Raghavaraju R - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at HCL Technologies
Real User
Top 10
Integrates well with other solutions and is able to expand but the learning curve is a bit high
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is stable."
  • "We'd like it to be easier to maintain the administrative side."

What is our primary use case?

We are using the solution for maintaining the infrastructure jobs like database Genesys and NICE. All jobs have been integrated into a single frame and a BMC Control-M readme page. Basically, we create jobs and modify the jobs. We have to analyze if any jobs fail. We settle the issues so that the jobs are up to date and should run.

The solution can communicate with the cluster. It can redirect any alarms or failures, and we remediate those actions.

We create new job scenarios and workarounds. We have special access to incidents and monitor controller operations. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is good in terms of working with other products. The integration is useful. 

Once you understand the solution, the initial setup isn't too bad. 

The solution is stable. 

It's scalable. 

What needs improvement?

We need the updates to be able to maintain interoperability. We still want to be able to verify testing in production and the environment and want upgrades to go smoothly so as not to disrupt our applications. The more seamless it can be, the better remediation will go. 

We'd like it to be easier to maintain the administrative side. Transferring files should be easier. There are a lot of dependencies. We'd also like there to be less space consumption.

There's a bit of a learning curve for new users.

When we pull job applications, if we configure multiple tenants under multiple environments with a single frame while we are logging into the applications, it sometimes freezes and takes too much time. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for about one year.

Buyer's Guide
BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,246 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

From what I have seen so far, it is stable and reliable. 

We do have frequent version upgrades and maintenance and therefore haven't seen many issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable product. I'd rate it eight out of ten in the ability to scale. 

We have 11 people on our team and about four people who handle administration and maintenance tasks. We're in four regions: Australia, Singapore, India and New Zealand. In these regions, there are two configured clusters - one in Australia and one in New Zealand. 

How are customer service and support?

We have an administrative team that has the privilege of raising technical support. We will do the Genesys part, however, for BMC, they run the people. They will take care of coordination with the vendor and the business unit.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We use a lot of different solutions, including Genesys, NICE, Control-M ESPL, WFM, and workforce management. All are interoperable.

The company has used this solution for about seven years, and I have only been around for one. I'm not sure why they first initiated usage.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy once you have some experience. It can be somewhat difficult otherwise. 

We have four people that are able to handle maintenance tasks.  

Once our teams have tested and validated the scenarios are working fine, then they will move from Genesys into services. Once Genesys services have been integrated, Genesys engineers will come and will monitor everyday operations for Control-M. If they identify any files or any jobs that have instability, they'll look for a permanent fix.

What other advice do I have?

We are mediators between the vendor and customers. 

We are using around version nine. I'm not sure of the exact version number. 

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. I do need more time with the product. However, I haven't seen the product causing many issues. It's been sustainable, and we've liked having all operations in one single cluster.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Consultant at Temperley Research Ltd
Consultant
Good GUI, useful add-ons, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
  • "The GUI is good if I'm comparing it to other scheduling products."
  • "I'd like to see MFT included as part of the overall product and not a cost add-on as AFT used to be included and they stopped supporting that and now have come up with MFT and you now have to pay for it separately."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is mostly used for scheduling batches and file transfers.

What is most valuable?

The GUI is good if I'm comparing it to other scheduling products. All the add-ons are very useful, including the MFT databases, SAP plugins, and so on.

What needs improvement?

The cost of the license could be improved. 

I'd like to see MFT included as part of the overall product and not a cost add-on as AFT used to be included and they stopped supporting that and now have come up with MFT and you now have to pay for it separately.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution since 1998. It's been a while. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I've used the solution in small sites and sites that run hundreds of thousands of jobs a day. It's pretty scalable. We have about 50 users, including developers and platform engineers, using this current iteration. The client is planning to increase the usage and the new licenses will be scaled accordingly.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support has been very good. We are satisfied with the level of support.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've worked with different clients and used different solutions. 

How was the initial setup?

In terms of the ease of the initial setup, I'd say it depends on the use case, however, it can be quite complex, especially the on-prem version.

I'd rate the process a four out of five in terms of complexity.

We were able to deploy it within a month.

What about the implementation team?

I am a consultant, so I can handle the initial setup myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is a bit expensive. My understanding is that they offer yearly licenses, however, as a consultant, I don't directly deal with pricing. 

What other advice do I have?

While the solution is currently on-premise, we are moving to the Helix Control-M on the cloud.

It's an excellent product. It's the best scheduling system out there, so I would recommend it.

I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,246 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Great B2B data flow and has helped our organization minimize software dependency
Pros and Cons
  • "The file transfer, database, and integration features are the most valuable."
  • "Its current functionalities can be upgraded."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for this solution is the data flow between our locations, between systems, and B2B data flow, which includes the data to the endpoints, the schemes and other lines. We deploy the solution on-premises.

