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Control-M vs Microsoft Configuration Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Control-M enhances efficiency and reduces costs through automation, error reduction, real-time monitoring, and streamlined operations.
Sentiment score
2.9
Microsoft Configuration Manager enhances ROI and productivity with efficient software management, despite challenges in Mac support.
The main return on investment with Helix Control-M has been a reduction in downtime and minimization of manual interventions, which has improved our operational efficiency.
Cloud Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
You can run a million batch jobs or tasks at night when all of your highly skilled people are at home sleeping.
Account Executive at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
By implementing automation tools, you can minimize human errors and improve efficiency.
Director Of Sales at Sisn
With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these processes are automated and managed, reducing the time required by roughly 40 to 50 percent.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
Control-M service is efficient with high ratings, but needs improvement in non-English support and level-two assistance.
Sentiment score
5.9
Microsoft Configuration Manager support is effective but varies; some prefer premium options or using Microsoft's documentation for solutions.
They quickly evolve with changing technology trends, easily adopt new features, and incorporate them into the product.
architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The support is accurate, and BMC is always ready to help with queries and complex incidents.
Solutions Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
The technical support is very polite, helpful, and available 24/7.
Cloud Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Their response time and first-level support quality need improvement.
Systems Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
For technical support from Microsoft, I would rate them a nine.
Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Control-M is scalable, integrates well, handles workloads efficiently, but faces licensing and cloud cost concerns; users report effective performance.
Sentiment score
7.7
Microsoft Configuration Manager is scalable, integrates with Intune, but can be costly compared to other solutions, effective for many.
Our license doesn't limit our ability to configure Control-M as needed, allowing us to easily create new agents or environments.
Control-M System Administrator at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I am paying for a top-end tool which rarely experiences issues, with most problems stemming from the applications being managed rather than the tooling itself.
Senior Control-M Consultant at Ktsl
It can absorb more workload wherever needed.
Cloud/Devops Engineer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
In our organization, which has grown by adding more endpoints, remote users, and hybrid devices, Microsoft Configuration Manager has managed to handle the increased workload without requiring major changes on our side.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The product is suitable for our size, handling 800 devices.
IT Infrastructure Coordinator at NSW Government
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Control-M is highly stable, often achieving 99.99% availability, with minimal downtime and strong performance under high workloads.
Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Configuration Manager is highly stable, reliable, and well-rated by users when infrastructure is properly managed and updated.
Control-M itself is robust, and it would receive a rating of 10.
Technical architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Regarding stability, I would give Control-M a ten.
IT Tech Infurstructure Engineer at CommonSpirit Health
The downtime is higher compared to AWS.
Data scientist at Advarisk
There were misconfigurations by our team rather than issues with the product itself.
IT Infrastructure Coordinator at NSW Government
 

Room For Improvement

Control-M users seek enhancements in reporting, interface simplicity, cost, integration, automation, documentation, support, and upgrade speed.
Enhancements in UI, performance, cloud integration, automation, and non-Windows support could significantly improve Microsoft Configuration Manager.
They could provide more documentation and tutorials to make the initial setup easier to understand.
Assistant professor at J.P. College of Engineering
We've experienced main problems with MFTE where having one setup means when an error occurs, the entire service goes down.
Control-M System Administrator at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Documentation should be maintained for all versions since they provided the application.
Sr Manager at Vodafone
A better command line interface for Microsoft Configuration Manager would be an additional feature I would to see in the future to make it closer to a perfect score.
Systems Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I can suggest that Microsoft Configuration Manager should get the Autopilot feature because Autopilot is the main part of Intune, and nowadays everybody is using Autopilot.
Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager is a powerful and reliable platform.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Control-M offers high-value features with expensive pricing, suitable for large enterprises, while challenging affordability for smaller companies.
Microsoft Configuration Manager offers integrated solutions with flexible pricing, justifying costs through automation and management features, enhancing ROI.
The licensing cost is very high, and they often consider switching to IBM Workload Scheduler or other options.
Associate Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Control-M tends to be more expensive compared to other solutions, but users get great value from it.
Senior System Specialist at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Control-M is among the highest-priced solutions in the market.
Control-M System Administrator at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
The cost is reasonable considering the enterprise-level features, but it scales depending on the number of managed devices and the inclusion of Intune for co-management.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
The setup cost is considered sufficient.
IT Infrastructure Coordinator at NSW Government
The pricing for Microsoft Configuration Manager is okay for me.
Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Control-M centralizes workload control, enhancing automation, monitoring, file security, and cross-platform support for efficient multi-cloud integration.
Microsoft Configuration Manager streamlines deployment and management with automation, integration, inventory, and security, reducing manual effort and ensuring consistency.
Automation is more advanced, deployment is fast, and version control has been simplified.
Data scientist at Advarisk
The user interface is comprehensive and lets me view all my jobs on one page, monitor everything, and access the job history.
Cloud Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
If I have a staff that operates Control-M on Windows Server, they will easily pick it up if they need to run it on Unix or mainframes. It's the same interface, saving time and improving efficiency.
IT Guy at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
If I want to get a fetch report for anything, such as hardware-related issues or group policy-related issues, I need to fetch the report by using SCCM's scripting language and remediation part.
Expert at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable features I find in Microsoft Configuration Manager are mostly patching, deploying software, deploying images, and running custom scripts.
Systems Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management.
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Control-M
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
189
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (2nd), Managed File Transfer (MFT) (2nd), Workload Automation (1st), AI IT Support (1st)
Microsoft Configuration Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Software Distribution (1st), Server Monitoring (6th), Configuration Management (3rd), Patch Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Control-M and Microsoft Configuration Manager aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Control-M is designed for Process Automation and holds a mindshare of 3.4%, down 4.6% compared to last year.
Microsoft Configuration Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Server Monitoring, holds 4.0% mindshare, down 6.5% since last year.
Process Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Control-M3.4%
Camunda15.7%
Temporal5.7%
Other75.2%
Process Automation
Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Configuration Manager4.0%
Zabbix13.4%
Checkmk6.6%
Other76.0%
Server Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

