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BMC FootPrints Service Core vs SCSM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

BMC FootPrints Service Core
Ranking in Help Desk Software
30th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
26th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SCSM
Ranking in Help Desk Software
13th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
13th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC FootPrints Service Core is 1.6%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCSM is 2.0%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SCSM2.0%
BMC FootPrints Service Core1.6%
Other96.4%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1765752 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees
A flexible, comprehensive, integrated IT service and asset management platform with good technical support
We use BMC FootPrints Service Core to manage network issues, infrastructure issues, software issues, and ERP. We also use it to manage our facility. So, we do some work orders and also use it as an extra ticketing system Technical support is good. It would be better if it were more…
LuisSanchez3 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Metropolitano de Gobierno Digital at a government with 10,001+ employees
Current setup enables smooth problem-solving but lacks comprehensive guidance and local support
More information about setup procedures and a more user-friendly front end would be beneficial. We need more information for setup processes. It is difficult to do the work independently, requiring us to hire external companies for maintenance hours to fix small issues that could be resolved faster in-house if we had better information. We have been looking for an upgrade version, but finding local service has been difficult. It has been challenging trying to get things done. Speaking with the Microsoft office, we found there are no local companies with substantial experience with SCSM. What we have now was installed five or six years ago. It has been difficult to change configurations and look for upgrades, even with all the manuals. Our office is considering moving away from SCSM and getting a service desk solution outside of Microsoft. For me, it has been a good tool to get help and solve internal problems in the office. It is a very good tool, but the difficulty in getting local service or more information is pushing us to look for another tool.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I like the fact that FootPrints is a relational database, so every item in the database can be linked to another. This helps create history and audit trails for each CI."
"It's extremely stable; we've got customers who are mobile telecommunication customers, hospitals, power companies, and an airport, and we can handle the volume with no interruptions where instability would really be unacceptable."
"It has helped the help desk team. We get our tickets in and are able to support our customers, the end-users, with this solution."
"We have found the reports and the lockdown on a ticket valuable, so only one person can update issues."
"Technical support is good."
"This is certainly a solution that I recommend for big enterprise."
"I think the most important feature is the ability to receive valuable ticket status support in a timely manner with little to no downtime interruptions."
"I feel confident in saying that BMC FootPrints Service Core is definitely one of the best products in the market."
"We've been in contact with Microsoft technical support mainly. After doing the research ourselves and troubleshooting, etc., if we can't find a permanent solution, we contact Microsoft to help us fix the issue. Sometimes the issue never gets fixed even by Microsoft. It can sometimes require us to reinstall the solution. However, these are very rare instances."
"The call logging is the solution's most valuable feature. It's very easy to use."
"Microsoft System Center Service Manager is a good product; it seems very easy and is better than most of the other solutions, which often have only a few features and cannot do what Microsoft can do."
"It is quite scalable."
"The support from Microsoft is good and we also have local support on the ground in Nigeria."
"The solution has made managing the environment streamlined and much easier."
"SCCM provides remote tool functionality, which is not in Intune."
"The most requested feature from our customers is the helpdesk ticketing system."
 

Cons

"It would be nice if they added the ability to go directly to a form via a deep link URL."
"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."
"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."
"It is pretty clunky and not very intuitive. Even though I have used it for many years, I don't think it is a very good ITSM platform in general. In the telecom space, a lot of telco providers use this solution, but from my perspective, it is not very user friendly. It is a bit more laborious. There are still too many human touchpoints. There can be a little bit more automation. It would also be good to integrate it with other tools. Integration is quite difficult, especially in the telco space."
"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."
"We need more customizable reporting functionality."
"We need more customizable reporting functionality. We could also use more collaboration of service desk tickets. This will allow for two departments to share the same information, track the progress of the total task scope no matter how complex the request is."
"It would be better if it were more user-friendly. The reporting part in the version we have is a little complicated."
"We would like to see a web-based interface that works on mobile devices."
"The price of this solution is high and it needs to be cheaper."
"It's not too hard to compile stuff but it is hard to manage the solution. Even the design itself makes it difficult for management."
"The patch management aspect of the solution should be improved. It's quite complicated and not user-friendly."
"It has not helped reduce the burden on IT resources."
"I would like to have the ability to integrate with other systems from the back-end. I am using Orchestrator and it is a little bit difficult because there are too many constraints."
"There is no development with this product, and we had to go and buy additional ITSM solutions to sit on top of it."
"This solution has been difficult to deploy in some cases."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This solution has good pricing."
"Our costs are well over $250,000."
"Cost was on par with other service desk products, and well below Remedy, while still being a BMC product."
"The licensing for FootPrints is a perpetual license with an annual support fee."
"The price of the solution could be better. My organization has an enterprise annual license with Microsoft which provides us support."
"I would rate the pricing as two out of five."
"The license for SCSM is cheap."
"It comes free with the enterprise agreement that we have, but the expense really is in having to buy another product to sit on top of it to make it work properly. You wind up having to buy additional support and additional product with their own support and maintenance costs on top of that."
"Licensing can be complex and confusing."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The platform is competitively priced."
"The price should be lower."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Construction Company
12%
Government
11%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SCSM?
I am not sure about the pricing as I do not have experience with it.
What needs improvement with SCSM?
More information about setup procedures and a more user-friendly front end would be beneficial. We need more information for setup processes. It is difficult to do the work independently, requiring...
What is your primary use case for SCSM?
In my job, I work for the city where we have an enterprise agreement with Microsoft. We have Office, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, server licensing, and Azure. We have Active Directory with Windows Se...
 

Also Known As

FootPrints Service Core
System Center Service Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cast & Crew
Fibabanka, UMC Health System
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. SCSM and other solutions. Updated: May 2026.
893,244 professionals have used our research since 2012.