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Cherwell Software was founded by the former CEO of FrontRage Solutions and is a full suite of service management tools competing with BMC Remedy, ServiceNow, and IBM SmartCloud.Cherwell Is OK If You Have a BabysitterWe used Cherwell as our central IT ticket tracking system across the entire university. It was also used in a minor setting to track room usage by some departments, but its main function was IT ticket submission. We had several positions (help desk phone calls, lab technicians, etc) that used Cherwell portals we designed to submit issues only, and these issues would escalate where appropriate to other departments like ours. Cherwell addressed the void we had of not having a central tracking system for IT issues. We used to only use emails for work assignment and tracking for all faculty and student IT problems. This was meant to replace that entirely.,After proper training on setting up the views and servers, Cherwell did a good job separating various department ownership of tickets. Our work views weren't cluttered with irrelevant information. There is a lot of information that can be embedded into tickets. Such as sub-task assignments that could contain almost the same information as a ticket itself. Lot of customization options. Custom personal dashboards were nice, once I figured out how to do it. Not everyone wants to see things the same way as other people, and being able to move touch points where you want is always a plus.,While I understand that a lot of customization can be up to an organization, the platform was always a huge pain when going beyond the installed client. The web client and mobile app were very problematic and clunky, locked up frequently. My university was 50% Windows/50% Apple, and there's no Apple client. The built in remote control capabilities on tickets for client machines didn't play well with our active directory. We always just used a different program. Error handling could have been much better. Accidentally assigning ticket items to "non-existent" resources could crash the client. Such as if the resource was removed before a worker's view was refreshed. Tickets can go into limbo very easily, and seemed to require more development than it should to protect us from doing that. This is because there's a lot of different ways to do the same thing. Too many touch points all over the place in the UI. Too many ticket priority options. Clients could be assigned personal higher priorities through VIP status, tickets could be given their own priorities that conflict with client status, and SLA deadlines could assign other conflicting priorities. There were more but these were the most problematic if you're using Cherwell in a situation where you have limited developer time to nail down all the inconsistencies every day. There was an arbitrary time tracking feature on tickets that attempted to gather data on how long certain resources took, but because the UI was very cumbersome this was more of a pain to do and was very inaccurate of the actual work it takes to do certain things.,4,As with any standard ticketing system, it helped decrease the time before first contact with clients. Our department was always concerned with keeping a low budget, and it was cheaper than most. My supervisor could easily tell how many resources were being put into each employee, so we had more visibility of our team's capabilities at a given time if we needed to take on something complex.,Slack and TaskRay,Slack, TaskRayCherwell-A useful ticketing systemCherwell is used mostly by our various Information Technology teams, as well as a few other departments that are project-based. It has solved several business problems, such as the process for when a new employee starts, when someone leaves, or changes positions. The tasks that are implemented in Cherwell allow for several technicians to work on one problem that involves many pieces. We hope to eventually use it for ongoing projects as well.,Allow a ticket to be put on pending when it can't be resolved within the SLA Create a task for when another technician needs to assist with the ticket, for something out Allow you to email customers through portal without giving your personal email out,Sometimes comments made on a ticket do not generate emails to the technician who owns it, and they will not know there is an update from the customer without checking it Sometimes I will see an error pop up when copying text but it can easily be closed Sometimes the time-out window for staying logged in does not appear on top of other applications so I will not know it's logging me out,9,Cherwell can reduce the amount of duplicate tickets entered by allowing you to search what's already open Cherwell's tasks can allow accountability for other teams to do their piece of a ticket before closing yours Cherwell's user portal makes it easy for users to enter their own tickets,,Ivanti Endpoint Manager (formerly LANDESK Management Suite), Microsoft Office 2016, Adobe Acrobat DCProduct meets basic needs.It is used campus wide. We use it mainly to manage/tracking technology and physical facilities incidents and delegation of work..,I really like that when repetitive requests come in we can create a problem ticket and then communicate with all requesters under one incident. I like the flexibility in being able to add journal notes, assign tasks and one having one place to look for all information on a project. It's simple but I like that we can attach documents.,I would like to see more project management aspects incorporated. The ability to track progress on a timeline/graph. We've customized a template for office moves but are limited in the number of steps it will track before I need to add another incident. I want the contact information to be more robust so that multiple people can be added to an incident and e-mailed at once instead of having to type in names in emails over and over again. Resolution description is buried in the e-mail template that we send.,5,The largest ROI has been documentation of work and increasing staff productivity.,EMS Software, Moodle, Ellucian Advance, Google Drive, Microsoft 365 BusinessEase of Ticket TrackingWe use Cherwell Service Management in our organization to manage Help Desk tickets and assign them to the appropriate group and person in our IT Department. Cherwell Service Management is also used to track computer and other IT Services property inventory, where it is, who has it, the costs that are associated with it.,Ticket Tracking Asset Management Communication between IT Groups,Sometimes it can be slow The search function can be confusing Editing of email templates is not easily apparent,7,Previously, our helpdesk manager solely used email to track ticket times, assignments, etc. But that results in a lot of emails that can easily be lost. Cherwell puts it all inside of an app, and all emails are sent from the generic helpdesk email. Cherwell makes it much easier to track tickets, and collaborate with team members as well as other teams Cherwell Asset Management ties into Cherwell Service Management to keep track of node numbers and what is being used,,Jamf Pro, Bomgar Remote Support Software, Symantec Ghost Solution SuiteComplicated and not intuitive, but largely reduces workloadCherwell was used across our entire organization as a method to address user help tickets and to organize our service desk. It helped create a workflow so that help tickets were properly routed and flagged depending on severity, collecting all of the proper information and details. It also helped create an organized service desk website so that users could adequately find the information they needed, reducing labor on our end, while also alerting us of common problems so that we could increase efforts on our end to provide enough information to users so those problems didn't arise as much.,Cherwell's ticketing system does a great job of following a designated workflow. Consistency is important for any organization. Cherwell allows for customized workspaces, so a user can see the things that are relevant to them. This cuts down on time it would take to sort through tickets in order to find what is relevant to a particular user.,Cherwell would often crash, both on logging in or in the middle of entering a ticket. This was extremely difficult and time-consuming on my end. While it was possible to customize a workspace, the method for doing so was not intuitive. There was not a large help or training source to draw from in order to better oneself at Cherwell.,5,As a Blackboard support specialist, Cherwell reduced by tickets by half because tickets were being properly routed and the correct information gathered. Cherwell gave us the ability to prompt users to look at the resources they already had, if it was something easy, which helped reduce our workload.,DocuSign, Slack
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Cherwell Service Management
51 Ratings
Score 7.4 out of 101
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Cherwell Service Management Reviews

