I'm looking into creating, a new Helpdesk program written in php. My main goals for this project so far are the help desk, a good live chat system, and I have further plans to add a billing section to this program as well that will work for cPanel/WHM resellers. I was hoping that I could maybe get a few opinions on what some of you might want in this type of software. I am sure you have heard alot of these posts, but I plan of following through with your ideas(as long as they are not outrageous ;)). Also, I am still deciding wether or not this program will have to be paid for or if it will be free. Here are a few things that I can guarentee:

Open source. You will be able to edit this software to your hearts desire.
If it is not going to be free, It will be cheap!
There will be support for those who plan on needing it.
Clean graphical interface, easy to use for new users.
Unlimited users, agents, queues. (I am agrivated with cerberus, that they limited the amount of users in their latest version. )


That list will be growing, I am just trying to shoot my idea out there, so let me know of some features that you would like to see in this program.

Well, not to rain on your parade, but there are already quite a few popular and established systems out there. If you don't like Cerb, why not try Kayako (which we switched to) or SupportTrio for instance?

Furthermore, how large is your team and who will be funding this? Unless of course you guys have investors or are just rich guys who are bored. :)

It sounds like a great idea, perhaps come out with a beta first and see what people think? Only then will people be able to give you good feedback on it that you can implement.

Good luck

Well a group of programmers with a lot of spare time is more like it, lol. It really won't cost us anything to do it, its more of just a hobby. The thing that we will have over all of the helpdesks you listed is they are all inconsistant. Cerberus is nice, but with the new limit on the free edition, and no live support method.(In sight anyway). Kayako is nice, widely used by alot of people, but expensive, and to my knowledge also no live chat. I tried support trio once, and there was something about it that I didnt like, but I cannot remember what it was at the moment. Plus if you want to integrate any of these things, you have to hopefully find or worse make your own plugin if its supported(from the users point of view.). I want to make an all in one package for hosting. And make it inexpensive.

I was thinking about the beta, but if I make something without knowing what my customers want, they prolly won't like it too much because it won't have what they need. Thanks for your suggestions though, I do not mean to sound like I am shooting you down or anything.

I can't see the problem with having an extra program :)

For me, the most important thing is an easy to look at interface

No hard feelings at all. Kayako does have live chat, it can be a bit pricey, that is true. If you're able to pull it off and offer it free or for $25 one time fee, well, give it a shot. But I think you should go off of what the current, established apps have and improve on those.

I still think you should put all those into a beta, with some new, innovative interface and see how people like it.

Post the beta on here and I'm sure a ton of people will give a try giving some feedback on it.

Would be interesting to see if you follow through though. I am currently leaning towards 'no', but I hope you prove me wrong. ;)

Well I appreciate the constructive criticism, and I will prove you wrong. About the whole cost thing, like I said its gonna be cheap... My beta program, if you beta for me when it does come out, and give me feedback, about it. (Something constructive, nothing like yah its cool) You will get a free copy, If I do end up charging for it. Im going to be putting up a mailing list on project tracking stuff to let everyone know whats going on with this. Hopefully I have more than one interested. :cool:

I'd like to see what you got :D

I think people believe if there is a hand full of products out there similar to what you are wanting to develop, you shouldn't do it.

But let's face it, the market is huge and continues to grow. If that was the thinking of most, there would be only 5 hosting companies and 2 shopping carts and 1 gateway / merchant provider.

I say take in consideration what people need from such a script and begin developing it. If done correctly, it will sale.

I would like to know how you are going to start out against so many already established support desk software? Why on earth you would make it free (after you spent hard working hours creating it) is beyond me.

There are so many established peices of software out there, but they are all lacking, plus for the most part they arent, cannot be, or isnt easily integrated. Its understandable not to see a problem with multiple peices of software, but think of it from the customers point of view. They have to use a few different interfaces, depending on the situation, three different usernames and passwords. Theres just alot of benefits and features that can be added that will make it ahead of the rest.

About a beta... lol give me a lil time, I have thought of the idea for a while, but just put it into action a few days ago. ;)

It will turn out that I will be charging for this, But like I said it will be affordable. And one thing that I have always cared about and I know alot of people do, it will be open source.

More details to come.

-Cody

M3TechSolutions,

I believe in your dream, don't be scared of all the NEGATIVE replies here, this is the way the most of the KIDS reply here. Just go ahead and show them that there can be a solid peace of software for less.

I can't wait to see your BETA.

Good luck,

Henryk

M3TechSolutions,

Once you begin work on this I'd definitely be one to like to assist in beta testing, as I've done so with several programs (a couple currently and some in the past as well). Also are you intending on supporting other server plugins such as directadmin and the like with this (when you get to that point of adding billing support into it?).

I would like to know how you are going to start out against so many already established support desk software? Why on earth you would make it free (after you spent hard working hours creating it) is beyond me.

So im guessing your not a huge proponent of open source? Millions of hours get put into open source and free software ever year. Its quite successful if done right. I say make the software free, then charge for support. I myself am part of an open source billing solution that is in the middle of development. Maybe we could possibly integrate with each other?

