Remote Monitoring and Management Tools

We just purchased 500 seats of Labtech and cannot be happier.

Many years ago, we purchased Level Platforms. After a year of frustration trying to deploy and integrate with our existing backend systems, we pulled the plug on it.

We then moved to a hosted Kaseya solution. While we love the capabilities of the product, the user interface is awful. It’s counterintuitive and we find it’s difficult to perform simple tasks.

We also deployed Hounddog\GFI Max to a number of clients. While we really like the interface, we found the capabilities did not even begin to compare to Kaseya.

As our costs associated with “renting” hosted solutions increased, we realized it was time to purchase something again and standardize on a single solution.

We ruled out itControl Suite because we wanted an agent based solution, not an appliance. GFI\Max, in our opinion just did not offer enough capabilities. The cost is great for those wanting to get into basic monitoring. I consider it an entry-level solution.

Kaseya, while the capabilities are great has a miserable interface. What’s even worse is their sales\pricing model. I talked to them last week and wanted a firm price for 500 seats, financed over 3 years including maintenance. Simple request? Think again. I felt like I was purchasing a car and was stuck in the back room with their finance guy. They would not send me a quote, but wanted me to attend a webinar session instead. Give me a break guys.

Now to Labtech. I was very hesitant to even explore their product since they were so new to the market. A contractor we use suggested we look into them. “Wow” is all I can say. Functionally, it is the only product I’ve seen that can even be compared to Kaseya. The user interface, while not perfect, runs circles around Kaseya. It is Windows-based and so much more intuitive than Kaseya. Their sales\pricing model? Prices are on their website (Kaseya – take note – people want to know the cost of something without all the smoke and mirrors). And no backroom sales pressure like Kaseya.

As for the Cons (there’s Cons to everything!). They are a very young company and are going through growing pains. They need to ramp up some on their support and come up with a better system for initiating support requests and tracking them.

Bottom line, if you are considering purchasing Kaseya (or any other remote monitoring and management tool), you should definitely check out Labtech. I think you will be very impressed.

We are very happy to be a customer of theirs.

CisCom Introduces C-Now

We've been madly configuring our new monitoring software this month to prepare it for release. We've named it C-Now because it lets us see what your computer issue is right now. This product really is an awesome collection of tools, and we are all excited about it. Sure, we've been doing remote monitoring for some time. This is not new. What is new is the powerful breadth of services this new software provides. The product is based upon LabTech software and is much more comprehensive than our previous remote monitoring provider. In addition to remotely monitoring for common problems, this software has powerful network documentation abilities, configuration options and corrective action tasks. It is integrated with our ticketing and billing software and will make us more efficient in serving you. You can create a service ticket which is placed directly in our service queue to insure prompt response. It allows us real time access to machines via remote connection to evaluate and repair many problems. Comprehensive database elements are also present, so that relevant information regarding machine hardware configuration settings and software licenses can be stored as well.

We are confident that many of you will choose to join our monitored clients after learning more about C-Now. For more information call (502) 253-4525 ext. 200.