Cherwell Service Management
51 Ratings
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Score 7.4 out of 101
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David Crawford profile photo
December 07, 2018

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell Is OK If You Have a Babysitter"

David Crawford
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We used Cherwell as our central IT ticket tracking system across the entire university. It was also used in a minor setting to track room usage by some departments, but its main function was IT ticket submission. We had several positions (help desk phone calls, lab technicians, etc) that used Cherwell portals we designed to submit issues only, and these issues would escalate where appropriate to other departments like ours.

Cherwell addressed the void we had of not having a central tracking system for IT issues. We used to only use emails for work assignment and tracking for all faculty and student IT problems. This was meant to replace that entirely.
  • After proper training on setting up the views and servers, Cherwell did a good job separating various department ownership of tickets. Our work views weren't cluttered with irrelevant information.
  • There is a lot of information that can be embedded into tickets. Such as sub-task assignments that could contain almost the same information as a ticket itself. Lot of customization options.
  • Custom personal dashboards were nice, once I figured out how to do it. Not everyone wants to see things the same way as other people, and being able to move touch points where you want is always a plus.
  • While I understand that a lot of customization can be up to an organization, the platform was always a huge pain when going beyond the installed client. The web client and mobile app were very problematic and clunky, locked up frequently.
  • My university was 50% Windows/50% Apple, and there's no Apple client.
  • The built in remote control capabilities on tickets for client machines didn't play well with our active directory. We always just used a different program.
  • Error handling could have been much better. Accidentally assigning ticket items to "non-existent" resources could crash the client. Such as if the resource was removed before a worker's view was refreshed.
  • Tickets can go into limbo very easily, and seemed to require more development than it should to protect us from doing that. This is because there's a lot of different ways to do the same thing. Too many touch points all over the place in the UI.
  • Too many ticket priority options. Clients could be assigned personal higher priorities through VIP status, tickets could be given their own priorities that conflict with client status, and SLA deadlines could assign other conflicting priorities. There were more but these were the most problematic if you're using Cherwell in a situation where you have limited developer time to nail down all the inconsistencies every day.
  • There was an arbitrary time tracking feature on tickets that attempted to gather data on how long certain resources took, but because the UI was very cumbersome this was more of a pain to do and was very inaccurate of the actual work it takes to do certain things.
Well suited if you have people dedicated to developing the views and back-end C# client, and if you work in a more silo type environment.
Read David Crawford's full review
Robbie Speers profile photo
November 28, 2018

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell-A useful ticketing system"

Robbie Speers
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Cherwell is used mostly by our various Information Technology teams, as well as a few other departments that are project-based. It has solved several business problems, such as the process for when a new employee starts, when someone leaves, or changes positions. The tasks that are implemented in Cherwell allow for several technicians to work on one problem that involves many pieces. We hope to eventually use it for ongoing projects as well.
  • Allow a ticket to be put on pending when it can't be resolved within the SLA
  • Create a task for when another technician needs to assist with the ticket, for something out
  • Allow you to email customers through portal without giving your personal email out
  • Sometimes comments made on a ticket do not generate emails to the technician who owns it, and they will not know there is an update from the customer without checking it
  • Sometimes I will see an error pop up when copying text but it can easily be closed
  • Sometimes the time-out window for staying logged in does not appear on top of other applications so I will not know it's logging me out
Cherwell is good at tracking tickets put in by customers for short and longterm use. It is easy to close a ticket quickly when you are finished, but some tickets will take longer and that's what the pending status is for.

