Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk vs. SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Score 6.9 out of 10
N/A
Spiceworks offers a set of free tools for IT network management and help desk support ticketing. The inventory management system essentially provides comprehensive device information for asset management.
$0
SQL Server BI Manager
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Houston-based Idera's SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager is an IT infrastructure monitoring option.N/A
Pricing
Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskSQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
Editions & Modules
Core Plan
$0
Premium
$6
per month per user
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskSQL Server BI Manager
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskSQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
Considered Both Products
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
although it does not have all of the features it still is able to perform MOST of the function for these softwares
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk was picked because of its user-friendly design, low pricing, and basic ticketing capabilities that fit our organization's requirements. Its built-in knowledge base and active user community boosted the effectiveness of our IT support operations. While it …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
In my opinion, we have a much richer experience with Solarwinds. It basically ramps up all the features of Spiceworks to the next level and enforces a proper ITIL framework into the process. Integration with Dameware is a much better experience than Spiceworks' connection to …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk is simple and easy to install. It takes very little skill to get it installed and working. There are no expensive components needed to run the software and virtually no maintenance.
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
[Its] simplicity, [the] easy user interface for both technicians and end-users, and stability, plus the ability to locally control data access (we're highly regulated regarding privacy and records rights), puts it in its own class. While it may not do everything larger systems …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Overall, Spiceworks Help Desk is an easy-to-use option at a GREAT cost. We didn't feel that any other products offered anything that Spiceworks couldn't so we haven't felt the need to explore any more companies. The Spiceworks FREE option is great on its own and it's hard to …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks Help Desk is free, which is an advantage. It also includes inventory tracking. Mojo help desk does not rely on Windows as a platform. Spiceworks Help Desk also allows for add ons and reporting.
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks is a great option for a free help desk. In terms of features, it is similar to the free level of Freshdesk. If you want a lot of features and customization though, you should look at Jitbit Help Desk or the paid tiers of Freshdesk. Both offer better reporting, …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks is much cheaper and does the job well for one organization. Connectwise Manage works better for an MSP that is handling multiple companies and wants to keep them separated.
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
We found that for entry-level SMB in-house needs that Spiceworks had an impressive range of features and options at an unbeatable price-free! For our in-house and multi-tenant needs, we use a different product that is more appropriate to our particular needs, but with no cost …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
We tried to use Jira for ticketing, but it doesn't support hashtag updating of tickets through email. We find it helpful to be able to convert emails from users into tickets by forwarding them to the help desk email address and including hashtags for ticket assignment, …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
[Spiceworks Help Desk] was much easier to roll out since it didn't require any custom development from or development team. It also had an existing mobile app that was easy to deploy.
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Cost was the big factor here. While we already used TeamViewer there were some limitations for the helpdesk and some only available with increased cost on the inventory side. Ivanti was used in Europe but very pricey to add to the Americas. While we used Dynamics CRM, we had a …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Trialing Zendesk and a few others, they are very well done programs which do what is needed and even more at a cost. The free price tag of Spiceworks is well worth it for our business and environment. We chose Spiceworks for the ease of use on both IT and end users' ends and …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
A lot of the competition starts with some free options, but bare minimum or "paid only modules" etc. And their support is often either non existent or convoluted while Spiceworks Help Desk is both great and responsive as well as having an open community and forums. You can …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Teamwork has many features that I wish Spiceworks had, but Spiceworks has the price that can't be beaten. There are some things that would make it better, but those are things that I can train my technicians on and we can live without the operational cost associated with …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
We love the JitBit side of things for the help desk component of our system. We have a lot more customization available with JitBit vs. the Spice works application. The features for JitBit are the ones we are looking for, and as such, we have moved our ticketing to JitBit …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
We have not looked at anything recently due to how well Spiceworks has been working. Other parts of campus are using other programs that one day may be forced upon us. At the moment we are very happy with what we are using and will not be looking elsewhere if we do not have to.
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
Spiceworks does so many things in a variety of ways that it is hard to compare it to other products. Keep in mind that freeware has limits, but if the Spiceworks tools fit your need and management doesn't complain then go for it. Paid software has plenty of benefits, but you …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
We are in the process of looking at Remote Monitoring & Management tools as we are growing so rapidly. We have been checking out demos & reading reviews of these other applications and they are way more feature-rich than Spiceworks - however, they come at a cost and will …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
SolarWinds is far superior but it is a locally installed application. I think each does things well. For a free or paid no-ad version legacy style it was great. As for cloud-only options, I think there are still some things that need to be improved on. There needs to be …
Chose Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
N/A - I have not evaluated other products similar to Spiceworks
SQL Server BI Manager
Chose SQL Server BI Manager
SQL Server [Business Intelligence] Manager works well with Microsoft products. It has several advanced features along with dashboards and alerts that can be configured to user's need.
