The Penny Pinchers Guide To Help Desk Technology

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The Penny Pinchers Guide To Help Desk Technology
Conference Call [phone] Code 369953
PLEASE PRESS 6 TO MUTE YOUR PHONE

• September 26, 2007

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Presenter Gene Marks

• Located in Bala Cynwyd, PA
• In business since 1994
• 10 Employees
• Sells 15 applications for financial,
  service/help desk and CRM needs
• Serves over 60 help/service clients nationally
  500 clients overall
• Services include implementation, support,
  training, customization, development, consulting,
  singing, dancing and story-telling
• The Marks Group PC
• (www.marksgroup.net)

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Topics

• Research Organizations
• Key Terms
• Software Applications

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Research Organizations

• Help Desk Institute (www.thinkhdi.com)
• Association of Support Professionals
  (www.asponline.com)
• Customer Care Institute (www.customercare.com)
• TechRepublic (www.techrepublic.com)
• Gartner (www.gartner.com)
• Meta Group (www.metagroup.com)
• Forrester (www.forrester.com)
• Pink Elephant (www.pinkelephant.com)
• Third Sky (www.thirdsky.com)

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Key Functions/Features

• Information Technology Infrastructure Library
  (ITIL)
• Patch Management
• Configuration Management
• Asset Management
• Change Management
• Contract Management
• Incident Management
• SLA Management
• Knowledge Management

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Key Functions/Features (contd)

• Escalation Management
• Release Management
• LDAP Integration
• Self Service
• .NET
• Dashboards
• Rules Engine
• Foreign Language Support

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Key Functions/Features (contd)

• CTI Integration
• CRM Integration
• Role Based Security
• Quick Calls
• Password Reset
• SOX Compliance

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Mid/Large Market Players
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FrontRange Solutions HEATwww.frontrange.com

• Market Leader
• 10,000 installations
• 500 employees
• 100 million revenue
• Large reseller channel
• ITIL certified
• 15 years on the market
• 2-3K per concurrent user pricing

• CRM integration (GoldMine software)
• Windows based
• Client-Server/Thin client access
• 350 Crystal Reports
• Highly customizable
• Older architecture
• SQL/Oracle supported
• Fast implementations

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BMC Magic Service Deskwww.bmc.com

• Many owners, now with BMC, who also owns Remedy
• Web based
• Similar to FootPrints
• Positioned for customer with lt2,500 employees
• Remedy is next step up. Magic is price
  protection?

• 4,000 customers
• 3-5K per seat for typical package. There are
  add-ons
• Typical implementation is 30-50K
• 1 competitor is homegrown apps
• Sweet spot is 5-25 concurrent users
• ITIL certified

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BMC Magic Service Desk (Contd)

• BMC financially strong
• Large installed base
• Market leader
• Windows only environment

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BMC Remedywww.bmc.com

• A market leader
• Many owners purchased by BMC from Peregrine
• 7,000 customers, 12,000 sites and 10 million
  users
• 80 of Fortune 100 and 60 of Fortune 500
• Highly customizable
• Windows client or browser
• Small business and enterprise versions

• ITIL certified
• Requires significant external IT consulting
• Requires significant internal IT support
• MagicRemedy are still less than 10 of BMCs
  annual revenue
• 50 of Remedy customers use the service desk
  product (remainder uses application foundation)

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BMC Remedy (contd)

• Requires developer tools and add-ons for solution
  providers
• Action Request (AR) System is their foundation
• Typical implementations are 50-100,000
• Service level management starts at 30k

• Unique modules include Citizen Response and
  Crisis Management
• Small Business Edition likely overshadowed by
  Magic

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Altiriswww.altiris.com

• 7 years old
• Help desk released 2004
• 180MM Revenue
• 8,500 customers
• Strength is Asset Management
• 3 Major Product Lines (Server, Client, Asset)
• Windows, Unix, Linux
• Unified Architecture

• Strong Administration
• 2,250 per concurrent seat
• ITIL verified
• Patch management only for MS Windows
• Weak/Slow LDAP
• Lack of customization
• No SLA
• One database

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Altiris (continued)

• Limited dashboards
• 100 reports
• Equipment centric
• Good with other Altiris products
• Customizations require significant vendor
  involvement

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Axios www.axiossystems.com

• Axios - one of the first ITIL certified vendors
• Assyst help desk product
• UK based
• 175 employees
• 400 clients
• 10 user system is about 50-75K
• 100 web architecture

• Unique cost management module
• Password reset, remote control features
• HDI Best Product in Europe 3 years in a row
• Good reputation
• Poor integration with external data

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Computer Associateswww.ca.com

• Unicenter Service Desk
• 3b sales
• 5300 employees
• Hundreds of software products
• ITIL certified
• Web based
• Unique module is Service Plus Prediction
• 11 different databases required

• 3,000 per seat, subscription based
• 50 seat system about 200K including required
  services
• Highly rated by Gartner
• Great name recognition

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Computer Associates (contd)

• Services offered by large consulting/system
  integrators
• a nightmare under the covers
• Requires significant internal IT staff support
• End of contract/rental period issues

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Infrawww.infra.co.uk

• Australian based
• ITIL compliant since 2001
• Privately held
• Claim to fame is 2000 Sydney Olympics
• Targeting 250K deals. Average deal is 400K
• Web based

• .NET compliant
• No channel/local support
• Documentation weaknesses
• Outdated user interface

