Item: Spiceworks Help Desk
Rating: 10
Author: Michael Timms

Overall Satisfaction with Spiceworks

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My organization encourages the use of open source software when it can be used to cut costs. We were testing multiple asin set management softwares, and I was asked to test Spiceworks as I had experience with it. I set up a virtual server, installed Spiceworks and began to test. Let me say from the start that scanning in all the devices it in my plans took an incredible amount of time, but now that they are scanned in, it is not that bad. Spiceworks is built and maintained by all of the "spiceheads" on the Spiceworks forums, and they are very proud of what they have built, as well they should be. This software, in my opinion, is second only to PDQInventory for asset management.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Actively monitors all of the devices on your network.
Excellent for software inventory
Outstanding for hardware inventory
Price. For the low, low cost of zero you get an amazing quality tool
3rd party integration

Cons

Scans are very slow.
Huge learning curve
3rd party integration is not really well documented, meaning that it can take a while to find what you need to set something new up.

Return on Investment

Spcieworks has saved me time looking for certain machines that might be online—positive.
Spiceworks is free, so I am able to manage my inventory for no cost —positive.
I can quickly look up what computer a user is logged into when troubleshooting over the phone. This is priceless—positive.

Alternatives Considered

ManageEngine AssetExplorer, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, Ivanti IT Asset Management Suite (formerly LANDESK IT Asset Management Suite) and Ivanti Asset Tracker (formerly Heat Asset Tracker)

Out of the software that I have listed above, Spiceworks was selected over the others solely based on price. That does not mean that Spiceworks is less effective, it is just that the others have different features, but you pay for those features. Purely as asset management, Spiceworks is excellent, and it suits my needs.

Other Software Used

LogMeIn Rescue, LogMeIn Pro, DameWare Remote Support, Zoom Video Webinar, Cisco Aironet Access Points, VMware ESXi, Kernel-based Virtual Machine, CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Oracle VM VirtualBox

Likelihood to Recommend

Spiceworks is just a suited well to the startup that has a very small budget to the Information Technology Juggernaut that has a multi-billion dollar budget. It is not suited for an IT department that is not used to doing some troubleshooting on enterprise level software. Spiceworks can probably do what you need, but it might take you a while to set it up.

Spiceworks Help Desk Feature Ratings

Comments

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Excellent Software, Outstanding Price!