Cherwell Service Management Reviews

Very effective ticketing system

Cherwell Service Management has been a very effective ticketing system for our operation. It rewards inquisitive users who have some experience with SQL queries. It integrates with our email system, so we end up receiving and answering email inquiries from our user community through the Cherwell interface. It gives good reporting, and good statistics, although the reporting requires some effort to access. It has been a good system for my organization

Pros

Customization of searches; use of an SQ-like search format to build queries that can then be saved and reused

Cons

Requires some level of training in order to increase personal customization. Occasionally have multiple people working on the same tickets, so some tickets get resolved with ineffective solutions while others are working on them. Reporting requires some effort to access.

Great product with high upside

Overall the process with Cherwell has been great. The product is fantastic with very few hiccups.

Pros

This product allows us to customize it in a way that makes it so we can bring all departments within the same system (finally!).

Cons

Implementation and additional integrations can be difficult (as with any product).

Standard functionality but horrible UX

We use Cherwell as a ticketing system for the help desk as well as change management system. The user interface is challenging, to say the least. There are frames within frames that have to be scrolled through separately to see all of the information. The text box containing the user's message is so small, it show the tiniest portion of the message. To expand it, you have to pop open a new window, which automatically inactivates the main window so you have to trick the system in order to see multiple tickets at once. The emailing functionality is clunky - the initial email you send to a customer uses one link but replies after that need to use a different "email" button that is oddly hard to find. When a customer sends a reply, the ticket displays in a different color, but that is the only notification. So if they send multiple messages, you wouldn't know unless you fully open the ticket and that is cumbersome. There's an inactivity timeout that may not apply to everyone, but it's a hassle. The system times out after an hour of inactivity but it isn't consistent - sometimes it will run for days with no activity and not sign me out and other times it's at 60 minutes on the dot. Also sometimes when I'm logged out automatically, it doesn't actually log me out so when I try to log back in, I'm locked out. Overall, with the current UX, it would have to be the cheapest option available for me to recommend it to anyone.

Pros

Help desk tickets are tracked Released changes are tracked

Cons

User experience Look and feel of the software Search functionality Notification process Inactivity timeout

Enterprise-Level Ticketing System

I really like Cherwell, and find it does meet our needs well for ticketing. I'm able to enter my information quickly to submit and process tickets. Great tool.

Pros

Cherwell is a well established IT ticketing tool, that my company has used for over two years now. We use it for incident reporting and journaling, as well as for our operation changes. I really like the robustness of it. It's user friendly, and has options and controls for almost anything I'd want to enter for the tickets. The software is customizable, and our admin team has tweaked things to be more in line with our company and uses. It has a clean smooth interface and does handle everything we want to do with our tickets.

Cons

When we first switched to Cherwell from HPSM, we did find the learning curve to be large, as the two tools have many differences. In general, like with any software, it does take time to get used to, but once we did get used to it, it seems rather smooth.

High level of accurateness and flexibility

Cherwell Software offers one ITSM product which is aimed at companies with medium and high level of maturity. If you are interested in integrating a flexible and adjustable solution in your organization, then Cherwell Service Management is exactly what you require.

Pros

The company has expanded its ITOM capabilities and supports a wide range of third-party integrations and extensions. For instance, the example of such a platform can be Exchange Mergeable Application. In a few words, this application gives various opportunities for third-party developers to host their applications. In general, the vendor pleases us with the new program’s opportunities and abilities rolling out pretty frequently. We have given our preference to Cherwell Service Management because of its great visualization capabilities, user-friendliness of the program’s interface, powerful reporting, etc. With its help, our team has automatized numerous processes and tasks. The platform pleases with its accurate dashboards and incredible search abilities.

Cons

The company has a tendency to reassign account people. Maybe, the reason for that is the high speed of their self-development, who knows. But still, it may cause little difficulties. Where we see problems with Cherwell Service Management is that this program requires a lot of computer memory to run correctly. In addition, the program will be a real pain without a strong infrastructure from your side. What’s more, this solution does not have any web version.

A good and reliable ticket management system

Good experience, the ticket management, the SLA tools, the filter tools, the access control and the idea of cloud based solution are very good differentials compared to the other solutions on the market, also it is reliable, on these 3 years using the solution, I could not remember any interruptions. Last but not least, the possibility to customize the solution, going through the development directly on the code is awesome, if the company has a programmer or a devolopment team, it can be totally customized for the company.

Pros

It is reliable to manage your tickets, the SLAs, the escalation plans, everything works perfectly right. Therefore, the option to use the asset management is pretty interesting as well and you can access it from anywhere without you have an infrastructure, it is totally on cloud. Another plus about the software, is the possibility to customize it, according to your company, if you have an development team.

Cons

Some features, like the agent to inventory the assets, needs to be bought apart from the software, it is something that would be really useful if it came together with the bundle.

Cherwell ITSM very customizable

The overall experience has been good, the product is excellent, but you need to invest additional money for the implementation.

Pros

Cherwell is a robust ITSM, you can customize the forms, notifications, workflows, almost everything.

