Kayako for Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
September 06, 2016
Kayako for Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Fusion OnDemand
Overall Satisfaction with Kayako
I work for a managed service provider (MSP). We've found Kayako to be a powerful tool for keeping track of service requests and trouble tickets across our 30+ different client companies. It keep the workflow of the day-to-day help desk organized via automated tasks and custom widgets. We mainly use Kayako for our internal staff of IT technicians, but it does have functions that tie into the heart of our other departments as well, including our marketing and sales teams. For instance on our main website there are chat functions that tie into Kayako that allow prospective customers to interface with us right away while browsing our website.
- Automated workflows. The workflows and email parser rules in Kayako are versatile and easy to set up, and saves you the trouble of having to create reoccurring tickets and manually assigning technicians for each ticket.
- Custom fields. Without custom fields there would be no way for us to effectively keep track of our 30+ different client companies. They can be added on the fly as well so you'll never feel 'trapped' within the set fields that come with the program.
- Reporting. The report builder that uses 'KQL as a query language (based on SQL) is easy to learn and allows you to pull relevant information/statistics from your help desk using specifications that you set yourself -- and ties back into automation via scheduled generated email reports.
- Custom fields. Although we love the custom fields in Kayako there is still some room for improvement regarding them. For instance, while browsing tickets, you cannot sort/search display columns via custom fields you have created. You can only sort/search by pre-programmed fields in Kayako.
- Email parser rules. This ties back to some of the limitations with custom fields. At the time of this writing we cannot create email parser rules using custom fields we have created as a criteria.
- The built-in chat feature. While the chat feature is great for interfacing with outside customers, it could do better in terms of being more convenient for internal staff. We wish we could have a 'technician group chat' that stays open on a continuous basis so that our technicians can communicate via Kayako more effectively. But at the moment, when you close a chat, it stays closed and you cannot 'reopen' it.
- Kayako has helped our business to grow by allowing us to scale our help desk to accommodate more client companies in an efficient manner.
- Kayako has allowed our customers to have more direct control over their help desk tickets and has made it easier for them to interface directly with our help desk staff.
- The built-in chat features in Kayako that tie to our main website has allowed prospective customers to chat with our sales teams right away, resulting in more business.
We were using Spiceworks for a few years before switching to Kayako but found that it wasn't as customizable or as user friendly for our customers. The SNMP scanning and inventory features with Spiceworks was nice but we needed more of a Help Desk that would allow us to scale our services to more companies.