IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs SCSM comparison

IBM and Microsoft are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. IBM is ranked #26, while Microsoft is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.6. IBM holds a 1.1% mindshare in HDS, compared to Microsoft’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 64% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Read 9 IBM SmartCloud Control Desk reviews

499 Views
484 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

SCSM

Read 27 SCSM reviews

1,026 Views
903 Comparison Views

64% willing to recommend

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

SCSM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Microsoft System Center Service Manager and IBM SmartCloud Control Desk compete in the IT service management category. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk often has the upper hand due to its broader feature set, especially in asset management and centralized ticket handling.

Features: SCSM features seamless Microsoft integration, automated orchestration, and ITIL process support. Its ecosystem supports components like Active Directory and Operations Manager, simplifying the automation of tasks. Conversely, IBM SmartCloud Control Desk offers excellent service and asset management, providing a centralized system for handling complex tasks, an essential feature in large enterprises.

Room for Improvement: SCSM users report challenges with its complex customization and want better self-service and mobile support. On the other hand, IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is critiqued for an outdated graphical interface and lackluster user experience, which detracts from its otherwise sophisticated backend functionality.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SCSM deployment can be resource-intensive, but Microsoft provides strong technical support to aid in the process. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk offers a simpler deployment but would benefit from improved support responsiveness to resolve issues faster.

Pricing and ROI: SCSM offers competitive pricing often bundled with other Microsoft products, providing enhanced ROI through integration. However, its confusing licensing model is a drawback. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has a straightforward, albeit expensive pricing structure, suited for large enterprises with high concurrent licensing fees. Despite its cost, it delivers high ROI, but the pricing might deter smaller businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. SCSM Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. SCSM

September 2025

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Helped 868,787 peers since 2012

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

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

26th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SCSM

Ranking in Help Desk Software

11th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IT Service Management (ITSM) (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is 1.1%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCSM is 1.8%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SCSM	1.8%
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk	1.1%
Other	97.1%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Jose Pedro Muñoz

Director of operations at Vetasi

Helps standardize our workflow, track client tickets, and it's very flexible

Initially we used HPE Service Desk. Then, Remedy (IBM SmartCloud Control Desk) version 5. When selecting a vendor, the most important thing for us is the flexibility of the tool. It must be very flexible to change the workflow or to add new workflows for the clients. It must have stability and scalability as well.

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LuisSanchez3

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable are its flexibility and agility. It's quick to change it, to adapt it to your needs. That's the most important for us."

"What I like about the Control Desk is that everything is centralized. You have all the requests in one place, you know which ones are for whom and who is working on them."

"The brand name is the most valuable aspect of this solution for me. It's IBM. It's a global company that supports this product, it's not something open source or something like that."

"SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable."

"In the early stages of our company, all requests were done in notebooks, and none of it was centrally managed. But now we have a central tool which is an entry point for all requests that come in."

"A feature I found most valuable in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is the service request. Another feature I like most about the solution is IT asset management, which tells you who owns a specific asset in the company and from which date."

"The solution has been stable."

"The solution is very easy to work with."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk pros

"The call logging is the solution's most valuable feature. It's very easy to use."

"For our cloud-based deployment of SCSM, the Autopilot is the best feature."

"A very convenient package like an all-in-one tool but it is actually five or six products acting well together."

"The reporting is very good."

"The remote access is one of the features I really enjoy. The pushing of email updates and things like that are very good."

"It is a simple solution that is easy to configure."

"If it is correctly configured, you can access and give service quickly to all the end users."

"I like the reporting service. SCSM has a good reporting service and analysis service for analysis requests."

More SCSM pros

Cons

"The reporting in relation to updating could be improved upon."

"What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly. IBM is a big company, but this solution is a little bit outdated. The most common comment I get from customers is that IBM SmartCloud Control Desk looks old and needs a refresh. Its frontend needs a little bit of work. The solution needs to be more modern. In the programming world, you see a lot of new technologies, but this particular solution is still on Java. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk isn't like web-based service request tools, and that's an area for improvement. What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is a more upscale technology. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has small issues with document links and attachments, and those could bother you when you're using it for a long time. A more user-friendly GUI is also another improvement I'd like to see in the next version of the solution, plus a better user experience, and it would be great if IBM could resolve the current issues I've noticed in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"The main issue that we hear from our customers is that the self-service user interface is a little bit old, possibly due to the fact that IBM is such a large enterprise company. People say that they think they're in the year 2004, because you can very clearly see that the technology is lagging behind modern trends."

