ManageEngine Endpoint Central Reviews

Our primary use for Manage Engine started off with just using Service Desk Plus to manage our internal issues.  Since started with just Service Desk Plus, we have moved on to utilizing Asset Management, MDM, and my favorite, the OS Deployment.  Another great part of Desktop Central is the Patch Management to deploy software and windows updates on our time and not Microsoft Windows. We have also utilized the Patch Management to deploy updates to external software such as Zoom, Snagit, Microsoft Teams, and many others. 

ManageEngine Desktop Central has greatly improved our organization by utilizing Service Desk Plus to monitor and keep track of issues that our end users report to our Help Desk Department. We also have written in the ode of our company's software to notify Support if an end-user experience an issue and does not report it. That way we can improve our software and be a more robust organization. Also using the Asset Management gives us a way to see what equipment users have and when they need to be upgraded and or replaced. 

Although there are many great features within Desktop Central, my most favorite has to be the OS Deployment. When we order new computers in large batches, having the OS Deployment makes the process much, much easier to get them prepared for our users. We also utilize the Self Service Portal to push out applications and give the end-users the option to install the application if they want it and it can be installed without Administrative privileges which takes less time from the Help Desk or System Administrators.  

Not many things are needed for improvement, everything seems to be great as it is. One thing that would be good to have would be the ability to add MDM to a tablet running Android 5.0 using the EMM Token Enrollment.  If we wanted to add MDM to an older tablet, we just have to go the "long route" to get it added. I would guess another option would be a lower price cap for using all the separate divisions of programs that are being built withing Desktop Central.  We actually opted out of renewing Analytics Plus this last go around because of the cost and the lack of times we actually used it to run reports. 

We have been utilizing Manage Engine Desktop Central for approximately 2-3 years. 

The stability and performance of Desktop Central have been great. We have no issues, but we also use the on-prem option.

Desktop Central is deferentially very scalable.  They are always coming up with new options very often.  

Every time we have had to contact the customer support to assist with an issue or an answer, they have always been very knowledgeable and very helpful. They continue to follow-up after the issue has been resolved to ensure everything is going well and if there was anything else they would be able to assist with.   

Before we moved over to Desktop Plus, we were using Spice Works, mainly because they were free. They had several applications that are similar to Desktop Central, but they were just not the same.  It was a great investigation to make the switch to Desktop Central. 

The setup was fairly simple. We had no issues and were able to get everything up and running within 48 hours.  

Not with a vendor team, but with our talented staff of System Administrators who were able to read and study the verbiage of the documentation. 

It's hard to say what our ROI is because I do not work in the finance department. I can say that the happier we can make the executives and salespeople happy with their equipment their operation, they are able to produce more income for the company.

I would advise others to think about using Desktop Desktop for all their network, tickets, and assets needs. I personally have not used the network monitoring software, but it's like any of the other portions of Desktop Central, it must be good. 

No, there were no other applications we tried.

Some times, when adding new programs to Desktop Central, it can be somewhat costly. I say be prepared to be able to spend some money. We asked to pay for several years at a time to lower the long term cost.

The features that give us the most value are patch management, remote control, and configuration management.

We used to use Windows Server Update Services, but had difficulty getting reports that gave an accurate picture of the patch situation across the estate. 

Desktop Central allows both Microsoft and third-party patching while giving precise reporting and dashboards, enabling us to catch problem computers easily, as well as show the company that we are keeping their IT infrastructure safe.

The ability to backup and restore or move user profiles to another PC would be a fantastic addition to the feature set.

We have used this solution for five years now.

We've had no issues with deployment.

We've had no issues with stability.

We've had no issues with scalability.

I have found customer service to be very responsive. I have had a couple of issues over the years and on one occasion logged a ticket on the ManageEngine support site and had a call back within 15 minutes. The support rep took control of the server and fixed the issue within 10 minutes. 

They are also very responsive as far as feature requests are concerned. I have in the past requested features and have had at least some of them make it into the product.

We used Altiris for our service desk, as well as systems management, before it became Symantec. It was a very good but expensive solution. 

I was tasked with finding a replacement for the cost of the maintenance of Altiris. I did that with the combination of ServiceDesk Plus, Desktop Central and OS Deployer.

Installation and initial configuration is very easy, taking less than an hour to have a fully-working system on a network of 700+ computers. Obviously, it takes more time to fine tune the solution to your exact needs, but you can have an installation ready and auditing your estate in no time at all. I would say that any reasonably competent IT person can set this up with no outside help. The installation was very easy and required no help from any outside company including ManageEngine.

I did it by myself in-house.

Not sure if it is the case now, but they used to say 80% of the features of the big players for 20% of the cost. I think that they may be overlooked because of the price, but download it and take a look. You will be very surprised.

