KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) vs. N-able MSP Manager

I think it has added value for any organization. It reduced our Tech Support cost by: -Supporting users anywhere -Reducing users downtime as well keep them informed with the status of their tickets -Managing software and hardware actively -Processing automation -deploy mass software installs, patching or updates - Provide approved software's to users to install without IT help

Incentivized

It's a good company to grow with because as needs change there are more features available.

Incentivized

• Inventory: KACE provides a ton of hardware and software inventory information that is easy to search, filter, and export. This is critical when we need to find the answers to questions about how many of such and such we have in our fleet.
• Patch Management: We were using WSUS before and it was altogether too cumbersome. KACE has given us the power, flexibility, and verification we need to feel comfortable our patches are up-to-date.
• Service Queue: We made KACE our help desk system and it does everything we need it to do. Great improvement over our old system.

Incentivized

• Web Based
• Automated Ticket creation

Incentivized

• The KACE SMA needs a better way to handle different roles in the software so certain users can access or administrate certain parts of the software, but not the entire software installation.
• The KACE SMA could improve the ticketing process of projects. The aspects of the title and some information do not always flow down from the parent ticket to its child tickets.
• The KACE SMA could improve the UI of the software with the addition of different CSS color schemes.

Incentivized

• It is just simply too slow! The web interface requires patience, even when moving between tabs or menu choices. This is by far the biggest detracting element of MSP Manager.
• Input customization -- I would like the settings pages to allow me to customize some input screens, especially the Ticket Entry window. The "Quick Ticket" entry is missing a few key items I want in a trouble ticket, and the full ticket entry window has numerous fields I never use or are always the same, and so it just takes more time and effort than is necessary.
• Both the asset tracking and the knowledge base should be more robust and integrally tied into the RMM console, so that licenses, serial numbers, procedures, network data are quick and simple to access from either interface.

Incentivized

Overall, the software is simple to understand and use. That said, most vendors have been slowly updating their user interfaces to HTML5 so that they have a clean updated look and feel. This is where KACE falls short in that the UI is great for a packaged software 10 years ago. This isn't a major limitation as the software is really meant primarily for technology users.

Incentivized

KACE does exactly what you need it to do, it maintains your computer environment. You can set patch schedules, inventory computers, setup software catalogs; basically everything you need to ensure the computers on your network are being actively managed. This is all with little need for constant configuration or updating the setup.

Incentivized

They're good at resolving issues when they arise.

Incentivized

We have selected this software because it rolls several different systems into one. We have a helpdesk system with this and an asset and inventory management system as well. We pay one price for the whole system instead of paying multiple companies different amounts that would have totaled more than we pay for the single system.

Incentivized

MSP Manager is a fully serviced paid option. Spiceworks is a free helpdesk. They both are very useful, but a company can just outgrow Spiceworks.

Incentivized

• KACE has saved us from having to spend several days of employee hours in crafting DVDs and duplicating them (100+ DVDs)
• KACE has saved us on the postage required to send out those DVDs for every update (monthly) to all of our customers electronically

Incentivized

• We have had to spend time and resources to create our own reports, as MSP Manager does not have them.
• Searching for a ticket requires scrolling, wasting time

Incentivized