Top apps to manage your help desk tasks

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Introduction

Running an IT help desk is a daunting task. Here are a few good apps that can help reduce problems and simplify operations.

Note: You can read the full post in our Five Apps blog.

Photo copyright © iStockphoto.com/mevans
SAManage

SAManage is an online, on-demand ITIL help desk tool that provides asset and service management. It is integrated with salesforce.com and Google Apps for Business.
SAManage

SAManage lets you create customized workflows, and it provides a help desk portal for your end users. The pricing is competitive with other SaaS options, including an attractively priced small business option.
Spiceworks

Spiceworks is a free system for on-premise IT asset management and monitoring in the small to midsize company space. While the help desk functionality is not the system's primary focus, it ties in nicely with the rest of the features to produce a fully integrated package.
Spiceworks

Spiceworks has a tight focus on the smaller companies, and the feature set reflects it.

Note: The author has performed contract work for Spiceworks in the past to write content for its library. At the time of this writing, the most recent work was in 2010.
Remedyforce

Remedyforce comes from BMC, which also makes the Remedy system for enterprises. Like SAManage, it's sold on the SaaS model and lives in the cloud, so there is no installation pain.
Remedyforce

Because Remedyforce is built on top of Force.com, it integrates with other products, like the Chatter system. It also has mobile access, which is a huge help for busy IT administrators and managers.
ServiceDesk Plus

ServiceDesk Plus comes in three versions (Standard, Professional, and Enterprise) to meet the needs of different organizations. Stepping up from Standard to Professional adds asset management and monitoring, for example.
ServiceDesk Plus

Like other products, ServiceDesk Plus is based on the ITIL model and has a self-service portal. It also supports SLAs to help technicians meet their contractual obligations.
Numara's Footprints Incident and Problem Manager

Numara's Footprints Incident and Problem Manager is an enterprise-class help desk application. In that vein, it enables you to create dashboards of the sort that management teams often like, and it allows a fair degree of customization.
Numara's Footprints Incident and Problem Manager

Footprints lets you create your own workflows and escalation paths. It is a Web-based application and can be used in a SaaS model directly provisioned by Numara.