“How do you manage internal tickets without a full helpdesk system?”
Posted by epicuzzaa@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 142 comments
I'm trying to find a simple way to manage internal tickets within a small team without overcomplicating things
We have multiple workstations (PCs, printers, etc.) and small issues come up daily. Right now we're using WhatsApp but it's a complete mess: messages get lost, no real tracking, no history
I was thinking about using a bot (WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord) to open tickets, add notes and close them, but between limitations, costs and setup it's not that straightforward
Has anyone found a simple solution that actually works in real life?
Even something "hacky" like shared sheets, custom workflows or unusual tools is fine
The main goal is something that people actually use without resistance
richyrich915@reddit
My team of 3 supporting 200 uses freshdesk. Great features, not overly complicated. We find that helpdesk accounts are too complicated for our user base so they just send emails to our ticket mail address.
If that’s too much…
Do you have proper mail like Outlook or Gmail? If so, set up a ticket email with a mailbox you have access to. Create a rule that moves new emails to a special folder for new tickets. When you’re done, move the message to a folder for completed tickets.
epicuzzaa@reddit (OP)
I'm trying all the options recommended, and I agree with you that all the solutions are "too complicated" for my situation.
A list of "situations" to resolve and, above all, a way to consult a "history" of all the solutions adopted in the past would be enough for me.
All the helpdesks recommended are excellent, but from what I understand, they don't have this feature. That's why I was leaning more toward a DIY solution, so I could customize it to my needs.
BoggyBoyFL@reddit
So just like everyone said there are several free/low cost options out there. However to give you an answer that you seem to be looking for you should set up a simple Google Form /M365 Form , your people could fill it out and it would dump it into a Excel sheet, you could then see it, make comments on the sheet. I think once you get going, you could move into something more. But this would allow you to have a central place and get you a little more organized.
According-Screen-833@reddit
lol, you already know the solution. You just don't want to implement it.
yellowbythedozen@reddit
I implemented the free version of sherpadesk for myself when I became the sole IT guy at my place of work, and after looking at a few other options too. Tons of people still ignore that the system exists and will either message via teams or drop in, but a quick email to myself logs the ticket.
Competitive_Run_3920@reddit
This sounds like an awful way to run a a tech department. There are several free and very cheap helpdesk platforms out there. Freshdesk is free for the first few techs last time I looked.
The_Long_Blank_Stare@reddit
Recommending Freshdesk. I believe it’s free for up to five agents (my org has 29 across multiple departments at the moment) and it can also be used for customer-facing issues…just don’t get bogged down in trying to have it do too much. It’s very simple and the only thing “complicated” for me was the building of analytics reports, which you likely won’t need.
tvpb@reddit
Freshservice/Freshdesk is ok. Definitely better than nothing or WhatsApp. Easy for tickets to get lost if they are on the second page (i.e. below the fold), but as long as techs are displined, it works fine.
BisonThunderclap@reddit
Seriously OP. Use an actual ticket system.
SirLoremIpsum@reddit
Even a spreadsheet would be better than WhatsApp
stephenph@reddit
I was with a company about 10 years ago that used spreadsheets. For a small shop, and if you have clear policies, it can be very effective.
All issues entered in a shared spreadsheet. Every M, W, F we would have a team meeting to discuss what was in the queue, every day each admin would work the issues.
We had a three person admin team. At any time there would be about 10 tickets in the spreadsheet. The sysadmins were responsible for tickets they took calls for.
NOTE: the system can break down fast if there is a surge of issues or if a sysadmins does not pull his weight.
Slight-Blackberry813@reddit
The man has reinvented the email in one of worst possible ways. Faxes is almost better
PDQ_Brockstar@reddit
We need an IT version of Kitchen Nightmares
tvpb@reddit
Too limited of an audience. We'd love it, but mortals would wonder, "What's wrong with that?!? or "Seems legit!"
robvas@reddit
I've been telling people that for years. I'll host that shit.
