We use it for our telco-base. We are getting events from their VTS, like different telecommunication sites, and then processing it through another IBM tool called the Impact. This converts them into incident responses or service requests, or tickets. It's then escalated to the respective clients. Once the issue is resolved, and the ticket is closed, it's informed to the client and the user.
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.
They keep on continuously adding new features. You might have seen the chat option, and the integration is also an API-based product, and everything can be integrated.
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 have been using IBM SmartCloud Control Desk for the last 13 years.
It's quite a stable product.
It's scalable.
To be honest, it's very hard to find an expert the first time. Maybe they initially get assigned to level one. Then after the initial investigation, move to level two and then gradually move on. I don't have any complaints at the moment.
The initial setup is straightforward. Basically, for all the solutions like JIRA and cloud desk solutions, you need not go for the installation. You would just need to subscribe. But for the on-prem solution, the initial setup is a normal one.
We provide pre-sales and after-sales services. We implement the solution, and then we provide after implementation services. Now we have a contract for the next five years to provide support services for clients.
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.
If anyone is looking to adopt any helpdesk solutions, they must go for this product. If a company is willing to go for any cloud-based applications, this is the best product for them. My recommendation is to go for IBM Control Desk.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give IBM SmartCloud Control Desk a seven.
