Archive for October 28th, 2008

Open Source Help Desk Software

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

Service Management is the new hype in both local and global companies. It is all about delivering services that support business needs instead of just showing them how to use file sharing and outlook. Service Management requires Help Desk software among other things to be able to register support requests, incidents, change, and problems and so on. These software solutions are most often very expensive and quite cumbersome to configure. For global organizations, an expensive service management solution could be the way to go, because they will be dependent on vendor support, but for smaller ITIL based organizations, open source help desk software is adequate and much cheaper. One of the best solutions is a PHP helpdesk system that can be modified to fit almost any organization and since it is open source, it is the PHP programming language that sets the limit for how much you can customize the software. If you already have a PHP based intranet and have experience with either ITIL 3 or ITIL version 2, this software is very easy to implement and can be managed by a single employee.

If you are in need to a service management product that are not open source but still cheap, I suggest you look into Heat Help Desk. Because of its price, easy of use and customization options, this tool is a very good competitor to the open source selections.

A small help desk resume can quickly provide you with an overview of what the top choices are when implementing a new help desk solution. The choice of tool is very dependent of your organizations size. A very large global company with thousands of employees would probably choose a tool like HP Service Manager while a small or medium sized company should stick to Heat Help Desk. Browse the market a bit and make you own decision of which ITIL tool to pick.

Picking the right Service Management tool

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

There are many choices available when looking for a service management tool and it can be very difficult to determine ITIL requirements. Many companies are moving to ITIL 3 these days and most of the tools on the market, only supports ITIL version 2. This is the main reason why most companies, decide to change their tool.

Many organizations think it is important that the tool they choose is ITIL version 3 compliant or if it is only suitable for version 2, but when choosing Help Desk software, you should look into how much you can customize instead of it being compliant with ITIL 2 or 3. If you are able to customize your tool the way you want it, you can make your Help Desk solution fit any version of ITIL.

Depending on your current implementation and size of you company, many should aim for a open source help desk. This typically means you can customize it as much as you like, since it’s the programming language that sets the limit and not the features in the actual product. One of the best free help desk solutions are called HESK and is a PHP Helpdesk solution, ready for implementation with your existing PHP intranet. The service management software can be modified almost without limitation and since its you that are designing it, you can save a lot of costs by not needing expensive vendor training.

If you are a mid-size company and looking for are more proven software with vendor support, you should take a look at the software called Heat Help Desk. This is one of the cheapest, yet very customizable and easy service management tools on the market. This software is very easy to implement and for smaller companies, it can be managed by a single employee.

A help desk resume, describing the best choices is easily found on the internet. You should read a few of the recommendations and decide what fits your company.

How To Find A Job Online

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

How you find a job now in 2008 is a lot different than it was 15 or so years ago. I still remember hand delivering my typed resume to different companies that I hoped would hire me. Today, that is almost unheard of as you need a computer and you need to know how to use it to go online and apply for jobs.

In today’s world of job hunting, you better know how to have your resume submitted to all the top free job search sites. There are dozens of national and local job web sites that employers regularly use to recruit new employees and getting familiar with them is to your advantage.

My wife might be considered a pro at finding jobs online as this is her 5th job in the last 5 years. She seems to always be looking for another job either because she is forced to look due to downsizing, or she is hoping to find something that pays more. She has a variety of resumes that are all slightly different to send out for different types of jobs that she might be interested in. They are all on her computer and in the right formats for the job websites.

Employers look to hire through these free job sites and getting your resume on them is a must if you are serious about finding a job. You need to log onto these job websites and search for jobs that interest you. Once you find some you then need to submit your resume online to them and hope you get a call back.

Often times you may get a response from a recruiter first and not someone from the company itself. The recruiter’s job is to screen potential employees to see if they are indeed worth interviewing. If you pass that interview, which is almost always done over the phone, you will then move on to an interview with someone that actually works for the company you applied to.

That second job interview may also be done by phone and may also be done by someone that is just screening you to see if you are worthy to actually get a real in-person interview. It is not easy to get a job now, that’s for sure! If you are lucky to have survived and actually be granted an in-person job interview, it may take you one, two, or even three more interviews before you are actually offered a job. Of course, the higher the job level the more interviews you will probably have to contend with. If you are interviewing to be a night guard, you will probably have to have two interviews total at most.

All of this starts with the many best job web sites that you need to familiarize yourself with. If you are a professional white collar or executive type, or hope to be one some day, you should make sure you know how to get your resume online and have it in the proper formats. You need to know how to look for, find, and apply to the different jobs that you will find at the job websites. If you don’t know how to do all this then your chances of finding that dream job goes up in smoke. Everything is done online now days and those of us in the workforce have to adapt or get left behind.