My main use case for Control-M is job scheduling. I use Control-M for job scheduling by scheduling jobs for the asset team, like OS jobs, MFT jobs, and AFT jobs. I exclusively use Control-M for scheduling.
Control-M SaaS
BMC SoftwareExternal reviews
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Reliable Automation with a Learning Curve
What do you like best about the product?
I like Control-M's reliability and centralized job management, which ensures that workflows run consistently without frequent issues, providing confidence that critical jobs will execute on time. The monitoring and alerting features provide real-time visibility into job status, making it easy to track running, completed, or failed jobs. If a job fails, it quickly alerts, allowing for prompt issue identification and resolution. I also really appreciate how Control-M handles job dependencies and complex workflows smoothly, even with multiple systems and applications involved, which reduces the need for manual coordination. Overall, Control-M simplifies daily operations, reduces stress for support teams, and enhances overall efficiency by automating and streamlining workload management.
What do you dislike about the product?
While Control-M is a very powerful and reliable tool, there are a few areas where it could be improved. The biggest challenge is the initial learning curve. For new users, especially beginners, the UI and configuration options can feel a bit complex at first. If onboarding and tutorials were more beginner-friendly, it could make adoption easier. Another area is the user interface, which sometimes feels slightly dated and overwhelming due to the number of options available on a single screen. A more simplified or customizable UI would improve the overall user experience. Additionally, the licensing cost is on the higher side, which may not be ideal for small teams or organizations. More flexible pricing options would make it accessible to a wider range of users. That said, these are minor concerns compared to the stability and functionality Control-M provides in enterprise environments.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Control-M to automate, schedule, and monitor batch jobs across environments, saving time and reducing errors. It solves manual and error-prone job execution, manages complex dependencies, and provides real-time monitoring, improving reliability and operational clarity.
Streamlines Scheduling with Room for Improvement
What do you like best about the product?
I use Control-M to monitor automated jobs and manage workflow, which is very helpful for scheduling tasks and handling alerts. I like that it ensures smooth and reliable application operation daily. Control-M reduces manual monitoring, prevents job failures, improves workflow visibility, and ensures timely task execution. It simplifies control with its centralized scheduling, which improves visibility and reduces errors. Automating cross-job dependencies is also done efficiently.
What do you dislike about the product?
I find the UI complexity a bit of a challenge. The licensing cost can be high, which is something to consider. There's also a steep learning curve involved, which can be daunting at first. Additionally, the limited cloud-native flexibility restricts some operations.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Control-M to monitor automated jobs, manage workflow, and schedule tasks. It reduces manual monitoring, prevents job failures, improves workflow visibility, and minimizes downtime. Control-M centralizes scheduling, simplifies control, reduces errors, and automates cross-job dependencies.
Automation has saved hours of manual scheduling and improves monitoring for complex jobs
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The best features Control-M offers include monitoring, planning, and forecast. Planning stands out the most for me in Control-M, as it helps me to schedule jobs.
Control-M has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to automate a lot of manual activities, so we are saving time.
What needs improvement?
Control-M can be improved with GUI features such as job failure monitoring, where the duration can be increased from 30 days to one year so that we can monitor long durations of job failures.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Control-M for 11 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Control-M is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Control-M is good.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Control-M is fine.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Negative
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing indicates that it is cheaper than other automation tools in the market.
What about the implementation team?
We require five staff members for deployment and maintenance, and they all are consultants.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment, specifically in terms of money saved. We are saving a lot of time, as many activities that used to take around three to four hours by manual activity have been reduced to 30 minutes to one hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing indicates that it is cheaper than other automation tools in the market.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Control-M, I did not evaluate other options.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Control-M is that it is easy to use, flexible, and stable. The features in Control-M are good, and the GUI of Control-M is actually very fantastic.
Currently, 500 users are using Control-M in my organization, where the majority of them are from the application team and a few are admin and schedulers. Control-M is currently used extensively, and while we do not have plans to increase its usage, we are using Control-M in different domains.
The biggest lesson I have learned from using Control-M is that it makes automation easy. It is easy to integrate Control-M with technologies for my data ops and DevOps processes as things change. I have automated activities on the Linux server while integrating with Control-M.
I would rate this product a 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Automation has reduced batch time and now needs more features and wider adoption
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Control-M is to schedule jobs and automate the workflow. A specific example of a workflow I've scheduled and automated with Control-M is a batch flow through which a number of customers receive an automated message about their transaction details on their mobile phones using Control-M jobs.
