One system instead of six
The price of point solutions is not the price of the tools
It arises wherever information travels by hand from one system to the next, and at the points where somebody forgets. 5sDesk keeps a customer request as the same ticket from the moment the email arrives to the billable hour.
The comparison by criteria
What changes in a small team's day when the customer record, task, appointment, time and help article hang off the same data rather than copies.
| Criterion | Six separate tools | One system |
|---|---|---|
| Handling a request | The email sits in the helpdesk, the customer data in the CRM. Whoever replies opens two programs. | The customer history sits next to the reply box. Known senders are attached to the customer automatically. |
| A task from a request | The customer's wish is copied into the project tool. The link to the email is lost. | One click turns the email into a card. The card knows its origin, and the ticket shows the card. |
| Arranging an appointment | An email chain of "Does Tuesday at 14:00 work?", then typed into the calendar by hand. | Booking link, free times from your own calendar, Outlook or Google, Teams or Google Meet link created automatically. The appointment sits in the customer record. |
| Tracking time | In the evening, from memory, into a separate tool. Goodwill is not recorded at all. | Timer on the ticket or the card, billable or not, while the work is being done. |
| Month-end billing | Gather hours from the helpdesk, the project tool and the time tracker and tidy them up in Excel. | Choose the period, company and billable. The export opens straight in Excel with nothing to tidy up, and every row leads back to the task. |
| A customer asks for an update | The answer is pieced together from four sources. | The customer sees the status in the portal, in three plain-language groups. |
| Cover during holiday | Part of the case is stuck in a personal mailbox and cannot be found. | The complete ticket with notes and customer history is in the system, and the stand-in reads from top to bottom. |
| Licences and upkeep | Six subscriptions, six user directories, six places to ask data protection questions. | One plan with every module, one provider, one hosting location in Germany. |
Evidence
One support case, played through once
This is what a ticket looks like when no system boundary stands in the way.
Step 1: An email becomes a ticket
It arrives in the service mailbox and gets a number, a department and a deadline. The sender is known, and the customer history sits in the sidebar.
Step 2: A reply with a help article
A matching article appears next to the reply box. The agent inserts it, adds two sentences and sets "Waiting for feedback" on sending. The deadline pauses.
Step 3: The follow-up question becomes a card
Part of it is development work. From exactly this email a card is created on the development board, due Friday. The card knows its origin.
Step 4: Time runs on the card
The developer starts the timer, works, stops it and marks the time as billable.
Step 5: Ticket closed, article published
The agent answers the ticket and closes it. The customer sees everything in the portal. Because the question kept coming up, the answer becomes a public help article.
Who one system is the right route for
5sDesk is built for teams whose customer communication runs by email and where requests turn into tasks, appointments and billable hours.
- Teams of 3 to 50 people who work several mailboxes together
- Service providers who track and bill time per customer
- Companies on Microsoft 365 that do not want passwords stored in third-party systems
- Teams where support, projects and sales look after the same customer
- Organisations that need hosting in Germany and a provider based in Germany
- Anyone who wants fewer tools, fewer subscriptions and less copying work
Features
The features behind it
Frequently asked questions
What are the actual drawbacks of point solutions?
Isn't an all-in-one system worse than the specialist tool in every area?
Can I run 5sDesk alongside existing tools?
One system instead of six. Starting today.
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