RP
Batch Admin at NBC Universal
Brings data together from multiple platforms and optimizes cross-environment orchestration
The features of Control-M that I like the most include the ability to easily integrate or bring in different platforms into Control-M. For instance, AWS, mainframe, TWS, and something that's running on Autosys can all be brought into Control-M, converted to how Control-M runs it, and then the batch can be executed. This centralizes various applications in Control-M, which doesn't just have to handle batch processes, but also other tasks like reporting on required data. I find this functionality very useful and the setup is impressive, with more advancements yet to come. With Control-M, my company has achieved several measurable improvements since I started. The metrics indicate that the number of failures has dropped, and we have addressed the issue of excessive false alerts that I encountered when I joined. Previously, we received an overwhelming number of alerts daily, but now we manage to maintain that at a normalized level, perhaps around five to fifteen alerts, depending on running core batches and their setup.
NS
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized endpoint control has streamlined deployments and improved security compliance
In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management. These features make endpoint management efficient and scalable. The feature I rely on the most day-to-day is software deployment and patch management. It keeps endpoints updated and secure with minimal manual effort. Inventory and compliance monitoring are also important, but daily deployments are critical. Microsoft Configuration Manager has had a significant positive impact on our organization in several ways: improved efficiency, enhanced security and compliance, standardization, scalability, and visibility reporting. Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager has helped us save time, reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, and maintain strong control over our endpoints. One of the biggest impacts Microsoft Configuration Manager has had on efficiency is the reduced manual work for software deployment and patching. For example, deploying a new application or security updates to hundreds or thousands of devices previously required several days of manual effort, including running scripts, checking devices individually, and validating installation. With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these tasks are automated and managed, allowing deployments to complete in hours rather than days. We also have automated reporting for deployment success and compliance which saved the IT team significant time that used to be spent gathering and reconciling inventory data from multiple tools.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise149
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise66
 

Questions from the Community

How does Control-M compare with AutoSys Workload Automation?
Control-M acts as a single, centralized interface for monitoring and managing all batch processes, which is helpful because nothing gets left unattended since it is all visible in one place, and th...
What do you like most about Control-M?
First of all, the shift from manual to automation has been valuable. We have a tool that can automate.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Control-M?
From what I know about pricing, I would probably put Control-M in the expensive category, but you do pay for what you get; you are paying for a premium product.
How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?
ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
What do you like most about SCCM?
One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
 

Also Known As

Control M, BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer, BMC Australia CTM
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM ), Microsoft SMS
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Bank of East Asia, LINE Bank Taiwan, Coop, Air Europa, Carrefour, Itau Unibanco, Snam, Embraer, ANZ Bank, EDP, Dominio's, Tampa General Hospital, W&W Informatik GmbH, Veterans General, Up Sí Vale, Sky Italia, REWE digital GmbH, Raymond James, Railinc, Navistar, Management Science Associates, Colruyt, CARFAX, Banpara, Aspiag Service, Amadeus, AG Insurance, ING Bank Slaski
Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
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883,712 professionals have used our research since 2012.