Control-M Managed File Transfer

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer  is extensively used by our clients mainly in the BFSI sector, where we see around 5,000 to 10,000 file transfers for a few critical customers. We use it for data from their vendors who provide inputs for their end clients, including insurance agents who provide data in these files, facilitating both B2B and B2C processes.

Regarding the usability of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer , I have been using it since 2009, and I have encountered no issues. I appreciate that no code is required, it is centrally managed through account management, validations are in place, and file transfers are tracked in an audit through which account they occur. It is one of my favorite solutions, existing since 1980, and I have written a lot of papers on Control-M , including one on my LinkedIn called 'A Leader's Journey' before BMC published the journey of Control-M .

My impressions of application workflow orchestration with BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer are that it is a fantastic tool I have been using for 16 years. I have even received appreciation from the development team in Israel, stating that no one has used the solution to the extent that my team and I have for one of our customers. The orchestration process allows easy accessibility to different applications, and it facilitates configuring with drag-and-drop functionality to set dependencies.

If you can share an email, I can provide pointers on potential improvements for BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer, focusing on customer-centric enhancements. For example, providing checksums for file metadata in reports could significantly help with file transfers.

I have been working with BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer for more than three to four years.

Regarding stability, there were some issues reported during implementation and usage by our customers, but I would rate it an eight out of ten.

The scalability of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is impressive due to its ability to handle large quantities of data and files, but there are certain features that could be added to make it a game changer.

From a support perspective, BMC technical support needs improvements. There are novice users needing help, but for customers such as us, who have been using the solution for over a decade, the response needs to be more timely and efficient, utilizing L2 and L3 support effectively.

The initial setup process for BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is very simple for us, as it requires a component to be deployed in the DMZ, from where the file gets transferred centrally to the server.

We are the premium partners for BMC products implementations, recognized as Bihom partner of the year multiple times. I have deployed BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer since 2011 for our customers, and it has been working flawlessly, with people speaking highly about the solution as the heart of their organization.

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer has indeed helped our clients reduce IT operation costs. For instance, I implemented it for one of the largest banks in 2012, which reduced their loan process sanction from four days to just two hours, and now it completes in 30 minutes. Additionally, the timeline for the policy dispatch to insurance end clients, which initially took up to ten days, now happens in two hours.

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer has some competitors in the market, but according to the Forrester and Gartner reports, nobody is even close to this solution, and I prefer not to use open source options.

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is my favorite product, so while I would typically rate it around 9.7 or 9.8, I would ultimately assign it a rating of 10.

Mostly, customers need to perform file transfers, which is a main use case for many customers. Many customers I worked with use various kinds of file transfers, and I use BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer for this purpose.

This solution affects our organization's business modernization initiatives as BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer can remove silos. When you don't have an orchestration product, many departments perform tasks in an isolated way. With our orchestration, I can integrate legacy assets with modern assets. Technology is always reinvented, so you have to handle backward technology and gain business advantages when you use new technologies. Using BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer for orchestration is the best definition for this.

I use BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer as a core feature. The best features with MFT are accurate file transfer and visibility for file transfers.

Regarding the usability of MFT, it is very easy and powerful to use.

BMC has made some improvements for this product. For example, I can use MFT inside my company and then use MFT Enterprise to exchange files with external users.

I have noticed more features and enhancements for this product in the latest releases. BMC Control-M's Application Workflow Orchestration is very advanced.

While I am unsure if BMC is a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, they have been working in this area for many years and have improved their product.

The solution has helped reduce IT operation costs.

BMC is already improving in artificial intelligence and integration with cloud. AI can improve and is definitely an area where BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer continues to enhance.

I have good feedback for the deployment because when customers show challenges, we can perform a smooth deployment for this solution.

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer helps to reduce costs. When you have control of your entire production, you can be proactive and control your SLAs. You can save substantial money just by having control of everything.

It saves significant time. Here is one use case: when you don't have visibility of your infrastructure, you have a misconception that everything is fine, however, when you discover that some processes have not been handled properly, you will discover this too late. When you discover something is late, you will lose money and time. However, when you have everything under control with BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer, you can be proactive and prevent scenarios where you lose money and time because time is money.

This is the main benefit; when you have everything under control, it prevents you from losing money and time.

On a scale of one to ten, I rate this solution a ten.

In my job, we mainly use BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer  for processes like recharge and billing requirements and customer data management, which we handle using Control-M  MFT  and scheduling jobs.

Based on my experience, BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer  provides significant benefits for our company by facilitating communication and data transfer between numerous databases and servers, ensuring we maintain only the necessary files while removing old ones. When commuicating between one server to another, from one team to another, MFT  helps a lot.

