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SolarWinds Service Desk

SolarWinds Service Desk
Formerly Samanage

Overview

What is SolarWinds Service Desk?

SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) is a cloud-based, multi-tenant IT service desk and asset management software for IT and enterprise service management. Samanage is on a single, always new instance of software. The service desk includes a self-service portal, service…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly known as Samanage) is a versatile software solution that caters to a wide range of use cases across …
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SolarWinds is a homerun!

9 out of 10
May 30, 2022
We use SolarWinds Service Desk for our Incident tracking and it helps to use SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD) for the reporting that we must …
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Solarwinds works for us!

7 out of 10
December 15, 2020
Incentivized
It is used across the whole organization. It addresses Incident mgmt, change mgmt, purchase orders, and device management mainly for our …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 13 features
  • Organize and prioritize service tickets (95)
    9.3
    93%
  • Self-service tools (85)
    8.0
    80%
  • Asset management dashboard (80)
    6.9
    69%
  • ITSM reports and dashboards (86)
    6.4
    64%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is SolarWinds Service Desk?

SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) is a cloud-based, multi-tenant IT service desk and asset management software for IT and enterprise service management. Samanage is on a single, always new instance of software. The service desk includes a self-service portal, service catalog, knowledge…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.solarwinds.com/products/pri…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Vision Helpdesk, which started in 2005 as a simple help desk software has evolved into three customer service and IT support management tools. Help Desk Software - A multi-channel help desk software that allows users to manage customer communication across various channels like email, web portals,…

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Features

Incident and problem management

Streamlining ticketing and service restoration processes

8
Avg 8.1

ITSM asset management

Managing all IT assets and enforcing policy rules

6.9
Avg 8.2

Change management

Ensuring standardized processes for making changes to IT infrastructure

8
Avg 8.4
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Product Details

What is SolarWinds Service Desk?

SolarWinds Service Desk, previously Samanage Service Platform, is a cloud-based service desk for IT or any other department.

A single platform for service management, IT asset management and configuration management, Service Desk is ITIL-ready and complete with Incident, Problem, Change, and Release Management capabilities. Advanced reporting modules empower users to analyze trends, monitor service quality, and continuously improve service management processes.

SolarWinds Service Desk Features

Incident and problem management Features

  • Supported: Organize and prioritize service tickets
  • Supported: Expert directory
  • Supported: Service restoration
  • Supported: Self-service tools
  • Supported: Subscription-based notifications
  • Supported: ITSM collaboration and documentation
  • Supported: ITSM reports and dashboards

ITSM asset management Features

  • Supported: Configuration mangement
  • Supported: Asset management dashboard
  • Supported: Policy and contract enforcement

Change management Features

  • Supported: Change requests repository
  • Supported: Change calendar
  • Supported: Service-level management

Additional Features

  • Supported: Self-Service Portal
  • Supported: Software and Hardware Inventory Tracking
  • Supported: Robust and Flexible Reporting
  • Supported: Knowledge Base
  • Supported: Contract and License Tracking
  • Supported: Integration with Over 200 Applications
  • Supported: Code-Free Customization
  • Supported: SLA Management

SolarWinds Service Desk Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

SolarWinds Service Desk Video

SolarWinds Service Desk Overview

SolarWinds Service Desk Integrations

SolarWinds Service Desk Competitors

SolarWinds Service Desk Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesAll
Supported LanguagesSupport for 40+ Languages

Frequently Asked Questions

SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) is a cloud-based, multi-tenant IT service desk and asset management software for IT and enterprise service management. Samanage is on a single, always new instance of software. The service desk includes a self-service portal, service catalog, knowledge base, and SLA management tool. The integrated agent-based asset management solution collects contracts and licensing data from Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix systems.

Zendesk Suite, ServiceNow IT Service Management, and Freshservice are common alternatives for SolarWinds Service Desk.

Reviewers rate Organize and prioritize service tickets highest, with a score of 9.3.

The most common users of SolarWinds Service Desk are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(161)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

SolarWinds Service Desk (formerly known as Samanage) is a versatile software solution that caters to a wide range of use cases across different industries and departments. Users have found the platform to be extremely valuable and user-friendly, enabling them to streamline processes and improve overall efficiency.