Dookie_boy@reddit
kITchen Nightmares
2_Spicy_2_Impeach@reddit
A previous role we’d not call it an audit but we had a framework of basic guidelines we wanted folks to use. Best practices and what not (pretty no brainer stuff).
To work with our team on projects you’d basically have to pass that. I was shocked at how many companies that folks use on a daily basis have deficiencies this glaring once you peak behind the curtain.
Vesalii@reddit
You can actually use sharepoint to build a ticketing system.
Tony2030@reddit
Spice works is free and very good.
vogelke@reddit
https://github.com/driusan/PoormanIssueTracker is a simple format for using the file system as an issue tracker.
Try that in combination with https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/11/08/painless-bug-tracking/ -- it might handle 90% of your problems with 10% of the effort.
Due_Peak_6428@reddit
Bro make a simple custom ticket system in codex would be so easy to do
ZombieFodderer@reddit
email. helpdesk@domainname.com. make subfolders for each tech. the tech that takes the ticket moves it to their folder. Shared collaboration, easy to track who has what. Conversations thread. search is easy. Never understood the need for helpdesk software. Email has 99% of the functionality.
cwk9@reddit
That's the neat part. You don't. I've seen people try shared spread sheets, chat and Shared mailboxes. Doesn't work. Once you get to two people or more people you at a minimum need basic ticketing.
BasicallyFake@reddit
id use a small project tracker, something like planner, teamwork, they are designed for this.
TrelloDeLaGetto@reddit
Glad you updated your post. But honestly look into some free ticketing solutions. For the amount of employees you have im sure you qualify for a free tier of some cloud based ticketing systems. Honestly for the time being you should manage your tickets through email until you figure it out... anything better than WhatsApp.
Express-Space-7072@reddit
Maybe using a lightweight ticketing system like Jira Service Desk. It's scalable, integrates well with other tools, and can be tailored to your needs. You can set up automated workflows, notifications, and prioritize tickets easily.
You may be able to do something quick and easy and feee with trello (jira lite) for basic tracking. It’s free for a few boards and features.
hihcadore@reddit
Get a ticking system.
Or use an excel spreadsheet stored in m365 you can collaborate on or a sharepoint list.
MattAdmin444@reddit
As others have said there are free helpdesk options but if you want dirt simple?
Just make a Google Form. You can make it output to a spreadsheet which makes it far easier to track stuff and you can even make it email you when there's new responses.
TheJesusGuy@reddit
4 staff and you need a ticketing system..?
epicuzzaa@reddit (OP)
why do you think I don't need it?
TheJesusGuy@reddit
I'm just unsure how 4 people in an office can't keep track of basic issues they're having. Are you saying you're a 4-person MSP with lots of clients..?
epicuzzaa@reddit (OP)
Maybe these four people never work at the same time, and during shift changes, some untracked information gets lost...
heyyouguys67@reddit
Teams Helpdesk team template
Humble-Plankton2217@reddit
FreshDesk can provide a true ticketing system for two technicians for FREE.
It's super easy to set up and use.
You're trying to create a wheel that's already been created.
With a FREE price point, it's worth at least giving it a try. I'm sure there are other systems that have free basic plans as well.
Xzenor@reddit
If you don't have a helpdesk system, then you call them "emails" instead of "tickets"
eruffini@reddit
Per your edited post...
Yes there is.
A ticketing system is perfect for this.
Ticketing systems are that simple.
Quite a few lightweight, easy to use ticketing systems out there from the other comments!
BrilliantVacation590@reddit
Use a simple helpdesk system like Freshdesk or BoldDesk. BoldDesk is a more affordable option.
Doso777@reddit
You introduce a proper ticketing system. There is enough decent and free stuff out there.
sir_mrej@reddit
Use an actual ticket system.
Tell your staff AND all users that ONLY requests through the ticket system are valid.
People will only use it if you make them. There will ALWAYS be resistance. ALWAYS.