What is most valuable?
The best features Control-M offers include automating large workflows, allowing us to run jobs on a scheduled time basis, and requiring no manual intervention.
What stands out to me about the automation and scheduling is the error notification service, which I find very helpful because we do not have to monitor our jobs on a daily basis. Whenever there is an error, the team receives notification regarding the job failure, which makes our work easier.
Control-M has positively impacted my organization by saving a considerable amount of time, and manual intervention is not required for most operations because most things are automated with Control-M. I work as part of the batch operations team, and we used to run Indian batches which typically took around two hours on a daily basis. With the help of automating the batch through Control-M, the batch now takes approximately fifteen to twenty minutes to execute and run, which means we save around one to one and a half hours on a daily basis.
What needs improvement?
Control-M could be improved by offering more additional features and ensuring that more people are aware of Control-M.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Control-M for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Control-M is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Control-M's scalability is good.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Control-M is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What about the implementation team?
For the deployment and maintenance of Control-M, we require majorly four teams: one is needed for operations, one is needed for scheduling the jobs, and one is needed for maintaining Control-M.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others looking into using Control-M that it is a good tool if you want workload automation to be done and if you want to save time. I have given this review a rating of seven out of ten.
Empowers Seamless Workflow Automation
What do you like best about the product?
Control-M is a powerhouse orchestrator that simplifies complex enterprise workflows by connecting diverse technologies into a single automated stream. I appreciate the Automation API, which treats complex enterprise workflows as simple versionable code. Treating workflows as versionable JSON code aligns automation with my React development cycle, enabling seamless CI/CD integration with peer review and instant rollback. I integrate Control-M with GitHub and Jenkins to automate deployments, ensuring my React frontend only updates once backend data pipelines successfully finish. The switch to Control-M from legacy tools like AutoSys or Tidal offers better cloud integrations and a Jobs as Code API approach.
What do you dislike about the product?
I don't like the high licensing costs, which can be a hurdle. The GUI is outdated, making it less appealing for modern and fast-moving frontend development. Also, the initial setup is complex, often requiring significant infrastructure configuration before developers can start coding workflows.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Control-M simplifies complex enterprise workflows into a single automated stream and ensures reliable data flows in my React app. It aligns automation with my React cycle, enabling seamless CI/CD integration through versionable JSON code, supporting peer review and instant rollback.
Control M Makes Debugging Easier with Predictable, Proactive Error Handling
What do you like best about the product?
The debugging part , where we usually get in this mess where we cant figure out the flaws or the errors take place , but control m helps anticipating the issues with predectiable operations along the rate of error handeling increases we can have a early hand on the things before they do get noticed.
What do you dislike about the product?
There’s very little here for a frontend developer or a full-stack guy. Also, there might be agent issues they just pop up at times. It would be a little better if there were a roadmap for beginners on what to do.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Hey, I just like to explore things at times. For now, I’m not actively using it, but I really love the report handling and generation for every run it does. It cuts down a lot of the time I used to spend making my reports for my boss.
Centralized Dashboard and Visual Dependency Mapping That Simplify Workflow Orchestration
What do you like best about the product?
Orchestration focus: "I love the centralized dashboard that gives me a single view of all workflows across on-prem and cloud. It simplifies complex job dependencies so I don't have to check multiple systems manually".
Visibility focus: "The visual dependency mapping is excellent. It helps me understand exactly how different systems depend on each other and see where a delay might impact later steps in the process".
Visibility focus: "The visual dependency mapping is excellent. It helps me understand exactly how different systems depend on each other and see where a delay might impact later steps in the process".
What do you dislike about the product?
The initial learning curve is quite steep for new team members, and the licensing cost is on the higher end of the market. Also, the legacy desktop interface can feel a bit cluttered compared to modern web-based tools.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Control-M solves the problem of managing fragmented workflows across our hybrid cloud environment. By centralizing our job scheduling, we've reduced manual monitoring by 50% and significantly lowered our risk of missing critical business SLAs through its proactive alerting system.
Reliable Automation with Initial Setup Challenges
What do you like best about the product?
I find Control-M to be a powerful workload automation solution that provides centralized visibility and control over complex solutions. It is widely used in enterprise IT environments to manage complex jobs, eliminating manual job execution and handling complex job dependencies. I also appreciate how it improves visibility across processes.
What do you dislike about the product?
