BOSS Solutions Suite has recently received several awards including FrontRunner® for IT Service Management from Software Advice, Category Leader for Help Desk and Ticketing from Get App, and Top 20 for IT Asset Management from Capterra. Software Advice, Capterra and Get App are all part of Gartner Digital Markets, a service designed to help small and medium-sized businesses evaluate which software products may be right for them. The recognition is due to the high ranking from users, a wide range of features, and excellent customer support. The FrontRunner report for IT Service Management is available here. The Top 20 IT Asset Management report is available here. The Category Leader report for Help Desk and Ticketing is available here.

What to Look for in a New Help Desk Tool Does your help desk software address today's needs? When it comes to deciding on a new IT service management solution for your organization, there are many products to choose from. While certain considerations such as size, budget, and specific organizational needs will be different from one company to the next, there are some criteria that will be common among most during the ITSM tool selection process. Here, we examine eight key elements that should be considered during the decision-making process. 1. Out-of-the-Box Readiness It’s obvious that choosing a tool that suits your needs straight out of the box will always be more convenient compared to a tool that requires lots of early-stage configuration. What is often less obvious during this stage of the selection process is checking to see if the product will require any additional software packages in order to operate as required and also deliver any specific requirements that the organization has. As well as this, considerations should be given and even tested as to the compatibility of specific platforms the new product will support such as Windows operating systems, browser editions, and mobile devices. 2. Customization and Flexibility Many tools allow the flexibility to easily customize components of the product such as forms, fields, reports, workflows, and permissions. The ability to customize these items is often a very important factor when choosing a new IT service management product. Not having the ability to customize such areas of the product prevents you from being able to tailor the product to your organization’s needs now and in the future. Even if the product does allow for customization, consideration should be given as to how easily these changes can be made. Will it require a third-party consultant or can the customizations be carried out by internal IT resources? Similarly, it’s important to check if future software updates will have any effect on both the customizations that have been made and on any third-party integrations that work with the product such as remote desktop platforms. 3. On-premise or in the Cloud For many organizations choosing a product that has a choice of being hosted on-premise or in the cloud makes sense. Typically a hosted product requires little or no maintenance, has no additional cost in terms of hardware, and can easily be accessed from anywhere using most web browsers. However, many organizations still prefer to keep such products hosted locally (on-prem) so that they can easily and securely access the information that’s contained in their databases. The other advantage of having the data readily available is in the scenario of having to migrate the information to a different product at a later stage. As the data is hosted in your environment, it’s often easier to extract and move to a new database than it would be if the data resides in the cloud. 4. Ongoing Technical Support and Maintenance When choosing any new software product for your organization, you want to rest assured that the vendor you are purchasing from is going to be able to provide you with the ongoing support and product maintenance quickly and efficiently. With this in mind, ask the vendor how they provide support, how many years the company has been in business, and if they have been through any recent acquisitions. This will be a good indication of whether they will still be operating in 5 years. Likewise, how does the vendor provide support for the product? Is it in-house technicians or is it outsourced to a third party who might have less knowledge of the product? 5. API Integrations Regardless of what tool is right for your environment, you will mostly likely have a need for third-party applications that work in conjunction with the chosen product. These might be applications for custom web forms, remote help desk software, or integrations to other databases. In order to make sure that the information is shared between these products, check if your newly chosen ITSM vendor provides access to the product's API for the purposes of integration. 6. Additional Costs When reviewing a product’s functionality, it is important to examine which features will not be included in the cost of the standard product platform. Many products offer features such as mobile applications, remote helpdesk tools, and modules for incident and change management. However, quite often these items are not included in the standard product offering and are considered add-ons that are charged separately. 7. Interface and Mobile Platform Capabilities When implementing new software tools, it can be difficult to get end users on board with using the new product. Choosing a tool with a user-friendly interface will assist in encouraging users to adopt the new product. Get a firm understanding during the evaluation stage of which browsers the product supports, if configurations and forms are easily customizable, and whether there is an easy-to-use self-service portal for users. 8. Total Cost of Ownership Determining the total cost of ownership of your new IT service management software should be calculated based on a minimum of a 5-year period. Often, a cloud or SaaS product will appear to be the more cost-effective option when compared to an on-premise hosted solution. However, when compared over a 5-year period, the cost can often be similar or sometimes less. With that said, even with an on-premise solution, there are additional overheads that need to be taken into consideration such as the hardware and software costs to host the product and how frequently these items will need to be upgraded. Other areas of additional cost that should be examined are the ongoing costs associated with training additional licensing and upgrades. BOSS Solutions is a U.S. company providing innovative software solutions for ticket management software. The company’s major product lines are BOSSDesk which provides IT service management both in the cloud and on-premise, and BOSS811, a One Call ticket management software for the damage prevention industry. About the Author: Kris Giroux is the Director of Product Support at BOSS Solutions. He is a product evangelist for BOSSDesk and has been helping customers implement best practices in IT service management for more than 15 years

