Hornbill Reviews

Pros

After the initial learning curve, configuring it becomes very easy. Setting up a new service and cataloging items can be done very quickly. Progressive Capture Forms and Business Processes can be created without any coding at all. The screens use a flow-diagram style which makes them simple to set up, easy to follow visually and they can also be exported to PDF for printing. It also integrates with a wide range of services inside Business Processes. For example, a New Starter request could automatically create an Active Directory account in Azure. Frequent updates and new features which you can choose to enable later if you want, help keep the platform current and well maintained. I also like the social-media-style interface. The APIs are another strong point since connecting to them with PowerShell or other capable languages is very easy.

Cons

Advanced reporting can be challenging to handle within it unless you have full control over the SQL query. APIs can be used as an alternative but that does require some technical knowledge.

Pros

Getting this up and running is very easy and the no-code setup makes building workflows simple and efficient.

Cons

Reporting still feels like a missing piece in the overall feature set.

Pros

Having full control over support processes is a big advantage and the interface is simple to manage. Being cloud-based means it works in any browser which makes access really convenient. It also handles multiple languages and service desks well thanks to the built-in translation tools. Administration is easy, ticket flow can be separated efficiently across different service desks and the platform scales nicely as needs grow.

Cons

It still feels a little underdeveloped when it comes to supporting external organizations. Also because the processes are predefined, it can be harder to put certain ad hoc solutions in place when something outside the standard flow comes up.

Pros

Our team really likes the way it appears to end-users and the flexibility to customize the self-service portal is a big plus. Being able to tailor the flows for Incidents and Service Requests based on the specific service item helps us capture the key details that matter for the affected service and our customers.

Cons

The mobile app is very weak and close to unusable so for us this ends up being a desktop-only solution. That is a real limitation especially for employees who travel frequently.

Pros

One of the biggest strengths of this software is how collaborative the development and improvement process feels. The support from both the user community and the support team has also been really valuable. It's easy to use, simple to navigate and the connections between different areas of the system work really well. On top of that, it has saved our business a significant amount of time and effort by simplifying tasks and automating processes.

Cons

There isn't much to complain about but a few areas could definitely be better. The document library/management feature feels fairly limited so we still rely on SharePoint for storing documents. Reporting could also be made more accessible for regular users since it currently seems to need an Admin to build reports and it would help to have some standard, commonly used reports available out of the box. It would also be appreciated to have a visible roadmap for future development even if it only included rough timelines.

Pros

Getting everything up and running was fairly easy and the IT team was very helpful throughout the setup process. There's also plenty of room to customize the system to fit different needs.

Cons

Only a few minor issues have come up and most of them are related to the fact that we operate across many offices using different languages.

Pros

Whether you're an IT professional or an end user, it's easy to work with. The feature set is impressively comprehensive for the price and it's backed by a company that genuinely cares about both the product and its customers.

Cons

The older service portal used to feel a bit disorganized and its text search wasn't very effective. Thankfully, that's been addressed and the new version is brilliant.

Pros

It's flexible enough to be customized around our internal processes and it also works well beyond IT Service which lets us deliver enterprise services to other departments across the organization.

Cons

There are still some feature limitations. For example, once a ticket has been resolved, it's not possible to correct an incorrect BPM and changes can't be localized.

Pros

Business workflow is highly customizable and the tools are easy to use which makes the ServiceDesk solution very configurable overall. The SSO integration works easily as well and that has really helped with strong adoption from end users.

Cons

Mobile app feels a bit dull at the moment although a new version is being developed and the early previews already look much improved.

Pros

This tool is easy to use and adapt to our needs. The support and engagement from the vendor have been outstanding as well, with quarterly review meetings and an annual conference that gives us a chance to connect with other users. The user forum is also really valuable for talking through issues and suggesting new features.

Cons

One limitation is that without the Enterprise edition, we can't email reports to external customers the way we previously could with SupportWorks. I'd also like to see the Customer Portal updated more frequently since that is the only part of the system our external customers see. Because they don't benefit from the regular improvements we see inside this tool, their view of the product may not be as positive as ours internally.

Pros

Right away, the graphical workflow editor made a big difference for us. It's very user-friendly and getting new staff up to speed only takes about 15 to 30 minutes of training. Being able to access it anytime and from anywhere is also a huge advantage. On top of that, the new portal design feels much more simple and approachable than before.

Cons

System isn't really configured around the way we want to use it since it follows more of a minimal ITIL-style view of services. Because we're a large organization, that has created some difficulties when it comes to managing those services properly. Adding a service search option when logging requests would improve things a lot. Even with that, the system has still been a major benefit for us overall.

Pros

Best parts of this tool is being able to build, adjust and reorganize the system on our own without needing to depend on a company or IT team every time something needs to be changed. It's also nice that the platform can scale alongside us so we can keep adding services and categories whenever we need to.

