One area of improvement is the user-friendly interface for the website. With Spiceworks, like, when I open the websites, I have to Zoom in. I need to zoom in on those websites sometimes because it makes it horrible to use. Previously, Spiceworks required server installation for enterprise use. Now, Spiceworks promotes its own cloud solution through the RCM, which is both good and bad. While I preferred the old, on-premise version, the current cloud option requires less technical expertise for deployment. However, I'm unsure if everyone is comfortable with this transition, and it's a significant factor in our continued use.
IT Service Desk Manager (Global Delivery) at MLOGICA, INC.
Real User
2022-11-04T13:02:45Z
Nov 4, 2022
One of the biggest ways in which Spiceworks could improve is by developing better and more automated workflows. For example, in another solution called ServiceDesk by ManageEngine, you can have levels of approval in the event that there is a request for new software, or when someone requests a VPN or WiFi connection. This kind of multi-stage approval feature provided by ServiceDesk does not appear to exist in Spiceworks, and it is one of their main shortcomings for me. There are also several other automation features in ServiceDesk that are not present in Spiceworks. Another feature that I have always wanted in Spiceworks is categorization. Let's suppose that I select a certain piece of software within Spiceworks, and I want to see the subcategories, Spiceworks should be able to auto-populate those subcategories. This is unfortunately not possible within Spiceworks at the moment.
There's a bit of a learning curve. the first time you interact with it, you may find it difficult. For example, it's hard to manage a switch from a page. Sometimes, it can be difficult to integrate what you need. The initial setup can be difficult.
In terms of visibility features, there was one thing I didn't like about Spiceworks. Once a device was recognized on the network, Spiceworks never got rid of it even after you took it off the network. You had to go in and manually remove it. That's the case on the version that I'm running anyway. If a computer gets connected to the network and then you replace it with something else, it still hangs out in there. This makes it difficult when you're looking for stuff or wanting to check on something. You've got all these old stuff out there that you have to filter through, and I just don't have the time to manually maintain that.
There are a lot of disadvantages to Spiceworks because it's not an agent-based solution. So you don't get near the quality of discovery versus something that's got an agent on it. It's not really multi-tenant, in the sense that you couldn't use Spiceworks to manage multiple clients from the same console. I think if they had a paid subscription for the support it would be nice. I'd rather pay so much per asset per month to be able to pick up the phone and call them.
Interim Director of Information Technology at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
2020-06-28T08:51:00Z
Jun 28, 2020
The network mapping could be improved. Putting together an actual, bonafide network map would be really nice. I've been messing around with their Google Map snap-in that they've got and that's great if I've got a massively corporate Enterprise Scale Network with branch locations in 50 different cities around the U.S., but I don't. I have an 875 square-mile Indian reservation that I have to keep an eye on. And the mapping that they've got there doesn't even come close to being usable to me. So if they could implement a little bit better GIS-based mapping, I could take a Google Earth image and zoom right down here on my 875 square miles. And I could show the links, I could show the nodes, I could show the switches, routers, et cetera. And everything else in between. But I don't have any tool that is capable of mapping the way that I need to map this network. It doesn't have some of the integrations I'd like to see, some of the ticket generation alerts, things of that nature. It does alerts, but it tells us when stuff is down and when it comes back. I would also say that a faster network search engine would be good. When it does device discovery, that really takes a long time. It took me two weeks to get everything that I imagine is in the network onto that. Because, like I said, I have no documentation into this network and what I've been able to find is I've got 1,375 DHCP leases out there. Half of those are desktop phones, another 200 or so are probably cellular phones or WiFi devices that connect up. And then I have about 575 actual devices out on the network and those are things that Spiceworks has all been able to tell me. But the time it took to do that discovery was quite lengthy.
Having an integrated asset management tool, where I can plug in things that are offline, would be good. If I have taken a device off of the network then it would be nice to have it included in the same system, and not somewhere separately. That is the only thing that I have to look for outside of this solution.
It would be nice to connect multi Spiceworks servers together to get all of the information across different sites. Currently, Spiceworks works only on a local site, not multiple sites. It would be nice to have remote access to the solution via a tablet. They also need remote control from a PC. Right now, to complete the technical support process, you have to have a tool to access the PC, and check the problems.
I would like the solution to allow for more direct interaction with computers. I can open tickets and I can see their status, but I can't interact directly with the computers themselves. It would be ideal if they could add contract management features into the solution in a future release. Regarding Contract management, I'd like to register all my support/renewal contracts and reminders for renewal.
