IBM Maximo Application Suite is an enterprise asset management (EAM) platform.
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SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
Score 7.9 out of 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.
IBM Maximo Application Suite is well suited for organizations looking for an application to track their end-to-end procurement and supply chain process. It can also be used for billing services, but that would mainly be for services provided as part of a work order, not voluminous customer billing. IBM Maximo Application Suite allows us to have one application where someone from procurement can input contracts and details, someone from any various department can create a requisition and superiors can use automated workflow to approve a purchase order, and someone at an operations location can receive and store materials. Subsequently, someone in the field can submit their hours and material used and it be approved via automated workflow for an invoice to be created. Payment functionality is possible, but we did not implement this aspect of IBM Maximo Application Suite. To note, throughout the process, interfacing can be set up to send transactions to your general ledger. As far as interfacing, IBM Maximo Application Suite also offers tools and configuration to set up endpoints. We have been able to set up REST APIs and request/responses without heavy involvement from developers. This is a nice bonus if integrating with multiple applications.
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.
Delivers Out-of-Box solutions for various industries without the need for customization and configuration
Modules and Applications are well developed and linked in an orderly way, with proper documentation and help guides that allow end users to start using the system with ease
Powerful Work Management, Contracts, Inventory, and Purchasing applications and features that are a better match to other ERP applications today
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.
Hard to implement. A high number of resources and manpower is necessary to implement and upgrade IBM Maximo due to its robustness and number of functionalities.
Version fragmentation. Due to the challenge imposed by a version upgrade, it is common to find systems relying on legacy versions of Maximo which might become a challenge for the support team.
Unfriendly UI. The excess of functionalities and services available might become a challenge for a starting user. Although it is possible to customize the UI to fit the exact needs of each user, it is important to map exactly what each user needs.
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
The versatility, strength, and value that IBM Maximo adds to our company's asset management procedures. The platform has greatly increased operational efficiency and asset performance by streamlining jobs, automating procedures, and offering customizable solutions. Furthermore, IBM's constant assistance and updates have been crucial in meeting changing company requirements. Though there's always potential for improvement.
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 gui screens in IBM Maximo Application Suite are not overly cluttered with options to click and navigate to new areas. That is, the display is more of a layout of fields that the user can either input data or just interpret what is on the screen. For those in IT, there is even a feature (press Alt+F1) that will show you the exact table and column of any field selected.
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.
I have regularly contacted IBM Support to report issues and raise requests for issues we face during project implementations. The response from them has overall been good and to the point, and they get back to us within a day or 2 and guide us through the process of fixing it or providing an interim fix of the product
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.
As a computerized maintenance management system i do not have experience of any other system. The only experience I have is for Maximo and it works excellent for me. I am using many modules available in Maximo and all of these modules are almost fulfilling all of my business needs.
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.
