Espressive Barista vs ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus comparison

Espressive Barista vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash

Management Consultant at Accenture

Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions

Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.

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Jim Lobao

Senior Manager for End User Support Services at Five9

Has helped enhance our support ability, reduced our resolution time, and reduced our service desk costs

Espressive Barista's natural language processing and conventional AI still have room for improvement. We haven't yet found anything that resembles true AI that can learn autonomously without human intervention. However, Barista does help us identify and address some of these areas, allowing my team to step in and create intents and responses to questions. When a user asks a question that Barista doesn't immediately understand, we can recognize the pattern, capture it, and link it to a common intent. This is highly beneficial for acquiring such data, but it's a reactive approach and still requires curation. Natural language processing still has some way to go. One of our challenges is that our internal employees haven't yet adopted a natural way of interacting with Barista. Getting people to be concise and to the point, rather than being verbose as if they were interacting with a human, has been an ongoing challenge. While they may feel comfortable being conversational in Slack, expecting a human-like response, Barista is a different entity. Barista isn't interested in their recent vacation; it just wants to know they're locked out of their account. So, some users may assume Barista understands their intent when they say, "I'm back from vacation and locked out of my account." Barista, however, may interpret this as a request for the holiday schedule. Therefore, we're gradually educating our users to adapt their communication style for better success with Barista. Conversely, we desire Barista to adapt its behavior based on the interaction, the language used, and the way people communicate. I wholeheartedly desire an AI that can continuously learn and adapt to our organization's evolving needs. This is the most challenging aspect, as it involves understanding our organization's terminology, procedures, and toolsets. We've made significant progress in this area. However, from an NLP standpoint, we still face challenges with our nearly 3,000 Slack channel users, each with their unique communication styles. People ask questions in various ways, and sometimes there are misunderstandings. They want to interact with us naturally. However, we still struggle with natural language processing. People don't always realize that the bot is a virtual agent designed to be concise and efficient. Sometimes, less is more. It's been a difficult transition for people to grasp that they're conversing with a virtual agent, not a human. They still expect human-like interactions, such as discussing their weekend or holidays or simply pasting screenshots of errors. However, the bot can't interpret screenshots. If they provide the error code and some context about the application, the bot can better understand the issue. So, the key challenge is bridging the gap between human expectations and the bot's capabilities in terms of natural interaction.

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Mostafiz Miah

Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd

Automation has transformed daily request handling and now tracks every customer interaction

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus helps my team manage and resolve requests compared to previous methods as we previously managed things through paperwork and diaries. After deploying ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whenever any customer request comes, we provide the customer a product demo if they ask about the products. We then convert that request to a lead, which is converted to a demo, and then to the product POC, allowing us to follow up every stage of the requests. Everything can be tracked from ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whether at the closing stage or the initial stage. I use ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus daily in a unique way because previously everyone managed their own tracking system through their diary, but now everyone inputs data into this solution so that at the end of the day, we can get reports on how many leads we have taken care of and when they need to be taken care of. This information is visible from the ServiceDesk tool, and using the dashboard, we can easily identify it, providing an at-a-glance view. The best features ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers for my team include automating manual tasks, which allows whatever tasks we previously did manually to be converted into automatic tasks. Currently, they have also introduced Zia, a very helpful solution for us. Using Zia, we can search for anything, not only inside the tool but also outside, integrating it with ChatGPT and Teams, and it can integrate with other ManageEngine solutions as well as solutions such as Jira and ServiceNow. When we integrate our network monitoring solutions with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, it automatically raises an incident ticket and assigns it to the right team whenever any incident has occurred, which saves us time and reduces manual tasks. Previously, we had to communicate to the right people through mail or phone calls after an incident, but now the incidents are automatically converted and assigned to the relevant support groups along with the SLA. The integration with Teams allows us to raise tickets without logging into the portal, and we can see the ticket status and add comments through Teams, which is very helpful. Additionally, mail integration can automatically convert emails into tickets, adding further efficiency. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has positively impacted our organization, particularly in customer satisfaction. Previously, customers managed service requests, incidents, changes, and problems manually, but after integration, most of these processes are automated. This includes change requests that now follow a workflow based on organizational needs and ITIL best practices, making tracking incidents and requests much easier for end customers through scheduled reports.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It automates forms for our customers and our analysts."

