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Microsoft System Center vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)

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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

    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)

    Score6.1 out of 10
    N/ASolarWinds 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.

    $533

    per year per user

    Pricing
    Microsoft System CenterSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Editions & Modules
    Standard Edition
    $1323
    Datacenter Edition
    $3607
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Microsoft System CenterSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—SolarWinds also offers Perpetual licensing starting at $1129 per technician.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Microsoft System CenterSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Considered Both Products
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    SolarWinds
    Chose SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    UI overall was poorly implemented and work flow seemed wonky at best. Ease of use of SolarWinds Web Help Desk was simple and implementation was a breeze. Major plus was asset tracking over old product.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    91%
    Would buy again
    31 Answers
    89%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    33 Answers
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    91%
    Happy with the feature set
    31 Answers
    78%
    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
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    28 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    Features
    Microsoft System CenterSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Microsoft System Center and SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Feature
    Microsoft System Center
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    9.2
    20 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings8.020 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings8.014 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings9.817 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings9.014 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Microsoft System Center and SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Feature
    Microsoft System Center
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    8.0
    9 Ratings
    0% below category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings7.07 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Microsoft System Center and SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Feature
    Microsoft System Center
    -
    Ratings
    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    9.2
    10 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings9.78 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Microsoft System CenterSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Microsoft System CenterSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.3
    (58 ratings)
    6.8
    (20 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    8.4
    (5 ratings)
    6.8
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (14 ratings)
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Microsoft System CenterSolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)
    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
    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    SolarWinds
    • 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.
    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
    SolarWinds
    • 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
    • I would like to see the UI updated. It looks old, even in the latest releases.
    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
    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    I give it this rating based on my experience with SNOW which I would rate lower because it is so difficult to find anything in SNOW. It might be better with more time to configure but we "had a box to check" and it met that requirement and I haven't had time to refine it.
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Microsoft
    Easy to install with intuitive interactive interface during the installation process a and integration to MS SQL was smooth
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    SolarWinds
    • Amazing impact on our Organization, we are much more organized since we implemented SolarWinds Web Help Desk
    • The ROI is in the statistics! The application cost pennies to run compared to what the product will do for your organization.
    • I challenge you to find a better product for the price!
    • Our documentation has improved since we implemented SolarWinds Web Help Desk
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) Screenshots

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