Also, you mentioned that you were a group of php developers, would you not make a desktop client for the live chat and help desk? This is a definite must IMHO. Web support is of course needed, but having a desktop app can make things so much easier on the staff member.

A few things:

[1] If you think things can be done differently, go for it (and share with us along the way either through these forums or some development blog on your website)

[2] Open source software is great in many ways but there is the problem of accountability and stability. There are some projects that are quite stable (web applications - not software such as apache) and then there are some that are buggy and undocumented.

Roj

Nice reply Roj.

I hope this topic will give the new developers more motivation.

Guys, I appreciate everyones comments. Im going to work on a dev blog tomorrow, I am a little tired right now. I have alot of good Ideas that will be going into this. And I appreciate everyones help and suggestions, truley. Let me just give a little rundown of what I am aiming for with this software.


Muli-Platform Compatibility: Cpanel, DA, Helm, Plesk, etc. I will be starting with cPanel/WHM because it is the platform I currently use.
Complete integration: Helpdesk, Live Chat Support, Billing, Company Management. I will be starting with the Helpdesk and Livechat first, the other options will be added later on.
Complete Ease of Use for the Customer: I never want the customer to have to think about what they are doing. They know what they want to do and they can get it done without having to think about it.
All in one solution: I dont want you the admins and operators, to have to maintain multiple peices of software.

And also a few side notes:
-Yes there will be a desktop client for not only the helpdesk and live chat, but billing, server management, etc will all be accessible by this software. (This will be a little later released though. One thing at a time :) .) It will be developed for mostly windows platforms, but if anyone has any interest in a MAC or *nix based client let me know.
-Whether or not the software is free or not is still up in the air. This will be a big decision.
-LDAP will most likely be included.
-More to come. The blog and info about the software will be at project.m3techsolutions.com once its up. Like I said tomorrow it will be up. Umm otherwise until later.. Again I appreciate everything and I will let you know a little more later.

Well I think you should charge for it. It might be a hobby but if its gets to intense/boring having cash flow does make one work harder. The draw back will be having to give people priority support since they paid for it. If its a commercial app make it fairly abbordable (not too cheap). The new host market is huge and you might be able to fill in the void between free and insane expensive software.


You coudl give it away for free but charge for support.

Thats exactley what I was shooting for Evolver. :). I have no problem offering support for my software also. But we are leaning to charge for the app. Otherwise Give me a few more hours, I have some stuff to do first and then I will put that devblog up. Again project.m3solutions.com

Forgot to add this:

Control Panels I am Aiming for:
-cPanel * Primary
-Plesk
-Helm
-Direct Admin

Anyone like to see anything else?

Looks good, go register at http://www.forumuniversity.com sweet website for forums.

So I have since named this ordeal Project Greenleaf.... Yes not the best name in the world, but temporary. I will try to come up with a better name soon lol, or if you have a cool name you wanna give up, I will gladly consider it. Umm Worked on alot of the database and the gui last night, both coming out really good, imo anyway. Alright, just keeping you up to date.

Cody

Is it released yet?

I've the feeling that it died. But, I might be wrong (why did you dig up the thread to begin with? Just PM the guy.)

From my experience there are a couple of problems with most open source software, as follows (before blaming please note the MOST and not all part):

- Hard to use interface;
- Poor documentation;
- Poor support;
- (Last but not least) if you look at it most open source software suffers from the fact that a huge amount of people just want to collect the final work, they take the source and don't contribute back. Well, eventually, they create another application and sell it instead of making it open source.

Open source is great, just not perfect like anything else.

I'm not sure how succesful an open source helpdesk software could be by just charging for the support? How much would you charge for it so people can live from the project? Would that value be enough to risk the fact that someone can just copy paste the source and make a commercial version out of it?

Best regards

I dug it back up, because I found it in a search, and wanted to know what was happening.

I would say hosting industry has got many options in helpdesk software - but I am sure most of the companies are not happy with their billing softwares.

Someone like M3tech should think of billing software.

Considering the url in this thread doesn't work it looks like the project in question may have been scrapped.

No it is actually not scraped, it was just a crappy name(greenleaf).

I havent made any updates to the forums due to lack of interest, but I have come up with alot of really good ideas and if there is enough interest I will definatley start publicly developing it again.

Cody

No it is actually not scraped, it was just a crappy name(greenleaf).

I havent made any updates to the forums due to lack of interest, but I have come up with alot of really good ideas and if there is enough interest I will definatley start publicly developing it again.

Cody

Go for it, I'd like to see.

I was intrigued by this topic just because we're developing our own internal system. I guess at this point your project is not being publicly developed? I always like browsing other products whether they're finished or in development for inspiration. You should consider putting it out in the open again :)

Yah, I have still been working on it alot, but I just didn't see alot of interest in it, so I just really wasn't keeping it updated. But it seems like there was still a lingering interest from where I left off so I guess I will.

I'll be your beta-tester! :)

As I had mentioned earlier in this thread I would be willing to help with beta testing. I had thought this got left go as the thread was left dormant for so long.