Cherwell may not be suited for longterm projects, ones that take months or over a year to accomplish. Our team hasn't integrated the feature yet so I can't speak on how well it works.
Read Robbie Speers's full review
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October 18, 2018

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Product meets basic needs."

Verified User
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
It is used campus wide. We use it mainly to manage/tracking technology and physical facilities incidents and delegation of work..
  • I really like that when repetitive requests come in we can create a problem ticket and then communicate with all requesters under one incident.
  • I like the flexibility in being able to add journal notes, assign tasks and one having one place to look for all information on a project. It's simple but I like that we can attach documents.
  • I would like to see more project management aspects incorporated. The ability to track progress on a timeline/graph. We've customized a template for office moves but are limited in the number of steps it will track before I need to add another incident.
  • I want the contact information to be more robust so that multiple people can be added to an incident and e-mailed at once instead of having to type in names in emails over and over again.
  • Resolution description is buried in the e-mail template that we send.
I think it's great if you want to track simple incidents and tasks for workers. It's a great tool for management if workers have access to technology when they are working. It is harder for employees who do not carry personal devices with them or have to track down a computer to resolve or track journal notes.
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Andrew Breyen profile photo
July 09, 2018

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Ease of Ticket Tracking"

Andrew Breyen
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Cherwell Service Management in our organization to manage Help Desk tickets and assign them to the appropriate group and person in our IT Department. Cherwell Service Management is also used to track computer and other IT Services property inventory, where it is, who has it, the costs that are associated with it.
  • Ticket Tracking
  • Asset Management
  • Communication between IT Groups
  • Sometimes it can be slow
  • The search function can be confusing
  • Editing of email templates is not easily apparent
It makes it easy to ticket track with our IT Department. Cherwell Service Management ties into our helpdesk email account, so whenever someone sends an email to our helpdesk, a ticket is automatically created, classified, and the user gets an automatic response saying that their request has been received and it should be resolved shortly.
Read Andrew Breyen's full review
Naomi Hagelund profile photo
November 29, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Complicated and not intuitive, but largely reduces workload"

Naomi Hagelund
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Cherwell was used across our entire organization as a method to address user help tickets and to organize our service desk. It helped create a workflow so that help tickets were properly routed and flagged depending on severity, collecting all of the proper information and details. It also helped create an organized service desk website so that users could adequately find the information they needed, reducing labor on our end, while also alerting us of common problems so that we could increase efforts on our end to provide enough information to users so those problems didn't arise as much.
  • Cherwell's ticketing system does a great job of following a designated workflow. Consistency is important for any organization.
  • Cherwell allows for customized workspaces, so a user can see the things that are relevant to them. This cuts down on time it would take to sort through tickets in order to find what is relevant to a particular user.
  • Cherwell would often crash, both on logging in or in the middle of entering a ticket. This was extremely difficult and time-consuming on my end.
  • While it was possible to customize a workspace, the method for doing so was not intuitive.
  • There was not a large help or training source to draw from in order to better oneself at Cherwell.
Cherwell is well-suited to an IT organization who is looking for ways to organize their service catalog and make their ticketing system more efficient. It's good for large organizations with several different departments who have to interact with one another. It provides the ability to link within the system, so the paper trail it provides it very beneficial.
Read Naomi Hagelund's full review
Keene Marin profile photo
November 22, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell - ITSM"

Keene Marin
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
The Wisconsin DNR uses Cherwell as an Agency underneath the primary organization - the Wisconsin DOA. It is used throughout enterprise IT, but implemented only in that capacity, and is not used by all technology support groups within the DNR. We are striving to get to full usage of all available implemented features, but are not quite there yet.
  • Automated workflows are done very well. There is a broad and configurable set of automations available, which allow for effective incident routing.
  • Reporting is very flexible with all the options available, dashboards and graphing in an automated manner can be an effective delivery or ITIL reports.
  • Web based clients allow for some good basic functionality, which are good for customers, or end users.
  • Within our deployment model of Cherwell, there are core functional pieces that have to be configured at the top level, rather than the sub levels, which make some areas difficult to manage. For example, if one agency wants to use feature x in one way, but another agency wants to configure the same feature in a different way, then consensus has to be gained first. Its not as fully flexible in the base configuration space as would be ideal.
  • Automated email processes, especially in the volumes that the State of Wisconsin goes through require some tweaking to allow them to fire in an effective way. We sometimes see problems with backlogs of these.
  • Licensing based on concurrency and usage is a very modern approach, however, it leads to challenges in how customers use it. For example, we have automated log-off's in place for the local clients in order to manage our own usage, to maintain reasonable costs.
Change Management approval processing is a good example. Cherwell, as an ITSM tool, is effective at executing the different change configurations, and requiring distinct approvals to proceed forwards.
Read Keene Marin's full review
Steve Blinston profile photo
September 12, 2017