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Marval Group Marval Softwarewww.marval.co.uk

• Don Page CEO Lifetime Achievement Award from
  ITIL Forum
• Established in 1989
• Co-author of British Standards for ITIL/ITSM
• Strong reporting
• 250 clients
• UK strength

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Talismawww.talisma.com

• Originally e-channel customer support
• .NET
• India based business model
• 45M annual sales
• 200 employees
• ASP model w/20 seats is 48,000
• Failed merger talks with Pivotal

• still needs work per Gartner, but
  strengthening
• More visibility in self service
• Weak reporting
• Lacks XML and web services support

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Touchpaper Vega Help Deskwww.touchpaper.com

• UK based, strong name recognition
• Founded in 1989 originally known as RoyalBlue
• ITIL certified
• 1700 customers overall, 120 in the U.S.
• 10 user system is about 50-60,000
• Close ties to LANDesk

• Fixed architecture, some customization
• Flexible SLA management
• Good e-mail management
• Good change manager module

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MKS Integrity Frameworkwww.mks.com

• Known for software development and management
  tools
• Est 1984
• 250 employees
• 10,000 customers
• 32M annual revenue
• Most ITIL modules, including incident, problem,
  change, configuration mgt

• 37K for 10 users
• No rules engine

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Datawatch Corp Visual QSM (formerly
Quetzal)www.datawatch.com

• Known for Monarch software (data analysis tool)
  70 overall revenue
• 18m revenue
• 60 revenue in U.S.
• ITIL certified
• 5 license system is about 15K
• Maximum 300 clients

• Weak asset management
• No phone integration
• 120 total customers

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Hewlett Packard - OpenView

• Sunset planned for 2007

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Small Market Players
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AutoTask Inc. AutoTaskwww.autotask.com

• 2001
• Designed for IT service firms
• Albany, NY
• 55/month/user
• Hosted solution
• Not customizeable
• Integrates with QB
• Built in CRM

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Microsoft Dynamics CRMwww.microsoft.com/crm

• A help desk product?
• Service module
• 1,000 per named user plus server
• All Microsoft infrastructure
• No ITIL, Self Service, Auto Ticket Generation
• Strong rules (workflow) engine

• Integration with CRM and Accounting

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GoldMine Premium EditionFrontrange
Solutionswww.frontrange.com

• CRM/Contact Manager
• New version of GoldMine that has a service module
• Cases, assignments, KB
• Integrated with CRM
• No ITIL, asset management
• Weak rules engine

• 800 per concurrent user (includes MS SQL 2005)

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HelpSTARHelpDesk Technology International
Corpwww.helpstar.com

• UK Based, offices in Florida
• Long time player in help desk market
• Focuses on mid market (10 - 100 seat)
  implementation
• Big companies like it too
• 2,500 for 2 seats, then 500/seat

• Microsoft SQL only
• Client Server
• ITIL
• Vendor sold/supported

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Numara Track-ITwww.numarasoftware.com

• Numara purchased from Intuit (maker of
  Quicken/Quickbooks)
• Strong following among small business
• Asset focused
• Affordable pricing (less than 15K)
• Limited customization
• Limited rules, reporting, alerts

• Not ITIL compliant
• No change management
• Workorder focused, not incidents or problems
• Weak audit trails
• No channel/local support

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Numara Footprintswww.numarasoftware.com

• Numara owns FootPrints and Track-IT
• An Asset Management company
• Low end/small business market
• Web based
• Fast installation
• Direct sales and support

• Supports wide variety of databases
• Based on Java
• lots of scrolling
• Limited customization cannot add fields to the
  db
• Limited reporting
• Weak CRM integration
• Pricing is 10-20K for 5 user system

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Layton Technologieswww.laytontechnologies.com

• HelpBox and Audit Wizard
• 4 years old, based in Tampa FL
• Not ITIL validated
• Web based
• 6000 customers
• Under 10,000, very low cost

• There is no
• Dashboard
• Rules
• Auto Ticket generation
• Reports
• Problem, contract, release, change, etc.
  management

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GWI Software c.Supportwww.gwi.com

• Est 1992
• 5m Revenue
• 30 employees
• Very low cost solution (200-300 per module)
• 2500 customers
• Not on researchers radar screen
• .NET compliant

• Lotus integration
• No change management
• No SLA management
• No dashboards

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FieldPoint Alert Softwarewww.fieldpoint.net

• 2003 introduced
• Ontario Canada
• 15 employees
• 795.00/user
• MSCRM integration
• No accounting
• Billing/contracts
• .net interface
• No inventory

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Astea Corporation FieldCentrixwww.astea.com

• 2005
• Horsham, PA
• 10,000-15,000 for 10 users
• Plug in for MSCRM
• No accounting
• Billing/contract management
• Field and internal service

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Desco Software Electronic Service
Controlwww.coastalcomputercorporation.com

• 1997
• Ft. Myers, Fla
• 35 Employees
• Client server product
• Full service and accounting
• 7,000 for 5 users
• PO, Inv, SO, AR, etc.
• Limited project/job costing

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LANDesk www.landesk.com

• First to supply inventory management
• 1985 spin off from Intel
• 80M sales
• 10,000 customers
• Windows/MAC/Unix/
• No service desk product
• Asset Management/Life Cycle Products

• 9-89 per node
• Service desk connectors are 25K

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THANK YOU

• gene_at_marksgroup.net
• 888-224-0649 x801