One of the primary uses of SolarWinds Service Desk is in IT incident management, where it provides service level agreements (SLAs) and measures customer satisfaction. It helps IT teams effectively manage and resolve tickets by centralizing ticket submission, documenting tasks, and providing real-time support. Additionally, it offers comprehensive automation capabilities for accurate tracking and management of requests.

The software is also commonly used for asset management, allowing organizations to track and manage their computer inventory and device assignment. This feature proves beneficial for various departments such as Customer Support, HR, Sales, and Facilities Management to efficiently handle inquiries, track warranties, contracts, licenses, and assets. Moreover, SolarWinds Service Desk enables users to create self-service forms and checklists for streamlined onboarding processes and makes job ticketing more efficient for media management teams.

Another notable use case of SolarWinds Service Desk is its utilization as a help desk platform company-wide. It allows employees to log tickets easily, browse knowledge base articles for IT assistance, and monitor their resolution. By cataloging and prioritizing IT requests, it assists in maintaining standardized processes while also providing transparency and records for incidents, changes, and inventories.

Overall, SolarWinds Service Desk has proven its versatility by being utilized for incident management, asset tracking, knowledge base portal access, vendor management, contract management, helpdesk operations, change management, service cataloging, and more across various industries and departments. It aids in improving efficiency and effectiveness in tackling everyday problems while minimizing interruptions and optimizing workloads.

Users commonly recommend Solar Winds for several reasons. Firstly, they suggest giving Solar Winds a try as it integrates into other applications and offers a good product at a lower cost. It is particularly recommended for small teams or teams without much IT expertise.

Secondly, users find Solar Winds to be an effective ticketing system that provides an organized and efficient way to communicate and address issues with clients. This makes it a great choice for companies in need of a reliable customer support solution.

Lastly, users suggest Solar Winds for its ability to fully manage a support shop, help IT teams streamline their tasks, and create custom catalogues and workflows. They also appreciate that it provides the necessary features to implement a small CMMS system without high implementation costs.

Overall, users believe that Solar Winds is an all-in-one customizable, hosted solution that offers integration capabilities, an efficient ticketing system, and the tools needed to manage IT tasks effectively.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(76-100 of 118)
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Salvador Salcedo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds Service Desk is the IT ticketing platform that is used by our organization. It allows the IT Department to track customer issues and address them in a timely manner, both providing updates to the IT team and end-user. It has also allowed us to set up a self-service portal, a knowledge base to common problems that end users find useful.
  • Customer support
  • General ease of use
  • Solutions feature
  • Report filtering--I would like to be able to be more granular in the reporting.
  • I would like to see an improvement in the way it integrates with Solarwinds Orion and the formatting of the ticket it creates.
Overall, Solarwinds Service Desk is well-suited as an all-around ticketing system. I like using solutions as a knowledge base for both the IT team and end-users. End-users find it easily accessible and navigable. One department that it may not be best suited for is General Services. It does not have geo-mapping and fleet management features that General Services-specific ticketing applications provide.
Steve Taylor | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We manage IT services for a number of companies and this is our helpdesk incident management software. We utilize the purchasing function for ourselves as well as the contracts management module for several of the companies. Currently, only the IT department is using this software. The inventory module is also used across most companies and provides an excellent foundation for ITIL service management.
  • Helpdesk Incident ticketing - Solarwinds does an excellent job of incident tracking and enables you to fold those incidents into Problems and then use effective change management when called for. It provides a full ITIL management package.
  • Inventory Tracking and Management - It has a really nice, complete package for Hardware and Software management. The agent is pretty light and data is encrypted.
  • Change Management and Approval Workflows - There's a really nice module here. Allows you to attach an Incident ticket or multiple incidents as a Problem. Lets you manage changes to systems, services, etc. and get approvals from the appropriate stakeholders while providing an audit trail for everything.
  • Reporting - Custom reporting leaves a little bit to be desired. They need to find a happy medium between having to make your own variables and query and not having the ability to customize a report. It would also be nice to have the ability to export reports to Excel.
  • Time Tracking on Incident Tickets - Time tracking is pretty much a manual thing. The agents just estimate the time they spend on a ticket and enter it manually into a time tracking field. There is no automated tracking of time and it's not a mandatory field.
  • Project Management - It would be great to have a project management capability built in that we could use to set up tickets, changes, tasks, etc for longer term projects.
We moved to Solarwinds Service Desk from Connectwise. I think it's a far superior product with better support and features. I believe it to be best suited for a company IT department with expansion capabilities through the service desk to other departments in the company, such as HR, that need self service capabilities.
Mike Paron | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use Solarwinds Service Desk (Samanage) for inventory tracking on all of our end-user systems, appliances, network devices, servers, and AV equipment. We track equipment age and warranty status in Samanage, as well as software, hardware, and location.

