Friday, July 8, 2011

Best free IT Helpdesk and Inventory Management software

I was searching for a free IT helpdesk and Inventory Management software for more than few years. I have used IRM, exoPhpdesk, spiceworks and free demo helpdesk software's.  But I was happy with the full functional. Then I found GLPI from freshmeat.net. I was quiet impressed by the futures available in this software. It got almost all the functionalists offered by the commercial help-desk software's. I have been using GLPI successfully for more that four years. I can say  this is the best open-source IT helpdesk and Inventory Management software in the industry 
You can download the software form official GLPI webiste
Installation Procedure

License -  GPL licence
Features list of GLPI

General


  • Multi-entities management (multi-park, multi-structure)
  • Multi-users management
  • Multiple Authentication System (local, LDAP, AD, Pop/Imap, CAS, x509...) and multiple servers
  • Multilingual management (22 languages available )
  • Permissions and profiles system
  • Cache and Pagination system
  • Complex search module
  • Bookmark search system
  • Configurability of display fields in lists
  • Export System in PDF, CSV and SLK (spreadsheet)
  • Saving/restoration module of the database to the SQL format
  • Exportation of the database to the XML format
  • Configurable dropdowns
  • Dictionary
  • System of notifications on events (consumable stock, expiry of contracts and licenses)
  • Updates check system
  • UTF8 interface
  • HTML 4.01 compatibility
Inventory
  • Import data of the inventory from one or several OCS Inventory NG servers
  • Inventory of the computers fleet with management of its components, disk space and TCO management
  • Inventory of the monitors with management of the connections to the computers
  • Inventory of the network hardware fleet with management of the connections to the devices (IP, Mac addresses, VLANs...).
  • Inventory of printers fleet with management of connections to the computers and management of consumable associated and consumption and the thresholds of alarm.
  • Inventory of the external devices (scanners, graphical tables...) with management of the connections to the computers Inventory of the telephones fleet with management of connections to the computers
  • Inventory if the software fleet with license and expiration dates management
  • Assignment of the hardware by geographic area (room, floor...)
  • Typing models management to make the insertion of equal configurations easier
  • Commercial and financial Information management (purchase, guarantee and extension, damping)
  • Filing of the materials left the inventory
  • Management of the status of the hardwares
  • Management of the various states for the materials (in repair...) Management of generic peripherals and monitors being able to be associated several computers
  • Management of external bonds towards other applications
  • History of the modifications on the elements of the inventory
Tracking
  • Management of the tracking requests for all the types of material of the inventory
  • Tracking requests opened using web interface or email
Final user
  • Final user frontend for intervention demand
  • Mail tracking of the intervention demand feature
  • Interventions history consultation
  • Possibility of adding comments at the request of intervention using web interface or email
Technicians
  • Interventions demands priority management
  • Tracking of interventions demands
  • Mail tracking of interventions
  • Assignment of interventions demands
  • Opening/Closing/Re-opening of interventions
  • Assignment of a real time of interventions
  • History of done interventions
  • Displaying of the interventions to do by a technician
  • Displaying of the history of the interventions for a given hardware
  • Posting of the interventions to be realized by technician
  • Posting of the history of the interventions for a given material
  • Management of planning of intervention
Statistics
  • Statistics reports by month, year, total.
  • Global
  • By technician or enterprise
  • By hardware, location or type
  • By user
  • By category
  • By priority
Management
  • Management of enterprises (manufacturers, suppliers, conveyors, people receiving benefits...) and associated contacts
  • Management of the contracts (loan, hiring, leasing, insurance, maintenance and service)
  • Management of the documents related to the elements of inventories, contracts...
  • Management of the types of authorized documents
Reservation
  • Management of the reservations for the material in affected inventory with the park of loan
  • User interface (calendar) for reservation
Knowledge Database
  • Management of a basic system of knowledge hierarchical
  • Management of a public FAQ
Reports
  • Reports generation about the devices
  • By device-type
  • By associated contract
  • By commercial informations
  • Network Reports