Item: osTicket
Rating: 8
Author: Sander Kaldenhoven

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

osTicket is being used at the company as their main incident registration tool. Connections to various mailboxes have been as to automate ticket creation directly from emails. This used to be a manual task and sometimes emails we answered directly from the mailbox and sometimes this was forgotten. Currently, no questions from customers are missed anymore. Aside from this the customer portal also provides our customers a way to manage their own tickets as well as create new ones which [are] appreciated by the customers.

Pros and Cons

Easy of setup. Up and running in a matter of minutes and within half a day most of the features are configured and set up.
Intuitive interface for both customer and agent.
[The] knowledge base is a welcome feature. To be able to refer agents and customers to common knowledge items is very helpful.

Setting up outgoing email can be a thing. Without some creative thinking, this might be not so straightforward and documentation sometimes lacks the necessary hints/tips.
No support for custom workflows for working on tickets.

Return on Investment

[Personnel] spend[s] less time on handling customer requests.
Customer satisfaction has grown since their requests are not 'missed or forgotten' anymore.

Alternatives Considered

Node.io by SugarCRM, Zendesk Support Suite and Freshdesk

This company wanted to first explore how a ticketing/support system could benefit their organization before investing [in] a solution. Firstly osTicket is open source and doesn't have a license fee and secondly, because of [its] simplicity, it is quick to implement in the organization. These were the key 2 drivers to choose osTicket. Of course, there are trial versions of the other products available but the implementation time needed is longer since their functionality suite is larger than what osTicket offers. Those extra features aren't needed (yet) so that is the third and final reason why osTicket was chosen and probably will stay until the need for more functionality arises.

Key Insights

Do you think osTicket delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with osTicket's feature set?

Yes

Did osTicket live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of osTicket go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy osTicket again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (formerly Microsoft Dynamics CRM), Zendesk Support Suite, Freshdesk

Likelihood to Recommend

For beginning smaller companies that are in need of partially automating their incoming requests this product is easy to set up and will assist in structuring these request[s]. These requests can come in via email/phone or web portal. For companies that are beginning to streamline their support procedures, this tool can be a first step into automating part of these processes. This is also how user[s] should see it. It is merely a tool that can assist in structuring the incoming request flow the rest still has to be fit into business processes.

Quickstart to automating your support process.

Overall Satisfaction with osTicket