Paid TicketPay - The Pay Per Support Module

[Bconsulting]

Hello All:


Sales & Support Inquires: http://www.burroughsconsultingco.com/support

I would like to take the chance to reintroduce: TicketPay, the Pay Per Support Module. We now have over 600 license holders and growing each day. Before I go into more about the module I need to clear up a few admin details first for current clients:

1. The SupportMods domain name has been purchased so I am moving TicketPay to my own consulting company where it will continue to be developed, maintained and supported. We are going to keep the current licensing online for about a month until we get everyone moved over to our new system.

2. We are NO LONGER charging for updates. If you already purchased an upgrade plan, you do not get a refund, but going forward updates are free for as long as you own the module. However in saying this, we DO charge for support, whether that be a question on how to use the module, installation, consulting, etc.....so I guess that is the "cache" of the free updates as we have to have a revenue stream coming in to continually add new features/maintain the module. You can see the support plans/packages here: Burroughs Consulting - Order - Index.

3. We are NO LONGER taking custom requests to customize Kayako nor will we be developing any other modules for Kayako. There are some great companies here on the forums and I think they are more equipped personnel wise to offer the best service possible. We will be focusing on TicketPay solely.

4. We have moved licensing systems as mentioned above, that means you will need to register for an account located here: Burroughs Consulting - Customers - New Account if you are a current customer and within 1 to 2 days we will move your account over to the new system. You can continue to use the old system, but once we take the licensing system offline, your TicketPay will no longer work with the old system.

Now that that is out of the way , introducing TicketPay:

TicketPay will enable you to offer paid support to your clients in the form of tickets, points, callbacks, or support packages. Additional methods will be offered in future updates we make to the module.





Tickets:
Your customers can purchase a package which includes a set number of tickets via the support center interface. You can specify these different packages via your admin panel. For example, you could have a lite package that includes 10 tickets for $10.00, a medium package that includes 25 tickets for $20.00, and a large package that includes 100 tickets for $95.00. Allowing you to create different packages gives your customers the ability to choose the level of support needed as some clients need more support then others.

How it works: If ticket balance is greater then 0, user will be able to create a ticket. When the ticket is created, their balance is reduced by 1.









Points:
Your customers can purchase a package that includes a set number of points via the support center interface. Like tickets, you can specify these different point packages via your admin panel.

How it works: If your company is more time focused as far as support is concerned then you may want to consider using the points module. When customers buy points, their support balance is reduced based on the billable time you insert into the tickets 'Billing Tab'. For example, a customer has a support balance of 300 points, submits a ticket, and your support staff spends and enters 30 min as billable time, based on what your settings are as far as x billable min = x points, the customer's balance will be reduced. If their balance goes into negative they will be required to bring their balance back to positive.









Callbacks:
Your customer can purchase a callback package which includes a set number of callbacks they can request via the support center interface. Like tickets and points, you can specify these packages via your admin panel.

How it works: If your company offers phone support whether free or paid, then callbacks are a great way to keep track of these support mediums. Customers request a callback request via their control panel. A staff member then has the option to either accept or decline this request.





















Support Packages:
Your customer can purchase a support package which includes a set of points, tickets, and callbacks all in 1 package for 1 price. You can set the number to 'unlimited' which will give the client 'unlimited' access to a support medium for the recurring period. If they do not pay their recurring order, then it will go back to regular method of tracking support. In addition (not in screenshot) you can specify a recurring time (None, Monthly, Quarterly, Semiannually, and Annually) in which a new invoice will be generated for this amount for the client to pay.







Orders:
The core of the application is the orders system. The orders system is how your customers pay to receive support.











Settings & Misc:
Here are some screenshots of some settings and random screens:








Pricing & Licensing:
The cost of the license is $150. You can purchase a license or request a free demo here: Burroughs Consulting - Order - Index. You get FREE UPDATES for the life of the module and support can be acquired via Support - Powered By Kayako SupportSuite

[Epoint]

Hello LaTesha Burroughs.

Sounds just great ! ! !
Excellent explaination btw. Very comprehensive

I purchased from you a licence some time ago. But i have _re-installed_the latest build 3.30. Which works very nice for us. Did all the bits and pieces to make it work. But now i need a working copy for this build.

I has registed myself in your new shop, (Burroughs Consulting - Order - Index) but i still don´t see my license... Did i do something wrong?

