Snow License Manager vs TOPdesk

In large organizations where control can be exercised over the computers and the range of the software estate is not clear, Snow can be employed with great benefit, easily identifying applications currently in use and determining over-purchase and under-purchase. In BYOD scenarios, Snow would be less effective since the organization has no clear way to control which applications scanned by the Snow agent belong to the user and which to the organization. Perhaps limiting installations to a virtual realm on the devices employed (VMs or virtual appliances) would make it possible, but this would require significant planning on the part of the IT in such scenarios.

This is the most complete software I've reviewed and we purchased that allows customization and growth but is stable and rock solid in regards to team support. I don't have anything bad to say about Topdesk. We've used it for over 4 years and not only can we measure where the work is, where support is needed but also team stats on where we can look at efficiencies in support

• It can track if a software has been used and report back for utilization review.
• It can monitor and alert on license and contact expiration, which helps eliminate the human factor with manual reminders.
• There is a lot of flexibility in the software to handle your license information.

• TOPdesk provides a clean and modern interface for all of its modules. Many of the modules have a similar look and feel, which makes it easy for users to utilize each one.
• Its workflow system allows administrators and developers to define what needs to occur when certain events happen. This can ensure that processes happen in the correct sequence.
• TOPdesk includes a vast API system to allow for external systems to integrate with it, and for TOPdesk to communicate with external systems.

• I would like to be able to see unidentified software products in the admin user web pages, and not just on the server tool.

• Sometimes it is clunky to assign something to a specific person, unless you know the dept. that person is in.
• If your dashboards are not configured correctly, its very hard to find work assigned to you.
• The search function is only skin deep, unable to pull information on what was said in the ticket.

We have a multi-year contract and plan on keeping the database growing with our inventory. Techs are getting used to it and seem to like the ease of use and reliability of the cloud system. We have never seen it go down before and maintenance windows have been short and easy to work around.

No SAM software could get a ten because all have deficits, but Snow is one of the best. Its low local device footprint and non-obtrusive scanning permit calculation-intensive applications to run unimpaired. Its reports are helpful for management, IT, purchasing, and license managing departments. SLM's trouble recognizing plugins and addons running in another application space and an, at times, clumsy SMACC prevents an evaluation of 10, but it is worth an 8 in any event. I doubt any other SAM software would reach the same level.

Sometimes I think some things are hard to find. I often do not know if I have to search in Settings or in Modules. In some cases the user has to do a lot of clicks for example to link a key to a user. Something could work a little smarter.

Like I said somewhere else in this review: the helpdesk of TOPdesk is top of the bill! In the Netherlands, that is. I can not plea for the helpdesks in other countries, but I guess the TOPdesk organization will make sure the quality of the helpdesk is the same in every country.

Although being a SAAS solution, TOPdesk performs pretty fast. One can imagine that any SAAS solution is slow or has hiccups, but we have not experienced such with TOPdesk. Pages load quickly, logging in goes smoothly. We have made reports on premise in the past - that always took some time, as you might expect with such complex tasks. It seems that in the SAAS solution TOPdesk somehow has managed to make it even faster!

TOPdesk is easy to use and affordable with all the major features required for any organization to smoothly manage its services. We were not quite sure at the beginning if we should go with the TOPdesk for IT service management but we started getting used to it in just a few months. Now, after using it for 3 years, it has been a backbone tool of our organization. The customer support provided by TOPdesk is fast and reliable.

The training was short but effective. 1 day to train key users

Simple training, Just to know the basics

SAAS implementation on our end could not be done by TOPdesk due to the fact that they do not offer it. Ask directly from the beginning for support from a SAAS specialist.

The deciding factor for the decision makers was the combination of license management and utilization statistics. Our desktop people wanted the utilization and reporting to be very granular and close to real time. Snow was purchased because they promoted their real time utilization in addition to the license management, alerting and reporting. To my knowledge, only Snow was given a proof of concept before the decision was made.

We used to use Maintenance direct - it also had limitations in what we were able to utilize it for. The biggest thing we did use if for was utilities. I'm still working on the comparison to the TOPdesk Utility module to see if it fulfills our requirements from a reporting and financial standpoint. We selected TOPdesk over the Maintenance upgrade due to it being more user friendly and we could focus our time on getting things completed rather than setting up users and monitoring their activity. The ability to put TOPdesk on mobile devices for the technicians has been huge for us. We can do real-time work order assignments while they are in the field. Our old system did not do this.

In connection with invoicing the various companies and departments, we have split these up within td. This is easy to get arranged.

• SLM saved almost $1,000,000 in software acquisition costs in its first year.
• SLM allowed for reducing the number of different applications in use, i.e., consolidation and simplifying IT management.
• SLM had become a valuable planning tool for software acquisition.

• This year we moved to a unified hardware budget where IT now orders all assets from our budget. Asset management is key to that goal. TOPdesk has enabled our department to move forward with of Computer Lifecycle program of replacements.
• TOPdesk did come with a cost, we went from using the free Spiceworks solution to a paid solution with TOPdesk. But I firmly believe the benefits outweigh the cost.
• We had started to have stability issues with our old helpdesk solution. With TOPdesk I have had no downtime and by it being cloud-based we no longer have to have onsite servers.