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CA Service Management

CA Service Management

Overview

What is CA Service Management?

CA Service Management, including CA Desk Manager, is a fully-featured ITSM platform, now from Broadcom. It competes with BMC Remedy, ServiceNow, FrontRange ITSM, Cherwell Service Management etc. It is based on technology acquired by CA in 2010 with Nimsoft, and…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Customers have found that this product offers a convenient self-service option for logging their own tickets and referencing existing …
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Service Desk review

3 out of 10
September 15, 2015
Incentivized
Service Desk is being used by the whole organization (and recently some external users) and is used to track and escalate problems and …
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CA SDM review

8 out of 10
July 11, 2014
Incentivized
  • Increased productivity of consumers, IT teams and management
  • Reduced number of Service Desk tickets
  • Faster service restoration
  • Clearer …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 13 features
  • Organize and prioritize service tickets (6)
    9.7
    97%
  • Self-service tools (6)
    8.6
    86%
  • Service restoration (6)
    8.4
    84%
  • Subscription-based notifications (6)
    7.9
    79%
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Pricing

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N/A
Unavailable

What is CA Service Management?

CA Service Management, including CA Desk Manager, is a fully-featured ITSM platform, now from Broadcom. It competes with BMC Remedy, ServiceNow, FrontRange ITSM, Cherwell Service Management etc. It is based on technology acquired by CA in 2010 with Nimsoft, and is now supported by Broadcom since…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Alternatives Pricing

What is ServiceNow IT Service Management?

ServiceNow is a fast-growing service management provider that went public in 2012. Built on the ServiceNow Now Platform, the IT Service Management bundle provides an agent workspace with knowledge management, and modules supporting issue tracking and problem resolution, change, release and…

What is ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?

ServiceDesk Plus is free help desk software from ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corporation.

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Features

Incident and problem management

Streamlining ticketing and service restoration processes

8.6
Avg 8.1

ITSM asset management

Managing all IT assets and enforcing policy rules

9.2
Avg 8.2

Change management

Ensuring standardized processes for making changes to IT infrastructure

9.1
Avg 8.4
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Product Details

CA Service Management Integrations

CA Service Management Competitors

CA Service Management Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

CA Service Management, including CA Desk Manager, is a fully-featured ITSM platform, now from Broadcom. It competes with BMC Remedy, ServiceNow, FrontRange ITSM, Cherwell Service Management etc. It is based on technology acquired by CA in 2010 with Nimsoft, and is now supported by Broadcom since the 2018 acquisition.

IFS Assyst, Cherwell Service Management, and Hornbill Supportworks ITSM are common alternatives for CA Service Management.