I opened a ticket regarding this issue on the support side of your new web.
Hoping to hear from you soon.

regards,
Paco

[nibb]

Hi, very nice indeed. I was very interested on a paid ticket module, but we all know how that went out. I did not bought the paid ticket module that was offered here on kayako forums based on the scary reviews of the people that where using it. Is this the same module or another one? It seems this one is stable, how can you compare this? It really works on a production environment without destroying totally kayako? The other one was a nightmare full of bugs. Im not saying this one is but it sounds to good to be true. Is this finally The Paid Ticket module we all want?


My interested is on using Kayako like it is now and also have an option for paid tickets. My second question is, does this module convert Kayako completely to a paid system or it integrates with it? I ask this because i want to offer both options. Free Tickets like I do now and for other users the paid option. Do I need to buy another kayako just for using the paid one or can it be integrated so you can still use the free ticket system the way Kayako works now and also the paid ticket on the same install?

It seems very robust, can it be integrated into a billing system like for example AWBS? I ask this because I think its ratter more work to have another layer of software and to send the customers to kayako for paying, most people would like to prefer to integrate billing and payment with their own finance solution and use kayako for support only. Since I handle all payments with AWBS I would ratter like people to pay there not send them to another software for paying.

[Bconsulting]

Originally Posted by nibb

Hi, very nice indeed. I was very interested on a paid ticket module, but we all know how that went out. I did not bought the paid ticket module that was offered here on kayako forums based on the scary reviews of the people that where using it. Is this the same module or another one? It seems this one is stable, how can you compare this? It really works on a production environment without destroying totally kayako? The other one was a nightmare full of bugs. Im not saying this one is but it sounds to good to be true. Is this finally The Paid Ticket module we all want?

Hi Nibb, thanks for your email. Just to clarify this is the same module as before, however I do not believe there were any scary reviews about it breaking peoples Kayako, however if you DO install the module and you are on a CVS version, don't read the documentation and try to install it without knowing if your server meets all the requirements, then yes it could break your Kayako, but as always before installing any module that is not built into Kayako you should backup your database and files, that way you can easily restore back within just a few minutes. Anyway there are some v3.30 bugs that are being worked out as there seems to be several changes with date in the new version, so these are being worked on and v3.30 compatibility should be coming next week.

My interested is on using Kayako like it is now and also have an option for paid tickets. My second question is, does this module convert Kayako completely to a paid system or it integrates with it? I ask this because i want to offer both options. Free Tickets like I do now and for other users the paid option. Do I need to buy another kayako just for using the paid one or can it be integrated so you can still use the free ticket system the way Kayako works now and also the paid ticket on the same install?

You can use both free ticket and paid tickets, you specify the departments that are paid and which are free.

It seems very robust, can it be integrated into a billing system like for example AWBS? I ask this because I think its ratter more work to have another layer of software and to send the customers to kayako for paying, most people would like to prefer to integrate billing and payment with their own finance solution and use kayako for support only. Since I handle all payments with AWBS I would ratter like people to pay there not send them to another software for paying.

No it cannot and will not be integrated into any billing system. Right now Ticketpay does what it does with the minimum files changed that it can. doing billing integration would just be a support nightmare for us and one that we just cannot take on. However, we have several customers that just change the buy now link in Kayako to point to their billing system to purchase support and then they manually create the order in ticketpay which gives them their points/tickets, whatever.

[craigbrass]

No it cannot and will not be integrated into any billing system. Right now Ticketpay does what it does with the minimum files changed that it can. doing billing integration would just be a support nightmare for us and one that we just cannot take on. However, we have several customers that just change the buy now link in Kayako to point to their billing system to purchase support and then they manually create the order in ticketpay which gives them their points/tickets, whatever.

How about giving TicketPay an API that a billing system could connect to?

[Bconsulting]

Originally Posted by craigbrass

How about giving TicketPay an API that a billing system could connect to?

Yes this would be more possible, i guess I would need to know what functions people would want/need and we can start a feature list based on this discussion.

[nibb]

OK thanks. I suppose the pay link will work. Thats what i asked actually, but if it can have an api which connects directly, better.

