SolarWinds Web Help Desk is an adequate solution, but there are better options out there.
June 03, 2016

SolarWinds Web Help Desk is an adequate solution, but there are better options out there.

Tim Twiss | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Web Help Desk

SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) is utilized by the IT department to manage work orders and trouble tickets. The tickets are generated via email from the end users, or manually by the technician. This allows us to monitor the time and resources it takes to support our organization and also provides us with a central managing point for data regarding work orders or trouble tickets.
  • Automatically creates trouble tickets via email. This allows our users to create their own tickets and allows the technicians to review the queue and prioritize the work, allowing for more efficient production.
  • Automatically corresponds with end users and technicians. Any changes made to a ticket can be automatically sent to all parties referenced in a ticket.
  • Ticket updates via email. WHD also allows for tickets to be modified by email responses by clicking links in the corresponding emails it modifies the subject line which in turn updates the ticket when it is processed. For example, I can click the link to close the ticket in the email, type up a solution, and send the email and the ticket will automatically update and close out.
  • Built-in inventory scanning. This system is very cumbersome and problematic. We eventually gave up on utilizing it as it was generating numerous duplicate entries.
  • Software tracking. When the inventory scanning did work, the end results were not very efficient. We would have liked to have the ability to search for systems with Office 2013 installed on them for example, but their was no easy way to do that.
  • Reliability. We find the server needs to be rebooted every couple of weeks as it slows to a crawl. This isn't a huge inconvenience to our small IT department, but it is an annoyance.
  • Provides a positive experience to our end-users in managing trouble tickets and work orders.
  • Provides a positive experience to our technicians allowing them to be more productive in their daily duties.
  • Provides a positive experience to manage allowing us to run reports and research measurable data to find areas of improvement.
  • BMC Track-It!
BMC Track-It! was my first choice for a help desk solution, but we chose SolarWinds Web Help Desk primarily based on cost alone, a now regrettable decision. Track-It! is a far superior product and is better than SolarWinds WHD in every way. That being said, for the cost and what we needed it to do, WHD has performed as expected.
SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) is best suited for a smaller environment, at least with its built-in resources. Perhaps using third party scanners or database engines would provide better results, but we wanted to keep the costs down.

SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD) Feature Ratings

Organize and prioritize service tickets
9
Expert directory
5
Subscription-based notifications
10