Ever hear of Managesoft?

[Migration User]

For some background, let me start by saying that I have work with Altiris for the last five years and would consider myself high level on all of the solutions except for Asset Management. My company currently is using Altiris but has had some tough times with getting it up and running and appeasing all groups. I've been at the company for a short time and have corrected some if the settings and policies and hopefully mended some relationships. The next phase of Altiris at my company is to implement Asset Management which at this point is a mess. We had a brainstorming session with multiple groups and created a "wish list" which I know Altiris can cover 99.9% of the requirements.

After the meeting I was requested to take a look at another product to see how it stands up to Altiris Asset Management which is a product called Managesoft http://www.managesoft.com/index.cfm I briefly looked through their product guide and they claim to do everything that Altiris can accomplish with Asset and CMS. A couple things that I see I would consider better than Altiris is that is it 32 bit and the reporting looks really nice (management really likes pie charts). Does anyone have any experience with this product? I'm curious to see what their community support is like, but it is not accessible unless you are a client. I will be taking a hard look to see how it stands up, but any personal experience is appreciated.

[Migration User]

By way of introduction, my company was an Altiris Partner previously and of course we are now a Symantec Partner as well. It is our speciality and it is all that  we choose to do. So, I just wanted to give you my frame of reference. Obviously, I'm biased in favor of Altiris.

Years ago when I was at another company, I evaluated many solutions out there and ManageSoft was one of them. As I said that was awhile back so I don't have much to say about ManageSoft that would be relevant right now. In short though, I've never been able to see why an organization with an investment in Altiris would move away from it if they really examine how they implemented it. By that I mean that there are many times when a company struggles with Altiris because they've never really completely embraced it from the top down. Sometimes groups that want to hold onto "the way we've always done it" internal legacy solutions keep other groups internally from fully utilizing Altiris.

Additionally, now that Altiris is in effect the Symantec Management Platform, your organization might be able to really benefit from that going forward if you are currently using other Symantec solutions. Finally, if you are primarily a Dell shop, there are also some real benefits from the Altiris/Symantec Management Platform (also true with other vendors...but really valuable add-ons available  for Dell customers).

So, there might be more to your decision than a feature to feature comparison.

FRANK
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[Migration User]

We searched far and wide for an Asset/Inventory product and ended up with ManageSoft more because of their user interface then what the actual product could or could not do.

In short the product is the worst I have used to get the latest inventory as we found out after implementation that this product is just not ready for prime time.

Scale from 1 to 10 (ten being great)

Inventory/Asset Manament   2 (The worst I have seen even WSUS gives better inventory stats)

Software Distribution           7  (Not bad if the inventory part worked)


Compliance Managent       6 (Relies heavily on the correct inventory to keep compliant)



Security/Patching                 1 (WSUS is better and Numara..this is horrible to use)


Windows Deployment        N/A (Have not used this module because you need good inventory before doing any upgrades)


Reports                                   3


Support                                   2  (Act like they do not know the product when you call them close tickets with no results)

Overall I would give this product a 4 out of 10 and wish we could get our money back to get another product in the coming year and not a good investment at all.

[Migration User]

To CLHB

Until recently my firm - which specialises purely in SAM and ITAM - resold Managesoft. Ive got to say that Ive seen some good and bad implementations of the ECM product, but the value is in the licence management aspect and not the software distribution or inventory capability. I agree with you entirely that if the discovery integration is not done right (to optimise software recognition and reconciliation) then its a nightmare. Also that the Manegsoft discovery is not great.

To your point about 'getting out' though I know of at least 3 other vendors with solid capabilities who would offer competitive upgrade for very low incremental cost. Mail or call me and I can provide you the info.

[e-mail] 07967 327666.

Cheers,

Paul

[Migration User]

Thanks for the replies guys, it looks like we are going to stick with Symantec, wich is my personal suggestion.

Thanks again

[Migration User]

Nice to see your note.
I think that Altiris figures heavily in Symantec's future.
I believe you have made a good choice that will serve you well.