Give it a go. If you are a small business of less than 25 users, it is free. For larger companies, it is a very reasonably priced solution. It is feature rich and the list of features is growing rapidly. Depending on the version you have, new features are free of charge. Some features are only in Enterprise and not in Pro.

We primarily use this product to monitor PCs, perform updates, and as a remote desktop.

This solution has helped me in several aspects. It has helped to identify outdated PCs, as well as to assist with remote control and software monitoring. I can see what users have installed on PCs, which is especially helpful for laptops.

Feature-wise, this solution is okay.

What I like best about this product is that I can log on to every PC, very easily, and chat with the user via the chat feature.

The dashboard is very good. It saves me a lot of time when it comes to finding the Windows calibration software that is installed on the PCs.

I would like to have the option to install the agent remotely. When we change a PC, we have to uninstall the agent and then re-install it on the new one, and it is a difficult procedure.

Sometimes the performance is not very good, which is something that can be improved.

I have been using ManageEngine Desktop Central for approximately one year.

The stability is good.

We have 25 users, which is the limit for the free version. I don't know how scalable it is beyond this point. Whether I increase my usage depends on whether I stay with this product and purchase a license, or instead try another solution.

I have not had any issues, so I have not needed to contact technical support.

The initial setup is straightforward and fast. It definitely takes less than a day to deploy.

I have been using the free version and am in the stage where I have to decide if I will proceed with the paid license, or instead choose another product.

This is the product that was recommended to me, so I did not evaluate other options before implementing it.

My advice is that if they don't have a product to control the software that users have installed on their PCs, then this is a very good tool. However, beyond a certain number of users, they have to buy it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

The automation control over scheduling server patching along with the ability to automate the reboot time has been critical. This process isn't straightforward, but after figuring out the requirements staggering reboots is an easy process to manage.

The software has provided the ability for us to not only replace SCCM seamlessly, but to train and allow for easy cross training.

The way patches are pushed out and applied can use a little work as it appears the patches are pushed out and just force applied as a group, as opposed to a specific registry pattern. Not too often, but this causes servers lockup or fail patching as it halts reboots before other patches can be applied which cannot be applied because the registry is locked from previous patches applied.

This software has been in place coming up on a year now. The flexibility of the software has proven very useful. A small business perspective replacing SCCM with this product has proven both cost effective and an efficient use of our staffs time.

We have had no issues deploying it.

There have been no stability issues.

Overall once we figured out the process structure we really did not have a whole lot of issues. From our client base, and architecture I do not see anything that would hinder scalability based on the way the remote offices are setup within this code.

I would preface this by saying in general the FAQ's are pretty helpful. Overall the support system has been helpful for this specific product, but we have not needed a whole lot of assistance.

We previously used SCCM which is a great enterprise solution if you can keep the administration knowledge on-site. For a small business, SCCM did not meet the ease of use or the price break which was the reasoning for the move to Desktop Manager MSP 9.

The installation of the product itself was very straightforward. The installer was pretty much default settings all the way through and was able to reference FAQ's for the few custom settings we desired.

Implementation was done in-house and for the most part was straightforward. Once the client setup process is done I would suggest babysitting the automated pushes for a couple of weeks. We ran into some weird issues that we were able to resolve fairly quickly and completed the maintenance during our timeframe which otherwise would have just looked like the patching jobs failed completely when they succeeded in reality.

The ROI switching to this product was noticeable after it had been around six months as we were able to retire our SCCM product along with the licensing that comes with using SQL.

I like the ease of setup and administration. There are some minor annoyances with how often the server software needs patched, how patching is applied and how the terminologies are translated.

Keep an eye on the automated reporting that is generated. We have not fully invested the time to discover why we have inconsistencies with the data, but it appears to be happening.

We are in the testing phase of ManageEngine Desktop Central. 

ManageEngine Desktop Central's most valuable features are remote desktop control and image management. We can send things out from the desk here, it is a very good tool for us.

The reporting analytics could improve in ManageEngine Desktop Central. However, there are some third-party add-ins or modules you can purchase to do reporting analytics.

I have used ManageEngine Desktop Central within the last 12 months.

We have had sales support from ManageEngine Desktop Central and they have been very helpful.

The initial setup is straightforward. My manager is in the process and there have not been any problems.

ManageEngine Desktop Central should not require a lot of maintenance that we have seen in the short time of our usage.

I rate ManageEngine Desktop Central a nine out of ten.

What is valuable for us is the ability to manage Windows OS, Mac OS, and Linux OS on a single console. This also includes push applications, patches, and configurations on all three platforms.

We are able to manage all user operating systems on a single console.

Management of Mac OS X, Linux OS, and encryption. We would like this to be on par with how Windows OS is managed.

Also, the reporting feature could be more flexible.