The advanced feature of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer is what I find most valuable, as it allows for numerous operations, such as stopping the entire processing if the source file fails and replacing the destination with new files if there's a failure.

The solution has definitely improved application reliability and SLA in our company, as SLA is crucial in my organization, helping to reduce the SLA and maintain the MTTR.

The usability is quite good for tracking a large number of files. To try tracking a large number of files from source to destination, it's it takes a lot of efforts if done manually. So MFT helps a lot with automating that process.

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer already works great, though there could be improvements for transferring large files, particularly those that are in gigabytes, as it sometimes poses problems.

I have been working with BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer for four or more years.

I would rate the stability of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer an eight out of ten, with two points off due to issues with transferring gigabyte files.

In terms of scalability, I would rate BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer a nine out of ten for its ability to scale and expand.

For BMC technical support, I would rate it a seven out of ten. Sometimes the support is not readily available, and they often request the same information multiple times, with delays in providing solutions.

I don't have experience with competitor products, as my experience is solely with BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer.

We do the deployment process of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer in-house, and our team recently developed a BladeLogic job that automates Control-M  agent deployment, fulfilling all prerequisites such as FS need, FS size need, and Java need.

The deployment process, in general, is simple. You can upgrade as well quite easily.

We handle the implementation in-house.

BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer has definitely helped to reduce IT operations cost, as maintaining files manually takes a lot of human time, and this automation significantly alleviates that burden.

The pricing for licensing has increased. I'd rate the pricing three out of ten.

Regarding workflow orchestration, I haven't quite used that part of BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer yet. I am totally satisfied with the functionality of the BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer product.

I would definitely recommend BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer solution to other users.

Overall, I would rate BMC Control-M Managed File Transfer an eight out of ten.

I use Control-M  as a scheduling product. It runs batch job schedules, and I can run file transfers with it. However, it is primarily a scheduling product rather than a file transfer product. It is involved in health insurance as well.

The reporting and the analytics that I can generate out of my schedules are valuable. It is one of the tier-one control schedulers, so it integrates with quite a few other solutions.

Additionally, it has a nice API, so I can call it from different products. I think the key thing is that 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.

There is not much room for improvement. It already has a GUI and even a mobile app, although I don't use it. It is adequate for most scheduling needs. Offering it as open source for free would be great, however, that's unlikely.

The solution is used by probably about five to ten people.

The stability is very good.

It scales well, except for the cost. I have to pay per agent per server, which could be prohibitive for some organizations.

I find the customer service to be excellent. BMC provides excellent service. I would definitely rate it a ten out of ten.

The interface is better with Control-M than with Borkom's Atomic Engine or AE, the old UC  four product. The interface is cleaner with Control-M.

I have set it up a few times, and overall, it is pretty straightforward.

Since I'm not the vendor, I'm not going to disclose that information. The product has enough options to disable features that could expose proprietary information.

One feature is that I can look at the output of a job, however, that can be disabled with security. It integrates LDAP and Active Directory authentication processes, making it secure and compliant.

Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten. We are just customers and not partners or resellers.

In my previous organization, which was in the banking domain, most of the Control-M  jobs were related to finance, including SAP, file processing, and payroll generation. Currently, I am working in the healthcare industry, where Control-M  is used mostly for claim settlement and process flows.

The most valuable feature is the automation process. Manual tasks like scanning claims at a hospital or dispensary are automated with Control-M, greatly reducing time and effort for processing and saving data. This process previously consumed a lot of time when done manually.

Most improvements are related to cloud connectivity. It would be beneficial to have cloud integration tools for services like AWS  and Azure . Currently, batch flows integrate through modules but don't connect directly, which could be enhanced for better efficiency.

I have around 13.5 years of experience in both scheduling and administration with Control-M.

There are no stability issues mentioned, and everything is automated. In case of application failure, I get involved, otherwise, the monitoring team takes care of the operations.

The support was better previously. Nowadays, the support is less responsive and accurate, unlike the past ten years when the solutions and responses were much more reliable.

Other tools I compare with include AWS , Redwood, and TWS. However, Control-M stands out due to its user-friendly graphical interface, unlike TWS, which is command-based and hard to use.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate the initial setup of Control-M a ten out of ten due to my familiarity with the tool. However, some users face difficulties with the web interface.

I am the architect along with two other team members who work with Control-M. We handle design, including servers, databases, and connections.

Other solutions considered include AWS, Redwood, and TWS.

I would definitely recommend Control-M because it is a reliable tool expected to remain relevant for the next twenty to thirty years. I rate it ten out of ten.