"The most valuable feature is that a job by RPA can be done three or four times faster than a human without human error."

"The bot creation process is simple and useful. Whatever you need to do, it is there. If there is something else, there are the MetaBot functions."

"The OCR is the most valuable feature, though this is a third party feature that we have integrated. It is quite easy to integrate with other solutions."

"Document automation has impacted efficiency and productivity because initially, we tried training the module on multiple unstructured documents, which resulted in less efficiency, but over time, we have trained with multiple documents, and it is now achieving great accuracy."

"We automated these processes so they will be processed automatically, and users will get the end result for validation—it is basically time-saving for them."

"Automation Anywhere is quite easy to use for users who are not technical, especially business users."

"IQ Bots are extremely powerful. We are using them increasingly more where we're about to look through a lot unstructured sources, like PDF documents, scanned images, contracts, etc. We are able to take the data out, then use that toward processing structured data and creating insights for our clients."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"I like Expressive Barista's integration with Microsoft Teams."

"Its ability to recognize phrases has gotten smarter over time."

"The bot is pretty easy to update and keep up to date. Espressive itself is pretty easy to work with."

"Given the out of the box content for common industry applications, we got good value out of the solution right from day one."

"Our department received about a 70% deflection rate, so that was really great."

"We have the ability to alter phrases, create new phrases, or enhance phrases, or change paths. From the dashboard, we are able to get a lot of information we need about what people are asking, where they are dropping off from conversations, and where they do not get the information they need."

"With respect to its natural language processing capabilities, it recognizes things that you wouldn't think it would recognize. Even in cases where it doesn't, it's pretty easy to go in and make the adjustments that are needed."

"Our developers have used the Barista Control Center to extend the platform by adding content, and they've found it fairly easy to do and manage"

More Espressive Barista pros

"It's a very user-friendly tool with good performance."

"When comparing ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus to other solutions it is much easier to operate, manage, create users, and design incident tickets, and overall, everything is very easy."

"The solution has helped the company in terms of managing our support for the companies we start."

"Referring to its on-premises deployment, it is easy to use and easy to deploy. Cloud deployment is done on its own. It is very easy to navigate, and the GUI is quite friendly. In terms of product functionality, we really like the ESL version. We can host multiple instances of services on a single server, such as one help desk and multiple instances."

"The management of this application is good."

"Even though I haven't been able to test other products and I've used a very old version of ManageEngine, I still think it met our requirements and that it has everything that we need to work as an IT department."

"Easy to setup with a user-friendly interface that works well on cloud. It has a lot of important features: workflow builder, configuration management database, and recorded solutions."

"We have not faced any stability issues or challenges with this tool."

More ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus pros

Cons

"The technical support needs improvement."

"The only reason I wouldn't rate it higher is because a COE Manager still not getting the full benefit from it and because the premium is a little bit expensive."

"From a QA and development perspective, we would like to communicate with the tech support through email and have that put in the dashboard. This would let us better track the ticket and make it easier for us to communicate with Automation Anywhere."

"My opinion is that we need to have a video or tutorial on how to implement these features, as well as seeing what results to expect."

"When I compare Automation Anywhere with the competition, some of the competitors have ready-made, off-the-shelf modules. For example, UiPath integrates with Windows AD. That is missing as of now in Automation Anywhere. If that became available it would also be great."

"Unwanted windows are popping up. We have to train a bot to recognize the window if it comes up, know what it is, and click it. If it is interrupting our bot, I just want to avoid that window, because I am getting failed logs."

"The workflow has a complex drag-and-drop interface that is not user-friendly and requires a good technical understanding, which can be challenging for users."

