Freshservice Review

What is Freshservice?

Freshservice is a cloud-based IT service management (ITSM) software developed by Freshworks. It is designed to help organizations manage their IT services and support operations effectively. Freshservice provides a range of features and tools to streamline IT service desk activities, automate workflows, and enhance customer support.

Here are some key features and functionalities offered by Freshservice:

1. Incident Management: Freshservice allows you to track, manage, and resolve IT incidents efficiently. It provides a centralized platform for logging and categorizing incidents, assigning them to appropriate teams or individuals, and tracking their progress until resolution.
2. Problem Management: With Freshservice, you can identify and address the root causes of recurring IT issues. It helps in managing problem records, conducting root cause analysis, and implementing effective solutions to prevent future incidents.
3. Change Management: Freshservice enables organizations to plan, implement, and track IT changes seamlessly. It provides a structured approach to managing change requests, assessing their impact, obtaining approvals, and minimizing disruptions caused by changes.
4. Asset Management: You can track and manage IT assets, such as hardware, software, and other resources, using Freshservice. It helps in maintaining an accurate inventory, tracking asset lifecycles, managing software licenses, and optimizing asset utilization.
5. Service Catalog: Freshservice allows you to create a service catalog with predefined services and offerings for users to request. It simplifies the request process, automates approvals, and improves service delivery efficiency.
6. Self-Service Portal: Users can access a self-service portal provided by Freshservice to submit service requests, search for solutions in a knowledge base, and track the progress of their requests. This reduces the burden on the IT service desk and empowers users to find answers independently.
7. Reporting and Analytics: Freshservice provides built-in reporting and analytics capabilities to monitor IT service performance, track key metrics, and generate insightful reports. This helps in identifying bottlenecks, measuring service level agreements (SLAs), and making data-driven decisions.

Freshservice is known for its user-friendly interface, intuitive design, and ease of implementation. It caters to the needs of small to large organizations across various industries, making IT service management more efficient and effective.

Freshservice Features

Freshservice offers a wide range of features to streamline IT service management and enhance customer support. Here are some of the key features provided by Freshservice:

1. Incident Management: Freshservice allows you to log, track, and manage IT incidents efficiently. You can categorize incidents, assign them to the appropriate teams or individuals, and track their progress until resolution. It provides email and self-service portal integration for easy incident reporting.
2. Problem Management: With Freshservice, you can identify and address the root causes of recurring IT issues. It helps in managing problem records, conducting root cause analysis, and implementing effective solutions to prevent future incidents.
3. Change Management: Freshservice provides a structured approach to managing IT changes. You can plan, implement, and track changes seamlessly using change management workflows. It helps in assessing the impact of changes, obtaining approvals, and minimizing disruptions caused by changes.
4. Asset Management: Freshservice enables you to track and manage IT assets, including hardware, software, and other resources. It helps in maintaining an accurate inventory, tracking asset lifecycles, managing software licenses, and optimizing asset utilization. You can also automate asset discovery and tracking.
5. Service Catalog: You can create a service catalog in Freshservice with predefined services and offerings for users to request. It simplifies the service request process, automates approvals, and improves service delivery efficiency. Users can browse the catalog, select the desired services, and submit requests easily.
6. Self-Service Portal: Freshservice provides a self-service portal where users can submit service requests, search for solutions in a knowledge base, and track the progress of their requests. It reduces the burden on the IT service desk and empowers users to find answers independently.
7. Knowledge Base: You can build and maintain a knowledge base in Freshservice, containing articles and documentation related to common issues and solutions. It enables users to search for self-help solutions, reducing the number of repetitive support requests.
8. SLA Management: Freshservice allows you to define and manage service level agreements (SLAs) for different types of incidents and service requests. You can set response and resolution time targets, escalate issues based on SLA breaches, and monitor SLA compliance.
9. Reporting and Analytics: Freshservice provides built-in reporting and analytics capabilities. You can monitor IT service performance, track key metrics, and generate insightful reports. It helps in identifying bottlenecks, measuring SLA compliance, and making data-driven decisions for process improvement.
10. Integrations: Freshservice integrates with various third-party applications and tools, including collaboration platforms, monitoring tools, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and more. This allows you to streamline workflows, enhance data sharing, and improve overall efficiency.

These are just some of the many features offered by Freshservice. The software is continuously updated and enhanced to meet the evolving needs of IT service management.

Freshservice Pricing

Freshservice offers various pricing plans to cater to different needs and requirements. The pricing is based on the number of agents (users) using the system and the features included in each plan. Here is an overview of Freshservice’s pricing plans as of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021. Please note that pricing may have changed since then, so it’s always best to refer to the official Freshservice website for the most up-to-date information.