How has it helped my organization?

For the IQ operation flow, we have to do a lot of planning with data resources and keeping the resources in front of the system. However, the solution has improved our organization by minimizing software dependency and managing data for our clients and regional schemes.

What is most valuable?

The file transfer, database, and integration features are the most valuable.

What needs improvement?

The solution can be improved by upgrading its features to compete with premium software in MFT. Additionally, Math and dollar features, along with product samples and VR functionalities, can be included in the next release.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for approximately 15 years and are currently using version 20.200.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. I rate it a nine out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

The customer service and support team are very knowledgeable. I rate them a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite easy and depends on the speed of the background. So basically, if you're in the background, it's an eight out of ten.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment. The solution has saved us about 30% to 40% on additional investments in resources.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the pricing a seven out of ten because there is room for improvement.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. The solution is good, but its current functionalities can be upgraded. I recommend the solution to users considering it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Director Comercial at tdi
Real User
Secure, stable, provides good technical support, and has a recovery feature
Pros and Cons
  • "What I like best about BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is that it makes transfers more secure and faster. It has a recovery feature during failed file transfers."
  • "An area for improvement in BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is integration. It should be compatible with more solutions. It should have integrations with newer applications as well."

What is our primary use case?

I use BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer for file transfer management, which is its primary function.

What is most valuable?

What I like best about BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is that it makes transfers more secure and faster. My experience with it is good.

I also like that it has personal dashboards.

I also found the functionality of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer better, plus it has a recovery feature during failed file transfers.

What needs improvement?

An area for improvement in BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is integration. It should be compatible with more solutions. BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer should have integrations with newer applications as well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have fifteen years of experience with BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer, and I'm still using it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I didn't see any stability issues from BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer has good scalability.

How are customer service and support?

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer has good technical support, as it has different engineers and consultants who resolve the issues.

My rating for BMC support is nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I chose BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer over the other solution because I know more about it, and it works better in terms of function.

How was the initial setup?

Setting up BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is easy, so it's a ten out of ten.

As BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is a module, you install, implement, and run it in one day. It could take three weeks if you still need to install the solution that BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is on.

What was our ROI?

You'll get ROI from BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer after using it a few times rather than once because the initial cost is high. With this module, you can reduce mistakes and not lose money, so you'll see ROI within one year or less from BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is relatively inexpensive. It has reasonable pricing. What you pay for is the task or job, and as it's a module, it's complimentary, so you save about twenty percent of the job cost. For example, if the job costs $100, BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer will cost $20.

Pricing-wise, the module is an eight out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a software consultant and implemented BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer for different customers.

I've worked with older versions, from 6.4 to the latest version, 20.2, of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer.

Deploying the module requires two engineers and one project manager who'll check the results of the project execution.

My advice to others looking into using BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is that it's good to implement if you don't want to experience file transfer problems. The module has a tier that lets you transfer many files between different servers, so BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is essential in file transfer and file management projects. You must make sure that you follow the steps on how to use the module.

Overall, BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is a nine out of ten because it's easy to understand and use, plus it has a lot of benefits to customers.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
RPA-WLA BU DIRECTOR at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Easy to use, integrate, implement, and deliver
Pros and Cons
  • "Our customers find the self-service feature the most valuable. Control-M offers great value to businesses by providing an option to see different flows and control and orchestrate the sequence of the execution. It is easy to use and integrate with different solutions. It is a good solution that is easy to implement and deliver."
  • "Their support can be improved. I would like them to provide support in Spanish and have more knowledge."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for one-to-many and point-to-point security encryption. I started with version 6.2. After that, I used version 6.4, 7, 8, and 9. Currently, I am using version 9.20, which is a software as a service version. I deploy this solution on-premises and cloud.

What is most valuable?

Our customers find the self-service feature the most valuable. Control-M offers great value to businesses by providing an option to see different flows and control and orchestrate the sequence of the execution.

It is easy to use and integrate with different solutions. It is a good solution that is easy to implement and deliver.

What needs improvement?

Their support can be improved. I would like them to provide support in Spanish and have more knowledge.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with this solution for eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable. We haven't found any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It has good scalability. Our clients are medium and big companies. Small companies cannot easily buy this solution because the cost is high.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support is good. It is easy to consult them, and they provide a lot of information about the reason for the issue. I would rate them an eight out of ten. I would like them to provide support in Spanish and have more knowledge.

How was the initial setup?

It is very easy to set up. The deployment can take one to two months, but it depends on the number of tasks.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Its cost is high for small companies.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer a nine out of ten. Our clients are happy with this solution.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Software Developer at Money Gram
Real User
Top 20
Has good stability but could be more affordable
Pros and Cons
  • "It saves a lot of time for maintenance."
  • "Its price could be better."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to transform essential files into an accessible format.