We are not currently using the service desk portion of Samanage. It is only used within the IT department for systems administration.
  • Easy to deploy! We can install in many different ways, even having the end user install.
  • The user interface is fast and responsive.
  • Reports are super easy so my director is happy I can gather info he needs quickly.
  • Lifecycle changes are tracked automatically.
  • We currently don't have a way to add custom fields and report against them.
  • Not easy to pull a report for systems missing certain software.
I would recommend Solarwinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) for anyone who needs automatic inventory tracking. Before, we were using spreadsheets and PDQ, which is not a great solution. Samanage has saved me hours of work every month and provides more info than I could track manually.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using it in the technology department. However, we are in the process of implementing it into HR and Facilities. Once we have implemented into these two additional departments, we will be looking to expand it into other areas in our school district. We have found this product to be extremely valuable to us and it is very user friendly for our staff.
  • Very user friendly, end users need little to no training at all
  • Customizable, we are constantly changing custom fields to better suit our needs.
  • Great Mobile App, having access from a cell phone is very valuable and useful for us.
  • Slow-release of updates and/or allowing users to choose whether they want the changes or not
  • Add quick video tutorials right into the setup process, so when we try to implement a change, we can check out a quick video to make sure we are doing things right.
Solarwinds Service Desk is well suited for any environment that needs a well-laid-out and fully-customizable tracking system. I cannot think of a scenario where it would be less appropriate unless a ticket/inventory type solution is unnecessary.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are using SolarWinds Service Desk across multiple departments for various collaboration needs and workflows. It was originally used for out IT support desk but quickly expanded from there. The solution has notably improved over the past couple of years, particularly within the mobile application, and is very useful for task management and reporting.
  • Task management.
  • Collaboration.
  • Communication.
  • Simplify workflows.
  • Streamline ticket versus service request.
  • Simplify photo attachments in the messaging blocks.
The solution is well suited for an IT help desk, facilities task management, and misc shop floor requisitions.

It could use improvement from an IT perspective with including a network scanner, asset management, and cost management. These are all things that the system offers but we do not use it for currently.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SolarWinds Service Desk for service and support requests in IT, Human Resources, Facilities, Marketing, and Graphic Design. It helps us gather information for requests and organize work for teams to address based on issue priority. It also solves a frequent need for form-driven workflows, which was a crucial reason for selecting the product.
  • Form-driven workflows help us easily create repeatable processes that get done consistently.
  • Having an integrated asset inventory makes it very easy to connect people, assets, and support requests for ongoing reference.
  • Automation via the API allows us to avoid manual work for tasks ranging from renaming a request based on entered data to having one request kick off more specific tickets for departments (e.g. a New Hire request automatically kicks off a New Computer request and a Keys and Badge request).
  • Automation of request status is clunky. As far as we've seen, we can't set the automation based on who is assigned to the request, so we've had to work around it by using roles.
  • Contracts is off on its own and isn't integrated with assets.
SolarWinds Service Desk has been great for our small IT team - easy to use and powerful enough to grow into more complex functionality. It's also been especially helpful for our Graphic Design team, which is similarly small and receives many requests that it has to track through a predefined process. Our HR team has valued it as a way to convey information to IT and Facilities when people join or leave the organization.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

We are utilizing SWSD not only in IT but for HR and a couple of other departments that use it for work order intake. In IT we are using most modules: Incident, Problem, Solutions (Knowledge), Change and the Service Catalog.