User Review: "Cherwell Service Management"

Steve Blinston
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Cherwell tickets are created via email or call from hospital departments. Specific resources are then created a task within the Cherwell ticket. Detailed information is then supplied within the Cherwell ticket, once the ticket/task has been closed, an email is then sent to the initial requestor who requested the ticket to be created. Also time tracking is added with the Cherwell ticket.
  • The Cherwell application has multiple processes to supply the requested information and the resolved information.
  • Time Tracking is added, the cost can then be submitted to the hospital.
  • Documentation can also be uploaded within the assigned ticket, to supply information to other tasked resources.
  • The application is very good.
  • This weekend the current version was upgraded.
  • Senior management can supply full information of the time tracking with the associated ticket numbers.

The Cherwell Service Management application is installed within Citrix, this is then available for all TransForm SSO resources to resolve any requested issues or service requests. Hospital resources can connect to the Cherwell Service Management website and supply information for the incident or service request

Within the Cherwell Service Management Application, the Record Details supply the Record Type; Service Type; Priority 1 to 5 and scheduled date to be completed.

Read Steve Blinston's full review
No photo available
November 09, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Well Supported"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Cherwell to manage our IT service and support functions across our organization. We have several sites, and each site is supported by a local team. Cherwell allows our company to identify and track issues at the local level, as well as escalate items to the corporate level for centralized functions such as application development and security.
  • Easy for users to create a help desk ticket for support, and receive automated progress updates.
  • Easy for support staff to consolidate all open tickets, both by site as well as by issue type to identify incidents that could be related across multiple locations.
  • Well integrated with Active Directory services.
  • Cherwell offers more functionality than we are currently taking advantage of, which sometimes makes the support interface appear bloated.
Cherwell is great for organizations with multiple sites that want to automate assigning tickets to local support teams. The dashboard provides critical visibility to workload and response time, which can be very valuable to the team. Cherwell seamlessly provides a single point of contact for users to get support for all of their IT needs - hardware, applications, network, and security.
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Michael J Mandeville profile photo
February 15, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Great Process Builder"

Michael J Mandeville
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Cherwell is used by the Information Technology department at Calvin College as our Information Technology Service Management tool. At this point, Calvin Information Technology is the sole user of the software, but there are plans to expand the usage across the organization in the future. Cherwell replaced our outdated solution we had been using that was hampering our communication and causing many process mis-steps.
  • Offers a great ITIL framework out of the box
  • Allows for a lot of customization and hooks into other software
  • Sets up an out-of-the-box process for a ticket lifecycle if you don't have a process already set
  • Creating and running reports is ridiculously, impossibly complex and complicated
  • The product is so open-ended it's almost too broad. We have ended up creating a lot of in-house customizations to the product that would have been nice to have out of the box.
  • Dashboards are great to have but they are awful in implementation. They are not dynamic and act more like a Bitmap file made in Windows 95 Microsoft Paint than a dynamic webpage. It would be nice if Dashboards were dynamic and were more like HTML or a web-based platform. It doesn't make sense why web design products like WIX exist yet the dashboards are needlessly complicated and have static image borders, sizes, etc.
I would say Cherwell is best suited to an organization that needs to create a process for taking in and bringing work tickets through a process that has struggled with implementing a process. Cherwell can be bent to an existing process, but it's going to take a lot of customization and work. Cherwell works best if you adapt to its out-of-the-box process, which may be difficult if you already are working within a set standard of procedures and process and Ticket lifecycle.
Read Michael J Mandeville's full review
Brandon Joseph profile photo
February 03, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "I don't Code, I Cherwell"