Cons

The reports, widgets and dashboard tools are the part I struggle with the most. They feel dull and awkward to use and it's hard to pull useful visuals from the system when you're not very confident with the coding needed to connect tables and similar pieces.

Pros

One thing I really appreciate is the steady stream of updates, improvements and new builds. The knowledge base is very detailed and there's also plenty of support available from both the community and product specialists.

Cons

It can be a bit fiddly at times and with frequent updates some parts may stop being relevant fairly quickly, such as functions that end up being deprecated.

Pros

It was very easy to use and once it went live there was barely any disruption to the wider IT team's efficiency even though they had only been given a brief overview training session. The Business Process Designer feels very simple as well which helped the service management team create, roll out and keep refining process improvements over time. I also appreciate the continual delivery model since it means customers keep receiving new functionality on an ongoing basis.

Cons

Not a con but pne limitation came up around the SLA functionality and it feels like something that would be considered essential for most organisations. That said, the IT team is already working on updating the SLA feature to cover this requirement.

Pros

This software has genuinely transformed how my department works. The layout is easy and simple to navigate and the interface looks polished and clean. Whenever I show it to others, it always gets a very positive reaction. The pricing is also really appealing for the business especially with the zero-commitment model.

Cons

One thing that's particularly frustrating is that reports still can't be sent by email which feels disappointing considering how many other features the software already offers. It's becoming more of a regular annoyance over time. A phone TAPI integration would also be a welcome addition.

Pros

Getting started with the platform and setting it up has been easy and the workflow interface is especially impressive. There's a real sense of momentum behind the product, with the team clearly pushing development forward. They're also expanding ITOM capabilities to support more automation across both on-prem infrastructure and cloud environments. The customer forum is very active as well and the replies there are usually fast and coming from people who really know the product.

Cons

Several recent updates have been creating issues the following day which has been frustrating though hopefully that settles down soon. Getting enhancement requests approved can also be a bit difficult but honestly that tends to be the case with most vendors and we've generally had an easier time being heard here than with the larger providers. Reporting takes some time to get right which isn't unusual in a complex system. You don't need to be able to code but having some understanding of SQL expressions and structure definitely helps. Moving our historical tickets over from Zendesk was especially tough, we had more than 100,000 tickets and the migration ended up taking months to finish.

Pros

Overall, the service has been dependable and fairly easy to use. Getting new users up to speed usually takes only 15 to 30 minutes and most of that time goes into showing them how we want to use the product rather than explaining how the system itself works.

Cons

There was a stretch of about six months when we dealt with several outages and there have been occasional slowdowns since then. Thankfully, those issues are pretty uncommon and haven't had a major effect on the overall quality of the service. Our biggest challenge is that, as a fairly large university supporting more than 100 services, it seems to be designed more for organizations handling maybe a dozen. For instance, there's no search option in the service picker when logging a job and if you want customers to be able to view the tickets they've raised in the self-service portal, you have to display every single service. That said, the recent self-service portal update has made things noticeably better especially with the added flexibility.

Pros

The interface feels very simple and the implementation was completed really quickly.

Cons

Once a ticket has been created, there's no way to change its type.

Pros

Switching to it was an obvious choice for us. The rollout was easy and it came with the core ITIL processes ready to use right out of the box. Our consultant was excellent and the knowledge transfer, community forum and vendor support gave us everything we needed to keep expanding how we use the toolset. It's also very adaptable when it comes to tailoring workflows around business needs. GOSH had a specific requirement tied to our EPR deployment and the team worked closely with us to adjust the system so it fit exactly what we needed. Honestly, there's very little this platform can't handle.

Cons

CMDB has some room for improvement and dynamic discovery would be a really valuable addition although I understand that may already be on the roadmap.

Pros

Right from the start, the modern interface made the platform feel very simple and staff of all ages and experience levels were able to get comfortable with it quickly. Setting up business processes was very easy thanks to the powerful WYSIWYG engine. One of the biggest wins for us was the separation between business processes and information gathering or Progressive Capture which played a major role in getting the system implemented quickly and driving strong customer adoption. The ticket H.U.D. was also incredibly useful for users across the board. On top of that, the self-service portal was a huge improvement for us, giving customers a way to log their own tickets, search for information and follow the progress of their requests. That feature was absolutely critical to the success of the rollout and overall adoption. We also got a lot of value from the dynamic dashboards which were simple to set up and very effective for showing KPIs, trends and messages on big screens for internal teams and stakeholders. To top it off, the community is excellent and full of helpful knowledge and the staff are approachable, well-informed and clearly committed to listening to customers while regularly improving the platform with fixes and new features.

Cons

Built-in reporting covers basic needs well and works very nicely for simple charts and tables. That said, most organizations usually need more than just standard reporting. There is an advanced analytics option available for a small additional cost but it may feel a bit limited for companies that are especially data-driven. As for support, the staff are excellent and the free help available through the community forums is genuinely valuable especially since the community itself is very strong. If you want more direct support though, you will need to pay extra although the added cost is still fairly reasonable.