Dont you think its a little to expensive, based on the Kayako whole price? A module just what the name means, is an addon. I wonder how some modules are actually priced almost 50% of the whole product itself specially if this is the past version, and yes people complained allot about it not working correctly. It was not a stable product back then. Maybe its stable now, but I think its a little to priced for most people to give it a try. I paid like 380$ for my Kayako and the module itself costs already 150$ and it just adds 1 function, paid tickets. I dont remember the exact price of the past version but I think it was cheaper.

[craigbrass]

I'll comment on this.

Integration with payment gateways is not an easy task and this one has several integrations.

Also, free support and updates is being provided for life.

[Bconsulting]

Hi Nibb:

While I agree that while the price in proportion to Kayako's product seems high, we are creating a module for which no API exists for the product (minus craigbrass's ). This means that not only do we not have a clean slate to program upon, we have to make sure it works with Kayako with the least amount of files and all changes it goes through.

As craigbrass said we do offer free updates for life, but support is paid for i must correct.

Either way after people begin using it, they feel they have gotten value for their money and most companies that have bought the module are commercial clients that depend on this module as it brings additional streams of income for them.

Thanks

[Siora]

And support for this product is very expensive, almost as much as the product itself.

[Bconsulting]

Hi

I guess you can say support is expensive depending on your company. We clearly list the support costs here: Burroughs Consulting - Order - Index, but as any client can atest to that uses our support frequently, we are not nit picky with support, some support requests we do not even log points for. The cost to support the module will not be going down as that is what pays the full time developer on staff while still allowing us to turn a profit. We are able to very effectively support the module with 2 staff members at this price point. Also we have found that most customers minus some of our big users of the module don't need support after getting it configured to their needs.

With that said v3.30 stable compatibility will be released sometime today or tomorrow along with a new feature and change.

New feature: TicketPay Tab
You can now see the balances of your clients paid support:


New Change:
Before TicketPay would not show the TicketPay department in the list if the user was a guest. The department will now show with a message telling them that this is a paid department and asking them to either create an account or login to use their support balance. This change was implemented after feedback from customers that their customers would just submit tickets to the wrong department since they couldn't see the TicketPay department.

Roadmap item - 1 to 2 months ( could be sooner)
Ability to assign tickets to a manager. When tickets are assigned to a manager then its employees (other people in the user group can use the pool of tickets). This has been highly requested.

Thanks as always

[craigbrass]

And support for this product is very expensive, almost as much as the product itself.

Support is expensive to provide if you choose to have staff that actually know what they are talking about. $60 for 60 minutes of support that is good value in my opinion assuming support is prompt to respond and is knowledgeable.

[nibb]

Well I dont agree such much on this.

Updates for life is not something that can be guaranteed unless its based on a contract agreement.

I bought allots of softwares in the past that offered free updates, just to see them disappear after 4 years or just to see how they suddenly do charge for some updates. I dont have a problem with it, development must be financed somehow. I do have problems when its just bug fixes and they must be paid (like kayako, and thats why i dont renew my updates until some new features i need comes out, 2 years and nothing new), but if there are new features I think paying the updates is a must be so the development keeps on.

As for support. Well, if the product actually works as described there is no support needed, and if there is the right documentation like manuals, faqs, etc.

Normally products that need allot of support, are the ones that need allot of training to be able to implement in a company or if they are terrible bugged or complicated. A product/service that works, needs almost 0 support.

Of course i prefer to pay 1 time big and never again, since updates are costly. I have so many paying updates that they are basically a financial budget itself if you pass the cost to a monthly calculation. I prefer to pay only one time, but how can the company keep the promise then that it will be working with the next release, or in some years with each new release of kayako.

[Bconsulting]

HI

I am not sure what you mean by contract agreement, but anyway updates are free for life and yes you can take it out of context as it is technically not possible, not all of us are going to be here for life, but if we ever decided not to continue with the module (1) we would sell it to someone that could maintain it for a dirt cheap price so clients are not out on a limb or (2) we would open up the source so that clients could get their own developer to make the updates they need or make it a community developed module. However, as of right now we plan to develop and give updates free of charge. Actually charging for updates was giving us more headaches logistics wise then anything, that's why they are free now. It actually helps reduce support as users can get the latest files.

While I don't want to make this post about a topic of discussion, I don't agree at all with your comment about: As for support. "Well, if the product actually works as described there is no support needed, and if there is the right documentation like manuals, faqs, etc." No matter how well you document a module/software people simply just do not read.

[craigbrass]

No matter how well you document a module/software people simply just do not read.

Totally agree with that!