Symantec Asset Management Suite Reviews & Insights

Score6 out of 10

22 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Symantec Asset Management Suite are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Easy-to-use interface: Users have consistently found the web-based GUI interface of Symantec Asset Management Suite to be user-friendly and easy to navigate. Many reviewers appreciated the comprehensive inventory provided, which includes detailed information about the software and hardware of each asset.

Effective compliance management: Several users praised Symantec Asset Management Suite for its ability to ensure compliance of IT assets. They mentioned that managing licenses, renewals, permits, and other legal aspects of software and assets can be a complex task, but the software proved reliable in achieving control over these assets.

Centralized resource management: The Altiris Asset Management Suite was praised for providing a single pane of glass to manage and view all resources within an organization. Reviewers particularly highlighted the Resource Association Diagram feature, which allows visualization of relationships between assets, users, locations, departments, and cost centers.

Symantec Asset Management Suite Reviews

7 Reviews

Symantec Products

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

August 24, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are managing our assets with help of this tool. It helps us take control of our IT assets completely, do audits, and ensure compliance. It has also helped with reduction of IT software licensing costs and vendor penalties by optimizing the use of hardware. It helps me track inventories whenever and wherever I want.

Pros

Helps me control the software license fee by paying only for hardware that is being used. This helps reduce a lot of cost to the company.
Helps manage inventory, audits etc.
It helps control and manage all inventories using CMDB which gives a hierarchy of all information.

Likelihood to Recommend

It helps me track my inventories; it helps me manage assets, and it helps me in hardware and software audit. It helps in software licensing cost too. It gives a complete picture of entire IT asset of the organization including location & status. Helps me ensure compliance. Helps me find license gaps, under utilization etc.

Biswajit Tripathy

DGM-IT, IN & VAS in Information Technology at Telenor (India) Communications Pvt Ltd. (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

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Symantec Asset Management Suite Improves Productivity for Organizations

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 24, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The IT Department at Missouri Botanical Garden uses Symantec Asset Management to accomplish a variety of tasks. We keep computers up to date by utilizing the patch management system to push out software updates to our users or install software remotely when necessary. We also use it to remote control computers when users need assistance or are experiencing problems and we are unable to physically visit their work area. Symantec Asset Management also allows us to generate reports based on whatever criteria we select. For instance if we need to know how many computers have Office 2010 installed versus Office 2016 then we can generate a report through the Asset Management Suite.

Pros

One of the features that we use Symantec Asset Management Suite for the most is to push out patches and software updates. We have about 750 computer users throughout Missouri Botanical Garden so when IE or Windows requires a patch fix or update, it would take a long to physically visit each computer here and install those updates. Instead we can set up a job through Symantec Asset Management Suite that will automatically push out the patches or software updates to the computers in our organization at a certain time. The job runs automatically and will generate a report when it's finished if any computers failed to update.
Missouri Botanical Garden is considered a "Greeen" organization, therefore we take sustainability seriously and are always looking for ways to save energy. One of the tasks that we have set up as a job in Symantec Asset Management is every evening at 8 pm, it will search for computers that were left on by users and will power them down. This helps us save on energy and allows us to continue our goal of being a sustainable organization. This function also helps when a user is out of the office and needs software installed. The user doesn't have to keep their computer on and waste energy, but instead we can use Symantec's Asset Management Suite to wake the computer up when we are ready to work on it.
Another feature that I really like in the Symantec Asset Management Suite is the ability to create a job that will automate software installations. For instance, I have a job set up that will automatically install Office Suite 2016 to a user's computer. I just have to select the job with the Symantec Console, then drag and drop it on the computer number that I need to install it on. Once I drag and drop the job onto the computer number in the console, the command box on the computer where the software is being installed briefly opens showing the computer has received the job and it is running in the background. I refresh the console every so often to see if the job is finished, but the console takes care of everything automatically in regards to the software being installed.