Brandon Joseph
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Cherwell SaaS solution replaced our older on-premise ITSM tool (which shall remain nameless!). We did an initial roll-out of only Incident & Service Request and only in two of our regions around the world but have plans to get all IT teams and all main modules of Cherwell deployed. Currently the Cherwell tool is being used to resolve Service requests and is used by IT Support and Escalation groups (Apps, Infrastructure, etc) in support of that objective. Soon we'll build a Customer Portal and take the tool globally.
  • Configuration is easy and doesn't require expensive consultants to do every little thing you need to adjust. I'm able to make minor and even major enhancements by myself. I find the development UI mostly intuitive.
  • The amount of things we can automate in our Support department using Cherwell is wonderful. We've not yet taken full advantage of this but are excited at the possibilities. From automatically creating and classifying tickets to responding to customers with specific attachments they need, Cherwell is going to help us eliminate wasted time.
  • Designing with Blueprints is an intelligent and efficient way to add new functionality to your Cherwell instance without all of the risk. Rollback files make it easy to "undo" any mistakes. This also allows you to develop in one environment and apply your Blueprints to the Production environment once fully tested.
  • During my time working on the Cherwell implementation and subsequent modifications, I've noticed some 'out of the box bugs' that I'd like to see corrected in future versions of Cherwell. Some are simple oversights. Examples include leaving the Last Name out of the default Grid for the Customer table and some issues with the SLA date fields being set correctly in some cases.
  • Cherwell really needs a distributed data center model so global customers can run a single SaaS instance and whose remote teams can connect to their nearest Cherwell server. Our teams in France and the USA currently connect to one Cherwell server in the UK and the performance/latency for our folks furthest away from the server could be better.
  • The documentation could certainly be expanded upon. It does a good job explaining what everything is but doesn't go into enough detail to help you understand how to use it. Examples could be included at the bottom to help readers understand the content and how to apply it.
For a global company like ours where support teams are geographically dispersed and maintaining on-premise infrastructure is losing ground to offloading to the cloud, the SaaS aspect of Cherwell makes it ideal. We configured the 'core' implementation and can now easily add other support teams around the world with a few additions to some system tables and purchasing some additional licenses. Incorporating specific needs for other teams is easy to do in Cherwell and can be done without compromising the integrity of the entire instance.
Read Brandon Joseph's full review
Evan Miller profile photo
February 07, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "A no-frills ticketing system"

Evan Miller
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
[We are] currently utilizing Cherwell primarily as a ticketing/ticket tracking system with some minor asset management roles tied into it. It is being used by the IT department as a whole across our entire organization. It helps to ensure prompt response times and accountability among IT employees that are assigned particular issues.
  • Ticket Handling and routing. Being a larger organization getting tickets routed to the proper internal groups to resolve is key.
  • Maintaining level of service. Without any ticketing system we would be hard pressed to keep track independently of issues/calls/emails received.
  • Asset management. Utilizing a web link to inventory new equipment assignments aids in troubleshooting with users as the equipment is bound to their userid. So when a ticket is generated for their ID a snapshot of what equipment they have and possibly are calling about is presented.
  • The interface is somewhat clunky to navigate and at times finding where things are located takes some time.
  • If you are idle too long in the application it will constantly pop up a message that you have been logged out due to inactivity but you cannot then close the application without having to end the task from the task manager in Windows.
If you are a single consolidated IT group it will excel for you as a ticketing system. The asset management portion could be a little more robust, but again this could be in relation to the interface of the product/version we are using. If you are a decentralized IT group then another platform may be better suited.
Read Evan Miller's full review
Kevan Welsh profile photo
February 03, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell's product innovation is unmatched."

Kevan Welsh
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Cherwell for Incident, Problem, Knowledge, and Project management, as well as as for our HR and Facilities teams. It keeps everyone in sync with all of the compartments of IT, HR, and Facilities, tracks anything we can think of, and allows for flexible reporting to leadership as whenever necessary.
  • Blueprints and One-Steps all for maximum flexibility and endless possibilities. Password resets, account onboarding/offboarding automation, self-service portal, and many many more.
  • Form building allows virtually endless possibilities for capturing data from end users or technicians alike. Publish them in the client, the web client, or the portal and help gather requirements from the beginning to ensure efficient use of resources.
  • Report building is very easy and configurable. Build customer variables, charts, graphs, matrices, and more without having to know any coding languages.
  • The performance of the system seems process heavy. Often takes a while to load specific screens.
  • Out of the box features on upgrades seem inconsistent on when and where they are applied for fear of overwriting previous custom work done in the system.
  • Organization of one-steps could use some work. Certain folders can only be accessed from particular regions of the orange or blue pills.
Cherwell can be built for literally anything. I can't think of a single area it wouldn't make sense. It is built on top of a data driven infrastructure that is highly configurable and can meet the needs of anything you can think of. Tracking phone calls, ordering of services, and reporting out all of those metrics are easy.
Read Kevan Welsh's full review
Jeremy Spindler profile photo
February 03, 2017

Review: "Cherwell Service Management is right for you!"

