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TOPdesk

TOPdesk

Overview

What is TOPdesk?

TOPdesk is the flagship highly-modular cloud-based or installed ITSM service desk and asset management solution from the Dutch company of the same name, for enterprise companies.

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Recent Reviews

TOPdesk Review

8 out of 10
April 14, 2024
Incentivized
TOPdesk is used for incidents, like facility problems e.g. a broken toilet, internet not working, computer authorization, application …
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User review of TOPdesk

8 out of 10
April 13, 2024
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk for reporting problems with ICT, problems with the building, products that no longer work well, or making reservations for …
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User review of TOPdesk

8 out of 10
April 13, 2024
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk to report problems in the hospital. Problems in ICT, the building itself, reporting things that are broken, reserve areas …
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Good Product!

8 out of 10
April 13, 2024
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk for notifications from coworkers in the hospital. When they have problems or a wish for the hospital patient information …
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TOPdesk is a Great Tool!

10 out of 10
April 12, 2024
TOPdesk is used as a service management tool. We have multiple teams working in TOPdesk. It’s a great tool to manage different questions, …
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TOPdesk in healthcare

8 out of 10
April 12, 2024
We use TOPdesk for notifications within ICMT. We register (Almost) all resources within asset management. As administrators, we also make …
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TOPdesk

9 out of 10
April 12, 2024
We use it primarily as a ticket system. And also to see which questions are some of the most asked questions within our organisation. …
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TOPdesk Review

8 out of 10
April 10, 2024
TOPdesk is used as system to manage all support tickets and changes. The main issue how to manage all changes in the right way
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Good tool

9 out of 10
April 09, 2024
Incentivized
It is used as an information source for known issues (knowledge items) both for employees as for IT personnel. Tracking tickets for …
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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
  • Self-service tools (179)
    8.4
    84%
  • Organize and prioritize service tickets (193)
    8.2
    82%
  • ITSM collaboration and documentation (147)
    8.2
    82%
  • ITSM reports and dashboards (155)
    7.4
    74%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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What is TOPdesk?

TOPdesk is the flagship highly-modular cloud-based or installed ITSM service desk and asset management solution from the Dutch company of the same name, for enterprise companies.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.topdesk.com/us/pricing

Offerings

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

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What is Microsoft System Center?

Microsoft System Center Suite is a family of IT management software for network monitoring, updating and patching, endpoint protection with anti-malware, data protection and backup, ITIL- structured IT service management, remote administration and more. It is available in two editions: standard…

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Features

Incident and problem management

Streamlining ticketing and service restoration processes

8
Avg 8.2

ITSM asset management

Managing all IT assets and enforcing policy rules

8.1
Avg 8.2

Change management

Ensuring standardized processes for making changes to IT infrastructure

7.9
Avg 8.4
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Product Details

What is TOPdesk?

TOPdesk is a service management solution that aims to help users improve customer communication, manage workflows and keep track of assets. According to the vendor, the software is simple and attractive, making it pleasant to use and quick to adopt. On-premises and SaaS deployments are available.

TOPdesk:
  • Is suitable for IT, FM or HR.
  • Includes integrations with other packages.

TOPdesk 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: Resource Plan Board
  • Supported: Operations Management
  • Supported: Open API
  • Supported: Integrations Market Place
  • Supported: Reservations Management

TOPdesk Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mobile Web
Supported CountriesGlobal
Supported LanguagesEnglish, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Norwegian

Frequently Asked Questions

TOPdesk is the flagship highly-modular cloud-based or installed ITSM service desk and asset management solution from the Dutch company of the same name, for enterprise companies.

Reviewers rate Self-service tools and Configuration mangement highest, with a score of 8.4.

The most common users of TOPdesk are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).

