Problem management software

Problem management is more than simply handling incidents as they appear. It also involves identifying the problem, understanding the root causes, and finding a solution—and that’s just the beginning.

It’s important to document incident details and communicate them across teams. Taking these steps prepares your business to handle the issue or related issues in the future and reduces the chances of the incident occurring again. Luckily, the best problem management software offers features to support these business needs and then some.

Our guide covers a comprehensive look at problem management tools, software features, and benefits.

More in this guide:

• What is problem management software?
• The 10 best problem management software
• Key features of problem management tools
• Benefits of problem manager tools
• How to choose the right problem management software
• Frequently asked questions
• Try a proactive problem management solution for free

Problem management software is an IT service management (ITSM) tool IT support teams use to identify and address the root causes of recurring incidents, minimize their impact, and prevent future occurrences.

Service desk software typically comes with problem management tools and provides a centralized platform for logging, tracking, and managing issues. It also facilitates collaboration among IT teams, streamlines workflows, and often includes features for incident correlation, root cause analysis, and knowledge management.

Problem management systems are essential for businesses to proactively manage and improve their IT systems, reduce downtime, and enhance service quality. IT teams can use it to support employees, customers, partners, and other end-users.

Let’s compare the best problem management software. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list with an overview of each product, key features, pricing, and free trials.

1. Zendesk

Zendesk offers an IT help desk with problem management software that helps businesses identify, manage, and resolve issues to restore operations quickly and minimize the impact of service disruptions. It sets up fast and features an easy-to-use unified omnichannel agent workspace with a native ticketing system.

Our AI-powered tools streamline workflows, auto-classifying incoming tickets by intent and intelligently routing them to specific teams within IT. Zendesk also features advanced bots that help employees self-serve, allowing them to report or check the status of an active incident.

Our software also has automated problem and incident ticket linking capabilities so that agents can consolidate multiple incidents reported by different users into a single problem ticket. Plus, with parent and child ticket capabilities, IT support agents can create Side Conversations and tag other agents to collaborate on resolutions. With more than 1,500 apps in the Zendesk marketplace, you can extend the capabilities to fit your business needs, now and in the future.

Finally, Zendesk features pre-built and customizable reporting and analytics tools that offer insights for administrators and problem managers. These insights can be logged in our internal knowledge base, so support teams can access and exchange information in a centralized repository.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• Service level agreement (SLA) tracking
• AI-powered intelligence
• Advanced bots
• Workflows, approvals, and automations
• Ticket form
• Views
• 1,500+ apps and integrations in our Zendesk Marketplace
• Unified agent workspace
• Triggers
• Trouble ticket software
• Industry-leading Agent Workspace
• AI-powered Content Cues

Pricing:

• Support Team: $19 per agent/month
• Support Professional: $55 per agent/month
• Support Enterprise: $115 per agent/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

Free trial:

14 days

Take 30 seconds to start a Zendesk free trial or request a Zendesk demo.

2. ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management and productivity platform that features problem management tools. ClickUp provides a centralized space for teams to collaborate, communicate, and track the progress of problem tickets. The platform allows users to document known problems and solutions and share information within tickets or a knowledge base.

ClickUp features whiteboards and Kanban boards, providing IT support teams with visual representations of incident lifecycles, process stages, and workflows. It also has reporting and analytics tools that offer system and network performance metrics.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• Ticket form
• Views
• Apps and integrations
• Whiteboards
• Kanban boards
• Calendar view

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (for personal use)
• Unlimited: $7 per member/month
• Business: $12 per member/month
• Enterprise: Contact ClickUp
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

Unavailable

3. SolarWinds Service Desk

SolarWinds Service Desk offers an IT problem management solution that helps support teams maintain and handle issues across IT environments. It automates ticket categorization and routing, directing service tickets to IT agents for issue resolution. It groups incidents related to the same issue to keep multiple agents from duplicating efforts. SolarWinds also enables automatic backlog creation of past issues and incorporates it into historical reporting.

SolarWinds has live tools that help IT teams collaborate during the problem-resolution process across multiple channels. It also allows managers to send mass status updates and alerts to keep team members in the loop.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• Ticket form
• Views
• Apps and integrations
• Advanced collaboration tools
• Automated backlogging

Pricing:

• Essentials: $39 per technician/month
• Advanced: $79 per technician/month
• Premier: $99 per technician/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

30 days

4. ServiceNow ITSM

ServiceNow ITSM is a problem management software that is part of the IT service management suite. It helps IT teams address, resolve, and document the root causes of recurring incidents. ServiceNow ITSM integrates problem management with its incident management module.