Chose SQL Server BI Manager
For our small environment, we already had Idera SQL Diagnostics manager so we felt like that would be good enough and not pay for the extra licensing. If we had a bigger BI footprint, we could certainly have had a good business case for it.
Chose SQL Server BI Manager
SQL servers are much easier to set up than the others but they lack the customization and integration with other popular DB.
Chose SQL Server BI Manager
SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager does what SQL Server Management Studio should already do natively. So it actually fills up important gaps Microsoft left in its product.
Chose SQL Server BI Manager
We compared SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager to our current tool Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer. Where Solarwinds was deficient, SQL BI manager filled the gap. At the end of the day they were both different tools with different purposes so we concluded it was …
Features
Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskSQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
8.5
Ratings
6% above category average
SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
7.0
Ratings
11% below category average
SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
-
Ratings
External knowledge base7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
8.9
Ratings
14% above category average
SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
-
Ratings
Customer portal9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
SQL Performance Monitoring
Comparison of SQL Performance Monitoring features of Product A and Product B
Spiceworks Cloud Help Desk
-
Ratings
SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
7.8
Ratings
7% below category average
Performance dashboard00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Intelligent alerting00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Top SQL00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Historical trend data00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Virtualization support00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskSQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Redgate Monitor
Redgate Monitor
Score 8.7 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
Redgate Monitor
Redgate Monitor
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskSQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Spiceworks Cloud Help DeskSQL Server Business Intelligence Manager
Likelihood to Recommend
Spiceworks Help Desk from the user end is very simple. Once you submit your technology needs, I automatically receive an email stating that my ticket was received and is being processed. It's also helpful to have the VNC feature so that my IT department can automatically VNC into my computer if it's a quick fix. At times Spiceworks Help Desk can be tricky because as someone who's not in a Tech role at my company, it can be hard to describe what I need assistance with writing.
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BIDS works well if you're committed to using all MS products. It does take some serious consideration if you know you will end up working outside of that, such as working with AWS products.
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Pros
  • It helps to multitask, even on the go with the mobile App.
  • We can customize to meet your needs with automated responses, notifications, and templates.
  • Detailed reports allow managers to keep track [of] and analyze data.
  • Allows for a database to store notes helpful for future tickets.
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  • Shows an excellent dashboard
  • Allows easy monitoring of multiple instances
  • Created an environment that can be self healing
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Cons
  • I have always wanted a way to redirect a support request into another IS bin, such as a development task.
  • It's possible to extract the data from the Spiceworks database, but it would be helpful if the process to do so were easier.
  • Improved ability to customize the system generated emails to improve the formatting and company branding.
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  • Training is needed to understand and use all the feature
  • Works well only with Microsoft products
  • Not enough Tutorials available
  • Features are more useful for larger organization
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Likelihood to Renew
There is no contract to renew, since it's free. Spiceworks has helped me so much that I couldn't imagine trying to replace it with a different product. I'd have a hard time finding a single product that does everything that Spiceworks does, let alone one that does it as well as Spiceworks and for free
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No answers on this topic
Usability
1. Its free. 2. Its easy to install. 3. You can have it up and running in under 1-hour. 4. You get dashboards that are easy to read so you know the state of your network. 5. You can create your own reports and not just the ones already installed. 6. Excellent tool for network administrators and security practitioners. 7. Did I mention that its free?
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
We use it both locally on our own server so up time is decided by us and we also use the hosted help desk. We have never had an outage of that.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Spiceworks has been working out of the box, and some of the basic customizations have been successful with just our internal staff handling. We don't have any other issues with the tool. It provides us with the inventory information we want in a quick and concise report in a variety of formats for our team.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
If you can spin up a VM to run it on, you'll thank yourself later. If you have remote sites, set up a local server (or dedicated computer) at each site and set them up as remote collectors for the main site. You'll save time and bandwidth
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
EGroupware UI is clunky and hard to use, Jira is great but the pricing is expensive in comparison with spice works that has a free version and you can test it out properly before buying and make a correct decision based on your business plan and company objectives with the right software.
Read full review
SQL Server [Business Intelligence] Manager works well with Microsoft products. It has several advanced features along with dashboards and alerts that can be configured to user's need.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Positive - Allow organizations to implement structured Help Desk procedures.
  • Positive - IT can begin to quantify their tickets and uncover needs within the organization.
  • Positive - IT can develop a solid roadmap with [the] management of future needs, equipment refresh schedules, etc.
  • Positive - IT can pinpoint employees who may need extra training or updated equipment based on historical ticketing data.
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  • We've prevented several SSAS outages because of SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager's timely alerts.
  • We've greatly reduced cubes calculation times with SQL Server Business Intelligence Manager's tuning features.
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ScreenShots