Spiceworks Help Desk vs. Symantec Server Management Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Spiceworks Help Desk
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Spiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management. The Spiceworks Network Monitor provides information on observed IT for problem tracking and server performance monitoring. And finally, the Spiceworks Help Desk Software lets IT personnel stay on top of issues across the network with a ticketing system. Help desk roles with role-based…N/A
Symantec Server Management Suite
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
The Symantec Server Management Suite is an option for automating the management of servers and deployments.N/A
Pricing
Spiceworks Help DeskSymantec Server Management Suite
Editions & Modules
All Tiers
Free
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Spiceworks Help DeskSymantec Server Management Suite
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Spiceworks Help DeskSymantec Server Management Suite
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Spiceworks Help DeskSymantec Server Management Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Spiceworks Help Desk
7.4
54 Ratings
6% below category average
Symantec Server Management Suite
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets7.453 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory5.646 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications7.241 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation6.444 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.153 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response8.752 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Spiceworks Help Desk
7.3
51 Ratings
6% below category average
Symantec Server Management Suite
-
Ratings
External knowledge base8.847 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base5.947 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Spiceworks Help Desk
5.3
51 Ratings
37% below category average
Symantec Server Management Suite
-
Ratings
Customer portal6.145 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR4.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration3.126 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support8.045 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration5.027 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Spiceworks Help DeskSymantec Server Management Suite
Small Businesses
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Auvik
Auvik
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
IBM Instana
IBM Instana
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
IBM Instana
IBM Instana
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Spiceworks Help DeskSymantec Server Management Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(82 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(29 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Spiceworks Help DeskSymantec Server Management Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
It's a great helpdesk solution - we currently have five years of data within it, roughly 25,000 tickets. The older edition is a great inventory and software license tracking tool. It is easy for users to use the interface and submit tickets and requests on the web, and its email integration is solid. The new version is a below-average system monitoring tool, only giving up/down status and a few other metrics.
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Broadcom
The SMP suite is great at what it does, but it can be very complicated to learn how to get it to do what you want. It's a beast! However, when you learn how to the things you want to do, it comes as second nature and you complete them like they're supposed to be done that way. A lot of these things are done to be able to be completed a number of different ways. Take Patch Management, you can deploy patches automatically, via Jobs, or via the "Start Software Update Cycle Now" link in the SMP Agent!
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Pros
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
  • We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
  • Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
  • Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
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Broadcom
  • Software deployment through policy
  • Engage with customers for feedback
  • Understands the future needs of customers
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Cons
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
  • It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
  • Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.
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Broadcom
  • The SMP solution is a beast. Each piece is complicated in itself let alone how everything ties together!
  • There is plenty of documentation online on how to perform a specific task, but you need to pay attention to what VERSION the article is written for. I've been halfway through implementing something only to hit a roadblock since I'm running a newer version and the option the article says to click on doesn't exist anymore...
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Likelihood to Renew
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks is a free tool, so there would be no hesitation if we are required to upgrade it. We have installed Spiceworks on a dedicated server with more than enough resources to get the most from this tool, so we will have this running in our department for years to come.
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Usability
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks is user friendly and easy to set up. It can be customized to suit your needs. If there are any problems, you can go to the community forums for support and be in contact with many IT Pros, as well as the Spiceworks support staff and development teams who are always happy to help users out
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
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Broadcom
The decision to use Symantec was not my own but I believe it competes well against other products such as SCCM offering more features.
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Return on Investment
Spiceworks Ziff Davis
  • Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
  • Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
  • Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
  • Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
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Broadcom
  • Being able to report on the majority of things you want all from one interface, makes it really easy to get the results you want.
  • Because my employer didn't provide training, it took working with support, reading technical documentation, and just playing around on my own to learn how to do certain things.
  • I've had a lot of help from the SMP Support staff and they're great people and very helpful!
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