Cons

Symantec Asset Management Suite is a really great product for any organization to use for managing their computers. One of the main issues that we run into when using Asset Management Suite are problems with user permissions after updating the software. Whenever we update the software, we have to redo the permissions for users because when they try to log in they get an error stating that they are not authorized to use the software.
Other issues that I've seen with Symantec Asset Management Suite are problems with pushing jobs out to computers. For the most part, this function usually runs smoothly, but sometimes, the jobs will not push out to the computers and we have to install the updates ourselves manually. At times it's hard to tell if the job is actually running or not because the console will say that it's pushing the job to the computer, but then it freezes up and the job never actually starts. When you refresh the console, sometimes it will report that the job is running, but it's actually not running at all.
Another issue that I've had with Symantec Asset Management Suite is getting the console to run in my internet browser. Whenever I clicked the shortcut link to open the console, IE would give me an error that it needed to be updated and that the console could not run without the update. I updated my Internet Explorer to the latest version, but still could not get the console to run. So I had to uninstall the console, reinstall it, and redo the permissions to get it to work.

Likelihood to Recommend

If your organization has more than 50 computers and you have a dedicated IT Staff to manage the software then Symantec Asset Management Suite would be a great fit for your organization. The IT Staff can customize and configure the software and console to fit your organization's direct needs. It will speed up software installations and help to keep your computers running smoothly by applying patches and other necessary software updates in a timely manner. It will also help you manage your asset inventory so you know exactly where each computer is located, its IP address, and the users logging into the machine. If your organization is small and only has around 20 computer users then I would not recommend investing in the Symantec Asset Management Suite. Managing 20 computers is a task that is pretty easy to manage even if you do not have a dedicated IT Staff within your organization.

Roberta Jones

IT Administrative Specialist in Information Technology at Missouri Botanical Garden (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

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SAM Suite Review

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

May 16, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Symantec Asset Management Suite was implemented company-wide to manage desktop imaging, application rollouts and OS updates.

Pros

Application update is SAM Suite's strong point.
SAM Suite has good remote control.
The PXE server for imaging works well.

Cons

Would like to an easier install of the SAM Suite packages.
Use of one console for all products.
Easier scripting.

Likelihood to Recommend

Symantec Asset Management Suite is better suited to medium environments.

Greg Ragozzino

Consultant in Information Technology at Attentus, Inc. (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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Symantec Management Platform (SMP / Altiris)

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

December 11, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use various different Symantec products depending on the task at hand. Altiris is great at managing our assets, the software on them, any patching that needs performed.

Pros

You can send tasks, using various languages, down to a machine using the SMP
You can patch machines with an agent
There are great reporting capabilities

Cons

Reliance on Silverlight and Internet Explorer, although it's moving to HTML5.

Likelihood to Recommend

It handles small and large infrastructures well, [and] small estate costs may be harder to justify but it pays back with its ability to automate a number of tasks which will save man hours.

Alex Hedley

Symantec Workflow Process Analyst in Information Technology at Protirus - A Professional Services Company (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

SAM - A great purchase if you need enterprise environment managed and imaged.

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

October 30, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

With a previous company, we used Symantec Asset Management to keep count of licenses, and ensure that we were compliant. We also used the reporting tools to provided detailed reports on both assets and licenses and issues that may be present on a weekly basis.

Pros

Reporting. The reporting tool can allow down to a granular level. This is important for pinpointing the issues that arise in the infrastructure.
Updating. It was easy to update the software. I never had any issues with patches that arose.

Cons

Ability to tie into and be supported by RHEL, CentOS, and any other Unix based OS. I know that they could tie into some different systems, but weren't truly supported.
Altiris was how we deployed to multiple computers all at once, Altiris Agent sometimes stops, and can be an issue to have it update in the Console.

Likelihood to Recommend

SAM is appropriate at enterprise level. Deploying to 100+ machines at once is a huge bonus when working in IT. Automation of this process saved hundreds of man-hours.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Symantec - Great for big businesses, overkill for smaller ones.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 27, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Symantec Asset Management Suit was being used to keep track of assets company wide, including laptops, desktops, printers, etc. The company I used it at was well over 2,000 employees worldwide, and kept impressively accurate information. If a computer was inactive or had a specific issue, the program would alert my department and we could take care of it.

Though the agent was installed on every machine across the company, only 6 of used it to run reports, look up machines, etc, while one of us managed it. Managing this for use in such a large company was very time consuming and actually required it's own position.

The product addresses many business problems, especially for one who does not already have an asset management solution. Keeping track of machines, running reports, and many other things can be accomplished.

