"osTicket" is a widely-used open source support ticket system. It seamlessly integrates inquiries created via email, phone and web-based forms into a simple easy-to-use multi-user web interface. Manage, organize and archive all your support requests and responses in one place while providing your customers with accountability and responsiveness they deserve.

Customers are the real asset of an organization and no organization want to loose an asset. And to handle the issues faced by your customer is the real service which helps in a long way service provider - customer relationship.To handle a lot more customer,their previous issues and keeping track of a complete log of a specific home / corporate customer is a real hard task if tried to manage by non objective and not professional tools.While in the market out there,there are tools and softwares to handle all that ticket handling stuff but  you have to pay them a price for that and also a lot more price after the first purchase because of the support you have to take while you face difficulties driving that tool.

But thanks to the "open source" which have been always a handy and helpful way of doing hard stuff by even more professionals and which is helping the humanity in learning and achieving the goals which would become a nightmare if the "non-open source" way is selected.Let us explore the features , technical requirement,help place etc for another brilliant product of "open-source"

Main Features:

"osTicket" is designed to help you streamline support requests and improve customer support efficiency by providing staff with tools they need to deliver fast, effective and measurable support. Some of the core features include;

	Web and Email Support Tickets can be created via email, online forms or phone (created by staff). Flexible configuration and mapping.
	Auto Response Automatic reply that is sent out when a new ticket is opened or a message is received. Customizable mail templates.
	Canned Replies Predefined responses for frequently asked questions.
	Internal Notes Add internal notes to tickets for staff
	Help Topics Configurable help topics for web tickets. Route inquiries without exposing internal departments or priorities.
	Alerts and Notices Staff and clients are kept up to date with email alerts. Configurable and flexible settings.
	Role-based Access Control staff's access level based on groups and departments.
	Assign & Transfer Tickets Assign tickets to a staff and/or department.
	No signup Required No user account or registration required for users (ticket ID/email used for login).
	Support History All support requests and responses are archived.

Technical Specifications:
osTicket requires a web server that can run:

• PHP 4.3 or better
• MySQL 4.1 or better

That’s it. Being PHP and MySQL driven, you can be sure that it will run on your hosting provider’s space. If you host it on IIS on a Windows box, then also you are safe because Windows version of both PHP and MySQL are available.
In terms of hardware, there are no specific requirements. Most shared webhosting hardware is good enough to run this. The users only need to interact with this using a browser.

Where to go for "help":
The support department of "osTicket" is available 24/7 for your assistance which can be acquired with a little bit of extra payment.Being an open source, the problems are addressed and solved by general public using such kind of open source stuff.There is a whole forum dedicated to the day to day arising issues i.e. http://osticket.com/forums/

Bottom-Line:
There are a lot of other neat features in this little package which can be explored after installing it and by visiting the forums. There are other products out there (Kayako Support Suite being one of the most popular) which are far more advanced than osTicket, but they usually carry a price tag and an overkill for most situations.

Finally, I would recommend this osTicket support ticket software for anyone who is looking to setup a basic HelpDesk for two main reasons: its free and easy to setup and use.Moreover , let me add that we are ourselves deploying it at our customer support department which i hope will prove a professional way of interacting with the clients and solving their issue etc.

Have a nice day...

Regards,
Engr.Muhammad Ashfaq


[http://osticket.com]