Using SWSD allows us to stop trying to work through email. It gives us visibility into our workload and who's taking care of what.

  • Automations: we use automations to direct tickets to the appropriate team for resolution versus having tickets come in to one team and waiting for reassignment. Time saver.
  • User portal: the portal allows us to offer solutions to the end user without them opening a ticket.
  • Smart suggestions: offers possible request forms or solutions based on what they type in the search bar. Great self help assistance.
  • So far we've been pretty happy with the product. I can't think of anything specific.

SWSD is great for small-medium sized enterprises. Doesn't require a programmer/developer or someone with a specific skill set to administer and manage.

Easy to use and cost effective.

The user portal works well for user notifications and access to forms and solutions. Users also have immediate access to their tickets and can see the current status as well as the history of their tickets.

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Solarwinds Service Desk is currently being used mainly by the IT team, but is partially being utilized by the the whole organization. Service Desk addressed the need for a ticketing system. Now, users can submit tickets through the portal or simply via email. It also addressed the lack of asset management and tracking. We heavily rely on it to keep track of all IT assets.
  • I like how user-friendly the interface is. It is very easy to navigate the portal.
  • Asset tracking is built-in (not an add-on) and provides a lot of information about the asset.
  • Affordable price across all three plans.
  • Great technical support.
  • The only feature I'd like to be added is to be able to add "States" whichever plan was purchased.
  • As with all other subscriptions, some features are only available with higher Tier. However, the price still is very affordable for services offered.
Overall, Solarwinds Service Desk is a solid and excellent choice or a straightforward ticketing system. It offers most of what the other systems in the market offer. It's suitable for practically all organization types, whether it's used by a big or a small team. It also offers integration should there be a need for collaboration with other apps.
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The software was intended to be used by our user base to launch help desk tickets that our support services team could respond to. We decided to remove this software from our company based on the lack of support we were receiving from Solarwinds sales and technical team. The help desk support software was not working correctly and lacked a good user interface for our technical team.
  • Easily launch a ticket.
  • Easy to access from any computer system.
  • Support desk interface needs to be redesigned, more friendly.
  • More detailed information in tickets before they are submitted.
If it were to be redeveloped, I could see it being used in any help desk support area.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use Solarwinds Service Desk for helpdesk incident response and user support, including user self-help via an extensive catalog of how-to documents in addition to the ability for users to search the system for similar issues. Though currently in use primarily by the IT department, we are in the process of building out HR workflows for on- and off-boarding of employees.
  • Easily allows multiple technicians to manage and track helpdesk tickets.
  • The ability to customize the system is very nice.
  • A very good end-user portal for tracking their tickets and self-help
  • Incident automation is limited compared to other systems.
Solarwinds Service Desk is well suited for incident workflows, which are very useful, especially where multiple people are involved at different levels (e.g. from approving requests to being assigned specific tasks within the workflow). Unfortunately, the implementation of automation is limited compared to systems we have used in the past and often leaves us unable to automate simple and routine tasks.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds Service Desk is being used by our IT dept. to:
  1. Open tickets
  2. Track tickets
  3. Initiate service requests
  4. List hardware inventory
This resource allows us to track all IT-related incident requests to ensure our end users are receiving the proper support. Likewise, the inventory section allows IT to quickly glance at all the devices we have and observe the various specifications associated with those devices.
  • Generate Tickets
  • List Inventory
  • Generate reports
  • List risks associated with the various hardware devices in our inventory
  • Track the flow of an open ticket
  • I'd like to be able to rename a device in the inventory section
Solarwinds Service Desk is well suited for the professional who is looking for a singular hub for all IT service desk management. This platform has exponentially increased our response time for our end users. Before Solarwinds, our IT dept. had used various notepads to track "Tickets," which lead to less accountability as well as lost items.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
IT support desk - used by our (one) department, company wide. Primarily used for incidents, service catalog and change management.
  • Sorting and filtering of pending incidents.
  • Good flexibility in creating templates for service catalog items.
  • Recent improvements in real-time update make the use better/easier.
  • Generally a steady flow of improvements over the last year or so have enhanced usability.
  • Categories, sub-categories, sub-sub-categories.
  • Tailoring form and field display.
  • Control and segregation of incident fields separately from service catalog fields.
  • Reports module - although I gave up on it and haven't looked recently.
Well suited for day-to-day incidents and service requests. Not very project friendly. We've had trouble using manager approval elements reliably.
April 24, 2020

