IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus comparison

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. ManageEngine SupportCenter 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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Klemen Muhvič

Computer System Engineer at Informatika d.d.

Has centralization and asset management features, and a helpful and knowledgeable technical support team

What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly. IBM is a big company, but this solution is a little bit outdated. The most common comment I get from customers is that IBM SmartCloud Control Desk looks old and needs a refresh. Its frontend needs a little bit of work. The solution needs to be more modern. In the programming world, you see a lot of new technologies, but this particular solution is still on Java. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk isn't like web-based service request tools, and that's an area for improvement. What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is a more upscale technology. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has small issues with document links and attachments, and those could bother you when you're using it for a long time. A more user-friendly GUI is also another improvement I'd like to see in the next version of the solution, plus a better user experience, and it would be great if IBM could resolve the current issues I've noticed in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk.

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reviewer2650164

VP of IT at a aerospace/defense firm with 51-200 employees

Manual ticketing features hinder workflow, but cost-effective ticket management is ensured

We just use it because it's more trouble to rip it out than to replace it with a more expensive tool. I would not recommend this product to others. If budget is a concern, it might be suitable but it doesn’t excite. Hence, I would rate it a four out of ten.

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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

"Be it a Windows application, a web application, or a legacy tool, Automation Anywhere is able to achieve automation on these technologies seamlessly."

"It is highly scalable on cloud and virtual machines."

"Unattended use is its most valuable feature."

"With Agentic capability, you can actually do those things; it has memory, it has access to tools, and it can do the job on our behalf as opposed to just telling us what to do."

"It has saved our HR department time since this process automatically happens without anybody's intervention. Our HR department is able to devote their time to more productive work or activities. It has also saved a lot of costs since every employee in the HR department is involved in the attendance and payroll process. Second, the process is now no more human dependent."

"Automation Anywhere has a uniqueness with respect to the IQ Bot."

"The best feature is its ability to combine Automation Anywhere with AI to build intelligent bots."

"We have improved on IQ Bot collectively with the normal Taskbot that we use. How it got started was that we have a lot of scanned documents to input for our solution. So, I used to get a lot of scanned documents, and extracting or reading the data from those has always been a pain area. We always used to bring a manual person in to do it. Once a manual person did that activity, it was brought into Excel where I could run the bot. With the entry of IQ Bot, it now takes care of my scanned documents, which means IQ Bot does the OCR extraction and gives my data to the Automation Anywhere Taskbot. This means no manual intervention and end-to-end bot processing, along with a happy customer at the end of the day. We provide these services to multiple clients, so we have been doing this for all of our clients."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"The solution has been stable."

"The brand name is the most valuable aspect of this solution for me. It's IBM. It's a global company that supports this product, it's not something open source or something like that."

"In general, it's been pretty stable."

"Overall, it has helped us continuously improve our business processes."

"The most valuable are its flexibility and agility. It's quick to change it, to adapt it to your needs. That's the most important for us."

"The solution is very easy to work with."

"What I like about the Control Desk is that everything is centralized, you have all the requests in one place, you know which ones are for whom and who is working on them, so you have one big package and nothing is lost."

"Overall, it's a good product that I would recommend."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk pros

"The most valuable features are the ITIL compliance and billing."

"Their tech support has been talking to us about expanding features like integrations with Microsoft Teams."

"We have found the reporting in this product to be very useful."

"ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus works fine as a help desk software and is relatively inexpensive."

"When using it predominantly for a help desk solution, it seems like an absolutely fine product."

"The product is very scalable and stable when used as a help desk once it is built out."

"The product teams are continuously on the products trying to improve them. If, for example, I ask for a change to be done in the software, the chances are in the next release it's going to be done and incorporated. It's this personal touch that I like."

"Their technical support has been very helpful and is very good."

Cons

"I would like more integration into the entire Microsoft Suite of products, not just Excel. Companies use all of Microsoft products at the same time, and being good at just one Microsoft tool is a limiting factor. Being able to use Microsoft Excel, Access, and Outlook together and have them integrated (as standard) into the tool would be very useful, especially when you go into attended automation."

"We've had a lot of issues with the installation and performance on a variety of computers, onshore and offshore. Our network bounds multiple domains, and we've had issues there, as well. So, we are looking forward to the web-based development versions."