Reviewers rate Asset management dashboard highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of CA Service Management are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(47)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Customers have found that this product offers a convenient self-service option for logging their own tickets and referencing existing problems. This has reduced the volume of calls to the call center, as tickets can be automatically routed based on location and product. Additionally, customers appreciate that the web-based solution eliminates the need for them to install special software or for technicians to carry a PC. The knowledge module within the product is highly valued, as it contains a library of documents for both customers and technicians to reference known problems and their solutions or workarounds. The tracking feature for the use of knowledge also allows incidents to be linked and provides visibility into recurring issues. With its ITIL-driven approach, this product is used throughout the whole company. Employees are able to submit requests to the help desk using this system, while the service desk utilizes it as a ticket management tool. The ability to upload and access knowledge articles directly in the system streamlines workflows for help desk analysts when processing requests. Not only is it used for reporting purposes to track logged calls and emails, but it is also utilized for service automation across various departments within the organization. As an enterprise help desk system, it provides categories and workgroups tailored to different departments' needs. This product is relied upon to log and track tickets and changes within the company, offering a comprehensive paper trail. Overall, this product plays a crucial role in incident, request, problem, change, configuration, and knowledge tracking for the entire IT organization. Its robust capabilities increase productivity for consumers, IT teams, and management by enabling faster service restoration and providing a clearer understanding of support's business value. Moreover, it minimizes service disruptions and reduces business risks associated with changes.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-6 of 6)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The entire IT organization (720 associates) use the Service Desk Manager tool. It is used for incident, request, problem, change, configuration, and knowledge tracking. Our teams have developed scalable processes that scan 15+ hospitals, supporting 30,000 end users, leveraging this tool as the enterprise-wide solution. We have upwards of 250,000 records created annually, have defined slo's and quality metrics, and have very specific kpi's we measure consistently for quality measurement as well as effectiveness of our support. Currently we have an integrated solution that includes Ivanti Xtraction (for dash boarding) and CA Catalog as the user interface. We are working towards integrating SCCM to the CMDB for population of Assets (not CI's) and have mapped upwards of 250 full services in our CMDB. CA Service Desk Manager is our true enterprise solution for service management and it has served us rather well.
  • Integrated solution for incident, request and problem and change management tickets
  • Simple but resourceful knowledge component
  • Effective survey feature for interface with end users
  • Integration to Service Catalog as well as a native self-service interface
  • Reporting is a challenge for all ticketing systems and we've had to use an external dashboard tool (and previously Crystal/Boxi) for this purpose.
  • Gui for end users is clunky, forcing to have to use a catalog tool for this purpose.
  • Notification engine is not very customizable, causing an over or under notification to customers and specifically IT users.
It is a suitable tool for a large organization with extensive user needs. It is not for a small shop as it may be over-engineered for smaller organizations that don't have teams that can manage a solution of this size. It does have some significant hardware and configuration needs, but that should not deter customers from deploying it in-house. I've seen it deployed in the cloud as well as in-house; the downside to deploying it as a hosted solution is you're forever at the mercy of the vendor for customizations, and they cost an arm and a leg. The simplest things take a long time and cost much more money than necessary, so you can't truly get a custom solution and end up with mostly vanilla services (unless you have very deep pockets.)
March 23, 2016

tech100

Alyssa Figueroa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
CA Service Desk Manager is being used to document all calls and work orders that come to the Queens College help desk. When a staff or faculty member has an issue or a request with his or her computer, we write an incident or request on CA Service Desk Manager. This request or incident is assigned to a staff member who will address the issue. Both the person who wrote the ticket and the person who will fix the problem log into CA Service Desk Manager. The end user receives emails for any changes that are made to the ticket. We also use it to document each phone call that we take because we are resolving issues over the phone for faculty, staff and students.
  • You can log in anywhere.
  • It is a good way to document all work that is being done by each tech.
  • It is a great way to see a staff member's history or if he may have a repeating problem.
  • When you are opening and closing too many tickets back to back, the system lags and save turns into accept which does not save anything, and basically all you have done on this ticket has been lost.
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our enterprise utilizes CA Service Desk Manager as a tracking mechanism for requests, incidents, problems, changes and integrates these areas of focus with CIs... specifically the CMDB. This solution allows us to to hold others accountable, [mirror] workflow abilities, and [obtain] historical analysis with regards to outage resolution. This level of use is within all departments and all levels of hierarchy. On the technical side, we utilize our own SLA reporting by querying the database directly for statistical analysis.
  • The database is very clean and easily to manipulate with regards to querying available data and needing to find the right table.
  • The UI interface allows for new form/template creation out of the box. In particular it is a very 'what you see is what you get' interface.
  • The API has been around for a considerable period of time that third party services already integrate with CA Service Desk Manager for automated ticket creation, etc.
  • The product requires major investment in customizations as the out-of-the-box experience is very limiting feature wise.
  • The product utilizes a proprietary language, this requires a specialist in CA products rather than a general programmer.
  • Vendor support is very limited in that the response times are exceedingly increasing to the point of waiting 24-hours for initial response.
Basic support tracking is the only time I would recommend CA Service Desk. Anything that relies on work-flow management would be better suited with another third party product.
September 15, 2015