1. Sprout (Free): This plan is designed for small teams or businesses that are just starting with IT service management. It includes basic features such as incident management, knowledge base, and self-service portal for up to 3 agents.
2. Blossom: The Blossom plan is suitable for growing teams and small businesses. It includes features like incident management, knowledge base, service catalog, change management, and basic reporting. Pricing starts at $19 per agent per month, billed annually.
3. Garden: The Garden plan is aimed at mid-sized businesses and teams that require more advanced IT service management capabilities. It includes all the features in the Blossom plan, along with additional features like asset management, problem management, and custom roles. Pricing starts at $49 per agent per month, billed annually.
4. Estate: The Estate plan is designed for larger organizations with more complex IT service management needs. It includes all the features in the Garden plan, plus features like release management, advanced analytics, and custom ticket fields. Pricing starts at $79 per agent per month, billed annually.
5. Forest: The Forest plan is the most comprehensive plan offered by Freshservice. It includes all the features in the Estate plan, along with additional features like enterprise reporting, change collision detection, and multi-language support. Pricing is available upon request, and it typically caters to enterprises with specific requirements.

Freshservice also offers add-ons and additional features that can be purchased separately, such as asset discovery, project management, and enterprise chat. These add-ons may have their own pricing structure.

Freshservice offers a 21-day free trial for users to explore and evaluate the platform before making a purchasing decision. For the most accurate and up-to-date pricing information, I recommend visiting the official Freshservice website or contacting their sales team directly.

Freshservice ease of use

Freshservice is known for its ease of use and user-friendly interface, making it accessible to both IT professionals and non-technical users. Here are some factors that contribute to Freshservice’s ease of use:

1. Intuitive Interface: Freshservice offers a clean and intuitive user interface that is easy to navigate. The layout is well-organized, and the various modules and features are logically grouped, allowing users to quickly find what they need.
2. Easy Configuration: Freshservice provides a simple and straightforward configuration process. Setting up the system, defining workflows, and customizing fields can be done without extensive technical knowledge or coding skills. The administration panel offers a user-friendly interface for managing settings and configurations.
3. Quick Onboarding: Freshservice offers a smooth onboarding experience. The initial setup wizard guides users through the process of setting up their account, configuring basic settings, and inviting team members. Additionally, Freshservice provides helpful documentation, tutorials, and training resources to assist users in getting started quickly.
4. Self-Service Portal: Freshservice’s self-service portal is designed to be user-friendly. Users can easily submit service requests, search for solutions in the knowledge base, and track the progress of their requests. The portal can be customized to match the organization’s branding, providing a familiar and consistent experience for users.
5. Mobile Accessibility: Freshservice offers mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to access and manage their IT service requests on the go. The mobile apps provide a simplified and responsive interface, ensuring that users can stay connected and productive from anywhere.
6. Contextual Help and Knowledge Base: Freshservice provides contextual help throughout the application, offering tooltips, hints, and guidance to users as they navigate the system. The built-in knowledge base allows users to access helpful articles and documentation to find answers to common questions or issues.
7. Collaboration and Communication: Freshservice promotes collaboration and communication among team members. It offers features such as internal notes, ticket assignments, and notifications, facilitating seamless communication and teamwork within the platform.

Freshservice’s emphasis on usability and simplicity contributes to its ease of use. The platform is designed to streamline IT service management processes and empower users to navigate and utilize the system effectively, even with limited technical expertise.

Freshservice Benefits

Freshservice offers several benefits that can significantly improve IT service management and customer support within organizations. Here are some key benefits of using Freshservice:

1. Streamlined IT Service Management: Freshservice provides a centralized platform for managing IT service requests, incidents, problems, changes, and assets. It helps organizations streamline their IT service management processes, ensuring that requests are properly tracked, assigned, and resolved in a timely manner.
2. Enhanced Customer Support: With Freshservice’s self-service portal and knowledge base, users can easily find answers to their questions and submit service requests. This reduces the dependency on IT support staff and empowers users to resolve issues independently. It leads to faster response times, increased user satisfaction, and improved customer support.
3. Efficient Incident and Problem Management: Freshservice’s incident and problem management capabilities enable IT teams to effectively track, analyze, and resolve issues. The system helps in identifying the root causes of problems, implementing permanent solutions, and minimizing the impact of incidents on business operations.
4. Effective Change Management: Freshservice simplifies change management processes by providing workflows for planning, tracking, and implementing changes. It ensures that changes are properly assessed, approved, and communicated to minimize disruptions and maintain service continuity.
5. Improved Asset Management: Freshservice’s asset management features enable organizations to effectively track and manage their IT assets. It provides visibility into hardware and software inventory, asset lifecycles, and software licenses. This helps in optimizing asset utilization, reducing costs, and ensuring compliance.
6. Better Collaboration and Communication: Freshservice promotes collaboration and communication among IT teams with features like ticket assignments, internal notes, and notifications. It improves teamwork, facilitates knowledge sharing, and ensures that everyone stays updated on the status of service requests and incidents.
7. Data-Driven Decision Making: Freshservice’s reporting and analytics capabilities provide insights into key IT service management metrics. Organizations can track performance, measure SLA compliance, and identify areas for improvement. Data-driven decision making enables organizations to make informed choices and optimize their IT operations.
8. Scalability and Flexibility: Freshservice is a cloud-based solution, offering scalability and flexibility to accommodate the needs of businesses of all sizes. As organizations grow, Freshservice can scale accordingly to support increased service volumes and user demands.
9. Integration Capabilities: Freshservice integrates with various third-party applications and tools, such as collaboration platforms, monitoring systems, and CRM software. Integration with other tools improves workflow efficiency, data sharing, and overall productivity.

