We are a 3 person outfit looking for a RMM software to support our existing clients and help us grow and remain competitive. We currently only have three service contracts and several hourly clients. The contract clients consist of one with 5 servers and 88 workstations, one with one server and 15 workstations, and one that just has us managing their 5 servers. Our clients have Windows, Linux, and Apple computer/devices. We also manage their networking hardware.
We will have to eat the initial cost of the RMM since our largest client is in the middle of a contract and we can’t roll the cost into their service for another year.
Two of our competitors use Labtech and Kaseya. I only have experience with Labtech and was never too fond of the speed and reliability of it for what it cost. That was a couple years ago though.
Also, we use Screen Connect for our remote access utility, and are very happy with it, if that provides any useful added information.
Any help narrowing down the suitable options would be great and save us a ton of time sitting on the phone listening to sales pitches.
4 Spice ups
keith22
(keith22)
2
I use @MAXfocus personally along with @ConnectWise . It is great for the cost and I am happy with it and MaxFocus supports Windows, Mac and Linux. Do you have any specific requirements? What do you want to be able to see/do with it?
ANother vote for MaxFocus.
djaxis
(Djaxis @ KDI)
4
We use GFI Max…I mean Max Focus 
Solid software. Thought about looking into AVG Managed Workplace RMM but have stuck with Max Focus for now
@Keith Hummel
At minimum we need to be able to remotely monitor all devices on the network and be notified when certain parameters are exceeded or absent. We need to be able to monitor from mobile devices since we don’t have a dedicated in office team. Patch management and automated/scripted maintenance are important. An asset tracking and ticketing system would be huge for us since we are currently running a home-brewed solution that isn’t ideal.
We also have a web development and hosting side of our business that is taking off so website monitoring would be big for us.
Altough there is much room for bias in those kinds of questions I just wanted to leave my 2 cents regarding N-able’s N-central plattform. I’ve been using it now for a couple of months after using GFImax. I like the feature set of N-able quite a lot, especially in regard to TO’s requirement of automation management. (You can monitor individual services and set actions upon a change in status.)
A ticketing system is included, altough this won’t be able to compete with all the Autotasks out there.
And everything else is there: integrated backup, antivirus, patch management including third party, software deployment, various methods of remote access etc.
BTW: Support is great.
How would everyone rate the current suggestions on implementation cost?
With N-able I had the impression that the monthly licensing fees might be just a bit more costly than GFImax / MAXfocus, but not really noteworthy. N-able takes quite some time to get you and your technicians to get a good grip of all the features and set it up according to likings. (N-able will assign you a support engineer who will guide you through their so called “onboarding” phase which they do really good.) So I would say time and training are paramount regarding implementation cost.
As you can decide wether you want to run your N-central server on-premise or have it hosted by N-able you gain an extra degree of freedom. But even if you decide to install N-central on-premise this is no big hassle: Download an ISO and install it on a vSphere or Hyper-V and your good to go.
Personally not a fan of N-Able. Their VMware monitoring can’t support vMotion or DRS (it freaks out if a VM moves hosts). For low end desktop stuff they might work, but for those of us who have real Datacenter’s to monitor they are garbage.
1 Spice up
Datacenter management solutions might generally be a whole different pair of shoes and therefore beyond the scope of MAXfocus / N-Able / Labtech / Kaseya etc. I for one am quite glad that I don’t have to deal with IBM’s Tivoli in the SMB field.
We are centering mostly around vRealize. Terrible name, but does what we need.
Currently in trial but will probably keep them around. Good pricing structure and feature set.
Also good documentation and marketing material is provided which can help with customers.
I would not recommend Nable. They promised the sky to us and tied us into a 1 year contract - their system was never even implemented properly and their support was far from satisfactory.
I feel that rmm tools should reduce our headaches - not add to them.
We are trialing GFI max focus at the moment and are fairly happy with the out of the box simplicity, functionality and ease of use.
My only issue with them is in terms of not having automatic snmp asset discovery (something which spiceworks does very very well). A lot of their snmp device support is also quite outdated (they only support cisco pix firewall out of the box when the ASA has been around for ages now).
Having said that, it seems simple and gives us a birds eye view of the stuff that matters (patches, backup status, av status etc).
One question for Keith Hummel. I tested screen connect last month and was very happy with it. I was about to purchase it when I found out that Gfi max focus includes ‘take control’ in its agent cost. It’s based on TeamViewer and I have been told that it does not have any limitation except not being able to create on demand pass code based remote sessions for non contract adhoc support.
Just curious - are u using screen connect since you already has a license or did u find any issues with the take control feature which is a part of Gfi maxfocus agent?
Lastly, since many fellow spice heads in this thread have used Gfi maxfocus, could I please have your feedback about any pros and cons in the solution. I need to make a decision to purchase Gfi maxfocus for aounf 100 servers and 50 workstations next week.
We have been burnt financially by Nable before and even though Gfi doesn’t seem to have any long term commitments or contracts, I would like to tread cautiously.
We need something simple to use and which just works without too much maintenance. Any feedback (specially with regards to the take control effectiveness) would be highly Appreciated.
Thanks.
typed on a mobile device. Plz excuse any typos