TOPdesk Customer Size Distribution

Consumers0%
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)5%
Mid-Size Companies (51-500 employees)55%
Enterprises (more than 500 employees)40%
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(406)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(126-150 of 195)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have used TOPdesk for many years now. As a MSP we provide IT-support for hundreds of primary schools in our country . TOPdesk enables us to provide our customers an efficient and easy way to report and communicate about incidents. Our IT support staff can manage incidents and retrieve all information with TOPdesk and keep the end-customer informed about progress.
  • Incident management
  • Custom made portals and web interface
  • Reporting and monitoring
  • A public web - space or forum without the need for login would be a welcome addition.
It provides the services it promises and is easy to use.
September 19, 2018

Topdesk a must do

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use topdesk for SLA and IT ticketing system. Also our complete inventory, both IT and facility is stored in Topdesk
  • Servicedesk ticketing
  • ITIL based
  • IT calls
  • Change management
  • Reservation system
  • User management
  • Administration tasks
IT management, service desk, facility management are well suited. Reservations are less appropriate.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
TOPdesk is used within the organisation as SPOC for IT related problems and questions.
  • It is a easy to use tool, with many out of the box standard utilities which help defining the IT process.
  • The CMDB module is a great way of keeping sight of hardware en software. We use it for creating reports and keeping track of our items.
  • The change process is very comprehensive and can be used for different types of workflows.
  • For us the change module is to comprehensive, and we use it only in a light form.
If you want a easy to use IT service tool, this is it. The TOPdesk consultant can translate wishes into a good working process. Adaptions are easy to make. Also the Self Service Portal is easy to configure and easy to use and helps creating a good workflow for services. Perhaps it is less appropriate in non-IT departments.
July 17, 2018

TOPdesk

Emin Sahin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
TOPdesk is used by the IT department, to register and manage incoming help desk calls. As an add-on, TOPdesk is also being used for inventory management.
  • Inventory Management
  • User information
  • User management
  • Nothing [needs improvement]
Wel suited: inventory management
Less appropiate: project management
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Topdesk is used by the Managed Services department of our organization. Our clients use Topdesk to register their incidents & changes. Our business is Microsoft Office 365 & Azure.
  • Dashboards, it is possible to create all kind of dashboards in Topdesk, that help us to improve our services
  • Self Service Portal, the Self Service Portal is very user friendly. We don't even need manuals for our customers.
  • Monitoring, it's very easy to monitor all tickets & changes from all our customers. With one click you can see the status overview
  • More detailed financial reports
We've decided to switch to Topdesk which helps us to professionalize our Services to our customers.
July 09, 2018

Review of TOPdesk

Dana Matthes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our company uses TOPdesk as a signaling system and a knowledge database. IT as well as facilities colleagues use it as a signaling system. All colleagues can use it as a knowledge database and they can also make mention of problems or requests.
  • The signaling system is outstanding. Everybody can work with it. It is clear and easy to use. Information can never be lost.
  • The new knowledge system works really well. Colleagues are able to search for items. The connections between several items make it all easier.
  • The variety of possibilities and connections between items is very nice.
  • Some features within the knowledge database could improve. Such as layout possibilities, inserting images (quite difficult), search possibilities (does not search for half words for example).
  • We would like to have more flexibility within the system. For example, we would like to be able to determine which items are obliged within the reservation module.
  • The possibility for more 'open' courses at TOPdesk would be nice. I would like to follow some courses, but most are for a team internally. I'm alas alone.
July 09, 2018