The initial setup and configuration process is complex and time-consuming. There are limitations in customizing the dashboard. The installation and configuration needed proper support.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Control-M eliminates manual job execution, handles complex job dependencies, and improves visibility in our enterprise IT environment.
Automation has reduced manual jobs and now supports high-volume 24x7 operations efficiently
What is our primary use case?
My use case with Control-M is for job automation and job scheduling. Instead of making 10 different technologies where we need to run jobs, automation allows us to reduce the number of people needed. Cost-cutting is significant; instead of 10 people, we can handle the work with only one or two people.
What is most valuable?
The best features in Control-M that I like the most are job scheduling and monitoring.
Earlier, I worked for many clients, and currently I am working for Zurich, Japan. There, we used different vendors such as Infosys, Cognizant, DXC Technologies, and two others. The project operates 24/7 as an insurance project where transactions happen during daytime, so we need to run jobs during nighttime as well to upload data, take backups, and complete other necessary tasks. Instead of managing this manually, I have automated everything related to job scheduling and job configuration.
What needs improvement?
The areas that have room for improvement are the GUI to make it more user-friendly. The interface is very easy, very good, and secure. Currently, I have not found any significant improvements needed. Every year the versions improve, and everything is progressing well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Control-M for almost 16 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Control-M is a stable product, and I would rate it 10 as a stable product.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is an eight out of 10. It is easy to upscale or downscale.
How are customer service and support?
I can give the technical support a nine out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
With Control-M, I compare the solution with other solutions I have worked on such as TWS (Tivoli Workload Scheduler), CA7, AutoSys, Tivoli DC (Tivoli Workload Dynamic Schedule), and Job Scheduling Console. I find that Control-M is more secure compared with the firewall system.
How was the initial setup?
Deployment is very easy with no issues.
What about the implementation team?
For the clients, they have to buy licenses, which are reasonable.
What was our ROI?
With Control-M, I would recommend implementing this product. It is a more secure solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution requires easy maintenance because most of the time we take care of it on weekends like Saturday and Sunday, or during public holidays.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
There is nothing difficult about integration. It is very easy to integrate technologies for data ops and DevOps processes.
What other advice do I have?
Currently, I am taking care of almost 10,000 jobs in an insurance company.
I would assess the BMC service team for helping map out migration as effective. For migrations, we perform them in development first. We configure the jobs in development, then move to SAT testing, UAT testing, and ST testing, and then to pre-production and production. If there are more jobs, we do migrations on weekends, on Saturday and Sunday, or at midnight one day before.
Deployment takes approximately one or two days and depends on the job types. Installing Control-M can take up to one or two days maximum. For scheduling, we need to configure different agents in different vendor systems such as UNIX systems, Informatica systems, or Tandem systems. For these configurations, we need to install the agents and define them in Control-M.
To make the solution a 10, there could be more automation. I would rate this review overall as a 9.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Workflow orchestration has boosted productivity while DevOps integration still needs simplification
What is our primary use case?
I have multiple use cases in Control-M. I have used MFT, SAP R/3, SAP BW, the File Watcher, the Informatica module, and OS scripts. I have used almost most of the modules in Control-M.
I have worked with multiple companies over the past eight years. In one of the companies, we are the partner, and in one of the companies, currently we are the customer for Control-M.
What is most valuable?
In Control-M, what I appreciate the most is the visualization and the orchestration it provides to us. I have used other scheduling tools also, such as Autosys and cron jobs. Control-M has multiple features, including one in the MFT where we can perform seamless file transfer. I have not seen this kind of file transfer without a script, with just the help of a GUI. We can perform the file transfer with multiple domains, multiple platforms, and multiple servers. I feel this is excellent. We can even integrate Control-M to ServiceNow, where it is a ticketing partner. If the job fails, it will directly create incidents, P2, P1, and so on. The integration is seamless. I really appreciate these features in Control-M.
Year on year, I am seeing upgradations from Control-M. Earlier when I started my career, I was using Control-M version 7. The GUI was adequate. However, now every year, they have upgraded their tool. They have even released the web version of Control-M with browse-only access for others. I am purely the scheduler and administrator of Control-M. Control-M is my day-to-day activity. I go to clients to gather business requirements and pitch how we can integrate Control-M into their processes. I can see that Control-M is performing well. We have seen many new features. Recently, they have integrated AWS where we are performing file transfer directly from AWS S3 to other partners. I feel this is a good tool, and they are evolving. They are enabling us to evolve better as well.
