EasyVista Service Manager is the New York company's ITIL / ITSM service solution.
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SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
ScoreĀ 7.7Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
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SolarWinds
Web Help Desk is ticketing and IT asset management software. It is designed to
simplify help desk management. This solution includes built-in ticketing
management, asset management, change management, and knowledge base
capabilities.
It is well suited for a service-based department, but it can sometimes offer confusion for non-technical users because of the amount information the form fields require. Most customers don't want to write the equivalent of a book to simply say that " I want to obtain a license of Adobe Acrobat and charge it to the department."
SolarWinds WHD is well suited if you have a limited budget, as it costs less than many help desk software packages that are more full featured and modern in their design. It is not well suited to an environment where you want to manage inventory, users, purchases and tickets all in one package. It has an asset feature that we don't use but that looks quite limited. We track our assets and users separately from this.
Documentation is very important for any technology department. We can easy attach quotes, screenshots of issues, or invoices so that any one looking at the work order once closed can see that the task was completed quickly or may require more resources if needed again.
Tracking the progress of your team is also important when considering pay scales or promotions. Reports help you see which employees are going above and beyond and those that are needing extra motivation.
Universities have to work as cohesive unit to be successive. Our customers tell is us what is needed for them to do their jobs and we are able to divide the work amongst our staff to continue the quest quickly.
Customized reporting allows us to track our service and support better, and find where we need improvements. This allows us to constantly upgrade our service levels and keep the customers happy.
Detailed tracking and response to the end users have led to quicker remediation of tickets. We are able to see where we need a better response or where to add additional resources for support.
Overall metrics allow us to staff properly for our tickets by location and remote users.
Customization without the need for lengthy contacts with tech support. Non-technical team members should be able to resolve malfunctions with the interface and its components.
A mobile app would make resolving work orders in the field easier. Without the need for a PC-like device to access the program. Many times, weather conditions are not kind to tablets. A cell phone is more reasonable.
Because of AD integration, users sometimes try logging in with their email address and not AD credentials. The user then calls stating they can't put a ticket in, it would be nice if there was a method of matching the AD Email field with a login.
Setting up new techs with the building they are responsible for can be a little messy
We are definitely going to be sticking with Web Help Desk for the foreseeable future since the product is very inexpensive for the features that it provides, the integration that it has with our existing systems, and the ease for managing users, assets, locations, and tickets. Web Help Desk is a great product that is backed by even better support, which is well worth looking into if you are considering moving to a new ticketing system.
The system has time and time again proven to be much easier to use and setup for both technicians and end users. It is simple enough to enter a ticket for end users, and even easier to communicate with logging back and forth because you can reply to the ticket emails to enter comments on the tickets. The technician side is a little clunky at first, but after looking at it for a few minutes it's very clear to see what you need to do to accomplish the goals. The mobile interface is snappy and responsive. It's a great product overall.
SolarWinds is a great customizable and affordable ticketing system. We use SolarWinds Web Help Desk for IT and Software Development trouble ticket tracking and resolution. The reporting that SolarWinds provides is great since it helps us discover problem areas and fix those areas so they don't keep reoccurring
Take the time to roll out a test VM to configure and make changes to before doing a live deployment, this way you don't end up with a VM that has been tweaked and re-tweaked until it's perfect and instead end up with a final, polished product. I would also recommend taking the time to read through the support forums for figuring out minor issues that may pop up, chances are that you aren't going to be the first one to encounter them. When all is said and done, SolarWinds Support is VERY responsive and you shouldn't hesitate to contact them.
There has been less downtime due to incompatible upgrade elements in our environment. EasyVista is takes hours not days to troubleshoot and resolve any functionality errors. Tech Support has been more helpful and reachable.
Web Help Desk is definitely lacking in the UI/UX department compared to most other ticketing systems I have used int he past. It's very utilitarian; however, what it lacks in UI it makes up for in extensibility and customization. The main issue that the developers need to address is the use of a Web Objects back-end.