We're looking for recommendations for a service desk and endpoint management platform, or a combination of tools. We currently use KACE SMA for ticket queues, patch management, software deployment, and file synchronization, but its performance has become disappointing. We also found it to be unstable in our Hyper-V environment during host migrations; our test environment failed during one migration, and support told us rebuilding was the expected solution because the instability is known. We recently moved from VMware to Hyper-V, so we're especially cautious about another platform with virtualization issues. Because of compliance requirements, the ticketing system needs to be available on-premises. Would you recommend replacing everything with one product or separating the service desk from endpoint management?
4 Answers
For a broad all-in-one endpoint tool, NinjaOne is worth evaluating. It may not be the strongest option in every individual category, but it covers a lot of functionality and can provide reasonable alternatives to more expensive specialized products. For ticketing, I’d still evaluate a separate on-premises system if compliance requires it.
There are several reasonable combinations depending on your environment. Intune is widely used when it’s already included in an existing licensing plan, FleetDM is popular in some technology-focused organizations, and Jamf is usually the strongest choice for Apple-heavy environments. For self-hosted service desk options, GLPI provides tickets plus asset and inventory management, while Zammad and osTicket are lighter alternatives. Another approach is to use a separate endpoint platform such as Endpoint Central or a cross-platform patching tool and keep the service desk independent.
ManageEngine’s ServiceDesk Plus paired with Endpoint Central is a common combination. It gives you a dedicated service desk along with patching, software deployment, and endpoint management rather than forcing everything into one module.
I’d seriously consider splitting the products instead of finding another platform that tries to do everything. Choose the ticketing system based on your compliance and hosting requirements, then evaluate endpoint tools such as Intune, Endpoint Central, or NinjaOne separately. During testing, focus on everyday reliability: software deployment, inventory accuracy, patch failures, rollback options, and how easy problems are to troubleshoot.
That separation makes sense, especially since only the ticketing side has to remain on-premises. We’ll make sure to test the operational details instead of relying only on feature checklists.