TheJesusGuy@reddit
Tell ALL 4 of your staff. 4 Entire staff! It must be so difficult and there must be so many IT issues.
Ellery_B@reddit
I'd say track them in Google sheets
FastFredNL@reddit
A shared Excel workbook
purplemonkeymad@reddit
Four people is not too small for a helpdesk. It's not just volume, but seeing the chain and that someone has taken ownership that makes it worth it.
bsbred@reddit
Some kind of calendar. Or some kind of task-setting system.
Calendar: the requester creates an event with a title e.g. "New issue - Printer -" and assigns other members of the team as guests.
The other people accept the invitation for the event or don't. The person who's supposed to take care of this (since you are few people, that would be one person) changes the title to something like "Accepted - ...".
Then, after that person completes the request, they change the title to "Completed - ...".
Most calendars send invites as emails to the invited participants, so people will easily see the new tasks, and be able to keep track of older ones.
Task-setting - this is self-explanatory, the requester creates a task and assigns it to somebody else. If you use some online email provider, it may have something basic integrated with the email.
oxidizingremnant@reddit
Take a step back and think through “does my business have tasks to do” - you probably want some way to track all work, not just IT work.
The business people want a way to track leads.
Your marketing people want a way to track implementation of marketing campaigns.
Honestly, a fix here is to look into something like Trello, Jira, or Asana. These are tools you can use to write up work items, assign owners, link to Slack (and probably a messenger app like WhatsApp if you look into it), and build workflows.
Your org isn’t big enough for a dedicated helpdesk suite, so to avoid tool sprawl I’d recommend something that’s meant to be a generic work management system like Trello to start your help desk functions and work from there.
mismanaged@reddit
Zammad is a very simple, free, and easy to set up system. It's very lightweight and practical.
If someone sends a whatsapp, you just click the big plus button and paste the content into it (assuming you are using whatsapp web), instant ticket.
You can even tie it to a mailbox so people can just send emails and it automatically generates tickets.
Literally perfect for your use case.
Vastant@reddit
Depending on what office software your using, you could use a shared task/to do list. E.g in MS Outlook, you can create a new list then share it with the others.
Be aware that's a really simple and would only recommend it as an interim solution, but it might meet your needs.
kremlingrasso@reddit
If you have a separate mailbox for IT requests, you can import the mail content into a spreadsheet, group it in a pivot chart by sender or subject sorted by date. Takes a bit of fiddling but it's the absolute simplest you can do.
ZAFJB@reddit
Wrong.
Install a ticketing system, and use if for everything. As well as IT issues use it for customer helpdesk, facilities, maintenance ... everything.
ZAFJB@reddit
We installed a ticketing system. Not doing so is a waste of time and foolish.
Use Jitbit.
sonicc_boom@reddit
This makes me want to quit and I don't even work at your company
MoarFlavor@reddit
I handed in my notice before I entered the thread.
LasersTheyWork@reddit
Having staff fill out post-it notes and hand them to you sounds more efficient.
boli99@reddit
they'll stick them to your keyboard , or your hands, while you're typing
they'll then read them to you
they'll then ask if its finished yet, all before you have a chance to reply.
yawnnx@reddit
With a basic explanation only saying “it’s broken”.
unJust-Newspapers@reddit
“Can you send a screenshot?”
hands new post it with badly drawn image
hkusp45css@reddit
I love a mystery
Hebrewhammer8d8@reddit
Welcome to SMB they love doing this to build operation debt.
SlickAstley_@reddit
Nah, its low key a dream. Anything you dont want to do/is too complicated you just let slide to the ether
HTDutchy_NL@reddit
I support ~25 people most of them are good with tech so there's hardly any support load (weeks without any questions or issues).
I just tell people to email the question so I don't forget, this gets pinned in outlook and outlook is set to combine emails into conversations. Once it's solved I unpin the item.
In my experience a ticket system only works if you have at least two people doing support or need to handle so many issues that the overhead of organizing a ticket system is worth it.