Cons

You need specific training to configure and implement the changes. Cherwell has partners and you need to contact and contract them for the implementation. They need to improve their content on the web for the recent versions.

An all-in one service management package that works but has issues

Overall, Cherwell Service Management has fulfilled its requirements. However, upgrades are finicky and deep customization really can take a lot of work. Some of them are straight forward and some really require a lot of time to get going, more so than you would expect for similar products. (Similar product are, less customizable, however, take less of a lift on what you can do with them which is a trade-off you need to understand going into it.)

Pros

While not always easy or straightforward, this service management product is highly customizable and can be used for a variety of areas such as a knowledge database, help desk, incident tracking, change management, etc.

Cons

Customization can take a lot of work and upgrades can often break functionality with no eta or workarounds aside from downgrading or waiting for a future upgrade (which could be a year+ away.)

Very cutomizable, and no coding!!

Pros

Very customizable, and no coding!! Easy to use

Cons

It's a bit buggy and there are some quirks that require adjustments

Cherwell Service Management

Pros

Integration into the business was quite straight forward. Many customisable features to tweak it to the company needs and for reporting. Overall a very powerful too for any organisation.

Cons

Not a bad thing, but you can get lost in customisation.

I used Cherwell as a client is enjoyed it

Pros

Cherwell is easy to use and set up. Creating multiple threads for multiple projects is a plus. Its easy with adding or removing participants to the threads.

Cons

Cherwell has no real cons in its software or platform. I have had no issues that I can report. Its just a great software and I enjoy using it.

Consistent Reliability and Functionality

Exceptional Experience of which has made management of my position easy.

Pros

This ticket system is efficient and as customizable as the person might choose if they have the know-how and drive to do so, ease of function and redirect allows for a streamlined system for resolution of issues.

Cons

It could be more intuitive in some areas and the report pulling leaves a lot to be desired on this area of opportunity

Cherwell is Great

Pros

Ease of administration and support when issues arise

Cons

Many options. Difficult to decide where to go next

Best ITSSM Platform - Indespensible in Delivering Our Services

Cherwell implements 11 ITIL process out-of-the-box which helped an immature organization like ours start practicing ITIL. It's automation capabilities are vast and robust. The single best part of this product is its philosophy. It is completely customizable to fit your organization's needs and if Cherwell doesn't do something another tool does or you want to continue to use that tool, Cherwell integrates with many tools natively, through merge application functionality, and lastly through general customization. Simply put, if you can dream it, Cherwell does it...and if it doesn't, it will integrate with something that does.

Pros

Everything! It is customizable to fit my organization's needs. I happen to be a programmer, but I don't need to be to develop and configure Cherwell. It implements robust and customizable frameworks that allow you to use it as you need to. Cherwell doesn't dictate ITSSM, it's your partner in it.

Cons

The customizability allows unwary or naive implementors, developers, or Cherwell Admins to make changes that ultimately reduce the awesomeness of the product. The biggest area of this is in implementing business processes. Before making changes, consider whether you business process is as effective as it should be, rather than making the product implement a poor-performing process.

Cherwell is a powerful, flexible software that is great out of the box

We did not have an ITSM software in place prior to implementing Cherwell, so we did not come in with any preconceived notions. The implementation was smooth and the PSO helped us customize the software during the process. I have found it to be very easy to maintain, upgrade, modify, and enhance. The Cherwell customer community is vibrant and the company listens and incorporates ideas and requests from its user base. Support is very friendly and helpful, and always willing to help me with implementing any ideas I come up with. I also very much appreciate their emphasis on participating in their community and supporting organizations who have a positive impact on our world.

Pros

The product allows for a high level of customization and is very easy to use, both from user and administrator standpoints.

Cons

The built in report writing leaves something to be desired. However, reporting through dashboards and searches within the system is a great alternative.

Cherwell has changed my career life.

Using Cherwell has been great because I have gotten to learn a new software product and how to develop in it, whereas before I was sort of stuck not doing any development work for years. CSM has challenged me to learn more and stretch boundaries in planning future projects for more innovative development, as well.

Pros

I really like how the company makes its customers feel special and makes us a priority, and how it is a software company that is proud of providing a code-less software product, that always seeks to be innovative and the best.

Cons

There are some quirks in the product that cannot be explained that exist in different places in the software that make troubleshooting a challenge at times. I have a One-Step, for example, that changes perspective after the 4th or 5th step, for some reason, and I had to build a work-around for it.

Unparalleled Flexibility

The application allows non-developers to create their own scenarios and solutions, and engage your users with highly-configurable dashboards, reports, and forms. With some more advanced knowledge, you can easily turn a basic ticketing system into a full-featured platform for your company.

Pros

The flexibility and ease of use. The licensing model is extremely flexible and makes sense in nearly every business case.

Cons

The depth. While this isn't generally considered a negative, the software is so deep that you tend to realize there are a half dozen ways to do the same thing, and if you're of the mindset where you constantly tweak your apps, you'll always find a better way to do something, even if you don't have the time/resources to do so.

