Help desk software has become an essential need of organizations in the current modern era. It is because there are so many problems for organizations that it becomes impossible for organizations to tackle them without a systematic approach. That’s why using help desk software is important for organizations. Despite this importance, there are also many problems and difficulties in choosing an ideal help desk software. For example, the first challenge is determining whether an organization needs help desk software. Let’s suppose it needs; the next challenge is to determine whether an organization should invest in this regard or they should choose open source help desk software. Then, it is also another challenging process to find a suitable solution.
We have reviewed all these problems in our previous articles except one. We haven’t discussed whether organizations should use an open source help desk system or not. So, in this article, we have discussed what open source help desk software is. With its main concept, we have also discussed its pros and cons. We have also discussed whether organizations should opt for open source software or not. Before moving forward toward its pros and cons, we should first overview its main concept. So, let’s move forward with it.
The open source help desk system is a preconfigured version of help desk software, and it is entirely customizable. All users can use it without any restrictions, and it is fully functional. Some types can be downloaded for free, but there are some that cost money. Because it was designed to be a support platform, it directs customer issues and inquiries sent via email, contact forms, or live chat to the platform. It also provides various help desk features and functions to respond quickly to inquiries.
It is software that offers a ticket management system and is entirely based on open source. Many businesses that don’t have a sizable budget look for open source help desk software that is created from freely available source code. As a result, the agent can manage everything in one location while also being able to provide customer support and direct requests from various communication channels to the platform.
There is nothing in this universe that only has benefits or only harms. Everything always has some pros and cons. The question is not about the absence or presence of pros and cons, but the question is about their numbers. If something has more pitfalls than benefits, it could be risky to use it. Open source help desk software is also one of these things. It also has some pros and cons. If it could be beneficial for an organization on one end, then there is a possibility that it could also be harmful on the other end. Therefore, it is important for organizations to know what are its pros and cons. That’s why we have an overview of the pros and cons of the open source help desk system. Following are some of its pros and cons.
Being a help desk software, no doubt it definitely has many pros. Due to its wider usage, it is enlightening that there is something that pushed organizations towards it. These are the benefits that push an organization towards it. Following are some pros of open source help desk software.
Open source help desk system provides a platform where customers and employees can ask their queries and find solutions to these queries within that platform. This way, it helps an organization enhance its service level.
It is nearly free of cost help desk software. Of course, there are some cases in which you have to pay, but that is too small an amount. In this way, an open source help desk system causes cost cuts.
Open source help desk tool cause enhanced employee and customer satisfaction. It can do so by uniting all available services of an organization on one platform. In this way, they become accessible not only for employees and customers but also for service teams. That’s why we said that it improves employee and customer satisfaction levels.
Open source help desk software is more reliable. It is because hundreds of developers take part in its making and improvement. That’s why there is a possibility that if there is any bug in it, someone might notice and fix it. That’s why we said that open source help desk system is more reliable.
Open source help desk tool is flexible. You can make it according to your requirements. So it is because that kind of help desk software is made up of open source code and can be customized easily.
Through all the above-mentioned means, an open source help desk can enhance the productivity of an organization. However, it could be more beneficial for an organization if it is really suitable according to the nature of that organization.
It’s impossible that anything just has pros and doesn’t have any harm. Same as that, open source help desk software also has some cons besides its pros. Following are some of its cons or disadvantages.
In some cases, open-source help desk software seems entirely free, but it has some hidden costs. For example, you deployed a free open source in your organization. However, after its deployment, you learn that there is a fee for its upgrading or there is fee for getting some additional features. Usually, developers design these open source software to provide a demo of their original software. That’s why in most cases, it must have some hidden costs.
As we have previously discussed in our past articles, help desk software should be user-oriented. But open source help desk software is developer-oriented. It is because different developers updated it according to their requirements, and we did not know what is the standard of their requirements when they were designing it. So that’s why we call it developer-oriented software.
Open source software normally does not develop in a controlled & centralized environment. Hundreds of developers work on it, and we can not say that all of them are honest. If only one of them has malicious intentions, then he can disrupt the whole software security system. In closed help desk software, only vendor developers are involved in software development, and they make sure whether the security level is standard or not.
One more point in which commercial or closed help desk software leads the race is support. Open source help desk software offers no or less support because it is like orphan software. But, in the case of commercial or closed software, developers provide continuous support. In this way, it is another con of open source.
Another thing to consider is whether an open source help desk system is compatible with your existing system or not. It can disrupt your daily service operations if it is incompatible. In the case of closed software, the vendor makes the software compatible with your system, but in the case of open source software, you have to take care of that on your own.
Open source help desk software becomes frustrating in some cases. For example, if a technician is working on some very important and serious query of an end-user, suddenly, the software hangs or slows down. It is not only frustrating for technicians but also frustrating for end-users.
Generally, open source help desk system has general features and does not have advanced features. Therefore, it could be both an intentional and unintentional act. We said this because, in some cases, developers themselves lock the advanced features so that you buy these features from them. That’s why spending once would be better than purchasing features when you highly need them.
From all the above discussion, we learned that open source help desk software could be a sound solution for small and, in some cases, for midsized organizations, but it could not work in large organizations. It is because there are a large number of service operations that take place within large organizations, and open source software can not handle them properly. That’s why we said that it is not a compatible solution for large organizations.
Moreover, for midsize organizations also, open source help desk software is like a temporary solution, but they have to use commercial well-designed closed help desk software. It’s true that they have to spend on it, but the returns could be more than their investment. Another reason for doing so is those mid-sized organizations do not always remain mid-sized. As they grow up, their needs also increase, and they have to use paid software. Open source help desk tool is only compatible with small organizations because they do not have so many service operations. That’s why it can manage these small numbers of service operations easily.
