Solarwinds Service Desk Review
Updated May 01, 2020

Solarwinds Service Desk Review

Treyce Miller | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Solarwinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage)

We are currently using Solarwinds Service Desk as our IT ticketing system. We also use Solarwinds Service Desk for asset tracking. We are only using it for our IT department, but are planning to implement it for other departments in the future. The reporting features allow us to see which problems we have most often and allow us to prepare better to correct them.
  • I think the interface (Incidents Page) is easy to use and very customizable.
  • Reporting is easy to understand, and there are many pre-built reports that can be used without the user having to do much.
  • The asset tracking system allows you to create assets and assign them to particular users or locations. You can also add custom fields to make sure you have all the asset information documented.
  • I think the filters for the Incidents can be a little buggy (sometimes shows closed incidents when on the "Active Incidents" filter).
  • The reporting section was updated recently and is now much harder to navigate when trying to create custom reports.
  • If Service Desk doesn't have a function that other incident systems may have, it can take a long time (or be impossible) to have those functions added.
  • Service Desk is helping us stay organized as an IT Department.
  • We are able to see what every IT employee has been working on and can help without having to be in direct contact for every incident.
  • The reporting functions allow us to see our weaknesses and prepare to resolve those issues more quickly.
For the most part, Solarwinds Service Desk and SolarWinds Web Help Desk are basically the same. Both are extremely customizable, have incident and asset tracking functions and have reporting functions. I believe the kicker was the fact that Solarwinds Service Desk was already cloud-based. Solarwinds Service Desk also has a more friendly interface.
Support seems kind of sluggish. It could be that they are swamped because of the buyout or don't know exactly how to fix certain issues. I also think there should be an easier method of having functionalities added than having to put a request in and hope they like it or hope another company requests the same thing.

Do you think SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD)'s feature set?

Yes

Did SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SolarWinds Service Desk (SSD) again?

Yes

I actually used Solarwinds Help Desk at a previous job for about 2 years. When I started my current job, they were looking for an incident tracking system. So, I recommended Help Desk. We tried it out for a couple of weeks. Then, the company decided to go for Solarwinds Service Desk because it was cloud-based. We have been using it for almost a year.

SolarWinds Service Desk Feature Ratings

Organize and prioritize service tickets
8
Expert directory
7
Self-service tools
8
Subscription-based notifications
8
ITSM collaboration and documentation
7
ITSM reports and dashboards
7
Configuration mangement
8
Asset management dashboard
8
Policy and contract enforcement
6
Change requests repository
8
Change calendar
8
Service-level management
8

Using Solarwinds Service Desk (formerly Samanage)

19 - We primarily use Solarwinds Service Desk as an incident response system. We have it linked to our IT email so that it automatically creates an incident when IT receives an email. We also use the asset management section of Service Desk to keep track of our assets and assign them to users or locations.
2 - We have 2 people that troubleshoot and support the Solarwinds Service Desk software for our IT department. One person from the Network team (myself) and one person from the Help Desk team support the Service Desk software. Supporting the Service Desk software is not difficult. I think a person would need good troubleshooting skills and be able to communicate well with Solarwinds support.
  • Incident Response
  • Asset Management
  • Reporting
  • Track which problems we deal with most
  • See who answers the majority of incidents
  • Guestimate average turn around time on incidents
  • Provide more in depth information for inventory and assets
  • Plan more quickly to fix persistent incidents
  • Come up with reward system for technicians
We strongly wish to renew and continue to use Solarwinds Service Desk. We've spent almost a year learning the ins and outs of the system and have gotten used to it. The only thing that may keep us from renewing would be executives. If they decide they want a new system (for whatever reason), we will likely explore other options.

Evaluating SolarWinds Service Desk and Competitors

  • Product Features
  • Prior Experience with the Product
Prior to starting with this company in 2017, I worked at another company that used Solarwinds Web Help Desk. When I started with this company, I suggested we use Web Help Desk as our incident response system. We got a demo of the product and used it for a couple of weeks. Then, our decision makers decided to go more cloud based. So, we looked in to, and eventually purchased, Solarwinds Service Desk.
I don't know that we could have had a better evaluation and selection process. Most likely, the only way for us to better the process would have been to make the entire department demo the product instead of a select few people. If everyone had been in on the demo, we could have discussed any questions or concerns as a whole and could potentially not have had to deal with them after implementation.

