Hornbill Supportworks ITSM vs. Microsoft System Center

The concept of the solution is a good one and in theory, Hornbill Supportworks ITSM is good for incoming inquiries/tickets management. The inquiries can be automatically captured by a user submitting a request, and an email notification is sent to both the Helpdesk team and the customer. The inquiries are then tracked, alerting the team when the SLA is about to be/has been breached. Once the inquiry has been resolved, it notifies all relevant parties, as well as time-stamps the action.

Incentivized

We used a product before that was designed to prevent users making changes and saving files to the desktop computer. This required a renewal of the license. By using SCCM in our environment we were able to discontinue using that product because SCCM allows us to completely restore a machine back to the original configuration. We have taught our users to save their individual work on either a network drive or a cloud drive. By doing this, if we do a re-image of their machine they have lost no data, and it makes for a faster resolution. In some instances having a computer in our SCCM environment it can become cumbersome when creating new users for very specific purposes. It can be done by creating new organizational units and applying new policies but when in a pinch it can be frustrating. For the most part we have tried to make "new" purpose images and groups to at least accommodate a quick install.

Incentivized

• Allocate requests to individuals
• All issues, errors and fixes in one location
• Shared process between multiple functions and locales

Incentivized

• Provides our users the ability to deploy and manage our own datacenter based on defined software with understandable solutions for storage, compute, networking and security.
• We are able to update at once all the computers from all departments without having to install the OS on every computer.
• It allows us to have everything in one place for database management and datacenter inspection as well.

Incentivized

• The UI is very, very basic and is not designed with the user in mind
• The system itself is pretty basic yet required a rather complex set up
• Random and inconvenient glitches: when Supportworks is opened, it offers useful pop-up notifications when a ticket has been submitted/edited/closed. However, if the notification pop up appears whilst I am typing (an email, document - anything), it overrides any kind of typing. This means that unless you touch-type with your eyes constantly glued to the screen, it is possible to miss the override moment

Incentivized

• Needs web based storefront for requesting new software
• Needs ability to manage the packaging work flow better
• Sometimes is slow to download and there is no indication the entire catalog is being loaded, resulting in confused users not being able to find common software in the available list.

Incentivized

No matter our issues with the software, its ability to centrally manage systems, patch, image, and remote help users has far exceeded our timeliness to help staff. Its ability to keep current, enable us to keep the network secure, and standardize our end-user experience has saved us many hours, dollars, and time every day.

Incentivized

If I had to dislike something about the system it would be how much it changes once you upgrade. This could be more of a problem of mine since I get used to one way and don't like it when it changes so much. I am enjoying the newest update, but it is a mess when you are actually going through the upgrades.

Incentivized

None. We are a Microsoft business, and this is THE tool for imaging, packaging, remote support, and antivirus management. Microsoft's tool is the best for managing its software, systems, and antivirus clients. I will say that Microsoft Intune, the cloud platform, can be used for those with heavy 365 usage, but for us, that does not meet our current company needs.

Incentivized

• Higher cost of support that we think the product is worth.
• Ease of use and low training needs for new starters.
• Simple to set up and use.
• Able to cope with large amounts of data.
• Stable and reliable.
• Hornbill not always good at listening to their users.

Incentivized

• We have been able to automate our patch management, firmware and other security concerns.
• We have a standardized "image" ensuring our setup is consistent across the enterprise. This alone has saved us in time to support and time to understand how to use our desktops.

Incentivized