We have been using the solution for three years.

We had an issue with the reporting feature, but other than this, it's pretty robust.

We did not encounter any issues with scalability.

The technical support is excellent.

We previously used SCCM and ARD. Cost was a big factor. Just the ability to manage all operating systems on a single console was the main reason we chose this solution. Ease of use for the administration was also a big factor.

The setup was straightforward.

We evaluated Jamf, Lansweeper, TriActive, FileWave, etc.

Look for something that will fit your environment, budget, and level of expertise. For us, we manage all OSs. This was a perfect fit.

We also have 5000 endpoints. ManageEngine allows us to manage these endpoints at a fraction of the cost.

Our IT administrators are also able to use the product without much complication compared to other competitors.

Secure USB has allowed us to secure USB ports on our PCs, thus improving our PSN compliance. The main selling point is that it's centralized. We can easily control which system should have access to what and we’re also able to produce a report in case of a security issue.

Patch Management provides us with the ability to patch third-party software on terminal servers. This has improved productivity in terms of being able to automate the process as well as targeting the rights OUs, Security Groups, etc. I have successfully decommissioned my WSUS server and now all Microsoft updates are performed using the “Automate Patch Deployment”.

“Deployment Policy”: It provides me with the ability to schedule server/non-server reboots. This has, for the time being, been the solution for a Microsoft bug for server 2012 R2 whereby a server does not properly reboot after MS updates been applied and forcefully does it when the user logs on instead.

I no longer have to use a dedicated WSUS server, everything is properly scheduled including the ability to get reports via e-mail. Everything is administered using a web interface. It’s an all-in-one solution not just for patches but for software inventories as well. From a sys admin point of view, it now requires less effort and time to perform these administrative tasks.

I would like the deployment window time to be reduced as it currently requires a minimum of three hours. The automated patch deployment should stick to its own schedule.

The web interface is sometimes confusing and requires improvement, meaning it should be easy to find your way round if you’re looking for a specific option, i.e. adding a new computer object.

Some help files aren’t helpful as they don’t clearly explain the tasks to follow. There should be videos or more scenarios to assist the user.

I've used it for less than a year.

At first it took me some time to understand how to automate the patches, especially the “deployment window time”, other than that everything becomes straightforward once you've spent “some time” learning the process.

None

No

4/10. Symantec, for instance, has better business support as you can log in for follow ups. It takes time for your call to be answered; you don’t know what your SLA is; you don’t get a quick reply. It’s basically not there yet.

For Windows updates we used WSUS. With MangeEngine it’s so much easier to administer and monitor. We struggled to update 3rd party applications in the past. Software deployment is also not an issue anymore and easily manageable.

I wasn't involved in it.

In-house. My recommendation would be to export all your computer objects, in .csv format for instance, from AD then import into ManageEngine. It would be simple and shorten the amount of time it would’ve taken, otherwise, to manually add each object and subsequently ease the process of deploying the agents to each object.

With Secure USB, the system relies on the Device Instance ID of the USB device to identify and secure it (Allow, Deny). For implementation, my advice would be to “Deny all USB access” in order to allow access to devices only permitted by the organisation when plugged in.

The “Device Instance ID” is a unique, long string, alphanumerical identifier. To allow access to a specific device you’ll need to copy/paste this ID (from Device Manager) into ManageEngine. Let’s say you now have 20 IDs listed, how would you know which ID is for which device, as ManageEngine does not provide such option. I ended up creating a spreadsheet which records such information. That’s quite a convoluted way of doing things.

A USB Device can have multiple “Device Instance Id”: i.e. Digital camera. That means sometimes it becomes a hit and miss to get the device to work.

I value the remote deployment solution the most as that functionality is used daily. However, other parts of the software like patch management, inventory and client/user configurations are also highly regarded.

It changed the entire flow of my department, though it is not a large department ranging from 55 to 75 users and about 130 clients (which includes lab and student PCs). I was able to save one full time employee and, thus, the software allowed me to present a serious cost reduction to the department staff.

I would love to have the self-service portal which is now present in the Enterprise edition to be deployed to the users of the Professional edition as well.

I implemented Desktop Central in spring 2009 and have used it ever since.

The response from the technical support staff was great whenever I needed it. They are also open to suggestions from the community and now and then implement ideas offered by the community.

We previously had a full time employee running around to install software when demanded.

It's straightforward. Between setup, testing and deployment of my first software package there was half a day. Since I have been running Desktop Central for six years. People looking for an easy management tool without steep learning curve like MS System Center should definitely have a look at Desktop Central.

We deployed in-house and have no additional remarks about implementation.

We have saved one full time employee.

We get Academic licensing which is not representative for the majority of users.

People looking for an easy management tool without steep learning curve like MS System Center should definitely have a look at Desktop Central.