Service Desk Review

Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It deals with internal helpdesk queries. Centralizing our workload and providing a brief overview of daily helpdesk stats.
  • Reasonably simple interface.
  • Some useful function to automate some of our incoming queries.
  • No MFA, this is a must and we have been asking for this for two years.
  • limited ability to edit incidents within the list view. In some cases, you will need to either mass edit, or drill into the incident themselves.
  • It would be good to have the ability to send your changes via email and have it record them to the system.
We primarily use Service Desk for managing helpdesk tickets, helpdesk reporting, and maintaining system changes. The main concern is the inability to use MFA and restricting users to only being able to log with only a username and a password. This is particularly important for administrator accounts.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use the service desk from Solarwinds for our IT department. We make use of most of the functionality and primarily for the incident, problem and change management. We manage all of our IT assets including the built in purchase order system. All workstations are auto inventoried and other assets are listed manually as well as manual entry and management of support and maintenance contracts.
  • Ticket/incident triage.
  • Workstation inventory.
  • Procurement.
  • Incident task assignment.
  • Product development and the communication of product improvements.
  • Azure AD integration.
  • Licensing for non-IT departments. They expect full price for non-IT to handle incidents/queries.
  • Improved time tracking flexibility.
  • Solutions/Knowledge base formatting options.
  • CMDB is quite lacking - the ability to link various assets and issues/changes.
  • Can't specify due dates on incidents to help in prioritization/triage.
Service Desk is great for smaller organizations that don't need to maintain tight ITIL standards. It also works great to have other departments using the same service desk for the entire organization if they are willing to pay the high licensing fees for each individual. If you have a large amount of users that require this functionality then I would suggest looking at other products where the pricing would be less expensive per user. That said, on the IT side, we have been able to combine many lists and applications into one with this solution.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We are currently using it to track both IT incidents and requests within our organization. Previously we didn't have any single source to both view and track tickets, and Solarwinds SD was able to centralize this and allow our users a easy method to place tickets. This is primarily with the IT department with plans to expand outward.
  • Incident management.
  • Problem management.
  • Asset management.
  • ITIL processes.
  • Chat (is there just can be improved upon).
  • Clear sectional breakdown between INC and REQ.
Solarwinds Service Desk's ease of use is easily its top selling point. Where other products may have a large learning curve, Solarwinds Service Desk blows the stigma of "hard to use" ticketing systems out of the water. If you've ever used a social media platform before, you can use Solarwinds Service Desk.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use SolarWinds Service Desk to manage all of our IT Support requests. We have 2 users who use it to address issues among the institution. Users will email Support Requests into our Service Desk and we will address them. We also use this for any change requests for hardware or software maintenance. With this service desk we can keep better track of resolution times and who is doing what on which workstation. We also use this for inventory management rather than use the bot we use other assets as it is less invasive and we don't have to install anything on every workstation. More work on our side but we also have more detail and only exactly what we need for each asset.
  • Support Requests
  • Change Requests
  • Service Monitor
  • Solutions
  • Change due date from overview more easily.
  • Track repetitive requests automatically.
Receiving and managing tickets, this software does this very well. More so than other ITSM software I've used. Also, change requests are a breeze as well. Something it doesn't do well is asset management. We elect not to have to install software on every workstation so we have to use other assets in the program and its clunky and difficult to edit items quickly or easily. The import from CSV is nice though.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SolarWinds in many departments in our organization as a way for staff to submit issues, ask questions and submit ideas for improvement.
  • Easy user interface: when we changed from our old service desk our tickets doubled overnight.
  • I like the solutions and how easy they are to attach to tickets and to create a solution from a ticket.
  • Like the tagging feature.
  • Can't just cut and paste an image into a comment or ticket.
  • The change management module is lacking items needed for ITIL making it necessary to have other processes.
  • The reporting is horrible and hard to use.
  • Hard to set up SLAs.
  • Permission are confusing.
IT is difficult to do change management via the help desk.
Jordan McCormick | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
This Solarwinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage) was used primarily for the IT department and Facility Management departments. IT used it as a workflow management, vendor management, contract management, helpdesk, asset management, and change management. Facilities Management used it for service request/maintenance request ticketing system, as well as, reoccurring work order checklists.