I do run an actual IT team, it's just that our main job is webhosting. All the projects go on Jira boards. For office support it's just me and a couple key people who are user admins in M$365
boli99@reddit
shared mailbox
but - a ticket system would be better. there are plenty you can get for free
jouskaMoon@reddit
I think depending on systems that aren’t meant to be used as ticketing systems will only create issues for you.
Have u considered Zammad . org??
This is a self hosted version of their platform and you can, with their documentation, make it happen.
All you need is patience, some energy drink, someone to help you and hope, is trial and error, give it a thought.
jouskaMoon@reddit
bingo! it’s super easy!!!
This means you simply need to work on it and overcome trial and error.
I do basic level 1-2 IT Support and don’t even know much about development stuff, so you can learn too.
j9wxmwsujrmtxk8vcyte@reddit
Yeah, I'll just say that if you can't set-up Zammad using docker following their documentation in like an hour (assuming you have a system to use as a server), you need to quit your job in IT.
jouskaMoon@reddit
I am soooo worried about your post that I am trying to set up Zammad myself on my mac M3 at work just to see how much time it would cost/take to get it done with docker. ✅ if it’s easy, then you have no excuse to not use a ticketing system my man 👌
Tall-Geologist-1452@reddit
Free ... - https://www.spiceworks.com/free-cloud-help-desk-software/
ReptilianLaserbeam@reddit
We used spice works free tier for quite a while when the company was small and when we grew closer to 300 users we changed. I second this recommendation
PossibleProfessor134@reddit
We moved away from spiceworks coz we couldn't able to afford to it anymore coz of budget..looked for cheaper alternatives and went with desk365 which was cheap and suited us compared to other helpdesks.
redyellowblue5031@reddit
Used spice works at a smaller shop before. It worked perfectly well for what we needed and was infinitely better than no system at all.
PossibleProfessor134@reddit
We moved away from spiceworks coz we couldn't able to afford to it anymore coz of budget..looked for cheaper alternatives and went with desk365.
Nik_Tesla@reddit
Jesus Christ, there are free open source ticketing systems that are really minimal, just use one of those. Your team uses the ticketing system, everyone else just sends emails to it.
Ubera90@reddit
Use the free spice works helpdesk. It's basic, but free, and will be a million times better than what you are currently using or any of the solutions you have suggested.
(Why would you want a discord bot or shared sheets and custom workflows if your aim is for simplicity...?)
Individual_Maize2511@reddit
desk365, cheap ,simple, easy to setup.
HairGrowsTooFast@reddit
FreshDesk. Not free but cheap
Jug5y@reddit
If there's no ticketing system, there's no tickets
eMikey@reddit
Had to double check I wasn't in r/ShittySysadmin
Nanocephalic@reddit
We are.
Nanocephalic@reddit
You’re making a classic mistake: you’re saying “I have a solution. Please help me to implement it” but you should say “I have a problem. Please help me to solve it”
There are free, small helpdesk solutions out there. Just pick a couple and burn a weekend choosing one, or skip all that and just use the first free one you can find.
Slight-Blackberry813@reddit
Christ. Remember that these people exist in our industry. They’ve tried nothing and they are all out of ideas. Not only that they RUN departments.
paulv@reddit
Christ. Remember that these people exist in our industry. They've already decided not to help OP. Not only that they HANG OUT where people ask for help.
Sysadmin, LART thyself.
OP: don't listen to the naysayers. You're asking for help instead of suffering (and letting your users suffer) and that is the first step on the path to making things better. My advice is to leverage whatever your comfortable using and/or fits in to your existing process. It sounds like you're resource strapped (aren't we all), so using something free is a good place to start. I'm not clear from your question, but it sounds like it is just for the IT team to use, rather than end users as well? If so, something low overhead like a private shared GitHub repo where you use the issues interface as your ticketing system may work?
