Free Web Help Desk Software: Liberum

Liberum Free Open Source Web Help Desk Software

Is this free web help desk software for real? The Liberum project is open source web help desk software for free. I've checked it out for you!

Liberum Help Desk is a web-based application for managing support requests with in a small business or organization. It is written for ASP in VBScript/HTML and runs on Windows NT/2000 with IIS utilizing NT or database authentication.

System Requirements

Windows NT/2000/XP with IIS 4.0 or higher (or MS SQL Server)
1 MB of hard drive space for web pages
5+ MB of hard drive space for database
A web browser

My Impressions

I have tested Liberum's free software against the following areas, where I grade them with stars, 1 thru 5 (more is better):

Functionality: I look for useful functions rather than a lot
Customizability: If you need to align your tool to your business, you'll probably need to customize the tool
Ease of use: A helpdesk tool must aid, not hinder, the support process
Speed: Any customer service rep that had to wait on a system while talking to a customer, understands the "need for speed"
:-)
Reliability: You need a tool you can trust, with data integrity, and that works when you need to

The Score

Functionality
Although not very extensive, Liberum does have a number of useful functions. It has an automatic mail function, and users can enter and track problems themselves, which is a plus. And it has a (simple) knowledge base, which is filled with solutions from the problem resolution. **** 4 stars.

Customizability
As Liberum is open source, you can take it and fully customize it to fit your needs. You do, however, need VB/HTML/ASP knowledge to do this. And time, of course! ***** 5 stars.

Ease of Use
The software "as is" is pretty easy to learn. I like its simplicity. **** 4 stars.

Speed
Liberum worked quickly and well with MS SQL Server. They state themselves that this choice improves performance, so performance may be a little bit less with IIS... ***** 5 stars.

Reliability
The system worked well, I just found this bug: If you click back after saving a user, and then click save again, the same user name is created. I saw this bug already reported, so I guess it will be fixed in the near future. **** 4 stars.

Conclusion

If you are looking to build your own web-based help desk software, Liberum is a great starting point! Even "as is", it has some outstanding features, and you can completely customize it to fit your needs. You need a server, however, to run the software.

**** I give Liberum 4 stars out of 5.

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