Happy TOPdesk user

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk to register our customer issues, software builds and bugs.
  • Self service portal so customers can register their own issues
  • Automatic reply when registering, updating incidents and changes
  • Automatic mail import into TOPdesk
  • Using multiple mail server accounts when sending updates to customers. Now you can only use one email account with aliases.
  • Directly pasting pictures in incident comments without having to save them first.
  • Registration of spend time on incident and changes could be better.
It makes registration, communication with customers so much easier
Robert van Geenen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We've rolled out TOPdesk to the entire organization. Another museum whom we offer IT support also uses TOPdesk to log their issues and request. The most used modules are Incident Management and Change Management. Metrics provided by TOPdesk are used to monitor Key Performance Indicators. Reporting is also an important feature used to aggregate metrics into reports for the Management Team.
  • It's very easy for users to log calls.
  • The knowledge base is a very powerful tool to assist in self-service.
  • Since TOPdesk is based on ITIL it's very easy to grasp how the individual modules relate to one another.
  • Insightful reports are relatively easy to set up.
  • The ability to use a smartphone (or even tablet) to scan a barcode or QR-code to log a call relating to that asset would be a great improvement.
  • When logging a call, the user could benefit from instant suggestions taken from the knowledge base.
  • Integrated chat w/ internal support staff would be a nice feature.
As with any tool, it's important to take the time to get a good understanding of which particular issue in your organization you're trying to address. TOPdesk does a very good job in larger organizations where the team of operators is differentiated according to specialization and where continuity is a factor. Smaller organizations and operator teams will not benefit as much.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's used as our main IT Service Management tool. It helps us to log incidents and changes and establish the CMDB. Changes are mainly on the level of the IT-department, but also to support HR-processes like employee-in & -out for the part of processing the access-rights and enable/disable (mail-)accounts. It does not really support our business-process, it is merely there for facilitating those who do. It helps us as an IT-department to use preset flows with automatic updates to the users.
  • For the (client)user: easy to use Self Service portal
  • If a flow is set-up, it works like a charm
  • Possibility to build your own dashboards
  • It takes quite some time to master TOPdesk enough. You need some dedicated people then to do this (we have version 5.7).
  • Some functionality that I would perceive as basic these days, is not standard. The extra modules you'll have to buy then are then full of stuff you don't need...
  • The new SaaS-version is quite costly.
  • Interfacing with some other applications (for instance HR) comes with some hassle and consultancy. Feels like you have to tailor too much. Should we not be the only company with some interfaces?
For general ITSM it's ok for sure. But be aware that if your organization is small, it takes some effort to tailor it to your needs. It's not LEGO, it's more Playmobil.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our service and support organization depends on the use of TOPdesk and the ticketing module. More modules are available and are soon to be implemented.
  • Very intuative for our end-users
  • Easy to make adjustments in forms and pages
  • Nice self-service portal functions for out-of-the-box use
  • Copy and past-ing of images isn't possible
  • E-mail forms will Always need to create a ticket. It would be nice to create forms without a ticket function.
TOPdesk is a nice and fast system for ticketing and workflow change management. Less appropriate for CMDB like functions.
June 27, 2018

TOPview of TOPdesk

Wim Kars | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's being used by our service desk. They receive questions, remarks, comments, complaints, and suggestions from traffic users all over the country. They categorise the messages and transfer them to second line specialists to answer or solve. TOPdesk also is the source for management reports on these matters. It is very useful for the company.
  • Providing an overview on messages
  • Possibilities for reports
  • Monitoring solution time
  • Connecting with other users in similar departments
  • More graphic report possibilities
  • Specifically in a service driven organisation like ours
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our service desk uses TOPdesk as their go-to tool to support our customers.
  • Great self-service portal
  • Extensive repporting features
  • The support and consultancy from TOPdesk are helpful
  • Integrations with other tooling
TOPdesk is good when you need a high level of customisation.
Harrie Horlings | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk for all our customers to support them with there IT problems. We use TOPdesk for 1 year now within the company. It gives us a good overview of all work that has to be done. It helps us communicate with the customers and inform them about the status of there issue or request.
  • Easy to use
  • Fast in use
  • Professional design
  • The TOPdesk app for the iPhone is only for users and not for practitioners
  • An option to merge two tickets in one ticket with an easy button
When a colleague searches IT support ticket system and have more than 50 users, I will advise him to use TOPdesk.
If they only have a few users, then it is less appropriate. It's easy to use and can be used in small and large companies. You can setup TOPdesk to your own preferences.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a software development company, we use TOPdesk for our clients to report bugs, ask questions etc. Our own employees will also submit tickets for their own support needs that go straight to our systems administrator. Change and operational management are also successfully implemented to adhere perfectly to our strict security policy.
  • Change management
  • Object management
  • The ability to link every object and change an issue with each other.
  • Right now we're on a bit of an older version (updating soon!), they could use better browser compatibility
  • Parts of configuration are still on the server instead of in the app. It takes a bit more time
TOPdesk is perfect for your internal support needs, but also for external needs.
Ricardo Groen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use top desks both internally and externally. Internally, we register all ICT-related issues that employees notice in TOPdesk.

Externally, we provide support for both end users and dealers of our products. Our customers register their reports at Inepro by telephone, e-mail and via TOPdesk's self-service portal. Via the self-service portal, customers have insight into the status of their reports. Customers can make use of the knowledge base we have built up within TOPdesk. We also use TOPdesk for the distribution of new software releases, training materials and manuals.