"With the user interface, a lot of the parts of it I really like, but there are some things that could be made a little simpler. A little less clicking around here and dragging over there to use."

"One aspect I don't appreciate about Automation Anywhere is the way variables are handled. Many things seem to become a string, which makes it hard to code and keep track of items when everything's a string."

"It would be better to make it more user-friendly so that individuals with no experience can pick it up pretty quickly."

"The initial setup is difficult because Automation Anywhere does not have a GitHub integration. They need to build a patch for that."

"Their license model needs to be improved. The biggest issue for me is that the license is tied to a person, and it is not something that I can pass if I want to use it for the first five hours and pass it on to you for the next five hours and so on. When we automate, the license is tied to me, and if you or somebody else needs to use that license, as a COE administrator, I need to transfer the license from person A to person B. This is something that I have always told them that should not be this way because you want to utilize your licenses effectively."

"My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing is mixed. It is somewhere in between, not the most cost-efficient but also not the highest cost, so it can be better."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"Overall the user experience, as opposed to the system and databases, could be improved. It does work as it should and it's good, but they should invest more in the user interfaces to be less data oriented and more appealing for the user."

"The user interface is not very interesting."

"Technical support can be slow in terms of resolving issues."

"It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool."

"What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly. IBM is a big company, but this solution is a little bit outdated. The most common comment I get from customers is that IBM SmartCloud Control Desk looks old and needs a refresh. Its frontend needs a little bit of work. The solution needs to be more modern. In the programming world, you see a lot of new technologies, but this particular solution is still on Java. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk isn't like web-based service request tools, and that's an area for improvement. What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is a more upscale technology. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has small issues with document links and attachments, and those could bother you when you're using it for a long time. A more user-friendly GUI is also another improvement I'd like to see in the next version of the solution, plus a better user experience, and it would be great if IBM could resolve the current issues I've noticed in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"The user interface is not very interesting. If you look at other products like JIRA and ServiceNow, they have made it much easier for the end-users. Maybe not ServiceNow, but JIRA is quite flexible. From a presentation point of view, IBM should make more user-friendly interfaces."

"The time calculations can be improved. While working on reports, it was taking the time only in seconds, which was hard for me to work out. While creating some dialogs in the service portal, you have to use certain data types in some fields. It was very tricky to make them work. I was testing a certain type of input, and it didn't work. It didn't show me the domain that the fields have to show. I had to make the change to the database, and only then it worked. It was a tricky thing to make them work with the dialogs. Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."

"Support has been the biggest problem for us."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk cons

"They're pretty good but there's always room for improvement. There should be more templates that users can utilize immediately."

"I would like to see some kind of project management or portfolio management in a future version."

"ManageEngine, in my experience, fosters that type of environment; it doesn't have an easy button, a graphic user interface, ease-of-use, and ease-of-dev — the product does not have any of that."

"The tech support is terrible and that seems to be a part of their business plan."

"The product is very difficult to use and configure and requires specialists."

"The business model for the company is to sell low and charge for customization, education or expertise."

"There is no cloud-based version and it would be helpful if it were available."

"ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus could improve on workflow automation features."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Automation Anywhere might have a higher upfront cost than some competitors, but its extensive features and seamless integration with other tools can save organizations money in the long run."

"The control room access gives the ability to create different roles, which helps when purchasing additional licensing."

"Automation Anywhere University is pretty good. They make it available free for everyone."

"It is subscription-based. They have different schemes. The price depends on how you negotiate with the local partner or local representative in your country."

"I don't know exactly what the pricing schemes are for the product as this type of negotiation is not my responsibility, but I think the basic pricing comes to $15,000."

"The cost for scalability is much cheaper than developing a new system."

"It's justified because we have saved quite a bit of money at the company and many manual hours. Overall, it justifies the cost."

"The licensing cost is approximately $4,000 USD, which is a seed license."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"It's basically for a big company because of the costs. A small company can't afford the licensing cost. For medium and large companies, it's the best product. The price of the license is on the higher side compared to others."

"The license for IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is paid yearly and is on a per-user basis. You buy the product and pay for its license yearly. IBM is changing the licensing structure, but for now, it's a yearly license. There's no additional cost. It's just the license that you need to pay for to use IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"The licensing we have for IBM Control Desk is on a yearly basis. They have a concurrent license and an administrative license. And with these, you get all the products. There aren't any additional fees for extra add-ons or anything like that."

