Experience with Epicor ITSM (formerly Clientele)?

[bobafind]

We have recently completed migration from Epicor Clientele 7.3 to Epicor ITSM SP1. From the marketing material it seemed that this product would have provided most of the ITIL aligned tools we would need, bbut it is looking like it's primarily focused on call tracking, sales and external support. Our only need is for internal support.

The biggest (perceived) shortcoming is in the change management area. Does anyone have any experience or insight into this tool and how we can get the most out of our purchase? I have not found very much discussion or documentation on this product out there. Our license is paid up until June, so we may look at moving to a better solution around that time. Any suggestions on a similar priced product if this one is not a highly recommended one?

Thanks!

[Mahmoud]

HP OpenView Service Desk, is one of the best in the market built on ITSM processes.

[bobafind]

[Mahmoud]

You have to contact HP sales in your region. For large environment it's highly recommended for mid and small size it's costly.

[rjp]

I can assure you that HP Service Desk (while competitive in its market sector) is so far over your ceiling it will be invisible to the naked eye...

The teir 1 products: HP, CA, BMC, Frontrange, Marvel, Ifra, &etc. are n-teir architecture enterprise products with price tags to match. Some (CA for example) have subscription procing where you pay zip for the app, but have a yearly cost for the licenses staff require to use it - however your budget would not stretch to one user.

Some vendors have solid products in the SME range which in thier OTB state are fairly low cost FrontRange's Heat, and BMC's Magic for example. But even here once you factor in license and maintenance costs (recurrent) I don't think even they will be in budget.

I would be very interested if anyone on this list knows of products that are in that price range.

There are some open source project (I suggest you search Source Forge) - but I keep a regular eye on the open source projects, and I don't know of any that are mature enough (or stable enough) that I could recommend them.

[bobafind]

Thanks for the lowdown. I have been looking at FrontRange Service Desk and Magic. We're used to paying maintenance - right now it's about 4,500 / year (about %18 of our initial purchase price).

You're right on the open source front - there are a few products that are taking steps in the right direction, but none of them have given me more than a "Hmm... hell no." reaction. They also need some serious UI / design help

Any open source projects that we should keep an eye on? Seems like anyone that has talent and innovation in this area would either go to work for an HP or something rather than contributing to a free, standards-based, IT management tool.
'
*sigh*

No such thing as a free lunch.