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Need an IT Service Management System that can address all your ITSM needs without digging a huge hone in your pocket? SysAid ITSM is for you
January 03, 2022

Need an IT Service Management System that can address all your ITSM needs without digging a huge hone in your pocket? SysAid ITSM is for you

Corus Mabulwana | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

ITSM

Overall Satisfaction with SysAid

We use SysAid for IT Service Management, where we manage our Service Tickets, Problem Management, Change Management, Password Self Service and in the first quarter of next year, 2022, we want to implement Asset Management to allow us to monitor and manage our IT assets, including their life cycle, procurement, and disposal. We also intend to make it an Enterprise Management System, where we want other services on campus, including Human Resource, Finance, Asset Management, Campus Control, Transport, among other services, to start using the system to manage their tickets as at the moment, there's not [a] holistic system in place to do so, and ensuring that users get the services they require in a timely fashion, allowing for tickets escalation if nothing is done within the expected time.
  • Incidents management
  • Password self service using OTP
  • Problem management
  • Change management
  • The ability to do backups from within the system
  • Ability to add more widgets on the Dashboard instead of the current limitation of 6 per Dashboard
  • Simplified integration of cloud services like Office 365 and Google Workspace
  • Mobile app for both iOS and Android
  • We were able to reduce the number of tickets we were getting on a day-to-day basis by implementing Password Self Service.
  • Reduced number of telephone calls coming to Service Desk as users can raise tickets by themselves using the Self Service Portal.
  • Users are not able to install [a] common application from the Software Repo from wherever they are, as compared to when the Repo was only accessible if one is connected to the local network using the shared folder with all the apps.
  • It was easy for users to adopt the system because of its user-friendliness and fresh look.
Whilst the support is great, I feel there's still room for improvement as I have suggested to them since their first line of support tend to not understand what we require assistance on, and will at times ask really frustrating questions, and for someone who knows what they are looking for, more especially having done it before, it can be frustrating. Training of what the system can do and how it [works] is required for their First Line Support Team, but I must admit, once the ticket is assigned to the right person or tier, it takes a very short time to resolve the issue at hand.

Do you think SysAid delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SysAid's feature set?

Yes

Did SysAid live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SysAid go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SysAid again?

Yes

Whilst it delivers on most of the features it comes with, I feel Change Management needs a complete re-do as it is really complicated, and think it should be made to be straightforward. For the free services of their Market Place, they should develop a platform where one can just browse for the script (downloaded) and apply the patch, without having to go into various places in code to activate the service. or at least, build the integrations into the system and have [a] section under settings, or even straight from the Market Place, where one can just enable the service, and if required, be prompted to input additional information, including credentials.
The Professional Service comes in very handy for cases where one doesn't know how to do certain things during the implementation, or when a particular feature is not really available in the way that a customer expects, since we get to engage with a specialist to help modify the code where necessary, but I think some of the features commonly available in similar systems, could just be made available and the service owner can just enable them if needed. Case in point, for tickets Round Robin, it should have the option to enable this not based on the number of tickets a technician has, as this makes it impossible to equally distribute tickets across your team.
I would have given this a rating of 10, if it was not for the newly introduced SysAid partnership with local Tech Companies, as this may lead to the system pricing going higher, based on my experience. In addition, this will also cut that line between the customer and the vendor, as you will now have someone sitting in the middle, and no longer able to interact directly with experts from the vendor.
The system is best suited for small to large corporations and has the potential to be used as an Enterprise Management System, rather than just ITSM. I think the area SysAid needs to improve or implement in the short term, is the ability to back up and restore from within the system, instead of having to do it at a database level. For added security, instead of just 4 digits for the OTP, there should be an option to increase the number of digits to at least 6, including alphanumerical.

SysAid Feature Ratings

Incident and problem management
8.3
Organize and prioritize service tickets
9
Self-service tools
9
ITSM reports and dashboards
7
ITSM asset management
6.5
Configuration mangement
6
Asset management dashboard
7
Change management
5.0
Change requests repository
5
Service-level management
5

Using SysAid

2000 - We have just under 100 IT Professionals using the service to interact or manage various services, but mainly Incident Management on a day to day [basis], including just under 2000 staff, and from next year, it will include almost 20,000 of our students, as we want to expand it to be used for Student IT Support, and before the end of next year if things [go] according to plan, for other student services.
2 - I am one of the two people supporting the system internally. Whilst I deal primarily with the User Experience and Aesthetics, I am also responsible as the primary contact between SysAid and our company, and my other colleague is an experienced developer and comes in handy when it comes to making the core system changes, including changes on the database and some of the complex Translation Files I am afraid to mess with.
  • Incident management
  • Password self service
  • Problem management
  • Change management
  • Implementing OTP for password self service
  • Changed the look for password self service portal
  • Aesthetics for the self service portal
  • To use the service as an Enterprise Management System rather than just IT
  • Automation, including onboarding for Human Resource
  • Student Portal, where the Self Service Portal for students, will include all the services both IT and other departments offers, which will obviously include links to specific cloud services so they don't have [to] memorize many URLs
Having personally used SysAid for the past 10 years or so, when it was still in its infancy, the trajectory of its improvement and the pricing, there is no doubt that it will be soon an overall market leader, because whilst there other services with options that SysAid doesn't have or haven't mastered, they come at [an] eye-watering price, and in my comparison, for up to 300% more.
Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Google Workspace (formerly G Suite), Blackboard Collaborate

Evaluating SysAid and Competitors

Yes - We were Microsoft System Centre Service Manager, but the system is just too complex and difficult to use, not even HP Enterprise South Africa was able to configure it to our requirements. The web interphase was very minimal and it cost us millions to get it to work to our expectation, and we had to ditch it.
  • Price
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Product Reputation
  • Prior Experience with the Product
As the person who recommended SysAid, I have been using SysAid for years before in its trial form, and found it very easy not only to use but to configure and customize - and most importantly, it came at a fraction. Despite the [reluctance] due to internal politics, after four years we decided to acquire it, and ever since, over 90% of the time, the system delivers.
There's really nothing much I would change, other than to be strategic in trying to deal with internal politics, where only specific people can recommend a service. The only thing which may affect my choice could be the introduction of local partners, as this is definitely going to impact the quality of service and pricing.
SysAid pricing was very affordable and the pricing was just straightforward, [with] no setup fees and nonsense like that, but although anybody can install ServiceDesk Plus, because of the usage of local partners who also wants to make a killing in the process, they also quoted us a non-optional installation fee. In addition, for use of OTP on Password Self Service, the pricing was just out of the roof, and in addition to having to pay for the integration annually, you can't buy SMS credits directly from the SMS vendor, but through ManageEngine. With SysAid, after the integration, we are able to [buy] SMS credits directly from our choice of SMS vendor and ended up saving over 95% on the SMS credits only.

SysAid Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
Immediate help available
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
Escalation required
Yes, it comes in handy for specialized needs where a specialist is allocated to address your special requirement, including changing the code where necessary, something one could not figure out by themselves, let alone know where to do it.
The great thing with SysAid Support, when the issues a more technical, instead of just allowing you to deal with the Technician who is assisting you, you have a Customer Manager who is always [in] the loop between you and the technician and will always follow up after the issues [have] been resolved, to check if the issue was addressed to your expectation.

Using SysAid

ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
Yes - The mobile interphase is very user friendly and fit to screen, more especially for the end-users through the Self Service Portal, but I think it should also have mobile interphase for the Admin Portal, so we don't have to rely on the PC to manage tickets - and a Mobile App for both, will go a long way.