We found a problem with the servicedesk/workflow installer and felt we would share the solution incase someone else runs into it or maybe symantec will fix it.
We installed SMP 8.0 on one box, an off box SQL instance, and then tried to install workflow/Servicedesk on another box. The installer would always fail on the SMP connection check, the logs did not provide any information. We even used wireshark, tcpview and others and never saw any connection outgoing to SMP it would just fail.
We are in a secure environment and so we have a requirement to enable FIPS, after a bit of troubleshooting we determined it was actually FIPS keeping the connection from working. So while the SMP/Servicedesk software may be FIPS compliant the installer is not. So we disabled FIPS compliance in the GPO and the install worked fine.
Just an FYI if anyone else runs into this.