"Support has been the biggest problem for us. I understand that because we use the product of a global company, some changes are not quick to deploy."

"It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool."

"The user interface is not very interesting. If you look at other products like JIRA and ServiceNow, they have made it much easier for the end-users. Maybe not ServiceNow, but JIRA is quite flexible. From a presentation point of view, IBM should make more user-friendly interfaces."

"The solution lacks a graphical user interface."

"Overall the user experience, as opposed to the system and databases, could be improved. It does work as it should and it's good, but they should invest more in the user interfaces to be less data oriented and more appealing for the user."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk cons

"They might be looking for additional functionalities that SCSM could integrate."

"Resources for understanding compliance and relative compliance need to be made available."

"The logs and reporting-related features of the product have certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"There is no development with this product, and we had to go and buy additional ITSM solutions to sit on top of it. We had to buy products from companies like Cireson and Cased Dimensions in order to get the functionality that we need out of it. So, we're using Service Manager as an engine, rather than as a full-blown product. It is the engine, but we have other products sitting on top of it to make it work properly."

"Our office is looking for maybe getting out of SCSM and getting a service desk solution outside of Microsoft."

"My company had planned a few months ago to apply SCSM over the cloud in order to provide updates, like regular updates, but it had to be put through a few tools from Microsoft on the cloud, which was not easy."

"It would be better if they had a portal for administrators. It would help me use it from anywhere and connect to any device from anywhere. I can administer the solution without a VPN."

"Better integration with other services in Azure is needed because everything is moving from on-premises to the cloud, and as an integrator, we have to help our clients with the migration."

More SCSM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's basically for a big company because of the costs. A small company can't afford the licensing cost. For medium and large companies, it's the best product. The price of the license is on the higher side compared to others."

"The licensing we have for IBM Control Desk is on a yearly basis. They have a concurrent license and an administrative license. And with these, you get all the products. There aren't any additional fees for extra add-ons or anything like that."

"The license for IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is paid yearly and is on a per-user basis. You buy the product and pay for its license yearly. IBM is changing the licensing structure, but for now, it's a yearly license. There's no additional cost. It's just the license that you need to pay for to use IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"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."

"The price of the solution could be better. My organization has an enterprise annual license with Microsoft which provides us support."

"Licensing can be complex and confusing."

"I would rate the pricing as two out of five."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The license for SCSM is cheap."

"The price should be lower."

More SCSM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Government

27%

University

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about SCSM?

The solution offers good productivity at a low price point.

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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.

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What needs improvement with SCSM?

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Comparisons

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Compared 21% of the time

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Compared 20% of the time

ServiceNow vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Compared 17% of the time

Ameyo Fusion CX vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Compared 14% of the time

ConnectWise PSA vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Compared 13% of the time

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ServiceNow vs SCSM

Compared 45% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs SCSM

Compared 24% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs SCSM

Compared 15% of the time

Infraon Desk vs SCSM

Compared 7% of the time

More SCSM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

September 2025

Download IBM SmartCloud Control Desk product report

Buyer's Guide

SCSM

September 2025

Download SCSM product report

Also Known As

SmartCloud Control Desk

System Center Service Manager

Overview

IBM Control Desk on Cloud offer an access to a user friendly self-service, automated service management, and seamlessly-integrated, best-practice based service desk capabilities. IBM Control Desk provides the IT service management (ITSM) needed to simplify support of users and infrastructure. It also offers a unified IT asset and service management software provides a common control center for managing business processes for both digital and physical assets and enables control, governance and compliance to applications, endpoints and assets to protect critical data and prevent outages. Control Desk is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-compliant, accessible through mobile devices and integrates with social media and development tools.

IBM

System Center Service Manager is a software product by Microsoft to allow organizations to manage incidents and problems. Microsoft states that the product is compliant with industry best practices such as the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) and in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). SCSM has integrated ITIL compliant fulfillment of service requests. Service requests are submitted by the end user in order to obtain information, access to a new application or the most common of all, password reset.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology

Fibabanka, UMC Health System

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. SCSM

September 2025

Free Report: IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. SCSM

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