SolarWinds Service Desk Implementation

The implementation process for our organization was fairly simple. We set up an email address to receive the emails from the system (for incident creation), and we allowed the system to spoof our IT email to respond to requests. Solarwinds helped us with the rest of the implementation, and it took less than a week to get the system fully operational.
  • The only thing we had to implement was the email setup for creating and responding to incidents.

SolarWinds Service Desk Training

Working in IT, we were already very familiar with systems like this. Once the system is setup, it is very easy to get used to. The web interface is very user friendly and pretty straight forward. If we did encounter anything that we didn't understand or couldn't figure out, support was there to answer our questions.

Configuring SolarWinds Service Desk

I think the amount of configuring you can do with Solarwinds Service Desk is amazing. You can completely customize the look and feel of the interface. You can also set up and manage the incident, asset and reporting systems however you want. The amount of customization for this product is just right.
When we were implementing and building our database for Solarwinds Service Desk, we were not crunched for time. We were able to use trial and error for our customization and implementation. If you have a limited amount of time to get this product implemented, I'd strongly suggest asking support to help implement and customize the system.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
We have not done any customization to change the look of the interface for everyone. The way Solarwinds Service Desk is setup allows each technician to edit the look and feel of their own home screen. The only thing we changed for everyone was to add a company logo to the login screen.

SolarWinds Service Desk Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Problems get solved
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
I do not have a specific time in mind. I haven't had to use support for Service Desk in a while. Each time I use support, I copy our company's direct Solarwinds contact, and I get a response pretty quickly. I haven't come across any issues that have not been able to be fixed or that have taken more than one week to resolve.

Using SolarWinds Service Desk

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Reporting
  • Asset Management
  • Incident Response
  • I do not find the system difficult to use.
Yes - I downloaded the Solarwinds Service Desk app from the iPhone App Store. I typically only use this when I'm working at a remote location and in a hurry. The app has limited options compared to the web interface. But, it does allow you to enter your incidents and fully manage them.
Solarwinds Service Desk has a very "user friendly" interface. Everything looks nice and neat. And, learning how to use the system is very easy. It provides multiple services that are easy for most people to grasp, and allows for great organization of incidents and assets. Support for Solarwinds Service Desk has a good response and resolution time and are easy to work with.

SolarWinds Service Desk Reliability

The amount of customization that can be done in this software allows for almost unlimited scalability. I do not know specifically how to do it, but support did tell us that we could create rules and functions for particular users allowing for separation of departments within the Solarwinds Service Desk software.
For the most part the availability is fine. However, every now and then we have an issue where the system is very slow to respond. It can go from 2-5 seconds to load a page to 15-20 seconds to load a page. That doesn't seem like much. But, when you spend most of your day in the system, those extra seconds add up.
When the system is working, the pages load very quickly. We run reports all the time in the system. The reporting can be extremely complex or very simple. Either way, we have not had any issues with the reports. We do not currently integrate Solarwinds Service Desk with any other software.

Integrating SolarWinds Service Desk

I gave this a 5, because we have not integrated any software with our Solarwinds Service Desk. From what I've read, it seems fairly simple.
  • None
We have not integrated our Solarwinds Service Desk with any other software.
  • Microsoft Outlook
The only software that I'd want to integrate our Solarwinds Service Desk with would be Microsoft Outlook. If we could have the Solarwinds calendar sync with the Outlook calendar, that would be amazing.
  • Single Signon
We are planning to implement single sign on for Service Desk. But, we haven't gotten around to it.
If you have any issues with integration, reach out to Solarwinds Support. They are always willing to help.

Relationship with SolarWinds

When we were looking to purchase Solarwinds Service Desk, we went directly through Solarwinds. They were very easy to work with and answered every question or concern we had.
After the sale, the vendor is still easy to work with. We haven't had to reach back out to them for much. We typically go to support for anything now.
The only thing that we absolutely wanted was help with the implementation process.
Be straight forward with your vendor. They are trying to make the sale, and they know you are likely choosing between multiple products.

Upgrading SolarWinds Service Desk