Review: ManageEngine for Integrations
Published by Ros Satar on Nov 29th, 2013 //
This independent review is part of our Integrations 2013 Group Test.
- Integrations 2013 Group Test Overview and terms
- Also participating – Absolute Software, BDNA, Bomgar, Cherwell, EasyVista, LANDesk, ManageEngine,Matrix42, Nexthink, ServiceNow
Executive Summary
| Elevator Pitch | An Mid-Market ITSM solution with additional features such as Project Management and web services and a range of supporting tools available from the same stable of products. |
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| Weaknesses |
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| Primary Market Focus | Based on the information provided, ManageEngine are typically active in the SMB market, but can also cater for larger customers.They are classified for this review as:Specialised Service Management Suite – Offering ITIL processes and proprietary discovery tooling and Data Integration Points |
Commercial Summary
| Vendor | ManageEngine |
| Product | ServiceDesk Plus |
| Version reviewed | Version 8.2 Build 8211 |
| Date of version release | 28th August, 2013 |
| Year founded | 2005 |
| Customers | 24K |
| Pricing Structure | ServiceDesk Plus has a transparent pricing structure. It is based on number of nodes and technicians. Pricing that has been included for the On-Premise version is:Standard Edition – Free up to 5 technicians foreverProfessional Edition – Starts at $395 (5 technicians)Enterprise Edition – Starts at $995 (5 technicians)
The prices for the On-Demand SaaS Version are:
Standard Edition – $14 per tech per month
Professional Edition: $24 per tech per month
£9 per month for a pack of 50 assets
Enterprise Edition – $54 per tech per month
$9 per month for a pack of 50 assets
The prices for the Managed Services Helpdesk are:
Standard Edition – $595
Professional Edition – $1195
Enterprise Edition – $3495
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| Competitive Differentiators |
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| Additional Features | ServiceDesk Plus is available in 29 different languages. |
Independent Review
ManageEngine supplies plenty of integration methods into the tool, offering a complementary set of products to make that process easier, although they also recognise a need to have open integration methods between ITSM tools. They do include some Project Management tracking capability as an additional layer to their offering.
Integration and specific recognised criteria
ServiceDesk Plus is ITIL Ready and includes Incident, Problem, Change, CMDB and Service Catalog.
ServiceDesk Plus makes use of web API standards which they have incorporated into their Request and Change modules.
Data can be added, modified, deleted and created into ServiceDesk Plus and outbound to other vendors via web services.
Process automation is controlled by business rules and the product comes with a comprehensive set of pre-set templates for most basic functions, as well as the ability to create additional ones and customise templates for an environment.
Security Controls
ManageEngine applies the authorisation that is expected in a tool to allow specific roles to view data within their scope.
Pre-Deployment Integration
There are a number of ways that ServiceDesk Plus can bring in data. The product connects to Active Directory to import user data, department information, location, and management hierarchies in bulk, but a CSV file can be used as well.
The relationships for the user with various configuration items are also imported and provided in a couple of views (list and map).
ServiceDesk Plus also provides LDAP integrations for a single sign-on.
Asset and Configuration Information
ServiceDesk Plus comes with an integrated asset management module for the tracking and management of assets in an organisation, and can covers IT and Non-IT assets.
The CMDB is actually a separate module and built up with the combination of user relationship and the collected asset data.
At the moment, though the relationship association needs to be done manually.
They do not offer integration to third party products but can import CSV values.
Support Services Integration
- Remote Control
There is a web-based remote control which technicians can use to access and troubleshoot a user’s workstation from their desk through a remote session. It supports either ActiveX or Java plug-ins.
- Support Chats/Social Media
Integration is with their own Desktop Central product to provide a chat, which is mmore closely tied with management options for the desktop (for example software distribution).
Resource Management Integration
Projects can be created from a change record – these contain tasks and milestones. There is also a time-sheet facility that records how long tasks have taken.
Projects can be presented in a Gantt chart view or graphically, showing milestones and dependencies between tasks.
Additional Areas of Integration
- Network Monitoring Alerts
Integration is with their network monitoring tool OpManager – alarms detected raise records in ServiceDesk Plus, and technicians can informed via notification profiles whenever an alarm is triggered.
- DesktopCentral
Integration exists with their own proprietary desktop management server to help remotely deploy patches, software and managing assets, including mobile devices.
ServiceDesk Plus Customers
From the ServiceDesk Brochure
- Help desk software with integrated asset and project management built on the ITIL framework.
- There is an MSP version designed to handle multiple accounts in a single Help Desk.
In Their Own Words:
ServiceDesk Plus is a help desk product suite with integrated asset and project management capabilities built on the ITIL framework. ServiceDesk Plus provides help desk agents and IT managers, an integrated console to monitor and maintain the assets and IT requests generated by users. More than 20,000+ IT managers worldwide in 186 countries use ServiceDesk Plus to manage their IT help desk and assets. ServiceDesk Plus is available in 29 different languages.
ServiceDesk Plus is also featured in the new Gartner Magic Quadrant 2013 for ITSSM Tools.
Some of the features include
- IT Project Management
- CMDB
- Self Service Portal
- SLA Management
- Knowledge Base
- Incident Management
- Problem Management
- Change Management
- Software Asset Management
- Asset Discovery
- Agent and Agentless scans
- Service Catalog
- Business Rules
- Helpdesk Notifications
- Purchase Order Management
- Automatic Ticket dispatch
- Contract Management
- Mobile Help Desk App & Voice Based iPhone App
- Reports – 150+ Standard and Custom reports options
- User Surveys
Screenshots
Further Information
This independent review is part of our Integrations 2013 Group Test.
- Integrations 2013 Group Test Overview and terms
- Also participating – Absolute Software, BDNA, Bomgar, Cherwell, EasyVista, LANDesk, ManageEngine,Matrix42, Nexthink, ServiceNow
