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IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs Serviceaide ChangeGear comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 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

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
661
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (2nd), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (1st), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (1st), Agentic Automation (1st), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (2nd), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (2nd), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (32nd)
Serviceaide ChangeGear
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (28th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (26th)
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Consultant at Accenture
Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions
Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.
KM
Computer System Engineer at Informatika d.d.
Has centralization and asset management features, and a helpful and knowledgeable technical support team
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.
Umair Akhlaque - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise Solutions & Services Head at Duroob Technology
A fairly stable solution that’s highly mature, but has a poor user interface
The solution does not align as modern service solutions do. Seamless integration is no available among the processes. Their service management application needs a lot of work. It’s in a really bad state right now. They brought on a new interface that clumped all the processes and features of the solution into one. Still, it’s not really compatible with other solutions. Because of this, its rating has dropped in Gardner. The solution needs to improve its reporting features. The user interface needs a lot of improvements. The product needs to implement a cloud platform solution, which is lacking so far. Their workflow engine is still segregated. It’s not embedded. If you need to do some workflow approvals, you cannot do them directly on the service desk. You have to go into Outlook and do an approval or you have to go in through another screen to handle the approval because the workflow engine they have is a separate product.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The primary use case is automation of processes for people services, such as data management of the employees, and financial processes, like reporting, financial reporting, and month-end closing activities."
"Its integration with source control is very refreshing. There could be a little bit more maturity around how to do some of the features, but not having to go outside the app, not having a separate set of procedures, allows you to check in and check out right from within the app. You can make edits and uploads and undo your checkouts."
"The use cases we're working on and the deterministic automations implemented so far have given us a great productivity boost in various functional areas across the globe, which has significantly helped the organization, and as we evolve towards more agentic and AI features from Automation Anywhere, these will further assist us in achieving end-to-end process automation rather than just peripheral automations."
"While our Automation Anywhere's implementation is in a premature stage, it has really decreased the workload on our service desk and we definitely see some ROI in the future from this product."
"The ability to find objects easily through the 'Capture' option saves your time most significantly."
"Automation Anywhere has helped us with efficiency and accuracy."
"While RPA is the cutting-edge technology to bring digital transformation, the RPA as a service will reduce costs and increase efficiency with ease of deployment, less maintenance, and cheaper upgrade costs."
"It is easily understandable and very well structured."
"SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable."
"Overall, it has helped us continuously improve our business processes."
"In general, it's been pretty stable."
"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, so you have one big package and nothing is lost."
"The solution has been stable."
"The solution is very easy to work with."
"The workflow capability is useful. It's not a manual helpdesk operation. It's fully automated, even when an alarm has occurred. It covers the complete cycle of initiation to resolving the events. This is its most strong feature that is easily integrable with a monitoring solution. It creates tickets, and the workflow feature is the most important one."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to easily create service catalogues for our customers, something that we didn't have previously with the other tool we were using, which was SDM."
"It’s provided self-service and automation, notifications, and reporting, and it’s good on a day-to-day and macro perspective."
"It's quite a complete entry into the SaaS ITSM market with a reasonable price point."
"The ability to add Additional Information Screens on the fly."
"This is the best product for Large Infrastructure companies/organizations to monitor their infrastructures/servers etc."
"It provides us with a very easy and flexible UI for CA Nimsoft Service Desk 7."
"Essential service management solution all in one, like 100- for service request, 200- for change request, 300- for incidents, 400- for problems."
"This is really easy solution to scale up and get get going to add new catalog items."
 

Cons

"I never use Automation Anywhere in the attended space because they are bad at that, at least compared to other players like us or UiPath."
"Automation Anywhere could improve by better integrating with DevOps. Currently, it cannot be integrated 100% with DevOps methodology, which many companies are requiring."
"I would also like to see better communication with their customer success teams. It often takes longer than expected when we submit requests for help or come across a problem we want to resolve. While I can appreciate that it sometimes takes a while to get the appropriate answer, it would be nice to be in constant communication about where they are in the process."
"The inclusion of word packages would help us to extract data from Word and automate word-related activities easily."
"We had a few setbacks because of bots getting queued and unable to force delete a task bot which kept persisting in the control room. These features should be included in future releases which will be highly beneficial."
"A2019 is less stable than the previous versions."
"I would like OCR for video and text using the IQ Bot. It should also be available in an email tag format."
"I'd like to see the OCR feature be perfected. Today we get an accuracy ratio from OCR of around 40 percent to 50 percent only."
"The user interface is not very interesting."
"The product is kind of clunky to use."
"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."
"The solution lacks a graphical user interface."
"Technical support can be slow in terms of resolving issues."
"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."
"Support has been the biggest problem for us."
"It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool."
"Flexibility to customize."
"Few probes need improvement in their function and the way they get deployed for monitoring."
"Their service management application needs a lot of work."
"The deployment was very difficult to handle. It's an unnecessarily difficult process that requires third-party assistance to do correctly."
"I would love to see better two-factor authentication as that would really help us and make a big difference."
"The solution needs to improve its reporting features. The user interface needs a lot of improvements."
"Usability for IT analysts could be improved."
"When tickets are closed occasionally, it is quite hard to reopen it, which will cause lost-tickets."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The ROI is really good. We have saved time and money."
"We have saved a lot of money on taxes based on the stuff that we run."
"When you compare the cost of Automation Anywhere with UiPath and Blue Prism, those others are much less. Licensing-wise, UiPath wins the deal."
"We're paying a monthly subscription fee for the bot and for services. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"Despite being less expensive than UiPath, Automation Anywhere remains cost-prohibitive for many small and medium-sized businesses."
"Automation Anywhere University is pretty good. They make it available free for everyone."
"It has good licensing costs which are average for the market."
"The price for Automation Anywhere is reasonable."
"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'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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
12%
Performing Arts
12%
Construction Company
11%
Construction Company
20%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business161
Midsize Enterprise82
Large Enterprise558
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.
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Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
SmartCloud Control Desk
Serviceaide ISM (Intelligent Service Management), Nimsoft Service Desk, CA Cloud Service Management , ChangeGear
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology
Oakwood Systems Group
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Serviceaide ChangeGear and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.