-
Research
and Publications
Current Issue
May/June 2013
EDUCAUSE ReviewPublications
-
Conferences
and Events
Annual Conference
October 15–18, 2013
Register now!Events for all Levels and Interests
Whether you're looking for a conference to attend face-to-face to connect with peers, or for an online event for team professional development, see what's upcoming.
-
Career
Development
EDUCAUSE Institute
Leadership/Management Programs
Explore MoreCareer Center
Leadership and Management Programs
EDUCAUSE Institute
Advanced Programs
Project Management
Jump Start Your Career Growth
Explore EDUCAUSE professional development opportunities that match your career aspirations and desired level of time investment through our interactive online guide.
-
Focus Areas
and InitiativesLatest Topics
EDUCAUSE organizes its efforts around three IT Focus Areas
Join These Programs If Your Focus Is
-
Connect
and ContributeFind Others
Get on the Higher Ed IT Map
Employees of EDUCAUSE member institutions and organizations are invited to create individual profiles.
-
About
EDUCAUSE
Live Chat Software
SMALLCOL Digest - 7 Feb 2012 to 9 Feb 2012 (#2012-18)**********
Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
Greetings,
We would like to implement Live chat software that could be used by our admissions and/or financial aids office for interacting with prospective students. Have any of you already explored and/or implemented software of this type on your web site? If so, I would be interested in knowing which products moved to the top of your list that I could begin to compare/contrast to find something that would work for us.
Thanks,
Mark Franz
VP of IT
Fontbonne University
Recommend
Comments
We are using Live agent http://www.qualityunit.com/liveagent/chat/
This is a low cost program that has worked well for our low usage. We have about 8 users on the system at any time.
We did pay the extra branding fee, but there was no lifetime updates option at the time. Next time we need an update we will have to figure that out.
Be an Internet Skeptic! There's nothing really free on the 'net
Utica College and other reputable organizations will never use email to request that you reply with your password, social security number or confidential personal information.
James Farr
Information Security Officer
Instructional Technologist
Utica College
jfarr@utica.edu
315-223-2386
James Farr
Before investing in something, you may want to try some lower cost or free live help software packages to see how it is accepted by your staff and constituents. We tried this a few years back and it never really took off.
Crafty Syntax is open-source and freely available from here: http://www.craftysyntax.com/ It doesn't have the best graphical interface but has good functionality.
If you wanted to try something with a better interface but still cheaply priced, Live help from Stardevelop is less than $200. http://livehelp.stardevelop.com
It has a decent interface and the cost is pretty cheap.
Good luck,
Reid
Reid Guanti
Director of Computing Services
Goucher College
Dale Hochstein
We are running a demo of Kayako Engage. It is awesome. They offer heavy higher ed discount pricing as well. It can be cloud hosted or on premise. One of the features we like the most is the built in screen sharing and remote desktop with no client installation necessary.
http://www.kayako.com/products/live-chat-software/
Tim Cappalli, ACMP CCNA | (802) 626-6456
» tim.cappalli@lyndonstate.edu | oit.lyndonstate.edu
From: The EDUCAUSE Small College Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SMALLCOL@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU] On Behalf Of Dale Hochstein
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10:16 AM
To: SMALLCOL@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Subject: Re: [SMALLCOL] Live Chat Software
Saint Peter's College is using Google Chat.
Dale Hochstein
Ellucian
CIO, Saint Peter's College, 104 Glenwood Avenue, Jersey City, NJ, 07306, W-201-761-7827,dhochstein@spc.edu
We use java chat room software by spectral chat rooms http://www.spectralchat.com ... they gave us a lifetime "premium" membership because we are an educational est, you need to contact them for the upgrade but must be hosted on a .edu domain to get the upgrade for free.