Jeremy Spindler
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Used by our IT department as our main ticketing system and for certain call-center duties. Beginning to explore use cases for non-IT departments on campus, including mandatory training participation tracking, HR workflow tracking, etc.
  • One-Steps are easy to create use and save so much time!
  • We used majority out-of-the-box Cherwell features, and didn't need to spend time developing it ourselves.
  • Because Cherwell has so many out-of-the-box tools, some development options are limited to what is already provided
We greatly appreciate Cherwell as our main ticketing system in IT.
Read Jeremy Spindler's full review
No photo available
March 29, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "A user's perceptive of Cherwell"

Verified User
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
It is used to track tickets and incidents company-wide in an IT setting. It allows us to track incidents, requests, and anything else that could come our way. It also provides stats for a bunch of different stats including follow-ups, requester, request time taken, and allows for additional training.
  • Simple once configured
  • Many possibilities for data
  • Easy for users
  • Very resource intensive
  • Can be overwhelming at first
  • Reporting can be a bit wonky at times
The main use of Cherwell would be to watch productivity at a high level and use that to inform new business ventures or IT ventures. If you just [need to] see the data without finding the root causes of incidents then it could be a waste of time and money. Luckily we have great admins that are able to help with this data.
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No photo available
February 08, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Best Help Desk System for the Money around!"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
It is being used for incident, problem and service request management throughout the State of Oklahoma's IT departments. It aids the state in tracking requests and service levels.
  • The dashboards are amazing.
  • It is easily configured to meet your needs.
  • The reporting/searching capability is easy to use and available to all users.
  • The Service Catalog in the Customer Portal is not very user-friendly.
  • The method of making configuration changes and migrating them to production is single threaded sometimes, makes it hard to make several changes at once.
Well Suited - The dashboards and configuration are very well done. It follows ITIL practices very well.
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February 06, 2017

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell in our service desk."

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Currently Cherwell is being used just in the service desk. This has greatly improved the effectiveness of the service in handling incidents and outages. Several other teams are starting to look at the project tracking portion of Cherwell. We aim to get all of infrastructure using this tool.
  • Incident management is clear and easy to use. The business specific changes that were made, were easy to complete.
  • A great web portal.
  • Updates push out upon logging into the client.
  • Problem management text messaging reports are not great.
  • I wish Cherwell had more Mapps.
Any service desk would benefit from Cherwell. Any business that is looking for a tool that will support many teams' IT or not, would benefit from Cherwell. If a company already had several tools in place across many teams, it could be difficult to completely implement this across the business.
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Tim Westen profile photo
March 28, 2016

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell - Codeless reality"

Tim Westen
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We are currently using Cherwell Service Management for our ITSM process across all of our various business units. We have implemented the following ITIL processes, Incident/Request, Change, Problem, Service Catalog, CMDB (asset management) and an IT Equipment Requisition process at an enterprise level. We have started to roll out IT Project Management and are in the process of defining additional requirements for SLAs. We have approx. 480 technicians using the application to manage their work at various levels based on business unit.
  • The codeless configuration of Cherwell has been able to meet all of our demanding business needs. From data integration to complex process workflows we can respond and deliver the added value our business needs.
  • Cherwell does offer a great customer experience. There has not been one occasion when I have not been impressed with their commitment to the customers experience.
  • The development tools are robust and the time to develop had drastically been reduced from previous tools sets, this allows us to focus on gathering solid requirements for iterative changes rather than lengthy development cycles.
  • Our solution can be managed and grow with limited number of resources available. We continue to expand and grow as out business requires while maintaining 2 FTE.
  • Cherwell is in the process of balancing the speed to market of functionality and robust testing of those releases. We have come across a couple of issues in a particular release that have caused us issues that required configuration of workarounds or us having to skip the release until the function is resolved.
  • The web client for technician use still is not in par with the rich client. Cherwell has made the commitment to develop web first but the client parity of the rich and web clients is still not there.
  • The ability to be able to Select multiple rows from a result list and then run an action (one step) on them would be a huge win for my environment. Right now you can run a query and run an action against all returned results but it is dependent on the query results, which can be difficult to narrow enough for the general user.
Cherwell is great at the basic ITSM/ITIL processes and transactional type ticketing that occurs within CSM or Facilities management. We would like to utilize the tool more for Project management within IT and start to promote it beyond but the out of the box module is not robust enough to be solely used. Integration with specialized tools is the current method and is acceptable.
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James Whitemore profile photo
September 17, 2015

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell Shares Well"

James Whitemore
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

Our organization uses Cherwell Service Management primarily as a request and incident tracker, but it was purchased with the intent of expansion. Since go-live we have activated the knowledge base and CMDB modules, which have solved quite a few problems with information sharing and inventory tracking. The system is young in our environment, but it is holding up well and definitely scalable.

Currently Cherwell Service Management is utilized mainly by the IT Service Desk (technical solutions team), but we have been branching out to teams in other departments as well. It has been well received by those teams who have chosen to come onboard, and is a very strong promoter of institutional collaboration.

