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IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
665
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (2nd), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (1st), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (1st), Agentic Automation (1st), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (2nd), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (2nd), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (32nd)
ManageEngine SupportCenter ...
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (28th)
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
KM
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.
reviewer2650164 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In the past ten months, I have saved the work of two people and people are happy with the results."
"Using IQ Bot, we can extract more data out from the documents that are unstructured."
"The stability of Automation Anywhere is not a concern when deployed on the cloud."
"Automation Anywhere (AA) is easy to use and understand, even if the user didn't have previous experience with RPA (robotic process automation) software before."
"It an easy, simple, and user-friendly tool that can be accessed through the mobile application as well."
"The time savings from using Document Automation are substantial, as previously a team of about five to ten people managed specific processes end-to-end, such as processing fourteen thousand entries in a month, but after automation, that entire process is streamlined, saving us a lot of FTEs."
"It saves time. It has saved 4,000 to 5,000 hours for one large complex process."
"Automation Anywhere has saved us a lot of time."
"Overall, it has helped us continuously improve our business processes."
"In the early stages of our company, all requests were done in notebooks, and none of it was centrally managed. But now we have a central tool which is an entry point for all requests that come in."
"Overall, it's a good product that I would recommend."
"The workflow capability is useful. It's not a manual helpdesk operation. It's fully automated, even when an alarm has occurred. It covers the complete cycle of initiation to resolving the events. This is its most strong feature that is easily integrable with a monitoring solution. It creates tickets, and the workflow feature is the most important one."
"The solution is very easy to work with."
"SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable."
"The solution has been stable."
"In general, it's been pretty stable."
"Their technical support has been very helpful and is very good."
"The product is very scalable and stable when used as a help desk once it is built out."
"The most valuable features are the ITIL compliance and billing."
"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 tech support has been talking to us about expanding features like integrations with Microsoft Teams."
"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."
"We have found the reporting in this product to be very useful."
 

Cons

"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."
"However, if documents are scanned and not clear, the accuracy is not up to the mark."
"There is an issue with security where users can see the values in the credential vault."
"On the cognitive side, some of their competitors, when we were originally shopping, were a little more advanced in that space. Making use of probabilistic outcomes and presenting them to a business user is a feature that, at the time of our evaluation, did not feel like a strong, mature solution for Automation Anywhere. Nevertheless, they won our business. That is one feature where I feel they are trying to make investments to address those gaps."
"The A2019 in early releases had been quite unstable to our experience."
"OCR capability needs to become better."
"They need to make the solution more robust."
"Automation Anywhere is troublesome for some people because of the way it is organized."
"The product is kind of clunky to use."
"The main issue that we hear from our customers is that the self-service user interface is a little bit old, possibly due to the fact that IBM is such a large enterprise company. People say that they think they're in the year 2004, because you can very clearly see that the technology is lagging behind modern trends."
"The user interface is not very interesting."
"Support has been the biggest problem for us."
"The solution lacks a graphical user interface."
"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."
"Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."
"Technical support can be slow in terms of resolving issues."
"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."
"I would like to see some kind of project management or portfolio management in a future version."
"The business model for the company is to sell low and charge for customization, education or expertise."
"The product is very difficult to use and configure and requires specialists."
"There is no cloud-based version and it would be helpful if it were available."
"They're pretty good but there's always room for improvement. There should be more templates that users can utilize immediately."
"ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus could improve on workflow automation features."
"The tech support is terrible and that seems to be a part of their business plan."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is a value for the money product."
"I am not sure about the costs, but two Bot Runners and four Bot Creators may cost approximately 1CR."
"The ROI is really good. We have saved time and money."
"Automation Anywhere's pricing is significantly higher than other RPA solutions."
"We save approximately 10,000 hours per year."
"There may be room for the product to be more competitively priced to excel in the market."
"I don't deal have cost specifics but I can say it is a tool that provides value for the money."
"It looks like it will be right around $115,000, not counting IQ Bot, which we won't renew until later."
"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."
"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."
"ManageEngine products will always be the lowest cost in category as that is part of their business model."
"The licensing fees depend on different criteria, including options and sizing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Performing Arts
12%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Construction Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Healthcare Company
10%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business161
Midsize Enterprise86
Large Enterprise562
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise3
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.
Ask a question
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus?
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.
 

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

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.