"The licensing fees depend on different criteria, including options and sizing."

"ManageEngine products will always be the lowest cost in category as that is part of their business model."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Construction Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Performing Arts

14%

Construction Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Construction Company

21%

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

University

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	6
Large Enterprise	3

No data available

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 SupportCenter Plus?

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus is cheap, around two or three on a scale where ten is the most expensive.

What needs improvement with ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus?

ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus could improve on workflow automation features. Currently, everything is very manual, ...

What is your primary use case for ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus?

We use ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus primarily as a ticketing tool within our company.

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Product Reports

Automation Anywhere

Download Automation Anywhere product report

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Download IBM SmartCloud Control Desk product report

Help Desk Software

Download ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus product report

Also Known As

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

SmartCloud Control Desk

No data available

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

IBM

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

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk offers robust integration capabilities, effective SLA integrations, automated workflows, and comprehensive reporting. Its flexibility and centralized request management enhance service efficiency, making it ideal for detailed issue tracking and resolution in IT environments.

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is designed to streamline IT support, ticketing, and incident management. By integrating seamlessly with existing infrastructures, it centralizes service requests and IT asset management. Its automated processes ensure efficiency from initiation to resolution, reducing the chances of oversight. The platform's adaptability supports both on-premises and cloud deployments, making it suitable for industries like telecommunications and IT services. However, users often face challenges with support responsiveness, outdated interfaces, and difficulties with email integration, particularly affecting images and attachments.

What Are the Key Features of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk?

Integration Capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with various systems to enhance functionality.
SLA Integrations: Strong service level agreement management ensures SLAs are met.
Automated Workflow: Full automation of processes from start to resolution.
Robust Reporting: Comprehensive reporting tools for detailed insights.
Request Management: Centralized management of service requests and IT assets.

What Benefits and ROI Should Users Seek?

Efficiency: Streamlines operations with automated processes, increasing productivity.
Flexibility: Adapts to organizational changes for better service delivery.
Reliability: Backed by IBM's trusted brand reputation.
Scalability: Scales with demand for growing businesses.

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is widely implemented in telecommunications and IT services industries. Organizations utilize it for managing IT support, incident resolution, and system monitoring. Its ability to handle both internal and external requests effectively helps businesses streamline client communications and improve service management across different deployment models.

IBM

ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus offers ITIL compliance, billing capabilities, mobile apps, and reporting features. It's cost-effective and continuously updated for improved functionality, meeting user demands despite minor limitations.

ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus is designed primarily as a ticketing system to facilitate helpdesk and customer service operations, managing issues, incidents, and demand management. It replaces traditional email systems with a streamlined ticket system and records hourly rates along with technician time on tickets, maintaining a comprehensive ticket database. While mobile management is possible, development and configuration require significant resources. Efforts are focused on enhancing automation and simplifying reporting by centralizing data in one location, reflecting a customer-focused approach.

What are the most valued features?

ITIL Compliance: Ensures adherence to international standards.
Billing Capabilities: Tracks and manages financial aspects efficiently.
Mobile Apps: Facilitates remote management and monitoring.
Reporting: Generates useful insights and reports for strategic decisions.
Help Desk Functionality: Provides streamlined ticket management and support workflows.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Cost-Effectiveness: Balances functionality with affordability.
Customer-Focused Updates: Regular enhancements that cater to user needs.
Streamlined Operations: Simplifies issue tracking and resolution processes.
Comprehensive Reporting: Provides centralized insights for data-driven decisions.

In industries like IT support and service management, ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus acts as a robust ticketing and helpdesk system, managing incidents and support requests efficiently. Its mobile app capability, though resource-intensive, is beneficial in sectors requiring flexible operations. Efforts in enhancing automation will further strengthen its application across diverse sectors, from service management to tech-focused organizations.

ManageEngine

Sample Customers

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

St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology

Brickman Group, SVP Worldwide, Chicago Tribune, Sodexo, Constellation, Lowcost Holidays, Telesur, PayEx, Quintiq, Moblize, Oman Air, Intelligent Hospital Systems

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus