What is a cloud-based ticketing system?
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Traditionally, managing customer support has meant grappling with complex and expensive IT infrastructure. Maintaining hardware and software needed for customer support help desk platforms can drain your resources and inflate operational costs.
After all the time and money spent, these help desk solutions can still be inflexible, hard to scale and challenging to update. As a result, you are left with a frustrated support team, ineffective support ticket resolution and decreased customer satisfaction.
Cloud-based ticketing and helpdesk systems are an effective alternative to traditional customer support systems. They offer a scalable, flexible and accessible platform for managing customer support without the costly infrastructure and complex setup.
We explore how adopting a cloud-based ticketing solution can help focus on delivering exceptional customer service without the technical hassles. Let’s begin by understanding what a cloud-based ticketing system is and how it works.
Key Pointers
- A cloud-based ticketing system is a business software that combines cloud computing with help desk systems to empower support teams to address and resolve customer issues.
- There are many types of ticketing systems: Cloud-based, web-based, on-premise, enterprise and open-source.
- Cloud-based help desks are cost-effective, easy to set up and update, offer scalability, higher uptime and exceptional mobility.
What is a cloud-based ticketing system?
A cloud-based ticketing system is a support ticket and help desk system that runs on a cloud computing platform and can be accessed via the Internet with any web browser. It is usually maintained by a third-party service provider and is offered to your organization as a software as a service (SaaS) solution.
With cloud-based ticketing systems you do not need to set up servers and IT infrastructure to create, access, and manage support tickets. You can subscribe to the remotely hosted system by paying a monthly or yearly subscription fee and start using it immediately.
Cloud-based software solutions are easy to use, but that is only part of what they offer. Let’s see why businesses are making cloud-based ticketing systems an integral part of their support operations.
Why does a business need cloud helpdesk ticketing software?
Businesses need cloud helpdesk ticketing software to improve customer satisfaction, as it equips customer support teams with capabilities like centralized communication, SLA management, and AI-powered automation. These help with quicker resolution of support tickets, resulting in better customer experience management.
Some of the key functions that cloud ticketing systems help you with are:
- Managing tickets by creating, categorizing, and prioritizing support tickets from multiple channels to respond to customer inquiries promptly and reduce wait times.
- Using automation to handle routine tasks without errors. This frees up support teams to focus on complex support issues.
- AI-powered customer interactions and providing customers with AI-based resources for self-help to empower customers to find solutions to simple problems and reduce the load on your support team.
- Collaboration between various support and internal teams through shared inboxes, internal messaging, and assignments. This ensures that issues are handled by the right teams for accurate solutions.
- Comprehensive analytics of your support data to help you proactively improve your product and processes.
What are the different types of help desks?
There are many types of help desks and ticketing systems that organizations can choose from. To understand cloud-based ticketing systems better we must look into their non-cloud counterparts and the features they offer. The most common types of help desks are:
1. Web-based help desks
Web-based help desks are similar to cloud-based solutions and are accessible through a web browser. However, instead of being installed on the vendor’s cloud servers, it is installed on your organization’s servers. This means that while you can access the system from any location using a web browser, the responsibility for maintaining the servers, updating the software, and meeting security requirements falls on your internal IT team.
2. On-premise help desks
An on-premise help desk is installed and runs on your company’s own servers and IT infrastructure. Access to the ticketing system and help desk is limited to your organization’s internal network. While some systems allow you to set up remote access, you would need additional configurations like VPNs, firewalls and authentication systems.
3. Enterprise and internal help desks
Enterprise help desk software is a system that can handle high volumes of inquiries for large organizations with complex support needs. They support multiple channels, extensive reporting, and integrations with multiple business systems. Most enterprise help desks integrate external support for customers and internal help desks for employees. Some organizations may choose to use separate internal help desks to provide support to their employees.
4. Open-source help desks
An open-source help desk is a solution where the source code for the software is available to the public. You can access this source code, modify it to meet your organizational needs and put it to use. Open source help desks offer you flexibility to alter the codebase, add new features and use integration. However, the set up process can be complex as you would need high-level technical expertise and knowledge of programming languages within your team.
Cloud-based helpdesk vs. on-premise helpdesk
The main differences between cloud-based and on-premise helpdesks are: cloud-based solutions require less setup, store data on vendor servers, and offer high-speed performance, while on-premise systems demand technical skills, complete data control, and significant infrastructure investment for optimal results.
