting the reporting interface for supervisors), and support (I think many are due to the low cost). …but that’s OK, because despite the “incomplete rollout” the Help Desk technicians are already using OnTime to log and answer new calls - they took to it pretty quickly once I installed OnTime’s email-to-OnTime module. The free add-on automatically imports user support requests from Exchange into the OnTime queue. I also expect AxoSoft’s support to be better and less necessary than the $5 price might indicate to my supervisors. I’m also happy to see that AxoSoft’s Hamid Shojaee has his own blog. It’s a good sign that AxoSoft is bound to be far more responsive to requests and error reports than larger software companies, such as my own experiences with Intuit and FrontRange. The software is already serving our small help desk well and I firmly recommend it, even at the regular 5-user price of $495.

One Response to “Running a HelpDesk Queue with AxoSoft’s OnTime 2006 Software”

1. Angelo Coppola, on November 3rd, 2006 at 3:40 pm, said:
   

   Mike,

   Axosoft has just released OnTime 2007 Beta, which has more built-in functionality for help desks. There is now an “Incidents” tab for support tickets and alerts to dynamically notify when certain criteria are met (e.g. escalated support item not resolved after 3 days).

   We’re putting a lot into making this a viable hosted Web app option, by making the online interface as close to the Windows experience as possible.

   We’ve posted a video that might interest you and your readers at:
   (1150 x 760)
   http://www.axosoft.com/Videos/OT2007Beta/Main2.html

   (790 x 580)
   http://www.axosoft.com/Videos/OT2007Beta/Main3.html

   We’re also offering free accounts:
   http://www.axosoft.com/products/HostedSignup.aspx

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