Issuetrak vs. SolarWinds Web Help Desk (WHD)

If someone is looking for a ticket management system or something to keep track of records in a cloud environment, IssueTrak is well suited to handle this need. It's a very simple and basic approach and after using it for 10 years, it is still just as easy to find what I'm looking for on previous tickets from years ago. The setup can get a little bit of a challenge and if you have a need to segregate users/employees into their own areas for workflow, it can be a little daunting trying to get it just right. Where I feel that IssueTrak falls short is if you need to keep track of CUSTOM FIELDS (fields that you input as searchable and trackable information) in the Dashboard area, where you spend most of your time looking to see what your workload and flow are like, is very limited, requiring you to dig a little further for what you want to see. Also, no ability to input physical addresses / GPS coordinates to be displayed on some sort of real-time map is also missing and could really boost what IssueTrak has to offer.

Incentivized

SolarWinds WHD is well suited if you have a limited budget, as it costs less than many help desk software packages that are more full featured and modern in their design. It is not well suited to an environment where you want to manage inventory, users, purchases and tickets all in one package. It has an asset feature that we don't use but that looks quite limited. We track our assets and users separately from this.

Incentivized

• Keeps expansive records over a large period of time.
• Provides a simple way to look at your workload with dashboards.
• Can be used on a company level with employees, but also can be set up to have customer interaction.
• Additional modules are handy as well (Inventory tracking, Surveys, etc.)

Incentivized

• Customized reporting allows us to track our service and support better, and find where we need improvements. This allows us to constantly upgrade our service levels and keep the customers happy.
• Detailed tracking and response to the end users have led to quicker remediation of tickets. We are able to see where we need a better response or where to add additional resources for support.
• Overall metrics allow us to staff properly for our tickets by location and remote users.

Incentivized

• No place to physically MAP out your tickets (IE: Google Maps / Address Fields / GPS coordinates).
• Dashboards and ticket items do not update in real-time, making users need to REFRESH to for the latest updates/dashboards.
• Mobile app not as good as the desktop experience, especially for Dashboard views.
• Can be a bit complicated to setup and get going. Segregation of departments / users can also be a little on the complex side.
• Dashboards could GREATLY use the ability to display and track CUSTOM fields for quicker access to the information you want the most.

Incentivized

• Because of AD integration, users sometimes try logging in with their email address and not AD credentials. The user then calls stating they can't put a ticket in, it would be nice if there was a method of matching the AD Email field with a login.
• Setting up new techs with the building they are responsible for can be a little messy
• I would like to see the UI updated. It looks old, even in the latest releases.

Incentivized

IssueTrak is good at what it does, but we really needed some expanded functionality out of it that just hasn't organically happened. Having a 'real-time' update of Dashboards and tickets is a piece that is lacking, especially as our organization continues to grow. A lot of times you go to update a ticket and find out it has been altered/closed before you even hit the submit button. Being able to make charts/graphs of custom fields for Dashboard is a feature (that I feel) is long overdue. Also, the ability to capture address information / GPS coordinates to be displayed on a live map is also a feature we really wanted to see.

Incentivized

We are definitely going to be sticking with Web Help Desk for the foreseeable future since the product is very inexpensive for the features that it provides, the integration that it has with our existing systems, and the ease for managing users, assets, locations, and tickets. Web Help Desk is a great product that is backed by even better support, which is well worth looking into if you are considering moving to a new ticketing system.

Incentivized

It's not cloud based so users have to be on the network to submit a ticket. It doesn't plug into Google or Microsoft Azure so all inventory has to be manually entered. It seems like solar winds is allowing the product to slow fall into obsolescence

Incentivized

They were always very good at getting a timely answer to any questions I had and in cases where I actually needed support to step in and help, they always delivered. I was very happy with the support I received from them.

Incentivized

SolarWinds is a great customizable and affordable ticketing system. We use SolarWinds Web Help Desk for IT and Software
Development trouble ticket tracking and resolution. The reporting that
SolarWinds provides is great since it helps us discover problem areas and fix
those areas so they don't keep reoccurring

Incentivized

Take the time to roll out a test VM to configure and make changes to before doing a live deployment, this way you don't end up with a VM that has been tweaked and re-tweaked until it's perfect and instead end up with a final, polished product. I would also recommend taking the time to read through the support forums for figuring out minor issues that may pop up, chances are that you aren't going to be the first one to encounter them. When all is said and done, SolarWinds Support is VERY responsive and you shouldn't hesitate to contact them.

Incentivized

IssueTrak shines for basic ticket management and the format in which they display all the information is very well done. I'd highly recommend it to someone that is looking at trying to track information at a ground level (just starting out). While other solutions are not perfect by any means, we just find that it is lacking some key features that we had hoped would have been implemented over the years (IE: More flexibility with Dashboard reporting and custom fields, a way visually look at addresses and GPS coordinates on a display map, more of a real-time approach with data and completion, etc.) This need caused us to look at some other solutions that may fit the bill a little better in the future.

Incentivized

Web Help Desk is definitely lacking in the UI/UX department compared to most other ticketing systems I have used int he past. It's very utilitarian; however, what it lacks in UI it makes up for in extensibility and customization. The main issue that the developers need to address is the use of a Web Objects back-end.

Incentivized

• Made tracking individual service changes, adds, deletions, and trouble-ticket very easy to manage.
• We migrated from a paper-based work order system to completely digital and online, thus cutting down on a lot of unneeded printouts.
• Was able to actually validate and see the performance of users and what they were contributing to the department on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis in terms of work performance.

Incentivized

• Amazing impact on our Organization, we are much more organized since we implemented SolarWinds Web Help Desk
• The ROI is in the statistics! The application cost pennies to run compared to what the product will do for your organization.
• I challenge you to find a better product for the price!
• Our documentation has improved since we implemented SolarWinds Web Help Desk

Incentivized