"I would like more cognitive abilities, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. E.g., if I see you, your facial recognition has to be there. If I send your picture, it should tell me your name, where you are from, and when I met you because we forget people. It should have these type of capabilities."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"Expressive Barista could improve by adding native integration with WhatsApp, one of the top communication channels in South Africa. When we're trying to sell Barista to customers, we have to tell them that the solution doesn't have out-of-the-box support for WhatsApp. We can develop it, but then we need to have a conversation about how much that will cost."

"There aren't very many things that this product needs improvement on."

"What would make things easier is more detail, out of the box, about what is helping out of the box. We're struggling a little bit to get that data. We want more information about what Barista has brought in that the employees are using, out of the box. We want more visibility into the things that we ourselves haven't done the interaction for."

"The knowledge management could definitely be improved."

"My only comment would be if they wanted to use this as an IT service management tool, maybe they could think about Barista making tickets and having change management and problem management capabilities."

"Although they've done some work on their metrics dashboard, there is some fine-tuning to do for people that just want to go in there at a glance and see their metrics."

"I would like to see improvement to the out-of-the-box verbiage, with the questions going to the right place."

"The reports provided by the solution are not customizable."

More Espressive Barista cons

"Its reporting could be improved."

"ManageEngine needs to improve its handling of large volumes, as it cannot manage transaction volumes as effectively as ServiceNow."

"We had issues wherein the software stopped working. We had to re-install the software and configure again. We were unable to import the old data into the new installation."

"Its reporting could be improved. The current list of predefined reports seems to be fine for most of the customers, but there should be some tools to allow us to create highly customized reports for measuring different KPIs. We should also be able to connect some kind of BI to it. We haven't yet implemented it, and we are currently evaluating it. We are looking for advanced integration options where we could integrate it with our SCCM and Azure environments as well as with other Office solutions. For direct communication with customers, we are looking for a chatbot or a similar feature."

"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus moves changes to the production directly. We need a local touch in support."

"Its reporting can be improved. It can have better analytics reports. Even though they provide integration with another tool called Analytics Plus to get those reports, it would be quite helpful to have them on the fly and out of the box. A lot of improvement is required in change management and release management. Their change management module is quite simple, and they need to do a lot of work on the change management module. The release management is out only on the cloud. It is not available in on-premises deployments. In the next release, I would like it to have effective project management. They do provide the project management and contracts management modules, but these modules need a bit of improvement."

"Request management is not clearly separated from incident management and the conditions to customize this are tricky and unique for our organization."

"The current MDM is very basic and should be expanded."

More ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding the price, licensing, and maintenance, Automation Anywhere provides its customers with its best and affordable value."

"Pricing is too high for small-scale groups. The Control Room yearly fee is high, making it difficult to break even."

"We have seen the tangible benefits of taking monotonous work off people's plates, creating capacity, and cost reductions."

"There is an annual subscription for Automation Anywhere."

"Time-wise: We have saved hundreds of thousands of hours."

"It's cheaper than other similar solutions."

"The licensing cost could be improved. It costs a lot. At the very least, the developer licenses and the control panels should be made free to enterprises, and the production environment licensed."

"There are a lot of savings in terms of effort and time as well as costs. Automation Anywhere automates a lot of processes. It allows an organization to save the efforts of a lot people. It saves a lot of time because people can't work a whole day (24/7), but Automation Anywhere bots can."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"User-based licensing has been working well for us, and we believe we are deriving significant value from it."

"The price for the licensing is fair."

"It is expensive. It's not a cheap thing."

"The pricing isn't overly burdensome. It's going to be interesting to see how new models come in with new capabilities but, as it is, as a base system, it's pretty good."

"The solution is affordable."

"When I compared it with a similar product, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus was $2,000 cheaper."

"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is much cheaper than many of its competitors. We pay about nine dollars per agent and one dollar per device. There are no hidden costs."

"The only issue for us is the pricing, which is quite high in comparison with the competition."

"It is cheaper than the competitors."

"For our 500 assets that are using the professional version of the solution, we pay somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000 per year."

"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus' pricing is reasonable."

