Should we jump in?

[athanasiusrc]

We are currently looking for a solid customer service / ticket system that isn't overly complicated. (Outlook tasks really don't cut it).

I have looked at SalesForce, Deerfield Mailflow, Smarterticket etc. and the pricing for Kayako and Smarterticket seem to be in our price range now (for the purchased option).

Kayako has far more features but I have some concerns.

1) This phone support center in the clouds seems to be vaporware.
2) Support in general seems to be a major issue and has been for months.
3) We run a Windows / SQL environment and would have to do the install of MYSQL with problems 1 & 2 in mind.
4) There is no end user manual!!! How is our staff supposed to figure out the intricacies of a product without even a basic help system? I saw the Wiki project and it isn't complete enough.
5) We don't have a full time tech staff to grind through email integration problems. (We use Visnetic Mailserver)
6) Even the install manual isn't complete: There is a queue Type field when you are setting up email queues (http://manual.kayako.net/mailparser_managequeues.htm) that talks about bugs and tickets. An explanation of how to set these up and what they do is nowhere to be found.


Should there be a "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" sign for us or should we actually try out this product?

[Digital Mayhem]

I love the product but thats me... others will also love it and others will hate it or hate the support they get from kayako... So only way to be certain is I would suggest you signup for the 7 day trial before you buy.. Windows environment always sucks as its the most unsecure OS on the planet and mostly bug filled OS at that... So I would suggest a Linux/Unix setup if possible.

[athanasiusrc]

Let's assume for a minute that suddenly switching platforms isn't an option and go back to my original question:

With my concerns and our current platform should we look elsewhere?

[jamesM]

XeSolutions you can't just pull that card and say all the problems that you face on windows come down to it being an unsecured OS, Linux is just the same its how you build it and set it up that makes it secure/ unsecured. But this is not the question at hand and let’s not talk about what is the better OS It will come down to that some companies just can't run a mixed windows and Linux environment.

I am a windows user who has just purchased a copy of the owned support suite. I have known about kayako for many years and one thing has always been the same.

kayako have one of the best support packages at the best price and it looks nice. But there product is let know by there manuals and customer support and it will come down to if your company has time to sit down and to try and work out the bug and integration issues as some times you just wont get any support from kayako.

I was able to setup MYSQL and the support suite with out to many issues I did send a few support calls to kayako but did not get much back and had to fix the issues my self.

Now don’t get me wrong kayako is a great product but you have to know the above before you purchase the software. Some people have been able to set it up running with out any problems and have massive help desks supporting 100's of clients with out any problems but if you fall in to a rut then it will take quite a bit searching and lots of chasing kayako to some times get a fix.

One good thing is there is a nice group of users on this forum that will try and jump in and help you with problems and the forum is a wealth of info that should have been in the manual in the first place.

Now I dont wont to scare you off with some of my comments sign up for a trial and you will see that have been 10000's of hours worth of development time spent on the product and has some of the best features of any other helpdesks. (we put Kayako VS a 10k support application and kayako won hands down) Also see if you can get a local trial and run it on one of your servers setting up PHP MYSQL under IIS is not to hard. I was able to get the supportsuit running under IIS with mysql and Exchange 2003 with out to many issues.

[phalseid]

i say jump in. it is a good solid product, but you have to understand it. help out with the wiki. bottom line, though, it depends on your budget and savy.

1) i recommend leased. don't screw around with setting it up and ****. i have had very good success with 2 clients on leased. 2) if you are looking for something more "commercial" you might want to try out sugarCRM or some other stuff @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari...acking_systems

or you can wait for the new version of M$sharepoint to come out.

the folks here are helpful. but you are on your own without a manual. that is what im working on.....looks like im gonna have to charge for it.

Originally Posted by athanasiusrc

We are currently looking for a solid customer service / ticket system that isn't overly complicated. (Outlook tasks really don't cut it).

I have looked at SalesForce, Deerfield Mailflow, Smarterticket etc. and the pricing for Kayako and Smarterticket seem to be in our price range now (for the purchased option).

Kayako has far more features but I have some concerns.

1) This phone support center in the clouds seems to be vaporware.
2) Support in general seems to be a major issue and has been for months.
3) We run a Windows / SQL environment and would have to do the install of MYSQL with problems 1 & 2 in mind.
4) There is no end user manual!!! How is our staff supposed to figure out the intricacies of a product without even a basic help system? I saw the Wiki project and it isn't complete enough.
5) We don't have a full time tech staff to grind through email integration problems. (We use Visnetic Mailserver)
6) Even the install manual isn't complete: There is a queue Type field when you are setting up email queues (http://manual.kayako.net/mailparser_managequeues.htm) that talks about bugs and tickets. An explanation of how to set these up and what they do is nowhere to be found.


Should there be a "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here" sign for us or should we actually try out this product?

[athanasiusrc]

Did you mean the hosted version instead of leased?

[phalseid]

Originally Posted by athanasiusrc

Did you mean the hosted version instead of leased?

yes. that should say leased.

[athanasiusrc]

I'm confused. What is the difference between leased and hosted? You said to get leased to avoid the install issues.

What is the difference between leased and hosted? I can't find anything on the site.

[phalseid]

Originally Posted by athanasiusrc

I'm confused. What is the difference between leased and hosted? You said to get leased to avoid the install issues.

What is the difference between leased and hosted? I can't find anything on the site.

all software in a sense is leased. if kayko hosts it, they call it leased. if you buy it and install it, they call it owned. confusing, i know. they use rackspace servers, which is about the best you can get.

[athanasiusrc]

I must be dense. They charge for hosted, leased monthly, leased yearly and owned options.

Is the hosted option the only one that doesn't involve me installing the software locally?

Is the hosted option what you recommend?

[ehoffman]

Setting up on Windows with IIS was simple as pie.

If you want support, don't look here.

Like playing with a near great product, you might look here.