SolarWinds Service Desk Reviews

Pros

Through the central panel we can see each and every one of the computers that make up our local infrastructure in each of the dependencies (this includes desktops, laptops, printers all in 1, etc.), this means that we can validate their performance and detect when patches or security updates are required in any of them or in the operating system they have, It also allows us to monitor by means of risk management any activity not endorsed by the IT group, such as browsing on websites not authorized by the organization or installing applications within the corporate network, which derives in risk for the security of the equipment and the information contained therein, as well as detecting unlicensed software within the infrastructure, which would be risky for the IT team.

Cons

Normally the interactions with our IT help desk was a tedious process and in some cases delayed in the attention of incidents or requirements of some areas, SolarWinds SD has adapted within its interface a high degree of intuitiveness that is perceived by each of the users who interact with this tool for the creation of incidents and thus define or assign such requirement to the appropriate personnel in order to achieve a response in the shortest possible time, this ensures maintaining the level of service without any impact and the business process without striking alterations; Solarwinds SD so far has no negative reactions in our organization.

Pros

I like how easy the GUI is, editing the categories and assigning the ticket to a support tech is all very simple right from the first view. I also like how there is a quick view option where you can view the ticket without having to leave the screen.

Cons

We have an issue with Tasks. They cannot be changed once a service catalog item is ran which has made us have to create work around or create extra tickets in order for multiple people to work on one catalog item.

Alternatives Considered

Zendesk Suite

Reasons for Choosing SolarWinds Service Desk

We needed a friendlier GUI with more User integration.

Switched From

KACE

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

Cost to features were a big plus. We got everything out of the box with Service Desk that we need currently.

Pros

I like that, out-of-the-box, Samanage offers great core functionality with a stable product that ties neatly into a beautiful UI for the end users. The UI is where Samanage really knocks it out of the park though. It's modern, simplistic, "forum" layout is attractive and intuitive, and chat indicators on the tickets feels like your moving from a traditional email reply into a IM chat.

Cons

There's a lot to be desired when it comes to the fine details of the service. There are specific customization options for project management and ticket automation that aren't available that we wanted in our shop. When we reached out to our support member to discuss a possible addition/fix. They advised us to post our suggestion on their feedback board and if it received enough votes they would implement it. The same suggestion was found submitted over a year ago on the board (with over 300+ votes) yet no action was taken. I was hoping for a more, collaborative answer, instead of posting on a forum board in hopes that other members validate my need for them to implement it.

Pros

Ease of use and good value for money as well.

Cons

Some SolarWinds products may be resource-intensive, requiring significant hardware resources and system resources to run effectively.

Pros

Users can see where their requests are in the IT department's queue, and the department can stay organized. A revolutionary advance in Service Desk/Help Desk ticketing systems. Enabled IT support staff to generate user-specific support tickets with greater specificity. They all fulfilled different functions.

Cons

The SolarWinds app did not provide the end user with many options to create their own ticket. We switched to local JIRA because it used to avoid self-service.

Pros

Efficiency--There are so many things that can be updated from the main page that lists your incidents. Very easy to learn and to use.

Cons

Integration with Active Directory. We were able to setup Single Sign-On, but it wasn't as smooth as I would've liked. But it does work, so it's not really a con, just the complexity of it was a little more than the rest of the setup.

Alternatives Considered

Freshservice, KACE and SysAid

Reasons for Choosing SolarWinds Service Desk

The previous software was pretty clunky, having to go to several different screens to make different updates on the same ticket. With Service Desk, I can make many of those changes without even having to open the the ticket itself.

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

Overall, the user interface just seemed easier to navigate. The price was also better than the alternatives. All around, I just had a really good feeling about this software from the beginning. I actually chose this over the software that I had recommended initially.

Pros

SolarWinds Service Desk is an intuitive, robust and dependable service management platform. It is cloud based (big plus) and continually has new feature/functionality roll outs.

