Best IT Management Software

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What is IT Management Software?

An information technology management software is a suite of application modules that organizations use to optimize how daily business operates. IT management software helps businesses attain their goals and objectives through software automation. The application modules also typically offer customizable features to meet business needs.

Why Is IT Management Software Important?

IT management software provides the structure for completing tasks or processes and measuring their effectiveness. The structure used within the IT management software allows managers to measure the proficiency of the tasks, processes, and services provided to customers. Businesses want to remain productive and use statistically-proven data that shows changes to tasks and services are improving the company. Therefore, IT management software becomes critically important to establish a company is getting better by taking less time to complete a process or provide a service.

IT Management Software Differentiating Features

There are a plethora of features in IT management software. While it has plenty of must-have features common to all management software solutions, businesses should be careful to consider how IT management software solutions differentiate themselves from their competitors. IT decision-makers should consider features for collaboration, third-party integration, event-triggered actions, remote access, and more when determining the best IT management software for their organization.

Best IT Management Software

Atera

Atera promotes a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform that identifies issues before customers have problems. It offers a robust ticketing system and customer feedback features that help businesses get work done faster and better.

Customer s

Customers like the cost of Atera, which doesn’t automatically increase when adding another device to monitor. In addition, the Splashtop feature allows remote workers to log in and control their office computers as well as install software, making remote access easy and reliable. Also, mass deployment is easily done using the command-line options, and two customers commented on the responsiveness of the chat support. On the other hand, several customers mentioned the reporting is limited and needs improvement. And one customer states the application lacks vendor integration options with managed service provider (MSP) tools. Moreover, the scheduling and patching feature does not always patch computers scheduled to be updated, and the ticketing system is cumbersome and difficult to use.

ConnectWise Manage

ConnectWise Manage is more than a ticketing system. As the demand for IT services grows, ConnectWise allows IT services to grow to match the demand. It provides structure, functionality, and a single IT management system that allows everyone to connect and communicate.

Customer s

ConnectWise is very good at tracking issues, managing inventory, and documenting details. The application is customizable, and the application programming interface (API) is extensible with good integration capabilities. The whole lifecycle process received positive reviews, and the cycle begins with sales, quoting new customers, and finally invoicing. In addition, ConnectWise Manage allows a business to keep good notes, and the historical notes are easy to access. On the downside, the application has a clunky user interface, and several reviews stated the application is very slow. The applied updates have also been known to break custom workflows, and one customer thinks the released updates are not thoroughly tested. Additionally, the report writer is stated as being challenging to use, and the search feature does not search the body of a closed ticket for keywords.

Device42

Device42 boasts its solution can account for 100% of a business’s IT assets connected to its IT infrastructure. Device42’s diagnosis and delivery capabilities help businesses plan and deliver next-generation services with automated syndication.

Customer s

Several reviews rated customer support very high. In addition, Device42’s auto-discovery feature is noted as being excellent at pulling information from devices, and it allows users to export any collected data into an excel spreadsheet easily. Moreover, Device42 received several compliments for helping manage data center infrastructure, and its open API allows it to integrate with many other applications. A few drawbacks to note include setup, which is time-consuming and requires substantial support from the Device42 support team. The documentation is also not always updated to the most current software version. Additionally, the application does not support mobile devices and is not optimized for portable devices, and backup options are limited to what is pre-configured.

Freshservice

Freshservice will help a business right-size its IT service management with an intuitive and fast time-to-value solution. Using a unified service management solution with robust automation, an integrated platform, and rapid deployment, Freshservice will increase a business’s efficiency and return on investment (ROI) margin.

Customer s

Freshservice is easy to set up and migrate to, and it provides customizable forms and workflows to help streamline business processes and improve efficiency. Freshservice also improves response time and help desk productivity, offering an easy-to-use ticketing system that allows users to efficiently track issues and resolutions. However, a few paint points mentioned include an outdated user interface, an unpredictable text editor that lacks basic commands, and a dashboard that is not user-friendly. Moreover, the mobile and desktop applications don’t work, and the reporting functionality is limited.

Monday.com Work OS

monday.com offers a platform for a new way of working. This IT management solution, monday.com Work OS, customizes workflows and centralizes work, processes, and tools in addition to allowing a business to build idea workflows with its building block tools.

Customer s

monday.com Work OS offers prebuilt options to help a business start developing workflows quickly as well as easy-to-use customizability options. In addition, the automation feature saves a user from doing repetitive project management tasks, and the portal feature helps businesses communicate better with their customers. Also, external users can view monday.com Work OS workspaces without purchasing licenses. On the other hand, monday work management is expensive, and pricing is based on a set of seats, and if a company goes beyond its seat limit package, it will automatically be charged for increasing seat licenses. Moreover, the mobile application is not easy to use and lacks customization features.

