Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. A "note" can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten "ink" note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notes can be sorted into folders, then tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched and exported as part of a notebook. Evernote supports a number of operating system platforms (including OS X, iOS, Chrome OS, Android, Microsoft…
$7.99
per month
IT Glue
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
IT Glue, a Kaseya company since the December 2018 acquisition, is an information management platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation an organization needs to help their MSP run better. By integrating PSA and RMM data, the vendor says they can help increase efficiency, and reduce onboarding times.
Evernote is an excellent tool for keeping track of client relationships and taking notes. The indexing is excellent, with text in images and text. However, a Wiki might be better for large-scale collaboration. It is a perfect use case for it, and it is hard to beat. To-do lists that need to be tracked or have due dates assigned do not work well in Evernote. It's almost like a library that anyone can add to, edit, tag, and reference. Evernote has a limited checklist function in terms of tasks meant to be kept in one place rather than reviewed and organized over time.
It is best suited for an MSP but it is also best not suited for an MSP. It is well suited for folks with a minimal knowledge of a client and are attempting to learn what they can. Perhaps just bumbling about and can find the same thing consistently. At my particular work, we pay somebody full time to manage the system. I feel this is unnecessary.
The UI has been set up perfectly, there is a sub-menu for every possible bit of information you wish to store.
There are a number of excellent features such as the autohiding passwords and quick searching from anywhere on the page.
The recent addition of the IT Glue is also an excellent feature, it features online self-guided courses to become a certified IT Glue user.
You can create and group custom documents together.
IT Glue can be integrated with a number of platforms such as Autotask.
IT Glue also integrates well with N-Central to automatically populate the configurations tab with all the relevant Workstation, Printer, and Server information making client on-boarding a breeze.
Like many other MSPs we had the majority of our SOPs and KBs in Word docs. The best case scenario would be to simply drop those files directly into ITG without having to import them into the ITG documentation format. The import function is so broken as to not be an option because it completely ruins formatting and tends to drop images. Thus we have to manually copy/paste text and individually upload each image.
They marketed the product as having true branding but that is stretching the truth. SSL is not an option so client-facing documents will give security errors in browsers. ITG does not appear to be concerned about this even though security is a major concern for all MSPs.
I can't really imagine how much they'd have to charge me to make me quit Evernote. I can't really think of any technology that has changed my life as much without going back to email in the 90s, or the introduction of the iPhone. I know I sound ridiculous, but it would be really tough for me to live without it. If I were forced to choose between my smart phone (and keep in mind that I get lost in my driveway) and my Evernote, I'd probably choose my Evernote.
Basic visual organization - ability to create a notebook and store user notes inside of it.
Basic easy navigation - You can quickly move in and out of files and notes.
User intuitive addition - whatever you need to add to your document, it's relatively easy to understand and use.
We find overall that we still want some functionality in creating better task lists, boards, and other things that we find in Notion - which is the tool that we use as a team notebook/storage space.
Easy to train and use. Everything is in the same place. Multi factor authentication and access from anywhere make secure and convenient. Can do my job with out it. It also has a free read and paid write option for the client. We up sell this option making it a money maker as well.
Generally issues are by connectivity and not Evernote availability but I have had issues in the past with cross-client consistency of data which Evernote Support has ID'd as bugs that are still unresolved as far as I know
Other than a few access outages, ITGlue is always up and available to us. Their ability to export Playbook, that contain our customers data, and securely send those over to them is amazing and are produced pretty fast. We have IT Glue linked with several other services and software and we have not found that it slows anything down.
I bet you won’t even need to call their support. Their product has never failed me. Simply put. But if you were to email them to gather some details or help, I bet they won’t disappoint you. Don’t worry about the support, it’s the last thing you should worry about this product.
No problems with support when needed it. Their answers on how to handle DR/BC situations when ITG is down are not stellar. They don't seem to get the business risks of their suggestions to just give the xls backup to engineers (aka give all passwords of ALL clients to engineers in an unencrypted flat-file where it is easy to copy, print, etc.)
Make sure you think about your tags. If you end up with multiple similar tags then things aren't grouped together as you might prefer. For instance if you have a tag called Disney and Walt Disney, this will split up your articles. Evernote makes it simple to correct, but I suggest you make sure your users look closely at the existing tags before creating new ones.
The most similar program I have used is OneNote by Microsoft, and other note taking programs exist like Notepad and Microsoft Word but those programs do not offer syncing like Evernote does. There are newer programs in the space like Dropbox Paper and Google Docs which would be on a list of ones to consider.
We chose IT Glue particularly because it's tailored to IT documentation. As a managed IT service provider, it's perfectly in line with what we were looking for. The flexibility and tagging in particular were the kind of features we were looking for. Confluence is very good, and can be used for a number of things, not just IT documentation, but IT Glue shines for that.
Evernote has allowed our school's over 3000 students and staff members to work more efficiently instead of spending time on making physical notes, clicking pictures, and uploading them to the cloud in order to share them
The investment in Evernote Premium has also allowed for heavier files to be attached in each note such as student work that allows teachers to be certain that students have followed deadlines and finished assigned tasks
Evernote has allowed our school to smoothly transition in and out of online learning as the local COVID-19 protocols change and student work requires one platform to be based on throughout