  • Scalability - We have been able to add multiple teams to our system and collaborate more effectively than ever before.
  • Modularity - We are able to implement the system one module at a time, which greatly helps us grow at a rate that works best for our teams.
  • Accessibility - Cherwell Support is very responsive and open to assisting with our needs.
  • Admin Interface - Changing system settings is not intuitive. Blueprints also require a level of proficiency not held by most new users of the system.
  • Bugs - We have noticed several bugs and glitches. Support has been very helpful in documenting and taking them to development, however many seem to be things that should have been caught before public releases.
  • Stability - We have had a few instances where we have lost our VPN connection or certain other services have gone offline. Since we run a SaaS environment, we are typically not able to troubleshoot in-house. Support is again very helpful, however this can cause an impact to business.

Cherwell Service Management is extremely adaptable. It works well in environments like ours which contain decentralized IT contacts. This ITSM system is also good for multiple uses beyond tickets - CMDB, Knowledge Base, Change Management, etc.

The system is also highly customizable. We worked with the vendor to make our interface completely unique and suited to our needs. Our implementation looks absolutely nothing like the out of the box product, yet still maintains the same (and more) functionality.

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John Alexander profile photo
April 08, 2015

Review: "Cherwell Service Management - More Bang for the Buck"

John Alexander
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We utilize Cherwell for our IT inventory (CMDB), Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management and Inventory collection. Since we are a Healthcare organization, and are audited by various agencies, we need to track our system Changes and Problems which often spawn from Incidents. We use CMS to document this and our internal customer requests.
  • Customization is easily done and upgrades do not affect them if done within the CSM toolset.
  • Our internal staff find the product very intuitive.
  • The built-in knowledge base is very helpful.
  • While the Reporting module is very comprehensive, it is not easily understood.
  • Move to production scenarios should be more inclusive of all pieces of the product.
  • The online documentation has come a long way, but still is lacking at times. I have too many "how to" questions that cannot be answered through it.
Out of the box it is well suited for most organizations, and the customization is icing on the cake.
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Denise Naylor profile photo
February 04, 2015

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell Changed my Life"

Denise Naylor
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Cherwell is being used by 170+ teams, and 1,700+ technicians across the organization for Incident/Request Management. Incident/Request Management is being used by business areas such as Client Relations, Human Resources, Facilities, and Information Technology, to name a few. In addition, some affiliated sister companies are using Cherwell Incident/Request Management as well.
The business problem being addressed by using Incident/Request Management is to provide tracking, metrics/reporting, and accountability. Teams within the organization have been transitioning from using a team mailbox in Outlook to using Cherwell to manage requests which provides real time tracking and metrics at a glance.
Cherwell is able to provide a customized "dashboard" view that provides teams and business leaders with an easy to read, high level overview of key items which are definable on a team by team basis.
Problem Management is being utilized by the Information Technology team.
Change Management is currently under configuration and is anticipated to be implemented within the next few months.
  • Metrics/Tracking
  • Providing a real time, high level overview via the Dashboard
  • Friendly User Interface
  • Customer Service response time
  • Bugs - simple functionality that worked prior to a new release sometimes don't work after the release
Specifics scenarios where Cherwell is well suited is for Incident/Request management when multiple team members are fielding multiple requests from multiple sources. Another scenario where Cherwell is well suited is when metrics/reporting are required, as well as automated tracking/accountability. Cherwell would be less appropriate to track requests where an individual employee is fielding the requests.

Key questions to ask during the selection process are:
  • What is the issue being solved for?
  • What is the current process?
  • What is the desired outcome?
Read Denise Naylor's full review
No photo available
October 03, 2016

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Cherwell, track well, and report well"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We've started to use Cherwell Service Management in the last year, as our old IT ticketing system didn't have the complexity we needed in today's IT world. We use it for incident reporting, service requests, and are phasing in change management; we've used it internally for our own tracking, and are just starting the phasing in so our end users can start filling in their own tickets.
  • Excellent tracking and reporting
  • Allows customers to enter in their own tickets
  • Allows analysis of where our problem points are in resolving incidents
  • Helps us better manage change requests
  • Initial set up, if you are not familiar with service catalogs can be painful. The out of the box suggested ones are a starting point, but could have more breadth.
  • Similarly, you have to know your business processes well to set up escalation and workflow; and setting them up can be a little time consuming.
  • It's also helpful to set up forms to help ensure tickets are going to the right team - and you have to understand basic programming logic to set them up; you also need a bit of design experience to make them user friendly. These don't always go hand in hand within one person; it would have been helpful to have more sample forms.
  • Some of the included color schemes are not ADA friendly, and they all should be.
If you have the knowledge about service catalogs, business processes, and have both programmers and designers available to help with this implementation, you should have an easy time setting this up. You'll also need a good understanding of all your functional groups and what each is responsible for to set up your groups and users.
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August 05, 2016

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Complete solution tha's easy to deploy and manage"

