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All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

  • 1.  All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-14-2023 08:27 AM

    Hello ATLIS Community,

    I'm in search of recommendations for IT service management systems that excel in help desk ticket management, asset management, and include a Knowledge Base for documenting essential technical information for our community.

    At the moment, we rely on Help Scout for tech support conversations, Web Help Desk for asset management, and Google Drive for our knowledge base. We're particularly interested in systems that seamlessly integrate with AD, Jamf, and Zoom. If there are platforms tailored for K-12 institutions, your insights would be invaluable.

    Thank you in advance for any guidance or suggestions you can provide.


    #ITSystemsandSupport

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    Keegan Bowen
    Assistant Director of IT, End User Services
    Sidwell Friends School
    Washington DC
    202-537-2495
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-14-2023 12:34 PM
    Edited by Brad Wilkerson 11-14-2023 02:08 PM

    We used two different iterations of Web Help Desk way back when, and ZenDesk for a hot minute, but we now use Incident IQ.  Has a couple minor quirks we had to work around, but pretty powerful and does what we need.  We use it for help desk, asset management, knowledge base, and if you can get other departments to buy in and share the cost then it works for facilities and events too.  I know they integrate with AD, but I haven't personally tried it since we did Google integration.  It also integrates with Jamf Pro, but I'm not sure of the other Jamf products.



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    Brad Wilkerson
    Associate Directory of Technology; Network Admin
    Ensworth School
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  • 3.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-20-2023 10:23 AM
    Edited by Keegan Bowen 11-20-2023 10:25 AM

    Thanks Brad, this is super helpful. We could probably get by with integration for AD or Google so that is good to know. Incident IQ seems to be an option that seems to be pretty popular in this space. 



    ------------------------------
    Keegan Bowen
    Assistant Director of IT, End User Services
    Sidwell Friends School
    Washington DC
    202-537-2495
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-15-2023 09:19 AM

    Hi Keegan,

    We transitioned from Freshdesk to One to One Plus in July (https://onetooneplus.com/).  The transition was easy, though we started from a blank slate and did not migrate any data.  We worked to close all of our tickets in Freshdesk (manually entering any that remained) and we just saved a CSV export of all tickets so that we would have the data if we needed it.  One to One Plus is geared for the K12 market.  The system is really good for us as an asset management tool.  It does talk to Jamf and AD.  We do not have our users login to the system and all tickets are created via emails.  There are definite shortcomings here when compared to Freshdesk, but we're dealing with them.  They only affect the IT team, so we'll suffer for the benefit of the asset management piece. It's a young company and product and they are always working on upgrades.  There are not a lot of independent schools who are clients and we have different needs, but it is still working for us.  The mobile app is terrible and the web interface really doesn't work on a phone - so again, definite drawbacks, but we mostly use it on a desktop, so not a huge deal.

    I do not believe that there is a knowledgebase, but for us that is not a big deal as our users will never login to the product.  I'm trying to work on a knowledgebase in Canvas, though to be honest, they will still not use that and instead email us their questions!  

    Happy to provide a demo of what we have if you're interested.  The price is fantastic for this product. Also, we are not a 1:1 school, so that's not necessary if you're interested in the product.

    Best,

    Susan



    ------------------------------
    Susan Fuhs, Director of IT Services
    Norfolk Academy
    Norfolk VA
    swfuhs@norfolkacademy.org
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-20-2023 10:33 AM

    Hi Susan - thanks for sharing this insight. As I continue to do my research, it might be worth identifying if there is a Helpdesk system with the capability to transfer tickets from one platform to another. And to your point, if we elect to start with a clean slate creating an archive of old tickets could be helpful data down the road. I will check out One to One Plus and see if it might be a good option for us!



    ------------------------------
    Keegan Bowen
    Assistant Director of IT, End User Services
    Sidwell Friends School
    Washington DC
    202-537-2495
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-15-2023 09:43 AM

    Hello.  We just implemented Incident IQ and are enjoying it.  We are using it for asset management and ticketing at the moment, but are looking into other modules as well, such as facilities and events management.  We were also using Web Help Desk prior to this rollout.  The ticketing system allows for conversations and has a robust set of options including the ability to create screencast videos within the ticket.  We have also configured it to serve as our check-out and check-in system for loaner computers, chargers, etc.  



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    Justin Culley
    Director of Ed. Tech & Safety
    Branson School
    Ross CA
    415-455-7214
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  • 7.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-20-2023 12:14 PM

    Hello Justin - I am excited to hear about the screencast feature. I could envision our team leveraging that as a tool to provide a visual aid for troubleshooting various issues. Also having a system in place to track loaner devices would be greatly appreciated. I think I may reach out to Incident IQ for a demo to learn more. Thank you.  



    ------------------------------
    Keegan Bowen
    Assistant Director of IT, End User Services
    Sidwell Friends School
    Washington DC
    202-537-2495
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-16-2023 10:20 AM

    I'm confident there's not single "great" solution.

    There's a bunch of options, and several are solid for most things but still stink at others.

    So it'll largely depend on your needs, priorities, resources, and budget.

    We came from using on-premise  RequestTracker for a long time - but wanted to switch to something hosted.

    I spent a lot of time looking at options, sitting through demos, talking with reps, and even doing a couple free evals.

    The problem with any of these is that you don't really get a full idea of how they work (by themselves or within your system/routine) until you've had them fully implemented for a while.  And that's a problem because fully implementing them is generally very time consuming. So a company willing to give you an XX day trail or something isn't as valuable as you may think - unless your will to spend a lot of resources implementing a solution you're only trying to demo...

    We settled on One to One Plus, but since then have largely been unimpressed.  So much so that I'm open to alternatives again for next year.

