building a champagne helpdesk on a beer budget
Over the last several years many attempts have been made to obtain commercial helpdesk software for the University. In each case the initial investment and recurring costs far exceeded available funding. With dwindling budgets and increased focus on creating efficiencies, it was imperative that we identify an inexpensive, yet powerful, helpdesk solution for the campus. The cost savings generated by using Open Source software can be substantial. Server licenses and commercial helpdesk solutions can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Open Source offers free solutions that can be used as-is or enhanced to meet your needs. Oregon State University has successfully leveraged Open Source software to move forward a central Helpdesk Project that was otherwise cost prohibitive. In this poster session we will present the pros and cons of Open Source development. We will describe the OSU Helpdesk, the current status of the project, and present to-date and anticipated costs. We'll present a live demonstration of OSU Helpdesk as well as links to our demonstration site, source code, and documentation.
helpdesk open source support tools management tools service level agreements call tracking scheduling inventory knowledgebase