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Cherwell Service Management for enterprise IT Service Management. We are currently using Incident, Change, Problem and CMDB. We are in the process of implementing Purchasing and Asset Management.
  • Single platform that is easily managed.
  • Customer service and support is outstanding.
  • Continuous improvement of the product - new features (which are frequently customer driven) are added regularly at no additional cost.
  • Very easy to learn for users, administrators and developers.
  • Licensing model is simple and flexible - can implement perpetual and subscription in one instance. Migrate from SaaS to on premises or third party cloud with little effort and at low to no cost.
  • Database is not overly normalized. Very easy to understand and query.
  • Documentation is improving but is still incomplete.
  • "Codeless" architecture is great and easy to learn but it would be nice to have the a "power user" interface option to allow writing of things like expressions rather than click through drop downs.
  • Web UI is a bit slow and still not on par with the features of the client application.

Cherwell is a great choice for all organizations looking for an IT Service Management solution. It can scale to any size organization and training and support is great for those just getting started with ITIL-focused support.

For organizations seeking a platform that provides extensive capabilities beyond IT Service Management there may be better choices.

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June 27, 2014

Cherwell Service Management Review: "Very flexible app at a very reasonable price-point"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We implemented Cherwell Service Management to replace an existing (IT) helpdesk application and to allow us to improve our IT service management processess. We also use it for many other support teams in the company including facilities, marketing and some specializaed development teams.
  • The flexibility is unparalleled when compared to other systems that we looked at
  • The ease of administration and development
  • Price-point
  • The performance on our version has been very poor and is a constant source of complaints for our users
  • The system has many limitations that can feel very disabling when trying to design new features. Some examples: a dropdown list can contain no more than 200 items, a table can only get data from tables it is directly related to (e.g., not a table that is related to that one), a pop-up can only contain one field, there is no list box or other method to multi-select from a pre-determined list etc...
  • It took a lot of extra effort after professional services left to actually implement the system. We were left with numerous inconsistencies and spelling errors to track down and correct.
For a mid-small company, Cherwell is a really good bargain because it will allow the company to automate many processes and grow their organization. It is a very easy tool for a new administrator to pick up and master and is very powerful. I am consistently amazed at how much development can be done with a few clicks. For example: we did 10 months of analysis on a new Cherwell development project, the actual development took only 3 days! One recommendation: dedicate at least one full time employee to Cherwell for support and maintenance of the system (possible multiple people depending on how much additional functionality you plan to implement)
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June 26, 2014

Cherwell Service Management Review: "cHeRwell - Human Resources"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Cherwell was used across the whole organization from IT, mortgage and human resource management. I was the Tier 1 support rep for our HR department. I fielded questions from our team members on various HR issues from system access to benefits questions. Our IT department used Cherwell to assist users with technical problems encountered on a day to day basis.
  • I was able to store word documents and PDF documents in the tool for quick resolutions to common questions. It was a great way to quickly provide an accurate solution to questions we receive regularly while focusing on service issues that take more time to complete.
  • We configured the tool to pull contact info and badge photos from our company roster. This made contacting users at various methods easy. It also made putting a face to a voice or email easy.
  • Reporting from the tool allowed us to improve our response time and manage trends. We were able to find ways to make process improvements.
  • The graphic user interface is a bit dated. I looks and feels like Window XP.
  • Organizations that use the tool to the degree that we did usually have widescreen monitors. The tool doesn't make good use of space.
  • One thing I didn't see was a way to track or watch a ticket that was assigned to a different user. This would help in cases where multiple users experienced the problem and you would need to know who and how the ticket was resolved, even if i wasn't resolved by you.
One critical aspect would be protected health information. With HIPPA laws you need to have a way to protect contact information from unauthorized users in the system. This was very important to us since we answered questions regarding medical benefits. Or if there could be some sort of disclaimer alerting the end requesters not to disclose protected health information, it would help protect organizations from claims of unlawful disclosure.
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Cherwell Service Management Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (51)
7.4
Likelihood to Renew (4)
8.5
Availability (2)
9.0

Feature Scorecard Summary

Organize and prioritize service tickets (20)
8.3
Expert directory (15)
7.4
Service restoration (12)
7.6
Self-service tools (18)
7.1
Subscription-based notifications (13)
6.7
ITSM collaboration and documentation (16)
6.0
ITSM reports and dashboards (19)
6.6
Configuration mangement (15)
6.4
Asset management dashboard (13)
6.1
Policy and contract enforcement (9)
7.0
Change requests repository (15)
7.5
Change calendar (14)
7.7
Service-level management (15)
8.2

About Cherwell Service Management

Cherwell Software was founded by the former CEO of FrontRage Solutions and is a full suite of service management tools competing with BMC Remedy, ServiceNow, and IBM SmartCloud.
Categories:  IT Service Management (ITSM)

Cherwell Service Management Competitors