In the mad scramble to appease that crucial client, it’s imperative to get the right person in with an expedient response. Often only quick replies are required, but this can be costly to SMBs that don’t have the manpower to field the help desk service lines. Hence, the OTRS mobile help desk app allows representatives to remain mobile and still respond to customer queries.

“Help Desk applications become necessary as soon as an organization can no longer manage their customer interactions using just email but need a true tracking system that multiple agents can use,” says Paul Salazar, General Manager at OTRS. “The iPhone app will let your help desk deliver more timely responses by not having to be at their desks, or be carrying notebooks or netbooks. Nine times out of ten, a quick, simple, one-sentence response will take care of a problem. And for managers, this app will let them manage remotely, such as redirect a ticket to the queue for the staff.”

The OTRS software is a free, open-source application (Open-source Ticket Request System) that is distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). Versions of the help desk app are available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS 10.x, AIX, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD.

Screenshot of the OTRS interface

Says Jay Lyman, analyst at the 451 Group, “I believe OTRS’s new iPhone app resonates with SMBs in terms of their help desk needs and in dealing with devices their employees are bring into these organizations. SMBs are increasingly looking at open source for the same cost and flexibility reasons that enterprises have been. Smartphones and the need for Help Desk productivity and responsiveness serve to increase their interests as well.”

The mobile call center app will be available from the iTunes App Store by July 26^th.

About OTRS:

OTRS began as an open-source project in 2001 by Martin Edenhofer, and has since grown into a company of 60 employees based in the U.S. and Germany. The company provides help desk and IT service management solutions to log, process, and manage ticket requests. The revenue for the free, open-source service provider comes from professional and managed services.

Technorati Tags: iPhone, Open Source Help Desk, OTRS

With the use of Kayako Help Desk software, charities can become more focused upon customer service and reaching out to those in need. With the use of Kayako’s popular Help Desk and CRM solutions many organizations who were previously unable to even consider Kayako’s popular solutions can now utilize them for free to help them enjoy even more cost savings.

With the free license, Kayako will also provide organizations with free technical support for a set time period and free licenses to some of Kayako’s other popular solutions.

This offer is also open to open source projects. Kayako realizes the contribution these organizations make to the software industry and are doing this as a way of paying these underpaid developers back. Kayako’s generous offer in these troubling economic times is a breath of fresh air for many of these struggling organizations. With Kayako’s contributions, it is hopeful that they can continue to do good work and provide the much needed services that many people have come to rely upon from these charitable organizations.

Technorati Tags: Free Help Desk, Help Desk, Open Source Help Desk