OpsGenie

OpsGenie focuses on minimizing service disruptions by alerting businesses using business-defined alerts to keep them operational. This IT management solution can also help a business create an on-call management and escalation schedule and use its advanced reporting and analytics option to improve on alerts to incidents.

Customer s

OpsGenie offers an application with a user-friendly interface that is easy to set up and works well with Android and IOS devices. And several reviews positively commented on the application’s built-in SMS notification system. In addition, the scheduling feature allows companies to easily set up shifts for IT technicians during off-duty hours. For some customers, though, the setup was difficult to accomplish. And when using a mobile device for IT administration, the availability of administrative commands is limited. Moreover, the message size is limited and cuts off longer messages, and alerts still send notifications even after they have been closed. Further, searching does not always consistently return correct results, and the mass-notification feature requires a demonstration to utilize the feature fully.

SysAid

SysAid advertises automation for tickets, tasks, and workflows, claiming to deliver results three times faster. It empowers employees to resolve IT issues independently, which takes the burden off your IT team to address every problem.

Customer s

Customers praise the advanced reporting feature and the ability to provide detailed reports from the ticketing systems. Forms and templates for different types of tickets are also easy to set up, and the workflow feature can pull data from an active directory account that helps to find customers easily. In addition, SysAid can easily integrate with TeamViewer, Office365, and SAP. However, the reporting tool does not export to updated excel versions. Moreover, the chat console works inconsistently, and it can be difficult to learn how to use the workflow management tool. The remote control feature also does not work as advertised, and the project management lacks basic options and does not perform well.

xMatters

xMatters touts a service reliability platform that automates operations and makes certain applications always work. This product lowers business risk and resolves issues faster with automated incident response, and xMatters reduces operational headaches by minimizing manual tasks and increasing productivity using collaboration.

Customer s

Several reviews complimented xMatters for being easy to use and configure. The application allows technicians to add users and devices easily, and it enables team members to communicate in a way that works best for a project team. On the other hand, xMatters pricing is seen as expensive. In addition, the user interface is not intuitive, and the mobile application lacks some critical features found on desktop computers. Integration with other ITSM tools is also lacking, and more than one customer commented on the lack of reporting capabilities.

Must-Have Features in All IT Management Software Solutions

A good IT management software solution is expected to contain must-have features to perform the essential IT support actions for businesses. Some of these features may be named differently according to the vendor, but these basic must-have features are the following minimum features:
  • IT Asset Management ensures a company’s assets are accounted for, deployed, and upgraded when required and that proper disposal actions are completed when necessary.
  • Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a database that contains information about hardware and software assets used in an organization’s IT environment. A CMDB also shows relationships between interconnected hardware assets and the software installed on these assets.
  • Project Management involves processes, knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project objectives to deliver a specific product within specified budget and timeline constraints.
  • Reporting Analytics is a summary report of organizational data that can be easily comprehended. The analytics allows summary information to be further broken down to provide insights into trends to improve organizational processes.
  • Ticket Management records the details of any submitted ticket by a user. Tickets are assigned to a specific IT section that can resolve the incident of service request. When the ticket is resolved, it becomes historical information and can be used to identify trends or show mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR) results.

Differentiating Features to Consider

Differentiating features are those used to help execute some unique aspect of the business process that may give them a competitive edge, so these features must work well. There are hundreds of differentiating features across many solutions available on the market, including:
  • Collaboration tools allow IT technicians, customers, and management to communicate within the IT management software.
  • Third-party integration provides a way for IT management software to add features onto its core application without programming those features into the core application.
  • Self-service portal provides self-help functions that empower customers to execute specific actions without the assistance of IT personnel.
  • Device auto-discovery is a software feature that helps identify all the devices on a business network.
  • Event-triggered actions alert IT staff when a preset event occurs. The triggered action can range from isolating a server due to a file exhibiting the behavior of a virus, or the action can be updating a database table.
  • Remote access/control gives authorized personnel access to a computer connected to a business network or over the air (OTA) via a Wi-Fi network or a cellular provider’s mobile network.
  • Alerts inform IT staff that an event or action has occurred that requires attention or action.

How to Select the Best IT Management Software

Selecting the best IT management software for a business requires an IT decision-maker to have in-depth knowledge of the business and its processes. Being involved in regular meetings with key stakeholders is an excellent place to start discussing an IT management software solution. Here, IT decision-makers can identify areas in the organization where improvement is needed. When an IT management solution is evaluated, the must-have features need to be tested to confirm they can meet daily business requirements. And the differentiating features may have to be customized to meet any unique business requirement, requiring further testing. Assuming the must-have features work as advertised, and the differentiating features show improvement by way of measured results for those unique processes, an IT decision-maker should have consensus in the organization to make the purchase.

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