ReptilianLaserbeam@reddit
And probably make way more money than we do :(
Shen_31@reddit
we had the same issue with whatsapp, it works early on but breaks down fast once requests pile up. things get lost and there's no ownership. we also tried bots but the setup and maintenance wasn't really worth it. what worked better for us was moving to a lightweight internal ticketing setup that still feels like chat but keeps history and tracking in place. even just having requests automatically turn into tickets made a big difference. i've seen some newer tools like siit going in that direction too, more focused on simple internal workflows instead of full-blown helpdesk setups. biggest lesson for us was picking something people will actually use, otherwise everyone just goes back to chat.
DailonMarkMann@reddit
SharePoint list and power automate. Pipe everything into a teams channel. Works like a charm and doesn’t cost anything.
lonestar659@reddit
There are several basic ticketing systems. Pick one.
shimoheihei2@reddit
Why not install a small, free open source ticketing system? There's lot of them out there. Anything is going to be better than WhatsApp
anonymousITCoward@reddit
Once place I looked at was using a spreadsheet... the best hacky one I saw was sharepoint, a word document for each incident. I've been wondering if someone was daring enough to use power automate or forms or something else could slap together some weird ticketing system...
Elensea@reddit
You can make a shitty ticketing system using forms and power automate.
manicalmonocle@reddit
SharePoint with a Microsoft Form.
thunderbird32@reddit
We tried that once at a previous employer of mine. Dropped it real quick for osTicket. Sharepoint technically worked, but it was *not* good.
manicalmonocle@reddit
Never said it was great but if you already have M365 licenses and are a small team or single person with no budget. It works enough to get by until a proper ticketing system can be established
thunderbird32@reddit
To be fair, it might be better now. IIRC, we ran it in Sharepoint on-prem, which was luckily not my project.
Pigbin-Josh@reddit
For masochists only.
rire0001@reddit
There's quite a few shareware or managed services that you could simply turn on. This is a really well serviced market. Search using an AI or Google: Freshdesk Free popped up several times. The money you'd spend would be your time not wasted.
If you really want DIY, I'd use a simple Google Docs or Micro$oft Drive spreadsheet and some basic Gemini or Copilot support.
Having said that, Notion is pretty slick - my granddaughter and her salon mates used it to wrangle the customer orders across product lines. And they are decidedly not computer savvy. Plus it has some sort of database for simple analytics.
If you really can't move off WhatsApp, mabe look at WizBot or Coze. They would allow you to build a bot that "listens" to a WhatsApp group and push data to a Google Sheet or something whenever a user starts a message with a specific keyword, like #help. No reason similar agent stuff wouldn't work through a Discord channel, but all that seems overkill - plus you wouldn't have history to analyze.
For a non-IT team, Claude Code could generate a Google Apps Script, something that turns a Google Form submission into a tracked row in Sheets with status columns, timestamps, email notifications and stuff. The teachers at the local high school used something similar this year to track stuff that the formal district system did not. I know this because they got in trouble for it.
huenix@reddit
Request Tracker. I’ve set it up for a dozen small shops and it’s perfect for things like this.
Astorek86@reddit
What about an E-Mail? 🤷 "_support@gmail.com" ...
Personally, I'd still set up a simple Ticketsystem, something like OsTicket or Zammad. These things can create Tickets based on filled Webforms, or by Mails.
slashinhobo1@reddit
Not hip enough. I need my tickets coming through tik tok shorts.
Crumby_Bread@reddit
Bro even just having them email you is better than this 💀 wtf did I just read
binaryhextechdude@reddit
Just use Zendesk. Last time I checked it was free.
weHaveThoughts@reddit
Azure DevOps.
thunderbird32@reddit
Just use a helpdesk. My last employer was under 100 employees, and an IT team of three (two sysadmins and a DBA/dev) and we used a helpdesk system. Something like osTicket is free and mindlessly easy to setup (and fairly bombproof).
IDontWantToArgueOK@reddit
Do you guys use any sort of task management software? Jira, Asana, anything?