ServiceNow ITSM's problem management platform also features reporting and analytics tools to identify trends and patterns in incidents. Automation features help with agent workflows and tasks related to issue resolution. It also offers a mobile app tailored for ITSM agents to remotely triage, manage, and resolve incidents.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• SLA tracking
• Ticket form
• Views
• Virtual agents
• Knowledge management
• Request management
• Mobile app

Pricing:

• Contact ServiceNow

Free trial:

Unavailable

5. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has a problem management tool within its IT service management suite. The platform provides analytics tools to find incident trends and patterns. Along with collaboration tools, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has knowledge base features that allow teams to centralize documents about known or resolved problems.

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus also has automation tools and self-service options that help reduce manual tasks. Finally, users can navigate the platform's shared inbox to track requests, incidents, and problems.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• Ticket form
• Views
• Apps and integrations
• IT service desk
• IT asset management
• Custom ticket templates

Pricing:

• Standard: $10 per technician/month
• Professional: $21 per technician/month
• Enterprise: $50 per technician/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

30 days

6. SysAid

SysAid offers problem management software as a part of its IT service management platform. Some of SysAid’s functionalities include reporting and analytics for key performance indicators (KPIs) to gather insights and problem ticket trends. It also has collaboration tools and knowledge management software to share information.

SysAid uses automations to help reduce tedious tasks. The platform also features parent and child tickets, ticket linking, self-service portals, and customizable ticket forms. Its shared inbox provides a single view of problem tickets so teams can track and resolve issues in real time.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• Ticket form
• Views
• Apps and integrations
• Cloud or on-premise deployments
• Advanced custom fields
• Asset management

Pricing:

• Contact SysAid

Free trial:

Available

7. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based help desk solution with a problem management tool. Among its features, Zoho Desk has a ticketing system that can help track and prioritize issues. Its ticketing system features collision detection, preventing agents from working on or making changes to tickets simultaneously. Zoho Desk features prewritten responses that help with communication and consistent replies.

The platform supports real-time collaboration on tickets and offers a reporting and analytics dashboard with problem management metrics. It also provides a knowledge base so agents have a centralized repository of information.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• AI
• Workflows, approvals, and automations
• Ticket form
• Views
• Feedback widget
• Ticket tags
• Agent collision detection
• Auto time tracking

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (minimal support needs)
• Express: $7 per user/month
• Standard: $14 per user/month
• Professional: $23 per user/month
• Enterprise: $40 per user/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

15 days

8. PagerDuty

PagerDuty is an incident response platform that features problem management tools. It automatically sends alerts and notifications from various monitoring tools and supports an on-call rotation schedule to determine who to contact about an incident. Plus, it features a mobile app that enables IT service management from remote locations.

The platform routes unresolved incidents to the appropriate agents or teams. Additionally, it features reporting and analytics software for performance metrics. PagerDuty users can also use an application programming interface (API) to export data about the issue, including the reference number, creation and resolution dates, duration, and escalation count.

Features:

• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• AI
• Workflows and automations
• Ticket form
• Views
• Unlimited API calls
• Ticketing integrations
• Email support

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per user/month
• Professional: $21 per user/month
• Business: $41 per user/month
• Digital Operations: Contact PagerDuty
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days

9. Freshservice

Freshservice's problem management software is part of Freshworks’ IT service management suite. Designed for issue resolution, the solution enables linking between problem and incident tickets and supports the creation of parent and child tickets. The platform also includes a knowledge base and a self-service portal that can be used to document issue resolution.

Freshservice's problem management system comes with some limitations, including scalability challenges. For example, it may not be robust enough to handle additional custom workflows.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• AI
• Workflows, approvals, and automations
• Ticket form
• Views
• Apps and integrations
• Multiple portal languages
• Access controls
• Custom encryption tools

Pricing:

• Starter: $19 per agent/month
• Growth: $49 per agent/month
• Pro: $95 per agent/month
• Enterprise: $119 per agent/month
  *Plans are billed annually.

Free trial:

14 days

10. New Relic

New Relic offers problem management software with its application performance monitoring (APM) solution. APM provides insights into IT-related application performance with metrics like response times, error rates, and transaction traces.

