Metropol

Hello people

I few months ago, some of you may remember I created a thread announcing that I had started my own software development business. Initially, I had wanted to approach businesses and develop bespoke software for them, but I've decided to change direction for now (since I can’t really do this whilst having a fulltime job), and instead make and sell my own shrink wrapped products designed specifically for small businesses.

My first major project, which you can see in the screenshot above, is called Helpdesk Centre. It is designed for small/medium sized helpdesks (not just IT, but anything 'task' based). For organisational support needs, you have task submission and tracking right from your desktop. Users can also browse a list of commonly encountered issues within the organisation to help them solve their own problems.

there are two things I’d really like you to help me with:

If there is anybody here who works in this kind of environment, what features are really important to you which you current software doesn't have or doesn't implement correctly - please let me know.

And the second, I know there are a few computer wizards in this forum - I’d really appreciated if a few of you would put yourselves forward for beta testing. I expect the first beta to be ready by around September. Please PM me your email address and I will send you regular updates of the projects progress and details as to how to download the beta when it comes available. It will be a sizeable download – my last ‘big’ project totalled 50mb.

I am aiming for this to be the most fully featured helpdesk and asset management solution for the price - aimed at small businesses and the self employed it will retail for around £150 for a full site licence with all modules.

Anybody who helps me with the development of this project will get a free site licence with free upgrades for the life of the product.

I have a couple of clients who are very interested in this project, so I’d really like this as totally rock solid and feature packed as possible, so I really need your help - especially if you have a real life environment to test it.

Many thanks in advance,

Mark

ps: also if you have some clients you think would be interested in this - please drop me a PM and i'll give you my contact details so we can discuss any features they may want implemented.

Would this program be suitable for something like a small computer shop in Bolton?

DJGM wrote:Would this program be suitable for something like a small computer shop in Bolton?

It should be - what features would you like to see?

The purpose of the tasktracker module is to keep a track of support calls, for example:

customer reports a fault with pc:

1) check if their details are not on the database - you will be able to search by name/id/address etc etc

2) create a task ticket directly related to that customer record. you will be able to enter all details of reported problem. i am also contemplating adding the ability to add 'attachments' to each task record, such as screenshots and files etc which may be needed by the engineers.

3) give customer their task reference number

4) the main task tracker screen will then list all open and new tasks.

5) engineers in your shop will be able to choose an open task to deal with and once the issue has been resolved, close the task (adding a resolution if necessary) and contact the customer - which again, can be automatically done via email, but this may not be helpful if you've got the actual pc in the shop they use for email.

you can also allocate jobs to enginners and print out their own job sheet.

you have the option to fire off emails at every change in status to their reported task - this may not be particually useful in your case, but if you use the product for internal support calls and somebody has reported a fault to fix their printer, they will be get an automatically generated email when the task is: entered onto the system, it's status is changed (new*, open, closed, in progress) * only used for desktop reporting with the user client so that user submitted jobs are flagged and show up in a different colour.

there is also a feature to popup reminders when a task is 'due' even if tasktracker isn't running. this feature is aimed at IT helpdesks with a few technicians so they can schedule their day easily.

Considering the number of PC's that come in for repair (mostly riddled with spyware and viruses due
to people not looking after them properly) this program could be ideal for the shop where I work.

DJGM wrote:Considering the number of PC's that come in for repair (mostly riddled with spyware and viruses due
to people not looking after them properly) this program could be ideal for the shop where I work.

if you're interested in shaping the development of the product and beta testing, drop me a pm with your email address and i'll keep you updated with the progress and a link to the beta as soon as it becomes available

DJGM wrote:Would this program be suitable for something like a small computer shop in Bolton?

Would this program be suitable for an 18 year ols lad who gets phone calls from the majority of residents in his local area demanding their not broken PCs be fixed?