_Grimo_@reddit
Forewarning Im relatively new to the IT realm (<3 years at one company) but we use ManageEngine ServiceDesk for ticketing.
Can be a massive pain in the ass sometimes, but its customizable and serves its purpose well for us (3 person team + director and 200 on-site/ remote staff)
discgman@reddit
Does google tasks count? 😂
maxtimbo@reddit
OSTicket is free.
mk9e@reddit
You can make something with power automate and power apps.
Hate those things but it works.
ReptilianLaserbeam@reddit
I suggested the same, there's an almost ready template for ticketing system
ReptilianLaserbeam@reddit
No. Set up an ITSM tool. Period. Even a free one. Hell, even in MS power apps there's a ticketing tool.
_doki_@reddit
We use a small docker machine + Redmine container .. easy to setup, customizable, not too fancy graphics to care about (old forum looks rock!)
ChampOfTheUniverse@reddit
WhatsApp, WhatDaFuq?
Icy_Conference9095@reddit
Glpi is free and open source. You can spin it up on an optiplex or whatever you've got lying around. It has an inventory app that people can right click on in the right bottom tray and open tickets.
Whatsapp isn't an acceptable method of communication imo. I assume you have Microsoft licensing? Or how are you handling your emails?
Use a ticketing system built for a ticketing system, word from the wise, when I built a SharePoint list as a ticketing system with custom app views, and power automate flows for workflows... people will just make you use it and you'll hate every moment of it, so don't reinvent the wheel. Use a system designed for the right use case. Glpi can be as simple as them sending in an email, or you can build a very simple interface with "ticket subject" and "ticket body". When you respond, the system auto sends ticket updates.
thewunderbar@reddit
The answer is to do literally anything except what you're currently doing.
Get a ticket system. You say you're trying not to overcomplicate things but then saying you want to try hacky solutions that don't work well.
M4niac81@reddit
There's a very good open source helpdesk system called hesk that I've used with small teams, you can basically run it on almost anything it's very lightweight, needs a webserver with PHP etc. does all the basic functions you need.
Pigbin-Josh@reddit
This. You can set it up on a standalone PC by installing the free WAMP server software, that gives you everything you need in one package - apache webserver, MySQL and PHP. Then install the free version of HESK and configure it as you like. Works great.
GullibleDetective@reddit
Spiceworks, jira (can be tweaked to work like one), or zoho
TheDnonymous@reddit
"Without overcomplicating things" complicates things
Use some free ticketing software.
Pigbin-Josh@reddit
https://www.hesk.com/download.php
Xattle@reddit
Is Spiceworks still a thing or did they implode somehow? Been awhile since I've heard about them.
peeinian@reddit
Glpi-project.org
Self hosted is free
BWMerlin@reddit
GLPI is free and open source. It will do your helpdesk and asset management plus a heap more.
Some other options none of which I recommend is using a shared mailbox and using the category feature to mark emails as being assigned to people as well as subfolders for different status.
You can also use SharePoint which had a built in helpdesk template.
Honestly best option is a helpdesk solution, GLPI even has a paid WhatsApp plugin so you wouldn't even have a big user experience change for your users.
Jolly-Ad-8088@reddit
You’re going around the entire world trying to find a solution that already exists - a ticketing system.
If by internal resistance you mean not having the balls to make sure people use it that’s different. Those balls can be found.
Please for the love of god use a ticketing system.
pimflapvoratio@reddit
Request Tracker. Free, self hosted. I haven’t used it in a number of years but when I managed it, it wasn’t complicated. Usual LAMP set up. Can pull from a mailbox so people can just mail in tickets.
waitingforcracks@reddit
Eveyone suggesting other tools, Why not just start with issues on github or gitlab? Leagues better than WhatsApp atleast
Flabbergasted98@reddit
Last time this was a problem, I just built one out of freshworks.
c0nsolecowboy@reddit
OSticket works to create tickets from email. Very easy to implement
JLee50@reddit
Literally any ticketing system. We use JitBit because it’s simple, cheap, and does what we need but there are tons of options, both free and paid.