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable feature is its ability to reduce the number of jobs by passing various variables. It saves a lot of time for maintenance.

What needs improvement?

The solution's price could be better.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the solution's scalability as seven. Our team of around 30 monitoring executives uses the solution.

How are customer service and support?

We contacted the support team for a failover issue. They fixed the error remotely.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's deployment process took a day to complete.

What about the implementation team?

We implement the solution with the help of a consulting company.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution as a seven.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Manager Application Services at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
MSP/MSSP
Useful encryption, decryption, and file manipulation features

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use cases of Managed File Transfer are monitoring jobs, transferring files, and doing some encryption and decryption. We work on insurance-based clients, so we have a lot of files that come in every day. The business does some manipulation on that, which, in turn, reflects in the New York Stock Exchange, so we use Managed File Transfer for all SLEs and things like that. 

We are using the version before the latest update. This solution is deployed on-premise. 

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features is the encryption and decryption which happens within the job. Usually, with other tools, we do a file transfer and then we have to encrypt and decrypt it, but in BMC Managed File Transfer, we can do it in one go. Another great feature is the ability to manipulate a file during a transfer. I think that with the new version, they also have a dashboard which gives a GUI-based view of what's getting transferred—how many files, how much time, and all that—so, from a single point, you can look at what's happening within the organization. If someone asks, "Where is this file?" or how much time it takes, you can just go to the dashboard, search for that file, and your information is there. 

What needs improvement?

Managed File Transfer could be improved with some more cloud features. Things have been moving to cloud, and the modules of AWS and Azure are there in Control-M, but we still end up writing codes to do that. If there were some embedded modules, it would be really helpful. 

As for additional features, we have been looking to integrate with SharePoint. This feature is not available. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for 12 years now. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Managed File Transfer seems pretty stable. At times when it is not, the vendor does release some patches and stuff like that, which we might end up installing, which helps with the stability. We had faced some issues and reached out to them, and they said that there was a newer version that we had to update it ourselves, so we did that and it was fine. 

For maintenance, it requires you to apply the latest fix packs and patches, while at the same time keeping the database updated. We handle maintenance on our own. We have around eight people in our company who are working with Managed File Transfer. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is definitely scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

BMC technical support is really good. Their turnover time is within one hour, which is pretty good. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I worked for about six months with two similar tools, one of which was called JAMS. JAMS was more related to Windows, whereas with Control-M, it doesn't really matter which operating system or which environment you're trying to connect to. So with any distributed system, it's a very easy setup—with others, I have felt that it was a task, since it took some time to do. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is a simple process now. With the new versions, it's pretty simple—depending on the size of it, I believe it should take somewhere between twenty minutes to one hour to deploy. 

What about the implementation team?

We implemented this solution through an in-house team. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing of Control-M is a bit on the higher end, compared to any other tools that we have seen. Pricing will depend on the sales approach and agreement between the companies, but I think they give some discounts. They have their standards, but the pricing can be negotiable, and they are flexible regarding certain features. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Control-M an eight out of ten, so there's some scope for input. 

To those considering implementation, I would advise you to have a good plan of what you need to set up—what does your environment really look like? Because to change your environment or database midway into something is a hefty task. So before starting it, I would advise you to check what your company's database looks like. Some use Oracle, some use Microsoft SQL, but BMC comes with a default one as well. It's better to plan that out because changing it midway is a task in and of itself. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Vitor Manuel Carneiro - PeerSpot reviewer
Operations Planning and Control - BMC Job Scheduling Specialist at NOESIS Portugal
Real User
Easy to administrate, stable, scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability of this solution is very good. The current solution is used wide spread in my company, but I don't have any plans to expand."
  • "I believe that the API should be upgraded with security control from the DM. There is Currently no security for the app API solution."

What needs improvement?

I believe that the API should be upgraded with security control from the DM. There is Currently no security for the app API solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for more than 10 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I can say that in the previous version there was a problem. However, it is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability of this solution is very good.  The current solution is used wide spread in my company, but I don't have any plans to expand.

How are customer service and support?

I rate customer service and support a ten because it is the greatest.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used a different solution called Computer Associates. I switched because my client switched to that solution. I never went against the solution or suggested to switch over again, because I like BMC.

How was the initial setup?

The solution is complex, but it is very easy to administrate all the components from this solution.

What about the implementation team?

The administration is currently done by two people. 

What was our ROI?

It pays for itself. In the last two years, I switched for mainframe to distribute systems. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I switched to this solution within the last year. I switched from the servers payment package to the job payment package, and it is very expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partners
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Product Categories
Managed File Transfer (MFT)
Buyer's Guide
Download our free BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.