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CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager vs. TOPdesk

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    CA Service Management

    Score6.8 out of 10
    N/ACA 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.N/A

    TOPdesk

    Score8.8 out of 10
    Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
    TOPdesk is the flagship highly-modular cloud-based or installed ITSM service desk and asset management solution from the Dutch company of the same name, for enterprise companies.

    $76

    per month Per agent

    Pricing
    CA Service ManagementTOPdesk
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essential
    $76
    per month Per agent
    Engaged
    $109
    per month Per agent
    Excellent
    $155
    per month Per agent
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    CA Service ManagementTOPdesk
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details—The TOPdesk license model: - Modular: Organizations purchase only the modules needed - Saas or On premise - Supports unlimited number of assets. - Service agents based. - Discount available for annual pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    CA Service ManagementTOPdesk
    Considered Both Products
    Broadcom
    No answer on this topic
    TOPdesk
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    98%
    Would buy again
    128 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    106 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    127 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    99%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    69 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    80 Answers
    Features
    CA Service ManagementTOPdesk
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager and TOPdesk
    Feature
    CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    8.6
    6 Ratings
    6% above category average
    TOPdesk
    8.1
    208 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets9.76 Ratings8.9208 Ratings
    Expert directory8.75 Ratings7.7146 Ratings
    Service restoration8.46 Ratings8.0140 Ratings
    Self-service tools8.66 Ratings8.5194 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications7.96 Ratings7.5144 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation9.76 Ratings8.2158 Ratings
    ITSM reports and dashboards7.55 Ratings7.8168 Ratings
    ITSM asset management
    Comparison of ITSM asset management features of CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager and TOPdesk
    Feature
    CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    9.2
    6 Ratings
    11% above category average
    TOPdesk
    8.2
    170 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Configuration mangement9.76 Ratings8.7159 Ratings
    Asset management dashboard10.03 Ratings7.8144 Ratings
    Policy and contract enforcement8.03 Ratings8.0109 Ratings
    Change management
    Comparison of Change management features of CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager and TOPdesk
    Feature
    CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    9.1
    6 Ratings
    8% above category average
    TOPdesk
    7.8
    164 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Change requests repository9.06 Ratings7.6157 Ratings
    Change calendar8.64 Ratings7.7124 Ratings
    Service-level management9.55 Ratings8.0134 Ratings
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    CA Service ManagementTOPdesk
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    Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
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    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Score9.2 out of 10
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
    Score4.5 out of 10
    Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
    Score4.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    CA Service ManagementTOPdesk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    8.9
    (210 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    4.1
    (6 ratings)
    9.1
    (122 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (30 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (9 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.1
    (9 ratings)
    Support Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (177 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.9
    (17 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.5
    (17 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (9 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (7 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (7 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    CA Service ManagementTOPdesk
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Broadcom
    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.)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    TOPdesk
    As TOPdesk is pretty intuitive it is often not needed to instruct colleagues on how to use TOPdesk. Most modules and fields do explain themselves. This means there aren't many additional instructions needed for the applications itself. Most information we do need to support our colleagues on based on organizational processes, not our ITSM tool of choice. And if there is more information needed, the knowledge base system can be used for this. On the other hand this could create the idea that no additional instructions are needed. Which might be true for the application itself, but not for how it is being used within your organisation
    Read full review
    Pros
    Broadcom
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    TOPdesk
    • TOPdesk provides a clean and modern interface for all of its modules. Many of the modules have a similar look and feel, which makes it easy for users to utilize each one.
    • Its workflow system allows administrators and developers to define what needs to occur when certain events happen. This can ensure that processes happen in the correct sequence.
    • TOPdesk includes a vast API system to allow for external systems to integrate with it, and for TOPdesk to communicate with external systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Broadcom
    • The right-click feature is disabled in this application and users are unable to copy and paste with mouse or touchpad.