Overall, I liked using this product and was very accurate in an extremely large environment. There is a lot of overhead, mostly because of needing an entire salaried position to properly manage it, but if it is something your company can afford to do, Symantec Asset management is a useful tool.

Pros

Asset tracking - Very important in a business
Reports - Keep track of what programs are installed, who has which computer, etc.

Cons

Overhead - Time Consuming to manage
User Interface - Not a problem per se, but the UI could be updated to look more modern.
Speed - Occasionally, Symantec was a little slow, but that could have been due to our huge enviroment. It was nothing crippling.

Likelihood to Recommend

Much better suited in a large environment. It might be overkill for smaller companies.

Brandan Kusser

End User Computing Technician in Information Technology at SmartPak (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

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Symantec IT Management (Altiris), Worth a second look!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

October 12, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Symantec ITMS has filled several gaps for me. Everything from patch and vulnerability management to software licensing and audit control. I'm currently using ITMS for software management, reporting, provisioning and asset control. Through the advanced reporting capabilities, I'm able to generate real time, actionable data whenever I want.

Pros

I have not found a better patch management solution to date.
The ability to manage out-of-band clients via Cloud Enabled Management is huge.
Technical support has always been top notch.

Cons

Technical documentation may be lacking at times but support will usually make up for it.
Training and certification is very limited.
Sometimes a tough sell after a rocky reputation in the past.

Likelihood to Recommend

I've seen Symantec shine in both small environments and large global infrastructures. This solution is very involved and good, ITMS engineers will come at a cost but the ROI will be worth it.

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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Symantec Asset Management Suite Improves Productivity for Organizations

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 24, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

One of the features that we use Symantec Asset Management Suite for the most is to push out patches and software updates. We have about 750 computer users throughout Missouri Botanical Garden so when IE or Windows requires a patch fix or update, it would take a long to physically visit each computer here and install those updates. Instead we can set up a job through Symantec Asset Management Suite that will automatically push out the patches or software updates to the computers in our organization at a certain time. The job runs automatically and will generate a report when it's finished if any computers failed to update.
Missouri Botanical Garden is considered a "Greeen" organization, therefore we take sustainability seriously and are always looking for ways to save energy. One of the tasks that we have set up as a job in Symantec Asset Management is every evening at 8 pm, it will search for computers that were left on by users and will power them down. This helps us save on energy and allows us to continue our goal of being a sustainable organization. This function also helps when a user is out of the office and needs software installed. The user doesn't have to keep their computer on and waste energy, but instead we can use Symantec's Asset Management Suite to wake the computer up when we are ready to work on it.
Another feature that I really like in the Symantec Asset Management Suite is the ability to create a job that will automate software installations. For instance, I have a job set up that will automatically install Office Suite 2016 to a user's computer. I just have to select the job with the Symantec Console, then drag and drop it on the computer number that I need to install it on. Once I drag and drop the job onto the computer number in the console, the command box on the computer where the software is being installed briefly opens showing the computer has received the job and it is running in the background. I refresh the console every so often to see if the job is finished, but the console takes care of everything automatically in regards to the software being installed.

Cons

Symantec Asset Management Suite is a really great product for any organization to use for managing their computers. One of the main issues that we run into when using Asset Management Suite are problems with user permissions after updating the software. Whenever we update the software, we have to redo the permissions for users because when they try to log in they get an error stating that they are not authorized to use the software.
Other issues that I've seen with Symantec Asset Management Suite are problems with pushing jobs out to computers. For the most part, this function usually runs smoothly, but sometimes, the jobs will not push out to the computers and we have to install the updates ourselves manually. At times it's hard to tell if the job is actually running or not because the console will say that it's pushing the job to the computer, but then it freezes up and the job never actually starts. When you refresh the console, sometimes it will report that the job is running, but it's actually not running at all.
Another issue that I've had with Symantec Asset Management Suite is getting the console to run in my internet browser. Whenever I clicked the shortcut link to open the console, IE would give me an error that it needed to be updated and that the console could not run without the update. I updated my Internet Explorer to the latest version, but still could not get the console to run. So I had to uninstall the console, reinstall it, and redo the permissions to get it to work.

Likelihood to Recommend

Roberta Jones

IT Administrative Specialist in Information Technology at Missouri Botanical Garden (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

View profile