Big and powerful software suite, capable of solving all your ITSM needs, with huge complexity

We were able to implement ITIL and ISO 27K compliant processes. It was very simple to assign very specific access privileges to different users. We accomplished a robust and fully functional integration of our monitoring alerts for ticket creation. Business rules have reduced a lot of human errors and minimized non-compliant execution of our processes.

Pros

The suite can provide anything we need regarding our ITSM needs. We can implement business rules, custom fields, automated validations, workflows, processes, etc. There's basically no limit, no ITSM business need we can't somehow do. No ITIL process we can't implement and certify. The management and agent GUI is consistent, once you understand how things are organized, you can easily navigate and find whatever option you need. Role based access control provides maximum granularity to satisfy the needs of the most strict security policies. CA's technical support is among the quickest and most capable support teams I've ever been served by.

Cons

There are too many software products in the suite, all of them needed to have a fully functional and compliant service desk. From the desk itself, to process automation, business reports, service catalog, self service GUI, access control management. These products have been created along a very long timeframe, which translates on very different software development fundamentals. While Service Desk is a rather old piece of software which relies on obsolete technologies la .NET 2.0 and the Java plug-in, service catalog and self service portal are more modern pieces of software. The APIs are not as robust as expected, or as seen in disruptive competition, a very limited REST api and a very complex SOAP webservice make it a big challenge to build robust integrations. CA support has confirmed there are no plans for building from scratch a new, modern version of Service Desk.

Decent Ticketing System

Not bad, if you have only one team with consistent needs using the software. Once you need to customize it, you feel its limitations.

Pros

Was our previous ticketing software for our Contact Center before moving to ServiceNow. Able to capture category, subcategory, comments, affected end-user, and much more. Can also report out of CA to track rep performance, call trends, etc.

Cons

Not nearly as customizable as ServiceNow, and its reporting functionality isn't as robust, either. Our Supply Chain Contact Center shared CA with our IT Contact Center, and, since it had such limited customization options, we had a number of challenges making one piece of software work for both teams. We've removed that problem with ServiceNow

CA service desk was easy to install with the exception of a few database problems

Use of customer service and general CRM reports that were tailored

Pros

It is easy for new users to learn, the software does not require a lot of training man hours for one to use it.

Cons

the cost of the software, we needed to contact the support personnel on a few occasions to get the software to work as it should

I am having moderate experience with CA service desk manager.

This provides all benefits of any ITIL compliant ticketing tool. We have started managing all our incidents/service requests through this and effectively managing SLA's

Pros

It is fast and easy to implement in any given organization. It has all basic and advanced features of a ITIL compliant ticketing tool.

Cons

I certainly don't like the customization ability of this tool. We have struggled much with our tools team for getting the customized report. Also, analyzing the activity logs of any ticket is not so easy , you have to invest 10 minutes for a single ticket.

Classical Service Desk Product

Streamline the ITIL process of an organization and help automating their IT infrastructure

Pros

One of the classical SD product developed using legacy and proprietary language but well advanced technical product.

Cons

Customization and downtime is hours if you migrate or upgade