    • The application also freezes quite a bit and a user will have to quite often close and reopen browser to get it functioning properly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    TOPdesk
    • assigning rights is too extensive, making it very complex to manage this up to date.
    • Topdesk has gained so many features that it is difficult for a new user to become familiar with it.
    • action sequences remain tricky and certainly not for everyone to understand.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Broadcom
    While the concepts of Service Desk and EITM were solid. The user interface, tool capabilities, and integrations fell behind the rest of the industry. Too often it seemed like CA bought and rebranded products without fully integrated them with their other products. It was a coat of paint, without the parts under the hood being updated. The overhead for administration was too high and the reporting capabilities were absolutely amongst the worst I've seen.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    TOPdesk
    It just works, has some continuous development and an easy-to-use interface, which is important especially because not all our colleagues are technical experts (or in other words, "capable of more than switching on and off the computer"). We use a large range of functions and therefore it would be really hard to replace TOPdesk in our company.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    Sometimes I think some things are hard to find. I often do not know if I have to search in Settings or in Modules. In some cases the user has to do a lot of clicks for example to link a key to a user. Something could work a little smarter.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    Like I said somewhere else in this review: the helpdesk of TOPdesk is top of the bill! In the Netherlands, that is. I can not plea for the helpdesks in other countries, but I guess the TOPdesk organization will make sure the quality of the helpdesk is the same in every country.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    Although being a SAAS solution, TOPdesk performs pretty fast. One can imagine that any SAAS solution is slow or has hiccups, but we have not experienced such with TOPdesk. Pages load quickly, logging in goes smoothly. We have made reports on premise in the past - that always took some time, as you might expect with such complex tasks. It seems that in the SAAS solution TOPdesk somehow has managed to make it even faster!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    Most if not nearly all questions are answered within the same or a few days. The helpdesk is very knowledgable about their product and are always willing to help. The only downside is that for more difficult questions it can take a while due to the experts being further removed from the helpdesk. But they are always willing to answer questions, even if they are not directly related to a problem with the service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    We had Topdesk in-house here training staff for almost a month (2-3 hour meetings 3x a week.) It was invaluable and we were able to take that training and share with the rest of our IT staff. Once implemented we were able to fly from there. The challenges we found were in how to get started. Once started the knowledge base offered from Topdesk has been invaluable.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    Online training documentation is easy to access and consume. There is no real challenges with finding information on how to use the product and some really helpful knowledge base items that show us how valuable these options are in our own implementation of it. The online training we've used has been self driven
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    It was a challenge to port over years of the same thing and we ended up keeping old ideas in Topdesk that we will eventually weed out as time passes and we learn how users view categories and flows of tickets. Planning is key but bear in mind that just because you used to do it this way doesn't mean you still have to
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Broadcom
    We are too integrated with CA Service Desk Manager to disassociate anytime soon. We found the more we used the product the more we needed to customize it in order to better integrate with our business processes. There are other alternatives that have many built-in features that had we have foreseen our future requirements... would have chosen ServiceNow or Remedy as our "go-to" ticketing product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    TOPdesk
    Spiceworks is an easier-to-use Help Desk solution but it lacks all other features that Topdesk has. Freshdesk was just too much for our environment. It was cost-prohibitive for our intended use. TOPdesk fit our org size and budget better than the others.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    TOPdesk
    TOPdesk is very flexible and scalable. Every department in you organization can you the software. Perhaps some persons need some training, but that can be provided by TOPdesk ot some keyusers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Broadcom
    • Having CA Service Desk Manager within the company has increased the satisfaction of customer service from 68% to 95%. Teams are getting better customer survey scores and making better efforts to meet their SLAs.
    • CA Mobile app has provided agility and collaboration among IT Users and Customers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    TOPdesk
    • TOPdesk self-service portal has allowed our employees to quickly report and solve the incidents saving more time for productivity.
    • Employees are able to tackle common incidents from the knowledge base giving more efficient business operation.
    • It has helped us to create a smooth working environment while growing the organization capacity and production quality.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    TOPdesk Screenshots

    Screenshot of TOPdesk plan boardScreenshot of TOPdesk portal designerScreenshot of TOPdesk service desk KPIsScreenshot of TOPdesk asset management overviewScreenshot of TOPdesk call managementScreenshot of TOPdesk asset management dashboard