  • Asset Management
  • Ticketing (queue, assignments, customization, linking tickets, solutions database.)
  • Self-service portal for user ticket submissions and status tracking
  • Contract Management
  • Change Management
  • Automation/ Integrations
Solarwinds Service Desk solution is great for asset management, not to be confused with device management. This tracks information regarding assets (hardware specifications, software, warranty information, etc.), it does not push commands or information to the asset. This solution is also great for a ticketing solution, very customizable for categorizing and organizing requests, and works well with communication with staff or end-users.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds Service Desk is currently being used by the IT department for both a ticketing system as well as our IT asset management system. We are now able to track our systems as well as attach the assets to those tickets for better tracking on who owns what and what trouble history the system has.
  • The overall simplicity of flow for the ticketing system is amazing.
  • Being able to track all vendors and contracts is very helpful.
  • Having the ability to audit the work process and see who exactly has done what is very helpful as well.
  • On the asset management side, it would be great if it also had the ability to push patch updates.
  • If there was a built-in remote access tool instead of having to have an account on another platform to have to integrate with
  • There are a couple of hardcoded fields in the ticket system that would be great if we could have the option to not show up, such as site (if you only have one site location).
If you are looking for a system that tracks the entire ticketing process in real-time from start to finish, Solarwinds Service Desk is the tool for you. It has a great embedded chat feature in each ticket that allows for real-time responses between your technicians and the users. The transparency that the tool gives your users is especially helpful so they always know what the status of their ticket is at all times.
Caleb Johnson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds Service Desk is being used across the entire company as a ticketing system that is used to send requests to various departments to perform specific tasks. It is also being used to keep a track record of all requests sent, comments and status for monthly, quarterly, and yearly business reviews. Solarwinds Service Desk allows us to export all necessary data to a file and from there we are able to import and generate useful reports to share with the executive teams for better decision making.
  • Wide range of features allows granular control of the system for technicians and clients
  • Simple to use UI makes life way less complicated, which leaves you with more time to do what you love.
  • Excellent tracking of statuses, notifications, and exporting to file format
  • Provide more file formats to the export option
  • Provide new themes for customization
  • Easier way to unlock users
Solarwinds Service Desk is perfect for a tracking and request system. I believe that is where the features available have their strengths and it's done an excellent job. I wouldn't use Solarwinds Service Desk in super small companies as it will not stress nor expand it's features as it performs well with larger companies with greater needs and a large number of technicians and clients.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Service Desk to track incidents, change requests (hardware and software), and computer inventory. We also track some HR issues.
  • Never forgets an open issue.
  • Tracks change in status over time.
  • Displays inventory of open issues.
  • Helps identify items to recover when person leaves agency.
  • It provides links that fail when the user does not have permission. The link could be suppressed.
  • The Incidents and the changes could be better integrated to prevent duplicate data entry.
Tracking issues has worked very well for us while tracking changes have been a little less successful. We could use more project planning functionality when planning changes. We track commonly found solutions in SolarWinds, but other solutions are not entered because all solutions are available to every user. We would like to have a selection of solutions that only IT can access.
Cindy Borgman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We are a technology-enabled managed services provider. We use Samanage as our ITSM system, and we use it for our CMDB. Our clients interact with us using Samanage. The can open service requests, report incidents, and problems, and approve/track changes. We expose Samanage to our clients via our Apiphani ports, so we are heavy users of the Samanage API.
  • Integrated CMDB allows for centralized views of the virtual machines we manage for our clients.
  • API is strong enough for us to expose all ITSM functions to our clients via our portal (one stop shopping).
  • It's flexible to configure multiple sets of Service Levels and Escalations - so we meet the unique needs of each client.
  • We've had some issues with markup characters coming through the API.
  • In fact, almost all our issues have had to do with the API, but we imagine we hit it much harder than the average Samanage customer.
  • And, when we've had issues, Samanage has always made their developers available to work with us.
Solarwinds Samanage has been a great fit for us as a managed service provider due to the integrated CMDB, ease of customization/automation, and the ability to integrate with our portal via your API. The price was also quite reasonable.
Tyler Thibeault | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
1. Used for IT, Education, HR, EMR, and Payroll departments.