Freshservice offers a comprehensive set of features and benefits that help organizations streamline their IT service management processes, enhance customer support, and improve operational efficiency.

Freshservice Customer Support

Freshservice provides customer support to assist users with any questions, issues, or concerns they may have while using the software. Here are the different aspects of Freshservice’s customer support:

1. Customer Support Portal: Freshservice offers a customer support portal where users can find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), access product documentation, and browse through helpful articles and guides. The support portal serves as a self-help resource that empowers users to find solutions independently.
2. Ticketing System: Users can submit support tickets directly from the Freshservice platform to reach the customer support team. The ticketing system ensures that all queries are properly logged and tracked, allowing for efficient communication and issue resolution.
3. Email and Phone Support: Freshservice provides email and phone support channels to address user inquiries. Users can reach out to the support team via email or phone to seek assistance or report any issues they are facing. Freshservice aims to provide timely responses and resolutions to customer inquiries.
4. Live Chat: Freshservice offers live chat support during business hours. Users can initiate a chat session with a support representative for real-time assistance and quick answers to their questions. Live chat can be a convenient and efficient way to resolve minor issues or seek clarification on specific features.
5. Community Forum: Freshservice maintains a community forum where users can engage with fellow Freshservice customers and experts. The forum allows users to ask questions, share insights, and discuss best practices. It fosters a collaborative environment where users can learn from each other and exchange knowledge.
6. Training Resources: Freshservice provides a range of training resources to help users get the most out of the software. These resources include webinars, video tutorials, product tours, and user guides. Training materials help users understand the features and functionalities of Freshservice and enable them to use the software effectively.
7. Service-Level Agreements (SLAs): Freshservice offers different service-level agreements (SLAs) based on the pricing plan. SLAs define response and resolution times for support tickets, ensuring that users receive prompt and efficient assistance.

Customer support may vary depending on the specific pricing plan or subscription level. Users are encouraged to refer to the Freshservice website or contact their sales or support team for detailed information on the customer support options available to them.

Freshservice is committed to providing comprehensive customer support to assist users with their inquiries, technical issues, and product usage.

FAQs

What is IT service management (ITSM)?

IT service management (ITSM) refers to the set of processes and activities involved in delivering and managing IT services within an organization. It focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of the business, ensuring smooth operations, and delivering value to customers and users.

How does IT service management differ from ITIL?

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a widely adopted framework for IT service management. It provides best practices and guidelines for ITSM processes, such as incident management, problem management, change management, and more. ITSM is a broader concept that encompasses the overall management of IT services, while ITIL is a specific framework that can be used to implement ITSM practices.

What are the benefits of implementing an IT service management solution like Freshservice?

Implementing an IT service management solution like Freshservice can bring several benefits, including improved incident and problem resolution, streamlined change management processes, efficient asset management, enhanced customer support through self-service capabilities, better collaboration among IT teams, and data-driven decision making through reporting and analytics.

Can Freshservice integrate with other tools and systems?

Yes, Freshservice offers integration capabilities with various third-party tools and systems. This allows for seamless data exchange and workflow automation between Freshservice and other applications, such as collaboration platforms, monitoring tools, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Is Freshservice suitable for small businesses?

Yes, Freshservice offers pricing plans that cater to businesses of different sizes, including small businesses. The plans are designed to scale according to the needs of the organization, making Freshservice a viable solution for small businesses looking to improve their IT service management processes.

Can Freshservice be customized to fit specific business requirements?

Yes, Freshservice allows for customization and configuration to fit specific business requirements. You can define workflows, customize ticket fields, create custom roles, and tailor the self-service portal to align with your organization’s needs and branding.

Is training available for using Freshservice?

Yes, Freshservice provides training resources such as webinars, video tutorials, product tours, and user guides to help users learn and make the most of the software. These resources assist users in understanding the features and functionalities of Freshservice and enable them to use the software effectively.