Service Desk review

Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Service Desk is being used by the whole organization (and recently some external users) and is used to track and escalate problems and occurrences between organizations and corporate. Currently Incident Management and Change Management are being used with plans to incorporate other areas of Service Desk that would provide value.
  • A large community where, if help is needed, is usually very helpful and quick to respond.
  • Various sites with good information on various issues. If you have a problem, there's a good chance some else already had it and documented it.
  • Fairly easy installation of the product if recommendations are followed and prep-work is done.
  • Certain functions can be easily forgotten and easily overlooked and sometimes hard to find. The many different levels involved with security (Access Types, Roles, Data Partitions, Functional Access, etc.) can be confused with one another and results in doing changes in one of the levels that may not be the best choice. For example: Functional Access changes done within Roles can also be achieved by the Data Partitions.
  • Simple tasks, such as sending a notification for a certain action, is difficult and confusing to accomplish. You need to create conditions that you apply to Macros (that you create) which you then apply to Events (that you create). They do have a default list out-of-box but even they are named in such a way that you're not sure if the one you are looking at is the correct one for your need until you look at the condition/macro/event to be certail.
  • Properties (attached to Request/Incident/Problem Areas) provide very basic functionality to request additional information of the user. Would like to see more options available in this area as well as the ability to trigger actions based on End User answers to the properties.
  • Administration can quickly become confusing as researching areas allows clicking certain pieces of information that open window after window for each piece of info quickly resulting in several windows being open. Closing any of the windows prior to the last open one results in all the windows closing that were open from it.
Other products I have experience with approach customizations with the end user in mind. They try to make it easy to follow and user friendly. They attempt to keep it versatile and open without compromising their product where the user may actually cause damage. Service Desk does have a fairly robust tool (Web Screen Painter) for customizations but it is difficult for a beginner or average user to use. It displays the source code of the forms allowing it to be manipulated. They also allow references to their existing tables for customizations within the schema which can easily cause confusion as to the original function of said table. Once customizations are applied, they are difficult to remove as there is not a 'clean' way to remove them. It usually involves editing some obscure file manually which leaves room for human error. Service Desk is probably best used out of box but that might not be best suited for organizations that do not prefer the Service Desk approach.
July 11, 2014

CA SDM review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Increased productivity of consumers, IT teams and management
  • Reduced number of Service Desk tickets
  • Faster service restoration
  • Clearer understanding of support’s business value
  • Less business risk associated with changes
  • Fewer service disruptions
  • Streamlines support
  • Unified, collaborative self-service and mobility
  • Broad CA Service Management solution
  • Would like to see functionality of seeing tickets in a map view for a specific location .Eg. In a Retail space, Would like to see tickets related to each store, when mouse is hovered over a particular store on a Map
  • Better consumer empowerment and satisfaction: Self-service and social media give the user a consumer experience.
  • Reduced number of Service Desk tickets: Fewer tickets coming to your Service Desk can help your IT team focus on bigger issues.
Ryan Hanzalik | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
CA Service Desk Manager is being used across our worldwide organization. CA Service Desk manager is used to log and track any tickets and changes within the company. This product solved a business problem in which there was never a paper trail on any changes within the company.
  • CA Service Desk Manager is good for commissioning or decommissioning servers, as the change orders can be customized so that each step is applicable to that server build.
  • CA Service Desk Manager is great for any environment with a help desk, as the alerting of priority tickets in any one group's queue is well executed.
  • CA Service Desk Manager is good for making changes within your IT department as you can create change orders with a tiered approval system.
  • CA Service Desk Manager could improve on their application code, as your "scoreboard" grows in size either in the number of nodes you have or number of ticket / changes in those nodes, the slower it takes to log in. This can be a major issue when you support critical applications and have urgent priority tickets.
This application is great for environments that need ITSM to be far-reaching, especially for larger environments.
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