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IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus comparison

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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
6.9
Number of Reviews
662
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 (1st), 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 (33rd)
ManageEngine SupportCenter ...
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (27th)
 

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

"Business process automation has improved the efficiency and accuracy of processes and reduced manual efforts which can be utilized in value addition for the firm."
"It has drag-and-drop features, which makes it very fast for us to gather the required data."
"This product has helped us a lot by improving and growing the business in different domains."
"The impact of Automation Anywhere on our organization has been significant; it has helped us save a considerable amount of time, approximately 30% to 40%, in repetitive processes and has improved automation accuracy."
"This solution has been great for our company in almost every way possible."
"It is very easy for anybody to learn."
"My company uses AA extensively for internal BPO work as well as we refer and deploy it to the customer as a RPaaS model, helping increase productivity, reduce overall operational costs, and deliver fewer errors while proving to be a reliable workhorse during the COVID situation."
"The insights provided by the dashboard are excellent."
"The solution has been stable."
"A feature I found most valuable in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is the service request. Another feature I like most about the solution is IT asset management, which tells you who owns a specific asset in the company and from which date."
"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."
"The solution is very easy to work with."
"In general, it's been pretty stable."
"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."
"Overall, it's a good product that I would recommend."
"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."
"When using it predominantly for a help desk solution, it seems like an absolutely fine product."
"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."
"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."
"ManageEngine SupportCenter Plus works fine as a help desk software and is relatively inexpensive."
"The product is very scalable and stable when used as a help desk once it is built out."
"We have found the reporting in this product to be very useful."
"Their technical support has been very helpful and is very good."
 

Cons

"Automation Anywhere can be improved by offering more integration with many more applications."
"Its licensing can become too expensive for a small startup company."
"I suggest that they add some features in dashboard, where you can say, "These type of features are things that people like more." You want to add those to your project and showcase them to the client so they will be happier. Because you know what features people like if you give a suggestion, that is good for everyone."
"I have noticed that after the bots have been delivered to run in a production environment, there are issues in terms of quality and performance."
"If it had the ability to make decisions in complex situations, the bot would perform more smoothly. More advanced decision-making skills are needed for improvement."
"Automation Anywhere Control Room should update to the newer versions with one click, including the newer features. There should be minimum effort required from the IT organization. The major resistance from any organization is from the IT organization because they have a lot of dependencies and will sometimes resist doing changes because they have other activities and applications to manage. Future versions should minimizing their work."
"Automation Anywhere should add a couple of commands which will help most developers not to always use a script, a good example is in String operations."
"Built-in HTML features are lagging in this solution, whereas in UiPath, they are very good."
"Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."
"The product is kind of clunky to use."
"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."
"Support has been the biggest problem for us."
"Support has been the biggest problem for us. I understand that because we use the product of a global company, some changes are not quick to deploy."
"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. 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."
"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."
"There is no cloud-based version and it would be helpful if it were available."
"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."
"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

"I think the solution's pricing is reasonable."
"If you look at the capital expenditure, Automation Anywhere is number two to UiPath. But if you take a long-term view, on a scalable model of a large number of bots coming out, it slowly goes on to become the costliest tool. There is something they can do about that. The capital expenditure goes out right at the point of buying the tool. For Automation Anywhere, I would need to spend $20,000. UiPath can give me something for $6,000, while Blue Prism will come in at $300,000."
"If we count the integrations that we have done with Appian, which is where a lot of our savings is from, we are well over a million dollars in savings. This is from only doing development for about a year and a half."
"The Community Edition is a good offering from the company."
"We were required to purchase licenses and bot runners, which determined the permissible run times for the bots."
"Initially, they charged a premium, but now the rest of the vendors have increased their overall pricing and Automation Anywhere is not that high at this time. It's pretty viable."
"If we talk about the automation RPA. it definitely has worked very well for us. I'm talking about giving good savings, about more than 180 FTE savings, after implementing more than 200 plus bots. It has worked well. As an organization, it has supported us very well, and also for our customers."
"The cost for scalability is much cheaper than developing a new system."
"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."
"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
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Performing Arts
14%
Construction Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Performing Arts
9%
University
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business157
Midsize Enterprise81
Large Enterprise558
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: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.