Cons

The mobile app could use some work, it is a little cumbersome from a technician's stand point.

Alternatives Considered

FootPrints

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

SolarWinds offered much more functionality and features as is more in line with what we were looking for.

Pros

Easy to deploy as it is a cloud-based system. Initial setup requires low effort and detail. Branding is easy to apply, functionality is easy to test out of the gate.

Cons

Information on asset discovery, connections, and scanners feels lacking. Connecting to SCCM via the database has very little information, and after a month of attempts, it is not functional. Support has been a bit slow on response when inquiring regarding this issue, even after purchase.

Alternatives Considered

JIRA Service Management

Reasons for Choosing SolarWinds Service Desk

The previous system was not set up or deployed correctly or completely within our company.

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

Functionality, especially with knowledge base management and self-service portal, is much better. The integrations with other systems promised also allows for much more expansion possibilities in the future.

Pros

Great inventory management, change management, SLA support, Contract management, infrastructure monitoring etc.

Cons

Data entry updates have to be done using a CSV file

Pros

Asset Management (Automate)
Cloud base management
Live chat

Cons

User interface not so good ( must improve this section )
Searching is not good improve it.

Alternatives Considered

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Reasons for Choosing SolarWinds Service Desk

before implementation of this solution we are using internally software for manage service desk and we had lot of issues.

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

we study and check all organization requirement, this solution cost effective and with positive user reviews. we use in trail and implement.

Pros

The ease of creating automated workflows makes the product easy to use and creates efficiencies by automating mundane manual processes. Having the ability to work, escalate and integrate tickets all from a single pane of glass is also a good feature

Cons

Reporting is a downfall for a majority of apps these days. While some of this is mitigated through the ability to filter and export list results, more functionality in reporting is needed.

Alternatives Considered

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Reasons for Choosing SolarWinds Service Desk

Cost, and functionality issues

Switched From

FootPrints

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

cloud based and better user interface.

Pros

To give some background, we took on IT services for a smaller company that was getting absorbed by us. While a lot of the IT foundations laid down were pretty flimsy or problematic, one thing stuck out as very well done. They were using Solarwinds for I.T. support and it was definitely a sigh of relief amongst the other mismanagement from before.

Everything such as device enrollment was pretty simple, the feature set for online client management was well-stocked, and my favorite was the ability to remote in without needing an external program to do so. We currently use Kaseya and it's just hot garbage, I sincerely wish we could move over to Solarwinds for our main company's IT helpdesk tools.

Cons

While there is a lot to like about this, some of the UI felt a little "cramped" from time to time. The feature set was nice, but what I was looking for was sometimes a tiny little button on a small option bar. Perhaps some buttons or icons of size would help streamline things, as this can also make training others more difficult, since the task options are easy to miss.

Pros

Ease of use, very intuitive. As described in the demos. Evertyhing worked as expected.

Cons

It doesn't know how to make me coffee in the morning, but other than that, it's hard not to like something that makes your life easier.

Pros

Amazing help desk ticketing system, it integrates with our two email inboxes for internal and external support. Our internal employees use one address while our external clients use the other. Everything goes into the same queue and are labeled and categorized appropriately. When we comment and attach documents on a ticket via Samanage, the requester gets a nicely formatted (and extremely customizeable) email with the details.

The other great thing is the asset management software, you install the agent on any company computer/phone and it gives you an immense amount of information and auditing capabilities. It will literally tell you the manufacturer and serial number of monitors plugged in (even the laptop LCD screen!)

Also, support is great! You can chat with someone whenever you want and they're very good about either answering right away, or researching the issue and following up later.

Cons

It costs a decent amount, and depending on how many administrators you have the costs can jump up. But I will say it's well worth it for all the features you get.

Pros

Ticket management is easy to use
Asset management works well
Ticket assignment function works well
Helpdesk monitoring is a great tool

Cons

A little cumbersome to set up, but once completed works great! Had some difficulty adding custom fields.