Here is a closer look at the differences between cloud-based helpdesk and on-premise helpdesk:
| Aspect | Cloud-based helpdesk | On-premise helpdesk |
|---|---|---|
| Installation and upkeep | Minimal in-house technical expertise is needed as the cloud provider manages the infrastructure, maintenance, and updates. | Requires technical expertise to install, configure, and maintain both the hardware and software. The IT team must handle all updates, security protocols, backups and troubleshoot issues |
| Data security | Data is stored on the provider's servers and you may have limited control over your data. | Offers complete control over data security and storage. However, this can be expensive and time-consuming to set up and maintain. |
| Performance and latency | Utilizes distributed server networks and content delivery networks (CDNs) provided by the vendor to ensure high performance and low latency. | Performance can be limited by the availability of IT infrastructure within your organization. To achieve high-performance and low latency, you would need to invest in high-end servers and networking equipment. |
| Industry suitability | It can be adopted in industries that prioritize agility, flexibility, and remote access and need rapid deployment of advanced features. For example: e-commerce, technology, and education. | Best suited for industries with stringent data privacy, security, and compliance requirements. For example: healthcare, finance, and government sectors. |
Top 5 benefits of a cloud helpdesk software
While on-premise solutions provide complete control over data security, the increased costs and complexities make cloud-based solutions more practical. Cloud-based ticketing systems also offer higher performance and are suited for industries that need more agility. These are not the only benefits of cloud-based helpdesk systems. Let’s explore five additional advantages that set them apart from other systems:
1. Time-to-value and cost-effectiveness
Cloud based solutions accelerate your time-to-value as the deployment is rapid as you do not have to worry about hardware or complex installation. The subscription-based pay-as-you-go pricing plans eliminate the large upfront costs associated with other types of help desks where you have to purchase and maintain both hardware and software components.
2. Updates and access to new features
The cloud help desk provider manages all updates so that you have access to the latest features. This allows cloud-based helpdesks to incorporate features such as automation, AI-support and more. With other types of help desks and ticketing softwares you need to update your systems manually and delaying these updates can cause vulnerabilities in your system.
3. Scalability
With traditional on-premise solutions, you would need additional investments to increase support volumes. Whereas with cloud-based systems, you can easily scale up or down based on your current needs without overhauling your infrastructure. A cloud helpdesk adapts to your needs without compromising performance or reliability.
4. Uptime and recovery
Cloud providers typically guarantee high uptime percentages as their infrastructure is spread out across multiple data centers. This allows them to quickly switch to backup servers if issues arise and minimize downtime, keeping your support activities uninterrupted. On-premise and open-source help desks are more susceptible to downtime if you do not have adequate backup infrastructure. This results in delayed ticket resolution.
5. Mobility and compatibility
Lastly, cloud-based help desks are incredibly mobile and accessible from any device with an internet connection. The best cloud softwares in the market are made to give you a consistent experience across devices. This means your team can work remotely, respond to customer inquiries on-the-go and maintain high productivity outside the office. Remote access is particularly limited with on-premise help desks.
Switch to Cloud-Based Support for Better Customer Experience
Cloud computing is at the helm of digital transformations across industries and is expected to generate $3 trillion in value globally by 2030. You can also benefit from cloud-based help desks to create better experiences for your customers, improve satisfaction and increase revenue.
When selecting a cloud ticketing solution, ensure that it:
- Offers necessary features to meet your support needs like multi-channel ticket management, automation, AI capabilities, and collaboration tools.
- Integrates with your current IT infrastructure.
- Includes a comprehensive ticket management tool for timely and accurate resolution of support tickets.
- Provides in-depth analytics to proactively improve your products and processes.
DevRev is an AI-native, cloud-based customer support and ticketing solution that has an intuitive interface with advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to give your customers an efficient solution for all their queries while driving innovation through proactive issue resolution.
DevRev’s AgentOS makes use of AI agents to automate responses based on large language models (LLM) that draw from your organization’s knowledge base to give customers accurate and personalized solutions. DevRev’s Support App combines real-time analytics, artificial intelligence and powerful automation, to help your team resolve support tickets effectively to improve customer satisfaction.
Try DevRev for all your customer support needs today!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, most cloud-based ticketing systems are designed to integrate with other software. However, the extent of this integration usually varies based on the vendor. Cloud-based support ticket system solutions like DevRev’s Support App offer exceptional integration capabilities with snap-ins that use server-to-server, API, and data integrations to give you an uninterrupted workflow between all of your systems.
Cloud ticketing software usually offers subscription-based pricing plans. You can purchase monthly and yearly subscriptions. You can also choose from different pricing tiers based on the size of your organization and the features and functions you need. This type of pricing ensures that you pay only for what your organization needs and enjoy the flexibility to discontinue when you need to.
Yes, cloud-based ticketing systems can be accessed from multiple devices. Unlike on-premise help desks that can only be accessed in-office, team members can access cloud-based ticketing systems anytime and work from anywhere. Cloud help desk softwares facilitate better cross-team collaborations, especially for teams that are spread out globally or follow a hybrid work model.