The BOSS Solutions Suite is ranked as a top FrontRunner in IT Help Desk Software according to the latest report by Software Advice, a Gartner Company (view report). Easy to use yet incredibly powerful, the BOSS Solutions Suite includes BOSSDesk a Service Desk on the Cloud, and BOSS Support Central for On-Premise IT Service Management. The FrontRunners analysis is a data-driven assessment identifying products in the IT Help Desk software market that offer the best capability and value for businesses. Products are evaluated and given a score for Usability and User Recommendations.

REQUEST A DEMO Award-Winning Help Desk Solutions Highly ranked by customers for providing an affordable solution, great user experience, wide range of features, and excellent customer support. Improved user adoption Dedicated customer support Significant cost savings Ensured compliance First Name Last Name Company name Email Phone Message (optional) Get a Demo Your demo request has been sent. Trusted by Industry Leaders In the demo we'll cover: Discovery Session To better understand your needs. Customized Demo Discussing key features you want. Interactive Session To address your thoughts and ideas. Proposal To cover what we discussed, pricing, etc. COLLEGE OF HRSM "BOSS has not only aided in our workflow process, it has also helped our organization become more organized with regard to asset allocation and inventory. It has been so easy to use and the customer support has been top-shelf." Doug C. Director of IT Read more reviews on Capterra

Powerful ITSM, Help Desk and 811 Ticketing Systems Turning Ticket Management into an Exceptional Customer Experience Address complex IT issues, like self-service , workflow automation , incident management, asset management and underground utility damage prevention with BOSS' ticketing management software. Explore BOSSDesk Explore BOSS811 PRODUCTS BOSSDesk for ITSM Cloud and on-premise in one platform Help Desk Ticketing Incident, Change and Problem Management Enterprise-Wide Automation of IT processes Comprehensive Service Catalog Integrated Asset Management IT Self-Service Portal Mobile apps for ITSM on the go Get Started With BOSSDesk PRODUCTS BOSS811 for Damage Prevention Call Before You Dig Ticket Management 811 One Call Center Integration Facility Mapping & Annotation Alerts and Notifications Manifest Marking Solutions with virtual maps Mobile Apps for Ease of Use in the Field ArcGIS Map Integration Driving Directions Optimized for Locators Get Started With BOSS811 One Award-Winning Platform, Many Features and Benefits CUSTOMERS What Our Clients Say "The best helpdesk software I have used in my 20+ years of helpdesk experience. The deployment capabilities and the reports help reduce my workload by at least 60%." Van M. FORSYTH COUNTY, GA CUSTOMER STORY The City of San Jose Saves Millions $ with BOSS811 One Call Ticket Management Find out how the city replaced an antiquated computer-based one-call ticket management system with a modern solution that could better manage their ever increasing demand for service from underground marker & locate crews. See Customer Story

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