Item: Spiceworks Help Desk
Rating: 10
Author: Jennifer Metcalf

Overall Satisfaction with Spiceworks

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The IT department uses Spiceworks as our ticketing software for internal support. We were looking for somthing to replace the very bulky ticketing software we had been using.

Pros and Cons

Pros

But it's created and supported as if it was a very expensive program.
Web-based. Got a browser? You can get your tickets.
MUCH. INFORMATION. If you know a little SQL, you can get it to tell you just about anything about your network.
Community. Adjacent to the program is a flourishing community of, I think at this point, over 5 million users. Reviews, how-tos, vendors, anything you could need in a forum, plus a plate of bacon.
Access to devs. Not only is their support great, but through the community, you can get some access to the developers. I'm currently bugging them over some feature requests. :)

Cons

Plug-ins. There are a few features, like nesting sub categories when creating a ticket that you would expect to be standard, but are only supported by plugins. It's not fun when you depend on a feature you get from a plugin, and the creator stops working on it.
SQLite isn't my favorite thing in the world, but it's what I have to fight to write custom reports.

Return on Investment

It takes a lot less time to open tickets

Alternatives Considered

Track-it and Service Center

Spiceworks does so much more than any of the ticketing systems I've used. The inventory feature is so helpful.

Likelihood to Recommend

I started using this for a small amount of users, and it worked great. At my current company, we have significantly more users and it still works great.

Spiceworks Implementation

If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Change Management Lessons

Change management was minimal

Implementation Issues

Learning how to get a third-party plugin to play right.

Spiceworks Support

Support Rating

They have always been very good to me. Issues are resolved quickly, sometimes even without me reporting through official channels.

Spiceworks Help Desk Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Bug Resolution

Yes - Yes. I reported an issue I had in a non-official venue on the forum. Within a few hours, a member of the support team had reached out to me for more information, which I got to him. He recognized it as a bug, gave me a workaround until it was fixed, and the same time, helped me find a work around for another issue that came up due to using an older version.

Exceptional Examples of Spiceworks Help Desk Support

Every time I have contacted support (which has not been often), I have gotten wonderful support. Quick response times, coherent and detailed explanations, and they stick it it out until you're happy.

Using Spiceworks

Usability

It just works.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Creating/working with tickets
Inventory
Reporting
Everything

Difficult Tasks

writing custom reports in SQLite

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - Very well. They have done so much more with the recent updates to the mobile apps.

Comments

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Spiceworks, Where IT goes to work

Software Version

Modules Used