From network inventory and network monitoring to help desk software, and mobile device management (MDM) to cloud services detection, Spiceworks helps you manage everything about your IT workday from one easy place.
The GUI must be improved. The GUI looks old-fashioned. The vendor must do some web development for it.
One area of improvement is the user-friendly interface for the website. With Spiceworks, like, when I open the websites, I have to Zoom in. I need to zoom in on those websites sometimes because it makes it horrible to use. Previously, Spiceworks required server installation for enterprise use. Now, Spiceworks promotes its own cloud solution through the RCM, which is both good and bad. While I preferred the old, on-premise version, the current cloud option requires less technical expertise for deployment. However, I'm unsure if everyone is comfortable with this transition, and it's a significant factor in our continued use.
One of the biggest ways in which Spiceworks could improve is by developing better and more automated workflows. For example, in another solution called ServiceDesk by ManageEngine, you can have levels of approval in the event that there is a request for new software, or when someone requests a VPN or WiFi connection. This kind of multi-stage approval feature provided by ServiceDesk does not appear to exist in Spiceworks, and it is one of their main shortcomings for me. There are also several other automation features in ServiceDesk that are not present in Spiceworks. Another feature that I have always wanted in Spiceworks is categorization. Let's suppose that I select a certain piece of software within Spiceworks, and I want to see the subcategories, Spiceworks should be able to auto-populate those subcategories. This is unfortunately not possible within Spiceworks at the moment.
There's a bit of a learning curve. the first time you interact with it, you may find it difficult. For example, it's hard to manage a switch from a page. Sometimes, it can be difficult to integrate what you need. The initial setup can be difficult.
Since Spiceworks is a free tool, it's not very scriptable or customizable.
In terms of visibility features, there was one thing I didn't like about Spiceworks. Once a device was recognized on the network, Spiceworks never got rid of it even after you took it off the network. You had to go in and manually remove it. That's the case on the version that I'm running anyway. If a computer gets connected to the network and then you replace it with something else, it still hangs out in there. This makes it difficult when you're looking for stuff or wanting to check on something. You've got all these old stuff out there that you have to filter through, and I just don't have the time to manually maintain that.
There are a lot of disadvantages to Spiceworks because it's not an agent-based solution. So you don't get near the quality of discovery versus something that's got an agent on it. It's not really multi-tenant, in the sense that you couldn't use Spiceworks to manage multiple clients from the same console. I think if they had a paid subscription for the support it would be nice. I'd rather pay so much per asset per month to be able to pick up the phone and call them.
The network mapping could be improved. Putting together an actual, bonafide network map would be really nice. I've been messing around with their Google Map snap-in that they've got and that's great if I've got a massively corporate Enterprise Scale Network with branch locations in 50 different cities around the U.S., but I don't. I have an 875 square-mile Indian reservation that I have to keep an eye on. And the mapping that they've got there doesn't even come close to being usable to me. So if they could implement a little bit better GIS-based mapping, I could take a Google Earth image and zoom right down here on my 875 square miles. And I could show the links, I could show the nodes, I could show the switches, routers, et cetera. And everything else in between. But I don't have any tool that is capable of mapping the way that I need to map this network. It doesn't have some of the integrations I'd like to see, some of the ticket generation alerts, things of that nature. It does alerts, but it tells us when stuff is down and when it comes back. I would also say that a faster network search engine would be good. When it does device discovery, that really takes a long time. It took me two weeks to get everything that I imagine is in the network onto that. Because, like I said, I have no documentation into this network and what I've been able to find is I've got 1,375 DHCP leases out there. Half of those are desktop phones, another 200 or so are probably cellular phones or WiFi devices that connect up. And then I have about 575 actual devices out on the network and those are things that Spiceworks has all been able to tell me. But the time it took to do that discovery was quite lengthy.
Having an integrated asset management tool, where I can plug in things that are offline, would be good. If I have taken a device off of the network then it would be nice to have it included in the same system, and not somewhere separately. That is the only thing that I have to look for outside of this solution.
It would be nice to connect multi Spiceworks servers together to get all of the information across different sites. Currently, Spiceworks works only on a local site, not multiple sites. It would be nice to have remote access to the solution via a tablet. They also need remote control from a PC. Right now, to complete the technical support process, you have to have a tool to access the PC, and check the problems.
I would like the solution to allow for more direct interaction with computers. I can open tickets and I can see their status, but I can't interact directly with the computers themselves. It would be ideal if they could add contract management features into the solution in a future release. Regarding Contract management, I'd like to register all my support/renewal contracts and reminders for renewal.