Alternatives Considered

ServiceNow Customer Service Management

Reasons for Choosing SolarWinds Service Desk

Needed more functionality

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

Easier to use for helpdesk team

Pros

Customizable and clutter free helpdesk
Customizable Reports
Outstanding Support
Supportive Community

Cons

I dont have any particular weakness in order. As I have used it throughout the years I have become appreciative of how the interface is designed. Its clutter free and lets me do my work

Pros

We've had great support from day one. The support team answered all of my questions about features when we trialed the system, and they've continued the great support after we officially signed up.

There are also improvements made to the platform all the time.

The platform offers way more than we use it for, but it's affordable and it's something we can grow into over time.

Cons

Some basic features are missing. For instance, I can't set the system up to alert the entire team when a trouble ticket is closed. This was an important feature on our old service desk, as it let the team know when someone else sorted out an issue. This also helped share solutions among the team. Now, when a ticket is closed, it simply disappears from queue without team learning.

The emails that are sent out can't be branded, and the customization of the emails is very limited. It's nice to be able to open tickets via email, but I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of customization.

Some sorting/filtering options don't seem to work properly. Tickets always sort by ticket number by default - not by status. This can't seem to be changed for some reason.

Pros

It is easy to use and implement, manage and upgrade.

Cons

Well, customer service was not easy to reach

Alternatives Considered

JIRA Service Management

Reasons for Switching to SolarWinds Service Desk

Cost

Pros

Samanage agent to track assets, Jira integration for service desk

Cons

Reporting. We couldn't set up the reports any way we wanted so currently have to manually go in weekly/monthly to pull the data we want from lists instead. I wish we could customize the reports and set up the schedules to eliminate the manual steps.

Pros

easy to implement, easy to build your own knowledge base repository. Support is quick to respond.

Cons

Updates can be tricky, there is no "Test" environment to test if your data and configuration will work as you expect. So when they update you its trial by fire. Fortunately they have been pretty good about responding to any issues that have arisen.

Pros

I felt that SaaS was the way to go with an incident management system, and I've not been disappointed. We experienced just a few brief outages in the years when I was the administrator. There has been decent integration support for the features I've been using. I appreciate that the nomenclature follows closely with the ITIL definitions (Full disclosure: I am no ITIL expert, but from what I can tell, the effort was made to align with ITIL processes)
I liked the feedback system with users. We were able to achieve a customer feedback score right at 98% positive in FY 2017.... most important thought was that it was measured and that the 2% who were unsatisfied could leave feedback as to why.

Cons

Tasks integation with the other front-line features was basically non-existent. There were a few suggestions that I provided on how to improve the software... in each case we got rapid feedback on the suggestions... but when the feedback is 'we aren't doing that.' it is about as useful as never hearing anything back.

Pros

That it allows for customization, and it keeps everyone on the team in the loop with how issues are handled. It also allows everyone on the team to see if another team member may need help with one of the issues that they are working on.

Cons

I haven't really found anything to complain about yet... every time there is an issue the customer service people are spot on to help resolve whatever I have found.

Pros

I am using this application since last 2 years & I found that real time alert triggering & Search feature is superb.
We can easily find any required data using this app if it is available in its database & if it is configured.

Cons

So far, I found no reason which I can share as a low-light for this app. Nothing which I can mention as a dwarback for this app.

Pros

I love that we can track time, open rates, add project and task users (for feedback) and attach files. This is an essential tool for my job.

Cons

Sometimes the task setup is confusing for submitting new tickets. There is a lot of setup needed in the backend that the average user won't know or see so that has to be handled by someone or taught.

Pros

The ease of use was the best part. It was easy to set up users, make bucket queues for sections and move tickets to other sections as needed. Some systems I've worked with you couldn't move tickets to other queues is they were misrouted.

Cons

Our module was super basic and support for it was nonexistent. It was one of the biggest reasons for us switching to JIRA for service desk/incident management.