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IBM SmartCloud Control Desk pros and cons

Vendor: IBM
3.8 out of 5
501 followers
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Pros & Cons summary

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk offers flexibility, agility, and centralized management, allowing for quick adaptions and SLA integrations. Though enriched by IBM's global support, the application faces challenges in reporting, slow support response, and complex time calculations. Its effective automated workflows contrast with difficulties in service portal dialog creation and minor document issues. Continued enhancements in business intelligence and user feedback are needed to boost its appeal for tech buyers.

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Its flexibility and agility allow users to quickly adapt IBM SmartCloud Control Desk to their needs, making it highly valuable.
The IBM brand name provides added value due to its global support and reputable standing as a non-open source solution.
Centralization is a key feature, allowing all requests and their management to be consolidated in one place.
The workflow capability automates the helpdesk operation, effectively managing the complete cycle from initiation to resolution, and easily integrates with monitoring solutions.
Service request features and IT asset management, which track asset ownership, are highly appreciated aspects of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk.

CONS

Support response time is a major issue that needs improvement.
Reporting and business intelligence features require more flexibility and enhancement.
Time calculations in reports could be improved for better usability.
Users face challenges with data types in service portal dialogs, requiring database changes for functionality.
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk operates on outdated Java technology, lacking modern web-based service features.
 

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk Pros review quotes

KM
Jan 26, 2020
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.
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KM
Jan 12, 2022
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.
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KM
Aug 30, 2022
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.
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IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
December 2024
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ES
Jan 14, 2021
The solution is very easy to work with.
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ES
Jan 14, 2021
SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable.
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AS
Aug 25, 2020
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.
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reviewer1092753 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 24, 2021
The solution has been stable.
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SP
May 18, 2021
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.
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Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 22, 2018
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.
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IBM SmartCloud Control Desk Cons review quotes

KM
Jan 26, 2020
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.
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KM
Jan 12, 2022
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.
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KM
Aug 30, 2022
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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Buyer's Guide
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
December 2024
Free Report: IBM SmartCloud Control Desk Reviews and More
Learn what your peers think about IBM SmartCloud Control Desk. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
DOWNLOAD NOW
824,067 professionals have used our research since 2012.
ES
Jan 14, 2021
The reporting in relation to updating could be improved upon.
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ES
Jan 14, 2021
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.
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AS
Aug 25, 2020
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.
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reviewer1092753 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 24, 2021
The solution lacks a graphical user interface.
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SP
May 18, 2021
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.
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Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 22, 2018
It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool.
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