Desktop Central from ManageEngine is a client desktop management with patching, remote control, and configuration.
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N-able MSP Manager
Score 10.0 out of 10
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N-able™ MSP Manager (formerly Solarwinds MSP Manager) is a cloud-based help desk and billing software for IT service providers, which includes a ticketing system, customer portal, technician mobile apps, billing tools, and reporting dashboards. MSP Manager offers a lightweight ticketing system with a quick entry feature that allows users to capture essential information such as customer name, service items, and issue details from any screen. Tickets can also be…
Patch management is a HUGE time saver. Simply being able to push patches out to devices without having to physically go around to each one save a ton of time. Inventory tracking has also helped us better manage equipment. We are all human and make mistakes, and this helps to eliminate or catch many of those mistakes. With ManageEngine Endpoint Central scans showing us who is using the device and what else is plugged into it, saves us from having to search for devices when they are being refreshed.
It helps to facilitate the administration of a network of workstations and servers.
The deployment of applications and updates is very easy to implement, and greatly facilitates keeping workstations and servers up to date.
The commissioning of the solution is very simple, and with the help of the external gateway, it allows for the supervision of all equipment, as long as they have internet access.
We can manage multiple mobile fleets, with user smartphones on one side and industrial smartphones with specific missions on the other. The possibility of applying a kiosk mode is not negligible.
Given these factors, organizations would individually assess their experience with Endpoint Central to determine its renewal likelihood. If you're considering renewal, it might be helpful to gather feedback from users within your organization, review performance metrics, and assess how well Endpoint Central aligns with your current and future endpoint management needs.
The application itself is great. However, I have little insight to what the patches are doing. Being able to see patch download progress, not just the status, would be great. The user interface could also use an overhaul. The countless menus, sometimes containing similar if not duplicate tabs can be frustrating to navigate.
The immediate chat support is great and very helpful. However, if you need escalated support or have a deeper need that the chat tool can't help with, you will experience significant wait times and slow responses. The time zone difference becomes painful to the point of often just giving up.
I had the chance to talk to SolarWinds reps at their Empower conference. They asked how we liked MSP Manager. (For full disclosure, we use their whole suite of products). I told them it's the worst ticket software I have ever used. They said that it wasn't the first time they had heard that. I did not doubt that he was telling the truth.
Kaseya's system of handling patch management was not as intuitive as Endpoint Central, however in some respects it was easier to set up. Kaseya VSA and ConnectWise are also more geared towards managed service providers that handle multiple organizations versus a single company's IT department, which Endpoint Central seems more designed for. Intune, while helpful for machine management, does not have the level of overall endpoint management and inventory management and is better used alongside another endpoint management tool
I want to be clear. I did not choose MSP Manager, it was thrown at me, purchased by someone who did not understand how bad this tool was. I have used other ticket systems, Remedy, Spiceworks, and ServiceNow. Those all work, and do a lot of things this can't. We have to export a list of all tickets, then use BI tools to try and work the data, just to get reports on completed tickets. It's truly terrible. I would recommend having users send a carrier pigeon over using this awful awful tool.
We have been able resolve and complete any requests which include things like software deployment or issues that include troubleshooting, much faster and more efficiently. This has had a sharp decrease in our response times and also time it takes to complete these requests or incidents.
The mobile device management features have allowed us to be able to have a much tighter grip on security. This means we have dramtically decreased our device vulnerabilities and risk of data breaches. This has saved us lots of time and money.
The remote features that are available have helped a lot with user's being able to work remotely and allow our organisation to sustain hybrid work. It means user's can still be as productive and IT support is as efficient no matter where the user is working.
For my managed service clients, MSP Manager has seriously reduced the time I spend billing. Overall data entry time may be the same, but now it's focused on documenting the work that was done and the billing simply follows.
The first few months of learning MSP Manager definitely meant doing lots of admin work twice, and double-checking the MSP manager invoices against the paper trail, to ensure it was accurate and working. Plan for this extra time overhead during the learning phase.