    A few of the ones we considered:

    Fresh Desk

    IncidentIQ

    Spiceworks

    ZenDesk

    Zoho

    osTicket

    Jitbit

    Web Help Desk

    And probably a couple more. Note this would have been over the course of a couple years  (and this was already a couple years ago)

    Some looked good on the surface, but quickly fell apart when digging deeper. Some looking bad even on the surface. Some seemed great, but lacked critical features we wanted (inventory/asset management, GWS integration, etc).  I would have loved one with a Knowledge base, but One to One Plus does not have that feature.

    It'll depend on how you use it day to day. And on how much time you want to spend tweaking and modifying it.  Some are very flexible - but at the cost of requiring a LOT of time (and knowledge) to bend it into something that works how you want.

    I wish you luck on your adventure and hope you report back if you find something that works well! 

    I'll gladly speak more to RT or OnetoOnePlus if you want. Just message me. 



    ------------------------------
    Justin Weise
    Indian Community School
    Franklin WI
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  • 9.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-20-2023 12:28 PM

    Justin - you speak my mind. I agree that our next iteration will need to be flexible to our day-to-day operations. For our team, the integration of a knowledge-based platform is what is driving the change from Helpdesk/Helpscout. So we may prioritize that as a must-have and compromise in other aspects. I too hope to report back with some positive news after all the great feedback I have received thus far. Best of luck to you as well and I will be sure to reach out to learn more about One to One Plus if we elect to learn more about that particular option. 



    ------------------------------
    Keegan Bowen
    Assistant Director of IT, End User Services
    Sidwell Friends School
    Washington DC
    202-537-2495
    ------------------------------



  • 10.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-20-2023 01:10 PM

    Justin,

    Thank you for replying and sharing your story here!  I've been following this thread closely and feel that I'm in the same boat as you.  I thought we vetted OnetoOne Plus really well, but when it comes down to it, it is definitely lacking.  We're keeping up with it, but it is not ideal.  We moved from Freshdesk that was cost prohibitive to add in the asset management.

    I just took a peek at incidentIQ.  I'm very curious about their cost and went ahead and sent them my info.  The big things for us are inventory management and having that tie into the ticket.  We are getting that with One to One Plus, but the product is lacking for technician notes and severely lacking in a mobile app.  I think it was something we assumed would be there...and it's not.

    How long have you been with them?  We transitioned last June and it wasn't too bad to do.  We left all the help desk data behind and this was our first inventory management application.  

    It's critical for us that our users can create tickets just by emailing - they will not want to login to a system.  Freshdesk has a much better help desk system, but they have so many features that are not important to us.  I don't want to pay for all that we will not use.  

    Thanks for providing your list of options.  I'l check some of them out.

    Best,

    Susan 



    ------------------------------
    Susan Fuhs, Director of IT Services
    Norfolk Academy
    Norfolk VA
    swfuhs@norfolkacademy.org
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-20-2023 01:34 PM

    We officially switched to OnetoOne in 2021 I think.

    I keep trying to push through my dislike of it because I'm afraid I'm just stuck in my old ways and used to our old ticketing system.  But my helpdesk tech here agrees with me, and she doesn't have any experience with our previous system.  I'm looking at 1to1Plus and keep saying "why is it this way? Why don't they put this here? Why is this space empty? How come I get just do this thing ?" and I start to feel like I'm being nit-picky or unreasonable. But again, just about all the things I'm wanting I already had in my last ticketing system.  I was just hoping to get that and more with 1to1.  Add in the asset management, add in the better reports, add in more affordable cloud hosting, etc.   

    Our main use (at least initially) is the ticketing system.  And it wasn't until some time later that I learn 1to1 is really an asset management system with a ticketing system (more recently) bolted onto it.  It makes more sense knowing that.  

    I do think most of the changes I'd ask for are regarding UI - so I have a little hope that they can still make big changes and improvements. But I'm not holding my breath as I'm not sure anyone is asking for the same things I am.

    I'd like to see a knowledge-base come to it too.

    >It's critical for us that our users can create tickets just by emailing - they will not want to login to a system. 

    Yeah, I assume most modern ticketing systems can do this.  

    Just a quick note on 1to1 - you could set up SSO and they wouldn't have to "log in" in the sense that there's no new account or password created. They just hit the webpage (can be added to your Google Workspace App drawer) 

    But yeah, the email part should work too (we don't use it that way at this time, so I'm not sure how well it works).

    We're small enough that we just used our last ticketing system internally (within the IT dept). So users would just email or whatever, and then we'd manually create their ticket in the system.  I'm ok with that, but I see the benefit of letting them follow, add, and view their tickets in a single place too.  So with 1to1 we were hoping to open up to staff (but still mostly just via the web interface, not email)



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    Justin Weise
    Indian Community School
    Franklin WI
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  • 12.  RE: All in one Knowledge Base, Asset Management, & Ticketing Solution

    Posted 11-21-2023 02:07 PM

    Hi Keegan!

    This is a great question and it's been great to see the responses and suggestions. Learn21 also has Tech Director Toolbox, that might be a good solution. We are an ATLIS Affiliate Member and non-profit organization founded by educators. Tech Director Toolbox has a incident tracker and asset manager that can handle a school's entire inventory (not just devices) as well as a help desk solution that is built specifically for K-12. I don't want to turn this thread into a sales pitch, but I'm happy to give a demo or a free 90-day trial if you're interested. I'm convinced you'll love it and as a non-profit we have the lowest price point you'll find. You can email me at cbisher@learn21.org if you want to connect.



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    Clay Bisher
    Learn21
    Blue Ash OH
    ------------------------------