Review: Alemba vFire Core

This independent review is part of our Self Service Market Review.

Self Service Market Review and Terms

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Commercial Summary

Vendor	Alemba Limited
Product	vFire Core
Version reviewed	9.2.0
Date of version Release	2014
Year Founded	2007
Customers	350
Pricing Structure	Currently vFire is sold as a perpetual licence for concurrent and dedicated agent users, the customer interface is supplied as an unlimited licence.

Review

Elevator Pitch	ITSM functionality and user oriented product with simple and fresh interface. Delivers most of the key functions and with simple intuitive editing and building capability.
Industry areas	Aims to compete at enterprise level as a multi-function ITSM tool – also can provide a number of technical interfaces and views on virtualised environments – e.g. CMDB.
Unique points	Alemba say their USP is their variety of plug in VMWare connectors – so they can provide technical insight and capability around highly virtualized environments. Self Service function is provides standard-looking interface with extensive functionality.
Target market	Enterprise and large IT and ITSM organisations – particularly VMware customers. Positioned mostly at ITSM market.
Solutions/ issues solved	Simple approach to ITSM – also some technical integration (in specific VMware market).
Product/vendor gaps	Little social interface or functionality Could show more of a non-technical cross departmental builds – e.g. for HR – but presentation is aimed at ITSM
Positives	Simple modern friendly interface My IT world – nice simple dashboard Choice for users of logging via Service Catalogue or MY IT store Extensive control and workflow integration – updating/creation drag and drop Multi-tenancy approach Extensive control over KB creation and upkeep Auto-provision Virtual desktop Reporting – clear and simple
Negatives	Small company, now independent from VMware – still growing Product still playing catch up in some areas as fully function rich ITSM enterprise offering Social interface missing
Overall view	Looks to be a credible competitor in tier 1 and tier 2 markets – high end ITSM functionality for the enterprise. May be playing catch up with other players in this area but the product has extensive functionality and also looks clean and quite fresh as an ITSM tool.

Vendor information

At Alemba we understand that effective communication between the IT Department and its end users is essential to the success of any organization. Designed with user engagement in mind, vFire Customer Portal offers a modern,attractive interface that is highly intuitive.