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Microsoft System Center vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Microsoft System Center

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft System Center is an enterprise-grade IT Operations Management (ITOM) suite designed for the centralized administration of data center infrastructure, virtualized environments, and hybrid cloud workloads. The platform provides unified management across heterogeneous environments, including support for Windows Server, Linux, and Azure Stack HCI. System Center is Microsoft's ITOM stack for organizations that maintain a significant on-premise footprint, vs the company's Azure-based…

    $1,323

    per month

    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AServiceDesk Plus is free help desk software from ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corporation.

    $10

    Starting Price Per Month

    Pricing
    Microsoft System CenterManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Editions & Modules
    Standard Edition
    $1323
    Datacenter Edition
    $3607
    Standard
    $10.00
    Starting Price Per Month
    Professional
    $21.00
    Starting Price Per Month
    Enterprise
    $50.00
    Starting Price Per Month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft System CenterManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft System CenterManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    7 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    33 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    7 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    31 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    21 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    28 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft System CenterManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Microsoft System Center and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Feature
    Microsoft System Center
    -
    Ratings
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    7.5
    22 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.022 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings6.015 Ratings
    Service restoration00 Ratings7.217 Ratings
    Self-service tools00 Ratings7.020 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.716 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings8.818 Ratings
    ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings7.520 Ratings
    ITSM asset management
    Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Microsoft System Center and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Feature
    Microsoft System Center
    -
    Ratings
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    6.1
    17 Ratings
    28% below category average
    Configuration mangement00 Ratings6.616 Ratings
    Asset management dashboard00 Ratings6.516 Ratings
    Policy and contract enforcement00 Ratings5.212 Ratings
    Change management
    Comparison of Change management features of Microsoft System Center and ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Feature
    Microsoft System Center
    -
    Ratings
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    6.8
    18 Ratings
    22% below category average
    Change requests repository00 Ratings7.717 Ratings
    Change calendar00 Ratings5.813 Ratings
    Service-level management00 Ratings7.016 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft System CenterManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    SysAid
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Ivanti ITSM
    Score6.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft System CenterManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.3
    (58 ratings)
    9.0
    (22 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    8.4
    (5 ratings)
    7.7
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft System CenterManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Microsoft
    For companies with more than 10 Windows devices and needing to standardize the OS, AV, access, share resources, and install software. SCCM is the way to go. This software is unnecessary if the business is all remote users and not in an office-type setting. There are cloud offerings or none to accomplish what a business needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    We use the free version, it allows up to 10 technicians to be added to the system, but that has never been an issue, as we are a small team. The functionality and usability of MESDP are great and can work with larger teams too. It is well suited to be used as a main Ticketing system, and this is not limited to IT only, I am sure other teams that need to keep track and log issues will be able to utilize MESDP without any issues. There is a self-service portal as an option, however, we do not use it as of yet, as there has not been the need for it. If you would need to use the same instance within multiple departments, this may be a bit tricky to achieve, as there is no easy way to limit visibility to tickets from other departments, however, I am sure there is a way around it.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Microsoft
    • Allows the grouping of devices by user.
    • Allows controlling updates being deployed to user devices.
    • Allows for the repurposing of machines by being able to load new or updated software on machines that already are in the system.
    • Allows us the ability to wipe a machine clean and restore it back to the configuration that was assigned the machine.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • It is very easy to create business rules that automatically route email tickets to the correct department and apply templates to correctly categorize the incident.
    • The technician auto-assign function allows email tickets to be fairly apportioned using a round robin technique. We do not cuurently use the load balancing technique which is also available.
    • It is very easy to bulk edit requests to correct miscatergorization by Analysts. (i.e. Incidents vs. Service Requests)
    • Coordinating communications and notifying ticket holders when a network or application event is resolved is very simple.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Microsoft
    • The product could improve in the area of having better mechanisms in place with how the SCEP client is deployed/installed from the server on the management side. We have run into this firsthand with the client not installing on an endpoint, and then having to take the time to investigate why it was not installing.
    • A second improvement that can be made is to keep trying to improve the products detection rate for finding malware/viruses. The case can be made that there are some products out there that do a better job at this and have a higher detection rate.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • Reporting tools; the report features can be a little limited, it can be quite tricky to get the information you want displayed in detail
    • You can set required fields within the ticket template, which should mean the user has to complete them before they can submit the ticket, however this often doesn't enforce correctly
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Microsoft
    Microsoft System Center Operations Manager is tightly integrated to Microsoft Windows servers os monitoring with great product support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Because this is the best tool, we have given ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus a rating of 9 out of 10 because it provides a good overall IT service management experience, especially for ticketing, asset management, automation, and reporting. It has helped us organize IT support processes and improve visibility. For ticketing.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Microsoft
    It is not user-friendly for the most part. With IT infrastructure, sometimes it cannot handle excess requests. Every few months, you will need an upgrade in terms of server resources to keep up with incoming alerts and requests. This does not happen all of the time, but it does happen when there are too many requests.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    As any other feature-rich software package, starting out with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has a little bit of a learning curve, but it usually doesn't take very long until you can use the basic features. Training new technicians on the use of the software does not take very long, and for users to submit tickets it is as easy as sending an email.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Microsoft
    There is a fair amount of documentation out there to help you when you have questions or run into issues with this product as well as tutorials on some of the more common tasks. Between the documentation and the overall ease of use we haven't had to deal with direct Microsoft support for this product.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    I have a few issues with MESDP and even though we use the free version, the support staff was very quick to respond and extremely competent and helpful. Luckily, I have only had to use them a couple of times over the 2.5 years I have been using their product, but they strike me as very competent, friendly and helpful, regardless of the version of their product you use.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    Easy to install with intuitive interactive interface during the installation process a and integration to MS SQL was smooth
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Microsoft
    We previously used a mix of FOG and Clonezilla to image machines. The biggest issues with these products is that changing one piece of the image required you to rebuild the entire image itself. These pieces of software also did not allow you to manage applications and Windows Updates, causing IT to have to constantly touch machines after they were imaged and update or manage them with a much more hands on approach.
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    Spiceworks was free, which obviously had both benefits and limitations - I will say that the community around Spiceworks has always been great. If we could replicate that experience with the ME user base, it would be terrific.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Microsoft
    • It has allowed the enterprise to standardize on a single platform for monitoring.
    • Easier troubleshooting of issues with Microsoft platforms.
    • Greater visibility of issues across platforms when applications are hosted in a mixed environment.
    • Additional costs for monitoring systems that are not directly supported with additional packs (iSeries, Linux on Power).
    Incentivized
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    ManageEngine A Div of Zoho Corporation Pvt Ltd
    • The tool does not scale well from an ROI perspective. As you add a customer, you must add a new instance, hence a new license.
    • The tool is probably on the expensive side (34,000 USD per 130 technicians per year).
    • There is no usage beyond incident, change, and problem management. The CMDB feature is extremely limited and cannot generate additional ROI. There is no knowledge-base or integration with other software (other than ME Desktop Central).
    Incentivized
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