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Lack of Meaningful WHD Enhancements is Disappointing

nathanseaton over 6 years ago

First, it's great that WHD gets security updates. They are needed and important, however I wouldn't consider them to be meaningful enhancements.

I chose WHD several years ago because I liked the customizations that were possible and I saw the application's potential.

However, lately the product has just been a disappointment. FAQs and the dashboard have seen a backend and UI overhaul, but the rest has set dormant. We've been told the rest of the product is challenging and would be revamped "soon." But now years down the road, "soon" still hasn't arrived.

I'm disappointed in the lack of a clear road map. Meanwhile other products have been moved fully to HTML5, chat features, support for multiple techs on one ticket, and heck...those products will even let you review two tickets in two different tabs.

I need to see some real commitment to enhancements or unfortunately I'll have to switch to another product. At this point, the only thing keeping me from switching is the time I would have to dedicate to training end-users on another product.

If reworking the current solution is this troublesome, I'd rather you all rebuild from scratch and let me import my legacy tickets.

I'm curious if I'm the only one feeling these struggles.

Top Replies

0 csmith6 over 6 years ago

The slience on this topic from SolarWinds is deafening. I hope the product isn't being left to die. I like the tech and end-user usability of the system and hope that they will continue to support and enhance it, and also fix the completely broken integrated asset discovery engine.
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0 eber123 over 6 years ago

I agree, WebHelpDesk would have so much potential. We got use to it and its advantages. But not moving forward could be the end of the product, because competitors are continue to develop and improve their products.
If Solarwinds want to hang on to the product and therefore to their customers it is vital to make a clear statement about the future of the WHD and also follow this up with additional features.
Regards,
Eberhard
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0 tml over 6 years ago

We gave up on it back in June:
https://thwack.solarwinds.com/thread/112287

The words I used were badly judged, but were representative of the frustration I and my colleagues were feeling at the time.
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0 kjette over 6 years ago

I am also in the "doing nothing is easier" category but I've decided that 2018 is the end. I've held on and held on but its clear that this is as good as it gets. When we went with WHD a few years ago they were on par with most of their competitors but have fallen way behind feature-wise. One of the major reasons I feel I need to change is because it looks like WHD is winding down. Releases are father and farther apart with less and less usable features. The fact that there is so much negative feedback on this forum and SW never chimes in is very telling, not to mention the constant revolving door of product managers. I've been through this before with one of their other products that they just stopped supporting and 2 years later finally said it was done.
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0 justin.gray over 6 years ago

This has been a recurring theme since Solarwinds bought and took over the product about 5 years ago. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will change. And as you can see if you've been around here for a while, the community is dwindling as well --witness the lack of posts, lack of responses, and fewer returning after posting questions and getting no response.
As long as they pull in enough license fees to pay their one developer, they will "maintain" the product. Once they hit the break-even point the will undoubtedly pull the plug.
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0 kjette over 6 years ago in reply to justin.gray

I agree with this assessment. It would be nice for SW to chime in here and give us a little reassurance and roadmap for this product.
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0 nathanseaton over 6 years ago in reply to kjette

What alternative solutions are you considering?
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0 mark.dangelo over 6 years ago

When I was doing a WebEx with milan.hulik I saw a few things that they were working on that haven't come out yet so it was nice to see a little progress. I also provided my own ideas (such as.) of what could be improved - to which he was pretty receptive about. I have some faith that he is trying to turn things around. However, it would be awesome if we could get some screenshots or sneak previews of what's being worked on? Or at least something to hold us over..?
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0 milan.hulik over 6 years ago

Hi guys, I missed this post and now thanks to mark.dangelo's mention, I have just found it.
WHD is not dead! Definitely not.
There were many areas touched in this thread: roadmap, PM involvement, and my favorite asset discovery engine
In terms of roadmap, what is mentioned here is valid: What Are We Working on for Web Help Desk (WHD) - Updated November 24th, 2017
If anyone is interested in seeing some of the early development of these features, please reach out to me via email: milan.hulik@solarwinds.com and we'll schedule a call.
Constant revolving door of product managers - can't speak for the previous PMs, I've been WHD PM for less than a year and plan on staying
Broken asset discovery engine - if you have these issues, reach out to me. I am putting together requirements for new discovery engine and would like to understand your issues. Again via email: milan.hulik@solarwinds.com
nathanseaton, you should have my email now. I hope, we'll be able to sync next week.
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0 matt8 over 6 years ago in reply to milan.hulik

If I may, I think its great that there is some life, but its clear (at least to me, and probably a lot of other people) that this just isn't a high priority project for Solarwinds. I did a feedback session back in June 2017 and saw some of the improvements that are mentioned in your thread. That's over half a year ago, and most of what I saw was VERY FAR from being finished.
This is becoming a highly competitive field - look at the improvements Freshdesk, Zendesk, and Jira Service Desk have brought to the table in the last year. There will be little reason to stay with this product unless Solarwinds decides they care to keep it alive.
Another Solarwinds acquisition, Dameware, is in the exact same boat. It has made this company's reputation greatly soured - no way would I buy into any of their flagship products now.
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