APM features real-time monitoring, alerts, and diagnostics for problem identification and troubleshooting. The platform supports root-cause analysis with information on application behavior and performance metrics. New Relic offers a centralized dashboard for monitoring multiple applications to facilitate systematic problem resolution.

Features:

• Problem and incident ticket linking
• Parent and child tickets
• Knowledge base and self-service portal
• Analytics and reporting
• SLA tracking
• AI
• Workflows, approvals, and automations
• Ticket form
• Views
• Apps and integrations
• Custom alerts and notifications
• Live event feed
• Inventory search engine

Pricing:

• Free: $0 per month (unlimited basic and core users and 1 free full platform user)
• Standard: Contact New Relic
• Pro: Contact New Relic
• Enterprise: Contact New Relic

Free trial:

Unavailable

The best problem management software can help you streamline workflows and handle almost all aspects of incidents. Here are some key features to consider when researching problem management tools.

• Problem and incident ticket linking: When more than one user submits a request for the same problem or service interruption, ticketing systems can link them all to one problem ticket instead of handling and resolving each ticket separately.
• Parent and child tickets: The parent ticket represents the main problem, while child tickets divide it into smaller parts. This hierarchical structure makes it easier to understand and fix problems systematically.
• Knowledge base software and self-service portal: These features can help users manage common problems without involving an IT support agent. Users can submit tickets or report incidents through their employee portal, access help center articles and FAQs, or document known errors and solutions to help others with similar problems.
• Analytics and reporting: These tools help teams learn more about the problem and systems affected in real time. Management, engineering, and IT support teams can use the collected data and insights to collaborate and resolve the current incident and create a process to handle future incidents.
• Artificial intelligence: AI-powered tools—like AI chatbots and intelligent routing—use natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to provide conversational support, improve team efficiency, accelerate problem resolution, and enable proactive IT service management.
• Workflows, approvals, and automations: Help desks or service desks with problem management software use workflows to define the steps to manage a problem. They also use approvals to get proper authorizations before implementing solutions. Finally, automations use predefined rules to execute routine tasks, speeding up issue resolution and reducing manual efforts in the problem management process.

When an unpredictable incident occurs, it's crucial to have a problem management strategy and process in place. Here are some benefits of implementing problem management software into your operations.

• Reduces downtime costs with faster problem resolution: When your system or service goes down, downtime costs can add up. Effective problem management reduces downtime costs by implementing preventative measures for future issues and facilitating faster resolution, ensuring quicker recovery from IT issues.
• Boosts productivity and efficiency: IT problem management software can boost agent productivity and efficiency by streamlining problem resolution processes, identifying an issue as it occurs, and quickly alerting your team to handle it. This allows teams to focus on critical tasks rather than dealing with lengthy IT disruptions.
• Identifies root causes with structured workflows: Problem management platforms with customizable workflow configurations allow IT teams to quickly track incidents, identify root causes, and resolve problems.
• Increases employee or customer satisfaction: IT problem management can help you keep your service up and running, deliver swift resolutions, and minimize the frequency of disruptions. Whether your IT team is supporting customers or employees, faster and more efficient support increases user satisfaction.
• Resolves recurring incidents and minimizes future problems: Problem management software can operate reactively and proactively. It helps resolve recurring incidents, minimize future problems by addressing root causes, and create a more stable and reliable IT environment over time.

In a perfect world, your systems run like a well-oiled machine. But problems do arise, and problem management software has the tools to keep your business prepared.

Here are some factors to consider to help you pick the best problem management software option for your business.

• Consider ease of use: Easy-to-use software ensures that your team can quickly adopt and navigate the system, increasing efficiency in issue resolution and operational processes.
• Prioritize fast time to value and ongoing agility: Quick implementation and adaptation ensure immediate benefits and the ability to evolve with your business needs over time.
• Explore integrations: Ensure the software integrates seamlessly with your existing IT ecosystem to consolidate data and streamline processes. Additionally, choosing a solution that's open and flexible enables you to extend the software functionality.
• Look for low total cost of ownership: Consider upfront costs and long-term expenses associated with maintenance and upgrades. Choosing software that doesn't need a developer army to make changes ensures sustainability and a low total cost of ownership over time.

With Zendesk, you get all these capabilities and more.