  • TOPdesk provides insight into and an overview of the status of service and support calls. This gives us a good insight into whether we comply with the agreed service contracts with our customers.
  • TOPdesk has an easy to operate and clear service portal for our customers.
  • We use TOPdesk for the distribution of new software and firmware to selected customers. We also use TOPdesk to share knowledge with our dealers. TOPdesk is a perfect medium for Inepro for this purpose.
  • Keeping track of the time per incident is easy, so employees are not hindered from keeping track of this.
  • An incident on which many mutations have been made, loses a clear overview. Reports can no longer be seen completely and clearly on the screen.
  • Recognition of equal or similar incident reports could be improved.
  • We missed good interaction with modern communication tools such as WhatsAPP.
TOPdesk is very well suited for situations where incidents need to be dealt with in a short period of time.

For the registration of long-term issues, the package lacks a strong overview.The various possibilities for users to create reports (self-service portal, e-mail, telephone) are strong. Especially when it concerns one on one communication. TOPdesk has fewer possibilities for us to communicate with groups of users.
Robin Boelen | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use TopDesk as the base of our IT department. Everything we do, every change we make, every support case that has been solved is registered in TopDesk. All our hardware is also registered in TopDesk, including details like warranty, status, the location of use, even the invoices are linked to hardware items. The Knowledge database in TopDesk is used as a log and ever-growing manual of every configuration/installation we perform.
  • Preserve a timeline for every item in TopDesk. From a piece of hardware to my users. I can view and track their history
  • It helps me with keeping my documentation up to date and offers me a central medium to store all relevant information
  • It keeps me informed on our workload
  • It took me a while to find my way trough TopDesk. It could be a bit more intuitive.
  • Beter support for using Multiple tabs in your browser
Perfect for use in an IT support environment where tracking your hardware and support case is critical for your company.
June 18, 2018

Nice product

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
TOPdesk is used across the whole organization.
  • many possibilities
  • low costs
  • easy to use
  • creating reports
  • flexibel configurations
Creating the reports we want is a hell of a job. It is also not easy to create reports to a pdf for printing. all the good pre-defined report are clicking reports. The import module works fine when importing all your hardware for example. The connection with AD is also very good
Niels Jan Bruggenkamp | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Topdesk is implemented as our new IT-service desk management and IT-self-service platform. Currently, we use the core-functionality: Ticketing, Change-management, Workflows, Asset-management, and self-service. In the near future, we would like to implement Topdesk to handle facility management and customer service management. A project to allow FM and CS to benefit from TopDesk will be launched later this year.
  • Keeping track of issues and changes
  • Searchable Knowledge-base
  • Trend Analysis and Team Performance
  • Workflows
  • Direct copy and paste of images from the clipboard into the action fields. Topdesk currently only supports image uploads, which is really annoying when writing documentation and registering issues.
  • Reporting should receive a graphics overhaul. Current reports are graphically very unattractive.
  • A separate module for IT documentation like done on the competing platform IT-glue with a super secure option to store sensitive information would be a great addition.
  • Team-management with visual OKR support (teamwork distribution) as done on the competing platform Weekdone would be great!
TopDesk is a fantastic Ticketing and self-service platform, but not really useful for the IT department's own documentation needs.
It would be great if we could also perform team-management and team task-tracking from the platform.
June 01, 2018

TOPdesk Review

Vera Groot | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk to structure and control our incoming problems. Our coworkers can fill in forms in the self-service portal. This is a great way for them to see the progress. We can see directly what we should do and what can wait. TOPdesk is very easy to use and we are glad that we have this program.
  • Structure
  • Quick overview
  • Easy to use
  • Orders can be easily made in TOPdesk.
  • Requests for change and the progress.
  • I can't think of one thing
May 31, 2018