2. Users now have a one-stop-shop to get help.
  • Automating workflows.
  • Self service portal.
  • Awesome ticketing system.
  • Poor mobile app.
  • Customization is limited.
I would give it a 10 but can’t until we’re given more customization options and a mobile app. Everything else works extremely well. Their staff is the best!!!
Matt James | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We were using Samanage for only asset management only to keep track of all of our desktops, laptops, switches, servers, and point of sale stations. It was great to be able to look at an asset and get all the information we needed if a replacement, repair or troubleshooting was needed. There were a bunch of other features within Samanage that we did not use as they were not the right fit for our business model which ultimately led to us moving on to something that only kept track of our assets. So I can only speak to the asset management portion of Samanage.
  • Deployment was super easy.
  • Tons of valuable information was input to the asset database.
  • The ability to find any and all information about an asset was fantastic.
  • The only con I had is just a nitpicky thing. The search function was difficult to use, sometimes it wouldn't find an asset by it's given hostname even though I could manually find it.
This will be a theme with all my reviews, it really all depends on what they need. If they need GREAT asset management bundled with ticket and help desk support, then this all in one software is for them. We found that the help desk portion did not fit our needs but the asset management did. It was tough to move on from it but we couldn't justify using it only for asset tracking. Just know that this is not a negative review as Samanage does have great features, they just were not for us.
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Samanage was relatively simple to implement and rollout to our IT Device Solutions unit. It's fast and has a nice, clean UI. We mainly use it for device/inventory management and incident management but eventually starting to use it for change management. We are able to track and manage devices based on a unique asset tag and match that to a staff or faculty member that owns that device. Help desk agents are able to efficiently resolve incidents due to our integration with Zendesk. The service catalog feature is nice. It ensures that the user submits required (and structured) details, and the help desk team can see pre-defined steps for resolution.
  • The service catalog feature is nice. It ensures that the user submits required (and structured) details, and the help desk team can see pre-defined steps for resolution.
  • When issues are resolved we have the option of creating a documented solution.
  • Samanage follows the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) regulations, which means it provides all the critical features essential for the service support needs of large IT operations. Our institution follows the ITIL framework so it was easy for our users to understand the tool.
  • The integration Samanage has with our ticketing system: Zendesk. When a customer has an issue with their device we can create a ticket and tie it to the device info stored in Samanage by using the asset tag. Our support center loves this.
  • Beneficial new features do not get pushed out regularly. We have been waiting for them to push out new features that would make it easier for us to use but they have not. I do not think they listen to attentively to what their customers want out of the product.
  • Users often have trouble including screenshots or attachments when submitting tickets. More often than we'd like, we (the IT support staff) have to reply back to the user and tell them their attachment or screenshot did not come through.
  • The inability to @mention someone in a ticket - this is a big one for us. With other ticketing platforms, you have the ability to mention someone in order to get their attention.
  • Their built-in reporting could be improved. Not as robust as other tools. Lack of advanced reporting and granular visualization.
  • Their management is the worst, we had an issue with being overbilled for our license and tried to work it out with their management. Their response: no you can go find another application to use.
The lack of new features and outdated features makes them lose out. Their competitors have a better offering. What's worse is their management is horrible, would not recommend working with this company. They refused to work with us through license cost issues.
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