HappyFox Help Desk vs. Lansweeper

The biggest factor in my selection of this product was how our techs wanted to use a Help Desk. Everyone was already accustomed to email because that's how everything was done in the past. More than that, people often responded to inquiries on their phones via email. I needed a help desk software that could be used almost entirely by email. After demoing HappyFox, I knew I had found what I was looking for. Tickets, based on what department they are for, arrive in the appropriate tech's inbox. Techs can respond and HappyFox will forward their reply to the customer. All conversations are logged on the site so that they can be reviewed later, by us or the customer. With Smart Rules we could begin to get creative and open up even more options to allowing our techs to work solely through email. For example our managers have the ability to assign tickets to employees purely through email based on the text they enter. We also have the ability to respond to an email and close it. This speeds up resolution times by allowing everything to be handled through email. For everything else the web interface is a breeze to use

Because of its slowdown as we have acquired more equipment, I think LANSweeper may be better suited for smaller environments. We have 3000+ users and over 1500 devices on our WAN. It has shown considerable performance issues as we have grown. Maybe moving it to a full blown SQL instance will make things a bit better. But as it stands, it has gotten tiresome waiting for it to update and refresh.

Incentivized

• HappyFox is restricted in what it can offer (particularly the free version,) yet it functions exceptionally well as a support ticketing framework.
• Clients have an portal to submit tickets, mind progress, and react to support assistant's updates or plans.
• Administrators can track tickets, see what's left open, and set up plans that ensure tickets are not overlooked and are given the best possible priority to get dealt with.

Incentivized

• Lansweeper is grabbing lots of data from the machines without slowing the network and the client machines. We can easily get all the installed software data, hardware and linked hardware and all the user you can grab from the AD (computer and user).
• Lansweeper can now scan Windows, Mac and Linux with an agent installed (or not if you want that the server is the one pulling the data).
• The web interface is really friendly user and offers lots of possibilities to personalize your dashboard as you see fit.
• Reports engine is really powerful and easy to monitor your machines and also your security issues.

Incentivized

• Their interface is a bit busy and overwhelming sometimes.
• Still getting notified on too many tickets I haven't even looked at, despite our in-house specialist assuring me I don't have any incorrect alerts set up. Seems HappyFox Help Desk is working on this.

Incentivized

• Ease of use - pushing software can be a complicated process.
• Detecting assets sometimes means going to each machine on opening ports on the firewall.
• Reporting can be hard to figure out but you can ask on their forum. I find that a lot of my questions already have been asked.

Incentivized

The way we have our implementation customized has allowed us to tailor the application to exactly how we would like to use it. We didn't have to change our procedures and fear the potential of poor adoption. Instead we customized the application to be used the way we already ran our help desk. From there on out we reaped the benefits of quicker resolutions, increased transparency, and much happier end users. After setting up Smart Rules, HappyFox does a lot of thinking for us. Tickets go where they need to go, close when they are supposed to close and even remind techs of inactivity. This removes the necessity for micromanagement, which is appreciated by our employees and managers alike

The price to function scale is so far towards function it would be stupid to get rid of it

Incentivized

Lansweeper offers a variety of customer support options (including KBs for self-serve and get in touch with them via email), and most importantly, it's a matter of dialing within their allotted supporting time frames. However, I always make sure to provide the following information:

- Screenshots of the issue (if available).

- Program Files (x86)/Lansweeper/Service/Errorlog.txt, as present on your Lansweeper server.

- If it exists, the error log present in Program Files (x86)/Lansweeper/Website/App_Data.

Incentivized

Mojo was an okay ticket system but it was difficult to track. You also couldn’t consolidate between messages very well, which would leave you with long threads to deal with and waste time. With Mojo, it suited our needs for a time but as the company grew, it became clear we needed a more robust ticket system to work efficiently.

Incentivized

Lansweeper is DRAMATICALLY cheaper than KACE and provides the same level of reporting and inventory of asset data. Where KACE outshines Lansweeper, is Lansweeper has a very minimal software deployment system that requires clients to have direct access to a common file share. KACE allows you to upload files directly into it's environment, and assets can download over HTTPS those files for installation anywhere. Spiceworks was a great inventory and helpdesk system for free - but the product I feel has gone stale and not nearly as powerful as it use to be - for that reason Lansweeper appears to have taken up the charge and utilized a lot of Spiceworks was going for

Incentivized

• Through Email support, the company conducts a marketing plan, through sharing of catalogs.
• Survey and feedback are conducted and attained from HappyFox.
• HappyFox supports live chat, an easy way to perfect the satisfaction of clients.

Incentivized

• I would consider that ROI has been achieved - it wasn't expensive. However, Spiceworks could have done the same for free.
• Too much manual intervention. Not strong beyond basic Microsoft products so we had to keep an eye on everything.
• Great sniffer of hardware on the network including switches, routers, printers.
• Lack of features that are essential for enterprise ITAM.

Incentivized