"Cost-wise, we're quite happy."

"I am using the free edition of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus. There are different versions available, such as professional."

More ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Construction Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	157
Midsize Enterprise	82
Large Enterprise	558

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	24
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?

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Regarding pricing, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers three editions: Standard edition, Professional, and Enterpris...

What needs improvement with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?

The biggest friction point or frustration I have run into with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is the upgrade risk and ...

What is your primary use case for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?

My main use case for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is that we are receiving tickets from multiple users regarding iss...

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Product Reports

Automation Anywhere

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Espressive Barista

Download Espressive Barista product report

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Download ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

No data available

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

Espressive

Demo not available

ManageEngine

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

Espressive Barista leverages natural language processing to provide efficient help desk support, integrating with ServiceNow, supporting multiple languages, and automating tasks like password resets for global teams.

Espressive Barista offers a seamless tool for enhancing service desk efficiency through its robust natural language processing capabilities. It supports multiple languages, allowing global scalability and continuity in operations. Integration with platforms like ServiceNow ensures effortless assimilation into existing workflows. It automates routine tasks and offers HR and IT content readily, making it an integral part of operations in IT, HR, and finance departments. Users can customize content and utilize reporting features to tailor support services to specific needs.

What key features enhance its functionality?

Seamless ServiceNow Integration: Enhances workflow efficiency without disrupting pre-existing systems.
Natural Language Processing: Accurately interprets diverse questions to provide precise responses.
Multilingual Support: Expands global reach by supporting multiple languages.
Task Automation: Automates common processes like password resets to save time and reduce manual workload.
Content Customization: Offers customizable content for better alignment with team requirements and reporting.

What benefits should users expect?

Improved Efficiency: Automates responses, reducing dependency on manual tasks.
Scalability: Capable of supporting expanding operations with 24/7 availability.
Optimized Resource Allocation: Reduces IT tickets by offering self-service options and automating support tasks.
Better Service Delivery: Custom reporting helps refine support strategies, responsive to evolving needs.

Espressive Barista proves beneficial across industries needing streamlined internal support systems. It aids IT, HR, and finance sectors fundamentally by offering rapid responses and reducing ticket volumes. Its integration with SaaS applications highlights its adaptability, serving as a primary channel for initiating IT support, particularly through platforms like Slack.

Espressive

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is an ITIL-compliant tool designed for IT help desk and incident management. It offers user-friendly ticketing, automation, and integration features, assisting businesses in effective IT service management.

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus provides comprehensive solutions for ticketing, automation, and integration with third-party tools. Its features include project, change, and asset management, which are essential for streamlining IT operations. The intuitive interface supports both technical and non-technical users. The platform's reporting, SLA management, and CMDB functions significantly enhance business operations. Despite its strengths, there are areas for improvement, such as customization and integration capabilities. Users often seek better automation for active and asset management, enhanced search functionality, and improved security.

What are the key features of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?

Ticketing System: Facilitates efficient issue tracking and resolution.
Automation: Allows the creation of automated workflows to reduce manual effort.
Customizability: Enables tailoring of the platform to fit specific business needs.
Integration: Seamless connectivity with third-party tools for enhanced functionality.
Project Management: Supports planning and execution of IT projects.
Change Management: Helps in managing IT service changes systematically.
Asset Management: Tracks and manages IT assets effectively.

What benefits and ROI should users expect from ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?

Improved Efficiency: Streamlined workflows and processes save time and resources.
Enhanced Communication: Facilitates better interaction within IT departments.
Operational Visibility: Reporting and metrics provide insights into IT operations.
Flexibility: Customization options help tailor the system to specific requirements.
Security Enhancement: Regular updates enhance system security and data protection.

Industries implement ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus to address specific challenges such as IT help desk management and asset tracking. Companies use the platform to log incidents, automate workflows, and ensure compliance with ITIL standards, supporting effective management of daily operations, system auditing, and improved client interaction.

ManageEngine

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

Information Not Available

Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates

Espressive Barista vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus