Control-M vs ServiceNow Orchestration comparison

BMC and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Process Automation category. BMC is ranked #3 with an average rating of 9.0, while ServiceNow is ranked #11 with an average rating of 8.8. BMC holds a 4.7% mindshare in PA, compared to ServiceNow’s 4.3% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

Control-M

Read 118 Control-M reviews

4,177 Views
1,571 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Orchestration

Read 15 ServiceNow Orchestration reviews

2,275 Views
1,598 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Control-M

ServiceNow Orchestration

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Control-M and ServiceNow Orchestration are competitors in the workflow automation and enterprise service management space. Control-M appears to have the upper hand in environments with a need for extensive integration capabilities, particularly for AS400 platforms, while ServiceNow Orchestration stands out in IT service management integration.

Features: Control-M offers virtual terminal automation, high availability, and robust error-handling capabilities, making it ideal for complex batch processing and scheduling. It also provides integration modules, facilitating the seamless connection of diverse platforms and applications. Meanwhile, ServiceNow Orchestration is recognized for its automation in IT operations management and comprehensive integration within widespread IT service management infrastructures, providing a comprehensive enterprise service approach.

Room for Improvement: Control-M users have identified areas for improvement such as output analysis, reporting tools, and more intuitive integration with apps. Challenges include newer version compatibility and simplified integration processes. Users of ServiceNow Orchestration point out integration limitations and the high cost of its modules. Enhancements could include making features more developer-friendly and expanding integration support for third-party tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Control-M supports deployment in on-premises, private cloud, and hybrid environments, which is beneficial for diverse business infrastructures. Its customer support is generally well-regarded, although improvements in integration support and community resources are suggested. ServiceNow Orchestration, commonly deployed in public and private clouds, is well-received for effective customer service, although satisfaction is affected by costs and integration challenges.

Pricing and ROI: Control-M is known for high licensing costs based on job or endpoint counts, which poses challenges for smaller businesses yet offers good value through its capabilities and integration features for larger enterprises. ServiceNow Orchestration also entails high costs, with segment-based pricing and additional module expenses leading to varied contract terms. Users justify the expense due to its broad service management capabilities and significant potential ROI through operational efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration

January 2025

Download the complete report

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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

Control-M

Ranking in Process Automation

3rd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

118

Ranking in other categories

Managed File Transfer (MFT) (4th), Workload Automation (1st)

ServiceNow Orchestration

Ranking in Process Automation

11th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Process Automation category, the mindshare of Control-M is 4.7%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Orchestration is 4.3%, up from 4.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Process Automation

Featured Reviews

Pedro Fuentes

System Engineer at Community Loans of America, Inc.

Cost-effective, excellent support, and centralized access and control

They have a department that handles requests for enhancements. I talked to Control-M guys back in October or November when they had a gathering here in Atlanta. We talked about not being able to go back in history in Helix Control-M for more than two weeks. We submitted a request for enhancement. They told us that they are working on it, and they are thinking of expanding that to 30 days. We would like to see it expand to 90 days, but they are working on it. In Control-M, we were able to go back 180 days, but that was on-prem. The storage of that data was on our own servers. We know that storage is money, and we do not expect them to store that much of the data, but at least 30 to 60 days seem proper.

Read full review

Dinesh Kumar Raghu

Senior Software Engineer at NewRocket

Fastest upgrading technology in the market currently

In each upgrade, ServiceNow is enhancing its product across various areas. They continuously improve different aspects one by one, ensuring that their service evolves with the changing needs. However, frequent upgrades may negatively impact the performance of instances. Therefore, for now, I don't recommend any additional upgrades. The current version fulfills everyone's requirements, and ServiceNow automatically updates annually, keeping pace with industry standards. They've been performing well, so I see no need for further upgrades, especially considering their consistent updates.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable features are the managing of file transfers and the product keeping up with technology."

"We have a team called pro-mon and they monitor all the jobs for us. A single view for them makes it easy for them to monitor things."

"It is an enterprise tool that integrates with all the applications in our organization. It has made our life easier because we don't need to wake up at midnight and do monitoring, etc. It does everything. It also sends precautionary alerts. If a job or activity is running for more than the specified time, it alerts the application team. So, our teams do not need to sit in front of a laptop or any open application to watch the jobs. They can do their other regular activities while Control-M takes care of all the jobs. It notifies them when there is job completion, delay, and error."

"In Helix Control-M, we have the automation API that allows us to customize and do integrations easily in any script, such as Java or Python. It is all integrated within the integration API."

"Control-M is useful to automate all critical and non-critical processes. Using Control-M, we can automate application workflows as well as file transfers involved in application workflows. We can also use it to run batches related to applications. Automating these processes reduces the RTO and RPO, which helps in the case of failures. It also helps us to identify bottlenecks and take corrective measures."

"Because it's a tool which allows us to do scheduled work, it allows for notifications when jobs aren't running within that scheduled time frame. This improves the opportunity to meet SLAs."

"Control-M has improved our organization's functions by supporting high availability and integrating with CI/CD workflows."

"We have a better picture of our auditability. When someone comes to us, and asks for sources, "How did the deltas occur?" We can provide answers quickly, or at least quicker than what we used to. We are actually sure of the information that we provide, where before it was like, "Hmm, I think it comes from over there. Let me double check, but it gets really convoluted over here and I think that is where it comes from." Now, if it is within the Control-M environment, it has a straightforward answer that we can provide with confidence."

More Control-M pros

"It has competitive AI capabilities."

"The interface of the solution is very user friendly and it is easily accessible via a simple URL. This makes it easier to complete the UI based tasks but using other features require expertise in languages like Java. But along with that, there are limitation in terms of network connectivity testing and administrator faces regular challenges in conducting connectivity tests due to these limitations."

"The solution effectively automates business processes."

"It's scalable."

"The data visualization is good."

"Employee onboarding, de-boarding, and other service-provision features make the process easier and it saves us a lot of time."

"Great with IT processes and business processes."

"There are a lot of ready to use orchestration custom packs."

More ServiceNow Orchestration pros

Cons

"Control-M doesn't have any dynamic reporting facilities or features."

"Control-M reporting isn't that good. It is very limited. We would like the ability to create our own reports as well as the ability to publish dashboards in the cloud, which would help us. Improved reporting will help us determine statuses and get the answers that we need. However, I personally think BMC is not focusing on the reporting. I have even visited the BMC office in India, and asked, "Why haven't you improved the reporting?""

"Sometimes, with technical support, they will take feedback, but you don't know where that feedback goes or if it proceeds along in the thought process."

"The UI can be challenging for new users due to its learning curve. Additionally, there are some errors during automation. More detailed logs would be helpful."

"Its installation can be better. Currently, we have to install it manually. The file transfer feature can also be improved. It is not very easy to transfer a file from business to business. In terms of new features, they can include new technologies. It can have API integration."

"You need to pay for extra features if you need them."

"The UI can be challenging for new users due to its learning curve."

"The biggest improvement they could have is better QA testing before releases come out the door."

More Control-M cons

"From my space, the only thing that I can say is the spinning up with Google Cloud Services."

"Frequent upgrades may negatively impact the performance of instances. Therefore, for now, I don't recommend any additional upgrades."

"I would like a user experience module to be added."

"Efficiency of some features could be improved."

"It is a highly complex platform to work on."

"The deployment requires awareness among the project staff."

"The flow rate for releases and updates is very, very slow and does not meet customers' objectives for scalability."

"We cannot perform GUI automation using the tool."

More ServiceNow Orchestration cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of the hardware is high. Because you need to license each job, it is costly."

"The pricing and licensing could be better. However, when I compare Control-M pricing with JAMS, Control-M is still better priced than JAMS enterprise."

"The cost is basically $100 a job, give or take."

"This is an area where it is a little difficult to work with BMC. They want to do licenses by job, which is what we have. For example, the simplest is to license by job, but they can also license by nodes. While the licensing is simple to use, it might not be the correct licensing model for the customer. It is okay because we want to license by job, which is something measurable. At the end of the day, licensing by job is the most important."

"We have a license till 2024. We are good and satisfied with it."

"It is not bad. The company can afford it, and it pays for itself. We have those jobs running automatically."

"Pricing can be steep, but you get what you pay for."

"Cost-wise, it is good."

More Control-M pricing and cost advice

"It is not very expensive."

"It is quite expensive because we've had some customers come back and say it's quite pricey because in order for them to go ahead with Orchestration, they must have already been paying for Discovery, service mapping, and a few other things."

"This is an expensive product, but it is the best in the market considering the features and lack of competitors."

"The solution is costly and orchestrations are very expensive."

"The cost of the solution is based on the number of plugins, conductors and integrations used and is charged annually. The licensing cause has been increasing gradually which makes it difficult to access. Initially offer free features but over the time the charges rise which make it an expensive solution with limited features. Along with that, the integration issues persist and require additional middle where and internet connectivity for effective usage."

"Pricing is custom to every customer."

"In terms of price, this solution is at the higher end of what you'll find."

"ServiceNow doesn't give a clear cost indication. They have different contracts with different organizations and it's all about negotiation, so you don't know how they are doing at the cost level."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Control-M?

Pricing is generally affordable, though some features cost a bit more.

See all answers

What do you like most about ServiceNow Orchestration?

The interface of the solution is very user friendly and it is easily accessible via a simple URL. This makes it easier to complete the UI based tasks but using other features require expertise in l...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Orchestration?

Pricing is custom to every customer.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Orchestration?

There is a lot of complexity in the platform, but that comes with the scalability. It is a highly complex platform to work on. There are changes in their workflow technology, and the flow technolog...

See all answers

Comparisons

AutoSys Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 19% of the time

IBM Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 8% of the time

Automic Automation vs Control-M

Compared 8% of the time

Redwood RunMyJobs vs Control-M

Compared 6% of the time

HCL Workload Automation vs Control-M

Compared 2% of the time

More Control-M Competitors

Camunda vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 55% of the time

IBM BPM vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 7% of the time

Temporal vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft System Center Orchestrator vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 4% of the time

BIC Process Execution vs ServiceNow Orchestration

Compared 4% of the time

More ServiceNow Orchestration Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Control-M

January 2025

Download Control-M product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Orchestration

December 2024

Download ServiceNow Orchestration product report

Also Known As

Control M

No data available

Learn More

BMC

ServiceNow

Overview

Control-M is used for enterprise workload automation, orchestrating finance, retail, healthcare, and supply chain processes. It handles batch job scheduling, managed file transfers, cloud integrations, and compliance auditing across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Organizations leverage Control-M to efficiently monitor and manage business-critical processes like payroll, HR, SAP, Informatica, and database tasks. It enhances visibility, security, and error resolution. Automating and optimizing workflows in data centers, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform, Control-M supports diverse technological environments. The platform's robust capabilities make it suitable for effective centralized management of applications and data pipelines, ensuring enhanced collaboration and scalability.

What are Control-M's most important features?

Integration capabilities: Seamlessly integrates with various systems
Automation API: Facilitates automation through APIs
Managed File Transfer: Simplifies secure file transfers
GUI console: Intuitive graphical user interface
Role-based administration: Provides access control
Single-pane view: Centralized monitoring dashboard
Scheduling options: Flexible job scheduling
Workflow orchestration: Coordinates complex workflows
Reporting: Generates insightful reports
Monitoring: Tracks and manages tasks
Forecasting: Predicts future workloads
Self-service portal: Empowers users with self-service tools
Plugins: Extends functionality through additional plugins

What are the benefits or ROI of using Control-M?

Enhanced visibility: Centralized view of all processes
Ease of use: User-friendly interface
Error reduction: Minimizes manual errors
Improved collaboration: Facilitates teamwork
Scalability: Supports growth and scale
Support: Comprehensive customer support

Control-M is implemented in industries like finance to handle payroll and HR tasks, in retail for inventory management and supply chain processes, and in healthcare for compliance auditing and patient data processing. Organizations benefit from streamlined workflows and automated processes across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, ensuring efficient and secure operations.

ServiceNow is the fastest-growing enterprise cloud software company in the world above $1 billion (2018 revenue was $2.6 billion, up 36% year over year). We deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity to approximately 5,400 enterprise customers worldwide, including almost 75% of the Fortune 500.

Sample Customers

CARFAX, Tampa General Hospital, Navistar, Amadeus, Raymond James, Railinc

experian, BEACHBODY, HealthPartners, Banosoft

Buyer's Guide

Control-M vs. ServiceNow Orchestration

January 2025

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