I can say around twenty to twenty-five percent productivity increase has been realized, and even the margins have been increased. The resources have also been reduced with the integration of Control-M to other ticketing tools and other systems. I can see at least fifteen to twenty percent of the company's revenue has been increased at the infrastructure level by using Control-M.
What needs improvement?
With DevOps, I feel it is somewhat challenging. We have to use Control-M APIs. I do not see a simple drag and drop interface, similar to what we use for Control-M job creation. It is not that straightforward when we have to integrate with other APIs such as Git and other partners for DevOps, Snowflake, and all. I do not see it is that easy, but we can integrate. We need an API that is more user-friendly. I suggest that BMC provides plug-and-play APIs so that we can integrate with multiple applications.
In Control-M, the area that needs improvement is related to the cost. I have checked with other customers, and the licensing cost is somewhat heavy compared to other competitors. A few of the customers are transitioning away from Control-M because those tools are not yet as sophisticated. However, due to the cost and purchasing structure in their businesses, they are moving towards other tools. I recommend BMC to reduce the licensing cost. That is one of the major drawbacks of BMC. Regarding maintenance, I have heard that in the SaaS model, they are only performing administrative functions. However, the current three-layer architecture of BMC is somewhat complex. For beginners, they will not understand the Enterprise Manager, the Control-M servers, and the Control-M agent points. If BMC integrates Control-M EM and the servers in one part of the architecture, it will be helpful. It will make it easier for everyone to use Control-M.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Control-M for the past eight to nine years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I can rate the stability an eight. I do not see many unstable issues. I can say it is most of the time stable. If it is unstable, it is because of our Control-M server issue, not the BMC issue. Due to the high CPU utilization of our servers or any kind of network issues within our internal on-premises servers, it will go down. However, I do not see any issues from BMC.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I can rate the scalability one hundred percent. It is a scalable solution. However, at the end of the day, it is a matter of licensing cost, whatever we are paying to BMC. They are charging upwards of fifty dollars per job or twenty-nine thousand dollars per year. It is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
My impressions of BMC as a strategic partner or a trusted advisor are positive. They are prompt in providing solutions. Whenever we have a P1 or P2 incident raised to BMC, they will mostly resolve it within the ETA. A few things they still need to upgrade. They will send those queries to their R&D, and they will get back to us. However, overall, with the licensing or with customer interaction or those kinds of things, we can trust them for a few more years.
I can rate the technical support a seven. I rate it a seven because a few of the technical staff who attend to our queries do not have the knowledge about major issues. If there is any major impact or major issue, they will also not know about it. They will say they will check with R&D and they will get back. The ETA will be somewhat high for P2s and P3s. Only for P1s, they will come on the call and they will try to resolve. I cannot say they are the worst or the best. They are adequate.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What other advice do I have?
I one hundred percent recommend Control-M to our customers, the clients, and the multiple companies I have worked with. I will recommend BMC as an advanced scheduling tool for orchestration. There are areas of improvements for BMC as well. As the trend is going towards AI now, I have heard they are working on it, but we have not seen that in our versions of Control-M. However, as the trend is going towards more AI and generative AI, if they release anything related to AI in Control-M, such as a chatbot or something where if a job fails, a chatbot can tell how it has failed, that would be beneficial. We are spending half an hour to one hour to find the root cause of how a Control-M job has failed. If they do something about it, that would help significantly. We have multiple AI solutions coming up. If we can schedule those AI solutions through Control-M as well, it will be at par with the industry standards now. Otherwise, it will become legacy. I recommend this to all my customers because I feel this is one of the best advanced scheduling tools I have used. I can see very few competitors to Control-M as of now.
The solution was a partner purchase from one of the clients I am working for. They have purchased it. We also have an AWS module they have purchased from BMC.
The deployment has presented challenges a few times due to the compatibility issues of Control-M software with the other servers. It might be due to the Java version or some glitch in the patches we are receiving from BMC. A few times it is challenging. It is not straightforward. We need experienced resources or a proper administrator to redeploy this kind of thing.
My current relationship with BMC is both transformative and transactional. I am involved in both the licensing and technology upgrades. Recently, I have attended one of their roadshow events in Bengaluru. We are constantly in touch with the BMC customer. They have one dedicated customer support manager for our team. We will be in touch with them for any of the features or any cost or anything related to renewal of the licenses and everything.
My organization has more than one hundred employees. In only one office, it is one hundred. If I consider my overall company who are using Control-M, it is around one thousand plus employees using Control-M.
I have provided this review with an overall rating of seven.
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