ServiceChannel vs. TOPdesk

ServiceChannel is well suited for companies that have multiple locations or a few very large buildings. In my experience the system allows one person to manage 150 to 200 small retail locations but when you add restaurants and buildings with lots of equipment then it gets more complex and the number of locations that one person can effectively manage is greatly reduced. You can effectively manager 50 or 30,000+ locations with this system if you have the personal. There are several free or cost-effective programs available if you are only looking to manage a dozen or so locations.

Incentivized

As TOPdesk is pretty intuitive it is often not needed to instruct colleagues on how to use TOPdesk. Most modules and fields do explain themselves. This means there aren't many additional instructions needed for the applications itself. Most information we do need to support our colleagues on based on organizational processes, not our ITSM tool of choice. And if there is more information needed, the knowledge base system can be used for this. On the other hand this could create the idea that no additional instructions are needed. Which might be true for the application itself, but not for how it is being used within your organisation

• Up to the minute updates, so when you go to look up a work order, it is live with the most recent notes from vendor, office, etc.
• File retention - it keeps all WOs so you can go back and research previous issues for investigating, asking questions of the vendor, etc.
• Asset Tagging - it allows you to track all of your assets

Incentivized

• TOPdesk provides a clean and modern interface for all of its modules. Many of the modules have a similar look and feel, which makes it easy for users to utilize each one.
• Its workflow system allows administrators and developers to define what needs to occur when certain events happen. This can ensure that processes happen in the correct sequence.
• TOPdesk includes a vast API system to allow for external systems to integrate with it, and for TOPdesk to communicate with external systems.

Incentivized

• This system will always require someone to actively be available to convert proposals. There are still delays depending on the human element of the process.
• Lots of features and some are not always intuitive.
• Integration to the current procedure would be nice. Seems this requires the addition of a new system through this Service Channel application/Website. If it were to integrate to current offerings such as SalesForce it may be helpful.

Incentivized

• My biggest issue is with the duplication of tickets and not being able to combine them.
• Our implementation could have gone better.
• It would be nice if the system could scan for assets and not rely on manual creation of assets.

Incentivized

We are very content with the application. We use it now for 1 year and we are still learning. We still discover new features withing the application that help improve our efficiency and customer-friendliness and reduce costs. We feel like we can still improve the use of TOPdesk within our organisation and make more use of more modules.

I gave it a high rating because it's an easy to use platform.

• It walks you step by step to goal accomplishment
• It doesn't drown you in tech speak or unnecessary steps
• It appears to be created by the busy facilities manager that just needs the good stuff with no fluff.
• Not to be rude but if a facilities manager can't function in SC easily they may not be in the right field.

Incentivized

Sometimes I think some things are hard to find. I often do not know if I have to search in Settings or in Modules. In some cases the user has to do a lot of clicks for example to link a key to a user. Something could work a little smarter.

Incentivized

Like I said somewhere else in this review: the helpdesk of TOPdesk is top of the bill! In the Netherlands, that is. I can not plea for the helpdesks in other countries, but I guess the TOPdesk organization will make sure the quality of the helpdesk is the same in every country.

Incentivized

Although being a SAAS solution, TOPdesk performs pretty fast. One can imagine that any SAAS solution is slow or has hiccups, but we have not experienced such with TOPdesk. Pages load quickly, logging in goes smoothly. We have made reports on premise in the past - that always took some time, as you might expect with such complex tasks. It seems that in the SAAS solution TOPdesk somehow has managed to make it even faster!

Incentivized

Sue Thomas is the reason...

• If a vendor has a template to upload I can ask for her support and it's done.
• If I need immediate data for a meeting and I'm away from my computer she can grab it for me on the fly.
• I've walked out of meetings looking like a stud based on the foreground work Sue did to prepare me.
• If there is a technical issues she will find a work around for me so I can focus on my job not my admin work.
• Clear and timely communication on every and all open issues.

Incentivized

Most if not nearly all questions are answered within the same or a few days. The helpdesk is very knowledgable about their product and are always willing to help. The only downside is that for more difficult questions it can take a while due to the experts being further removed from the helpdesk. But they are always willing to answer questions, even if they are not directly related to a problem with the service.

Incentivized

We had Topdesk in-house here training staff for almost a month (2-3 hour meetings 3x a week.) It was invaluable and we were able to take that training and share with the rest of our IT staff. Once implemented we were able to fly from there. The challenges we found were in how to get started. Once started the knowledge base offered from Topdesk has been invaluable.

Incentivized

Online training documentation is easy to access and consume. There is no real challenges with finding information on how to use the product and some really helpful knowledge base items that show us how valuable these options are in our own implementation of it. The online training we've used has been self driven

Incentivized

When we implemented SC it was many years ago and the system was different. I cannot speak to implementing it currently.

Incentivized

It was a challenge to port over years of the same thing and we ended up keeping old ideas in Topdesk that we will eventually weed out as time passes and we learn how users view categories and flows of tickets. Planning is key but bear in mind that just because you used to do it this way doesn't mean you still have to

Incentivized

The only other experience I have with platforms such as SC is during my time at Starbucks. They created an in house work order system that was very detailed and cumbersome to work around. The good news is that once I learned Sbux's system all other systems are a piece of cake. I was able to manipulate SC within hours of working on it

Incentivized

Spiceworks is an easier-to-use Help Desk solution but it lacks all other features that Topdesk has. Freshdesk was just too much for our environment. It was cost-prohibitive for our intended use. TOPdesk fit our org size and budget better than the others.

Incentivized

Topdesk is a saas solution. As far as we can notice, there are no scalability problems. We are a small organization, so performance issues are for now not an issue

Incentivized

• ServiceChannel has allowed me to manage my vendors in a more efficient manner by providing scorecards which in return allows me to provide the best service to my field team.

Incentivized

• TOPdesk self-service portal has allowed our employees to quickly report and solve the incidents saving more time for productivity.
• Employees are able to tackle common incidents from the knowledge base giving more efficient business operation.
• It has helped us to create a smooth working environment while growing the organization capacity and production quality.

Incentivized