Many medium and large companies must check that their computer system made up of computers, servers and network devices are working well and that, when there are problems, employees and customers must be able to report it quickly to the technical department. They then send open a ticket, that is, a support request where they describe the problem.
For the technical department, the management of calls and incidents is fundamental both to promptly respond to faults and to have a statistics on the progress of the IT infrastructure.
The opening of the tickets is not intended as a call to the call center, which concerns customers of larger companies, but as sending a form via the web or an email.
The reporting of a fault can also be recorded in the HelpDesk program automatically, for example when a program stops working and when a router or server switches itself off.
In my past life I worked as a Helpdesk technical consultant, not to answer support calls but during the configuration of the helpdesk management software.
Those who do not know the environment can be appalled by the costs of these software and, above all, by the difficulty of implementing them in a small company, with a job that requires people and time.
In this article we see a free helpdesk program that allows you to manage the technical support inside a company and that monitors systems and the network .
This helpdesk software is aimed at the administrators of a company's IT network, those who do not have a profound knowledge of technologies and who lack adequate certification training.
It's called Spiceworks IT Desktop, it can be installed for free on any Windows computer and works well (with less functionality than expensive, often misused programs, such as HP OpenView, Nagios, Tivoli or Solarwinds.) For companies and offices .
Those who want to try Spiceworks IT Desktop can download it for free and install it on their Windows computer with a classic and painless procedure.
The program immediately scans the corporate LAN by recognizing all connected PCs, servers and network points.
The detection process can be renewed periodically so as to keep the IT infrastructure database always updated.
The program also installs a webserver which allows access to the helpdesk interface via web browser, with the IP address of the computer where it is installed.
The application can be run as a Windows service or as a desktop program, on a normal PC or on a server.
Resource consumption is much lower than similar enterprise software.
Spiceworks monitors Windows PCs on the network via WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and Linux, Unix, Solaris ramite SSH computers .
SNMP traps, Macs, routers, printers, switches and other devices on the network can also be monitored.
No installation of additional software is required on network devices that are automatically detected and no complex configuration such as that of the MIB files or other things to understand which it takes an expert consultant.
The biggest difficulty on which manual intervention will be required (especially on firewalls) is making the program recognize the devices.
The configuration wizard is quite simple and, with a little patience, even an inexperienced person could do it.
What is recognized can be monitored remotely in every feature.
For example, you can check the ink level of a network printer, the processes of a Windows PC and the update of the antivirus (Norton Symante and Mc Afee only). Spiceworks IT Desktop allows you to monitor and resolve network problems from a single location.
Alerts can be set for events and for new alerts received via email on Windows computers to easily identify, diagnose and resolve problems such as insufficient disk space or lack of updates.
Monitoring rules and customizations can be created to control additional applications and services.
The best feature and the objective that is satisfied is the possibility of having a network detection system and a basic helpdesk program, immediately available and fully functional immediately.
The trouble ticket management is certainly not comparable compared to a helpdesk application like Remedy but, considering that Spiceworks is free, it wasn't even to be expected.
A ticket management system cannot be customized and rules and automatisms cannot be set.
Spiceworks is extremely easy to understand and use because it makes simplicity its primary feature, with a clean, modern and intuitive interface.
Reports and graphs relating to the network infrastructure explored and kept under control can be generated.
In conclusion: if you are used to enterprise-class management tools, SpiceWorks IT Desktop will surely be seen as undersized.
However, if you need an inventory of the network, if there are mainly Windows computers, for monitoring Active Directory, services, operating system, computer hardware, installed programs and other things, to do a check base of computers in a small company or small office and for a simple helpdesk management, this software could be a great opportunity and the only free but professional alternative in the panorama of business applications of this type.
