Halp vs Troopr: Which Slack Ticketing System is Right for You?

What is Troopr?

Troopr is a product of Troopr Labs Inc, an established SaaS company offering a targeted Help desk solution for Slack and Jira customers. Troopr directly connects Slack to existing ticketing system (JSM) and Wiki (Confluence) to offer Slack first ticketing experiences.

What is Halp?

Halp is a product of Atlassian, an Australian software company that develops products for software development teams. Halp provides a Slack ticketing solution that works in chat platforms. Halp connects Slack to Halp Ticketing System which in turn connects with existing ticketing systems (JSM, ZenDesk) and Wiki (Confluence).

Troopr vs Halp Solution

Halp is its own ticketing system which also has some integration with Jira Service Management. This means that any ticket created from Slack using Halp is first created in the Halp ticketing system then replicated into Jira. This is fine if you are looking for an easy to use ticketing system like Halp ticketing system. However if all you want is to integrate with Jira, this could be an expensive overhead.

Troopr on the other hand is a direct Slack integration for Jira (Software or Service Management). Troopr is purpose built for Slack and Jira so has deeper integration with most Jira functionality. For example, when creating tickets in Slack, Troopr automatically pulls the request types and form fields from Jira. In case of Halp you will have to map them manually per request type.

When it comes to automatic answering from Wiki knowledge base, the differences in capabilities are similar in that Troopr integrates directly with Confluence to pull matching articles to suggest. However in the case of Halp, you have to manually sync your Confluence spaces to Halp's Answers product and then have them suggested in Slack.

The duplication of data from your Jira and Confluence to Halp systems may be more than a minor implementation detail for some, so that is something to consider.

Feature Comparison

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Request Mapping

Troopr automatically pulls relevant Jira fields to be updated from your Slack forms.

Halp requires manual setting up of Jira field for each queue

Customization

Troopr comes with pre-set default behavior for your Slack channels. However, Troopr gives you free-hand in customizing the product behavior to suit your needs completely. With Troopr you can customize everything- from issue cards to channel behaviors.

Emoji actions

With emoji actions, Troopr lets people in your Slack workspace to use multiple emojis to create or update Jira requests from Slack.

Halp’s Recipe Builder option allows you to manually setup and trigger specific actions in Slack “if this, then that” workflows based on common conditions. It also contains a few default recipes.

Approvals Management

Troopr allows users to send approval requests in Slack, to avoid missing important updates. Since Approvals are time-sensitive actions, Troopr delivers actionable notifications to prompt concerned users when required. To ease the process further, Troopr further allows one click response for approval of requests.

Halp does not support Approval requests at the time of this writing.

Actionable Insights

"Troopr Report" can analyze and take action on insights directly in Slack channels. Troopr offers 8 different formats for you to generate reports for in depth analysis. Using Troopr, you can generate both illustrative as well as graphical reports and take any issue action or update any field directly from Slack.

Halp lets you record the metrics for analyzing team productivity. Halp displays a visual dashboard on the web for users to view and customize their report. However Halp does not have a way to send any of these reports to Slack.

Customizable Notifications

Troopr allows you to completely customize the way you receive notifications with options like Channel preferences and Personal Preferences. You can also use a JQL filter along with the choice to set frequency, format, project and events. Troopr lets you avoid constant disruption in work by tuning notification preferences according to your wants.

Halp is optimized to deliver ticket updates via notification. It also sends email updates of ticket status to requester and follower of tickets. Halp users may find duplicate notifications as Slack also notifies the users via a thread notification.  By changing the Subscriber Notification setting to "Only notify when not a thread participant" users can avoid this duplication.   

Automated Nudges

Troopr proactively monitors potential SLA breaches, pending tickets by assignee etc. and nudges the team to take action.

Halp monitors and notifies users in case of SLA breaches. Users can additionally enable notifications and configure settings to be notified on a specific time before potential breach.

Customer Feedback

Troopr actively records customer satisfaction reports and updates your Jira to aid you comprehensively.

Halp records CSAT data for its ticketing service, however it is not updated in Jira Service Desk.

Automated Deflection

Confluence is a web based corporate wiki product by Atlassian. Teams use Confluence to share knowledge and collaborate. Troopr integrates with Confluence Cloud or Server or DC hosted versions. Users are also given the option to vote on the suggestions presented by Troopr bot to record and improve answers for future use. When a user query is not solved through the above methods, users may create a ticket for unanswered requests with Troopr offering JSM- Confluence integration.

Halp uses ‘Answers’ to build internal knowledge wiki of FAQs. Users need to create answers in the Answer library. In the Answer modal, you then need to add  Answer's title, text, and all key phrases associated in the summary. When any answer is created, Halp automatically pulls a few relevant keywords from the text and also allows users to edit or add in their own keywords. Users with pre-established internal wiki, can add a new Answer in the Halp web view with the URL linking to desired piece of content. Users can also mark relevant Slack messages with book emoji to turn them into Halp answers.

Ideal use cases

Halp works best for teams that are looking for a simple standalone ticketing solution that can work well with Slack. Troopr works best when you are a growing company that requires a mature ticketing platform or an existing enterprise already invested in Jira Service Management and/or Confluence. Troopr also works with smaller teams that use the free version of JSM.

Both Troopr and Halp have IT teams primarily as customers. But both the solutions scale well for Ops, HR and Business teams.

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Halp as a replacement for Jira

Halp is a modern lightweight ticketing solution best suited for small teams with a simple workflow. If you are in the market for a new simple and easy to use ticketing solution, Halp fits the bill. It has to be considered that when your team’s needs grow and you need to scale your ticketing solution, you may have to consider a more mature product like JSM again.

If your organization is already using JSM, you could be considering an easier alternative like Halp for better adoption. A solution like Halp is also cheaper and easier to manage. However migrating away from JSM comes at a cost. It takes time to complete the implementation of the new ticketing system, migration of data and training the team for the new workflow.

An alternative to a complete rip and replace approach is to use a plugin like Troopr that works on top of JSM while solving for engagement and adoption challenges with the JSM ticketing workflows.

With Troopr you can continue to use a proven ticketing system while completely transforming the way your IT Teams deliver support.

Conclusion

JSM is a product of Atlassian, an established name in the ITSM space with over 83% of Fortune 500 companies using their products. Slack is a product of Salesforce, an established name in the enterprise applications space with over 90% of Fortune 500 companies using their products.

With Troopr you get a Slack based Slack ticketing solution that builds on the capabilities of JSM’s proven ticketing platform. To choose Troopr is choosing the best of both worlds and a future proof ticketing solution for your organization that both your employees and stakeholder will love.