Cherwell is amazing software

We've been using Cherwell since August 2014, and have yet to encounter something we can't make it do. The ability to develop the tool with the access to the same tools and features that their in-house and partner developers use means that we can build the tool exactly as we like at very little cost, and it provides numerous ways to build integrations to other tools and services, without needing to develop expensive bespoke code. Going back to anything else would be unthinkable.

Pros

User community, ability to modify to meet our needs, variety of hosting options, a vendor who is as interested in making the best possible tool as we are.

Cons

The webclient isn't quite up to par with the installed client yet. This is my only real gripe.

Cherwell is a great ITSM that is easily expanded to the Enterprise

We implemented Cherwell in 2013. Currently we have incident, service request and change management implemented within IT. IT Projects underway are problem management, knowledge management and employee on-boarding/off-boarding. We also expanded the tool to Customer Service, Operations, Facilities Service and Supply Chain. Our next non-IT project will be implementing the tool within HR. The tool does not require programming background to configure. We have two non-technical resources who are responsible for the administration of the tool and development of new applications. Dashboards are an easy way to report real time data from the system. They are powerful and we use them everyday to monitor our service. As a company Cherwell is 100% customer focused. They listen to us and help us be successful with the tool. The culture of the company is amazing and not something you typically see at a software company.

Pros

Configurability, flexibility and ability to expand beyond IT.

Cons

The report writer is difficult to learn and understand.

Highly customizable but watch for bugs

In the grand scheme of things, the software works very well. We are able to tailor it to meet our requirements for separating Incidents and Service Requests without too much of a learning curve. This has allowed us to obtain accurate metrics that were previously unavailable. The ability to customize everything has also opened up options for other teams to use the software instead of relying on email because other ticketing systems are too restrictive.

Pros

Cherwell gives you the ability to do almost anything you want/need to do. It's built in workflow (One-Step) feature is great for automating repeatable tasks. The extensibility and integration options are also huge benefits. Being able to link into pretty much any other application with a SQL back-end is huge.

Cons

There are quite a few bugs especially when it comes to the browser side of things. Customizing the Customer Portal lacks a functioning WYSIWYG interface and if you're a hosted customer, you have to open a ticket to have support restart IIS services before some of your changes go into effect. This makes creating/modifying a Customer Portal very painful. The Browser Client for technicians is also quite buggy. With the amount of "out of the box" features the software comes with, be very careful.. As some of these features are misconfigured out of the box and require either scouring the whole system or relying on a third party vendor who knows where the bugs are and can fix them. If you ask me, this is just a way to force you to use a consultant for implementation.

Cherwell just works and I love to tell others about it

From the moment that we met the Cherwell folks in 2014 we knew that they were the right fit for us. They listen to their customers and they truly care about our needs and they encourage user input and interaction. There hasn't been a need that we've thought of that we either haven't been able to do or haven't been able to find an answer from the user community.

Pros

It's extensibility. There hasn't been anything that we haven't been able to find an answer for so far.

Cons

When building a new business object there are so many options and check boxes (that's good). The problem customers face is that we don't know exactly what all those check boxes do so would like to see additional documentation on those.

Total Cost of Ownership is the best in the industry

We had several systems at our company of the last few years. We have 20,000 users and over 400 locations spread throughout the world. We have used Lotus Notes, Heat, IBM Smart Cloud Control Desk. We went through major consolidation efforts for tools, people and processes. We are in the middle of a massive IT Transformation. We evaluated ServiceNow and Cherwell very closely with test instances in our organization. From easy of setup, use and administration Cherwell blew away ServiceNow. Continual Professional Services are costs not usually highlighted in initial sales meetings. With Cherwell, we are able to significantly decrease our 3rd party Professional Services costs. The licensing costs are much less expensive. With ServiceNow, you have to pay for modules as your organization matures and finds value in these new features. This is not the case with Cherwell. From easy of use, functionality to customer support and costs, there was not comparison. Cherwell blew away the competition and continues to do so.

Pros

Easy of use and intuitive nature.

Cons

Some current challenges with multiple developers working simultaneously. The DEV leadership at Cherwell is currently working to resolve this challenge.

Widget disparity between client application and web browser

All widgets are available in both the client and web parts of Cherwell, however, the widgets viewed in a web browser lack the same visual quality that you see in the client. Mainly graphs and grids differ between the client and web so much so that either widgets are doubled to accommodate the differences or separate dashboards entirely.

Pros

The application is incredibly customizable. You don't have to figure out how to cram a custom process into a fixed application, you just create your custom process with all and only the things and functions it needs, but still have the capability to link it to existing objects and processes

Cons

The lack of web browser compatibility development. However Cherwell is a company that actually listens to it's customers and they are constantly improving.

Feature rich and customizable

Pros

Very much aligned with ITIL which is what our company is focused and built around.

Cons

Can be clucky at times, but that can be fixed with better customization.

Cherwell

Pros

Flexibility and customization - if you have the time, you can build it.

Cons

ADA, mobile and browser apps (thick client for PC only)