Control-M Rocks
Updated June 23, 2016
Control-M Rocks
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Control-M
Control-M has been our enterprise scheduling solution since 2004. It provides us with a single point of controlling and monitoring job flows across various operating system platforms. We use Control-M to execute jobs on Windows servers and then trigger jobs on AS400 and AIX servers where data then gets transferred to and processed and then sent back to the Windows servers for post processing. The automated alerts that are sent to application owners are valuable to get quick resolution to job failures and delays. The self service feature allows our users to monitor and interact with their active scheduled jobs.
- Scheduling Flexibility. We have some very unique schedules. For example: we run a job on the 2nd Sunday after the 2nd Tuesday of the month.
- Cross platform interdependencies. Allows us to trigger jobs on the various different OS platforms.
- Notification from jobs. Failure alerts, job late and running long notification.
- One feature that I feel needs some improvement is the ability to create a graphical flow chart of jobs and be able to print it and look nice.
- Greater uptime and fewer missed deadlines.
- Flexibility to grow.
TWS was part of our initial proof of concept and product review. Control-M was able to do everything we asked. At the time TWS was unable to provide the interface that we needed. We chose Control-M and have been pleased ever since.
Control-M Feature Ratings
Using Control-M
50 - Production Control, the group that supports the product and does most of the scheduling. The JD Edwards support team who maintain only the JDE schedules. And some application support who monitor their jobs and the program developers who also monitor jobs and watch the schedules run. Our database support team uses it to view output from jobs that might have failed.
2 - Operations Engineer familiar with the AIX or UNIX operating systems, familiar with the various versions of Windows and some AS400 experience. The Operations Analyst has operational experience with monitoring jobs and ensuring deadlines are met. Opens problem cases and assigns them to the appropriate application group for resolution and reruns or whatever is necessary.
- Daily production job scheduling
- Order management and shipping
- Invoicing
- Payroll
- JD Edwards interface
- Job triggering based on file deliveries
- Online transaction processing
- Automated server rebooting for patch maintenance
Evaluating Control-M and Competitors
Yes - IBM OPC - was mainframe centric and we needed an enterprise solution.
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Vendor Reputation
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
- Analyst Reports
We were looking for a solution to interface with SAP at the time and perform some special application integration with our ERP solution.
Would not make any changes. We are very happy with the results.
Control-M Implementation
- Vendor implemented
- Professional services company
The initial implementation was performed by BMC technicians and a service company that is now know as Cetan Corp. Back when we implemented the product and converted from IBM OPC to Control-M we had both mainframe support and distributed support. The conversion from the old IBM mainframe system to the new mainframe and distributed system went very well. We have used Cetan Corp team for several upgrades of the product.
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - The vendor and the service company had a plan and it was executed very well. The only issues that we initially ran into was from support on our team. The lack of resources was tight with many other projects going on at the same time. We were a growing company and there were many activities going on at that time.
- Lack of our people resources
Control-M Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
I cannot remember the specific incident but it was at 2:00 AM in the morning once and we were able to get a call back very quickly. Production was down but we were able to determine what the problem was, correct the problem and catch back up before start of business the next day.
Using Control-M
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- It is very easy to use the graphical interface to monitor job activity.
- The alerting system is very well designed to make monitoring for problems much simpler
- Designing new jobs and building new schedules is simple with the desktop. Making changes is easy and quick.
- There could be some improvement on the reporting facility particularly when printing a flow chart of jobs.
Yes, but I don't use it