RainStormLou@reddit
use a real help desk system or just post directly to shittysysadmin. there's no in between unless you're sitting in the same room and they can just yell at you. there are insane amount of free and low cost options but if you started your research by asking here instead of using the search function, hire a local consultant.
countsachot@reddit
You get a ticketing system. There are free options.
ireddit_didu@reddit
This may sound crazy, but with relatively simple requirements, you can create a custom solution for your self using Claude code, a small server, or even a raspberry pi. Save all the data into sql lite. Make backups and copies of the database every day. But in theory, you can vibe code this project in a few days, maybe 1 day. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve done it on smaller projects. Using pocket base as a backend, MySQL lite as the db. And svelte on the front end. This is less than a days worth of prompts. Though I think recommending this will get down voted. I dunno. Just tossing it out there.
kukari@reddit
We use zammad. It’s open source. Lifesaver. Look it up.
not-at-all-unique@reddit
The worst I’d put up with is an IT support teams group, with ability to start new threaded breakout conversations in the teams channel - at least you can keep call comments etc separate.
Realistically, with wasters time etc, you’re probably pissing away more money in wasted time and missed calls compared to hosting an open source helpdesk such as RT (request tracker)
xsam_nzx@reddit
lots of free software for this, shared mailbox is the bare min. There are out of the box powerapps for this as well if e3 licenced.
Happy_Kale888@reddit
https://osticket.com/download/
neometallic@reddit
How many employees do you service? Can you spend /any/ money to get this going?
I do internal IT for a small business. SharePoint is handy for creating a free help desk--I use a form to feed ticket information into a list. Managers have full view of the list while users can only view the status of their submitted tickets.
The downsides are that I have to go in and assign a number for each ticket submitted. If I had a higher rate of tickets coming in, this would be detrimental.
CeC-P@reddit
When it was just me I just used LibreOffice calc spreadsheets but there's no way to do collaborative merging with that. They are actively working on it though. That gets me wondering though if there is a open source ticket system but if you were to take the framework of a Wiki, which I believe is open source, and install it on an ubuntu server and just have new Wiki articles that are the tickets... it would handle simultaneous editing and merging revisions and logs and everything, right?
sadmep@reddit
Roll your own implementations/integrations are often a lot more trouble than they are worth over the long run. There are a number of choices of free and/or open source ticketing systems. Some come with user facing web portals and most will also support email as a method of communication with the users.
Don't re-invent the wheel. Back in the deep dark days we used things like spreadsheets for ticketing.
yawnnx@reddit
At the very least should use a shared email inbox 💀
ElixisTechnology@reddit
A proper ticket system is worth it's weight in gold. I wouldn't suggest cheaping out because they are really not that expensive. Things to consider:
Shop a few ticket systems and find one that has the features you need AND at least some of the features you want. It's going to make your department much more efficient and quality focused compared to WhatsApp. Use this to pitch the expense. I'd be happy to share more tidbits if you'd like. Just let me know.
sudoballistic@reddit
https://xyproblem.info/
Just use a cheap or free help desk ticketing system and build a support or contact email to receive requests
_Robert_Pulson@reddit
Invest time and/or money in a ticketing system that emails you ticket info and status updates. Find something user friendly so they actually use it. My old user base liked to email their problems. So they'd email the ticket system, and it would automatically create a service ticket.
You're basically managing an IT system with a group chat and probably emojis. Might as well SnapChat errors.
"Oh no, my computer won't boot...". 😢
"All our data is encrypted!!!" 🔥 ☠️
Fantastic-Shirt6037@reddit
Now’s the time to do it right or not even try at all
MissusNesbitt@reddit
There are some free options, but hacky isn’t the way I would go if you can avoid it. Freshservice is cheap and gives you a lot of flexibility to grow.
irish_guy@reddit
there is literally free Helpdesk systems....