TOPdesk GO

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
TOPdesk is used to collect issues from our employees and support clients with questions. The database is used to see where the most questions came from and will be used to aim for upgrading and improving our business line. It also benefits the use of 1 entry (E-mail address or SSD) for all questions. The internal handling is not a problem [for] our clients.
  • Keep track of all the items, solved or unsolved. It is a database where you can track and trace all the issues.
  • With this information, you can find the best and worst of the supported products.
  • The TOPdesk application makes it much easier as the previous mail solution for support. An incoming issue can be sent to help desk member. If it can't be solved by his knowledge it is easy to transfer it to a second line help desk and even go to our development team.
  • There is never a question lost in this situation.
  • For me, it suits our needs.
Ap Matteman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
TOPdesk is our main program for our hour registration. We work for a lot of customers and the time we spend for our customers is booked in TOPdesk. The administration department is using the time in TOPdesk for creating invoices. We also use TOPdesk for the registration of our hardware and creating records of interruption or dysfunction.
  • Easy to administrator the worked time on a ticket and also when multiple users work on the some ticket
  • There is a great function to let different TOPdesk environments [work] together, in this way you can share tickets with your customers
  • Great report generator to get management information from TOPdesk
  • It is a super way to register hardware and create tickets on the hardware to see the complete history of a product
  • It would be nice if there was a clock function, [so you could] start the clock when you start working on a ticket and stop the clock when you are ready.
  • No mobile version (app) for the phone. Field engineers are now using the web version.
  • Super for registration of hardware and work. Easy to use and good detailed information.
  • You cannot use it as a CRM or to make offers or invoices.
Marthijn Groenewoud | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk as our fully integrated support desk tool!
  • Detailed options en functionality
  • Easy to use and to deploy
  • User friendly environment
  • We miss the integration with Afas to fullfill a fully billable process
  • Support desk
  • Planning
  • Projects
Stijn Buitenhuis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, it’s mainly being used by one department. Other departments, however, are using the data registered in TopDesk. We’re currently planning to use it for other departments as well. It helps us to keep track of all issues and gives us an insight of our configuration management.
  • It transforms from static to flexible.
  • It implements new functionalities like asset management.
  • They listen to the wishes and needs of their customers.
  • Flexibility in incident management (like asset management)
  • Artificial intelligence based on categorization etcetera are very welcome
  • Easier use of filters
The asset management is very flexible and easy to manage and design. It gives you the ability to create custom fields and filter on these fields. The incident management lacks artificial intelligence or flows/dependencies. This would be very welcome or give more flexibility to customize the cards.
Ton van Kaam | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use TOPdesk for several processes, supplier contracts, and software licenses. Hardware equipment. Machinery registration. Periodical Maintenance. Machine failure registration. We use a third of the processes in other countries and in different languages. All the processes are well supported by TOPdesk. The functions within TOPdesk are more than available. The helpdesk of TOPdesk is very good. Help is provided within a day by normal tickets. If a call is needed, quick service is perfect. TOPdesk is a professional company that knows what customers need. I can recommend this company to everyone!
  • Software/ hardware lease contracts. You can add end dates, alert dates, lease amount, duration number in days/months/years. Activate and not active anymore. But still, have a good overview
  • Machine registration. You can sort by date who is the supplier. Estimated end of the live period. Maintenance plan. Contract info. Repair history. Contact info. This is a very complete module
  • Organisation overview is also very complete.
  • One thing that can be better is the configuration for sending emails. For this, you need the help of TOPdesk. This would be better if a customer could set this by them self
  • As I already mentioned. Sending mail configuration could be better and should be maintained by customer.
  • Maybe more mobile friendly
Topdesk is well suited for companies that manage machines, software, hardware, contracts, mobile's, customer complaints. International companies.
Bob Gruett | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When fully implemented, TOPdesk will be used across my whole organization. It will be primarily used to manage ticketing (help desk, maintenance, etc...), as well as to provide a nice front-end for the user community. We also hope to implement the project management and change control modules in the near future.
  • Provides a very nice front-end interface for the end-user community.
  • Provides a thorough web-based interface for the operators (back-end technicians).
  • Provides a great deal of flexibility concerning the organization of operators into groups, as well as delegating very granular control over what they can/cannot do in the operators interface.
  • The inventory system - while boasting some cool features such as historical modifications to a system - suffers from one core issue: It is very easy to introduce duplicate records into the system and lose connections between PCs and other objects (licenses, users, support tickets) due to TOPdesk's use of the host name as the primary key in their database.
  • The AD import system is not properly fleshed out, and requires extensive modifications by TOPdesk before it will work. For instance, it won't pull in any addressing information for any of your users by default. It will also pull in blank entries if an account lives in the OU structure you're scanning and that account has a manager whose account lives outside the OU structure in question. Likewise, similar blank entries can be created if an Exchange contact is set as the manager of a user account within your OU.
  • The knowledgebase is decent, but it lacks [A] any real formatting (no numbered or bulleted lists, making procedures difficult to write) and [B] granular control over who can do what (if you give someone in HR the ability to write/edit knowledgebase articles, they also have access to all the IT knowledgebase articles). I believe TOPdesk will be improving this approach in the future, but nothing yet.
  • The trigger/action system (handles all email notifications) is very difficult to set up. It's a powerful system in that you can compose highly customized emails, but without any sort of basic guide or templates it's a very steep learning curve to get working. In my own system I have nearly 40 triggers and nearly 70 actions just to handle who should get what, and it took months to set up - a core reason it took so long to roll out the product. These triggers are not well documented either, so many of them require trial and error to the nth degree.
  • Some aspects of the system are inherently broken. For instance, you can create a trigger to trip whenever someone posts a comment to a ticket, then have an action set up to email all the linked users of a ticket. But if there aren't any linked users then the operator gets a post-comment prompt asking who they want to send the email to, instead of the system being smart enough to know that it shouldn't try sending the email at all.
  • Linked users have no visibility into someone else's ticket. This is odd, because TOPdesk has enabled this feature for [A] users of the same location (where it isn't always applicable) and/or [B] users of the same department (where again, it isn't always applicable). What TOPdesk should do is give *ANY* linked user the ability to see another user's ticket via the self-service portal, but they haven't done this. The result would be a linked user getting an email notification for a ticket which they don't have visibility on, resulting on additional emails back and forth looking for information.
  • On a related note, the two existing visibility options listed above (location-based and department-based) can introduce security holes. Consider a handful of users at a single location or within a single department, then consider that two or three of them are basic users, then there is an assistant manager, and finally there is a manager above everyone. You can easily give the manager visibility of all of his/her subordinates' tickets, but if in order to give the assistant manager visibility over his/her subordinates, you must also give him/her visibility to the manager's tickets.
  • The mobile operators site restricts ticket visibility to only [A] an operator's own tickets and [B] unassigned tickets within that operator's group. So if you have a 10-person support team with a single manager, then as soon as the manager assigns at ticket to one of his/her techs, the manager loses visibility of the ticket. This is especially problematic if you have a manager working in the field on a mobile device 100% of the time (as I do). The only way for the manager to see all tickets is to simply not assign them to anyone, a pretty dumb approach to a problem introduced as part of a poor design choice.
  • As a general rule, TOPdesk has introduced many great ideas, but they are often burdened by the singular approach the TOPdesk designers have taken. As stated above, yes, you have an inventory, but it's borderline unusable because of their choice of primary keys. Or yes, you can link multiple users to a single ticket, but they can't actually SEE the ticket. Or an operator can use the mobile website, but they can't SEE tickets assigned to other members of their team within the mobile website. Things like that. And the most frustrating element is that when you bring these points up their response is almost always 'Why is that a problem?', or 'Why would you want to do it that way?', or something similar which avoids confronting the design issue head on in favor of putting the onus on the customer to justify why something should work the way it works in countless other help desk applications.
  • Don't get me wrong - TOPdesk is a very decent product and has the potential to be GREAT - but after 8 months of prepping before we turned it on, it didn't surprise me in the least that so many individuals (operators) in our organization reported problems and frustrations with it.
  • UPDATE: Since my first review we have upgraded TOPdesk to the latest version and found several previous problems have been fixed (so they no longer appear in this review). One such example was documents attached to KB articles, which show up out of alphabetical order (still a problem), but which previously were not returned during searches. They now are, making the misordering of the files not much of a problem any longer.
  • The point is that TOPdesk is always improving their products, and this gives me great hope going forward that our satisfaction with it will only grow.
Absolutely great if you want to provide a nice interface to your end-user community. Also, pretty good ticket management. Decent (not great) form designer. Horrible if you want to use inventory, write elaborate knowledgebase procedures, or set up any sort of intelligent email notification system without spending years of your life getting things set up. Very poor documentation (getting SSL set up was a chore, installing the product was not easy, etc...).
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