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OpenText Service Management (SMAX) vs Serviceaide ChangeGear comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

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
6.8
Number of Reviews
668
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)
OpenText Service Management...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (12th)
Serviceaide ChangeGear
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (25th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (23rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Nadeem K. - PeerSpot reviewer
Rpa Developer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Automation has freed teams from repetitive finance and supply tasks and supports global operations
In the current organization, we had trouble initially because I think the documentation and support could be better than what it is now. This is one difference between Automation Anywhere and other RPA tools such as UiPath. In UiPath, if you have an issue, you go to the UiPath website and search for it, and you get lots of help materials. In Automation Anywhere, you do not get exactly what you are looking for. You get a very large number of results when you search for something, and from this large result set, you have to filter out what you need, or only partial information will be available. User handbooks are available for each product. In that regard, I would say Automation Anywhere is lagging compared to other RPA tools. It is difficult to get hold of their customer support team. I want to clarify that it is not a matter of us building logic on Automation Anywhere and it failing. When it is a product-related issue, they have to give us support because we only know how to develop within Automation Anywhere. We do not know how to fix Automation Anywhere itself. Whenever we have an issue, trying to get in touch with them always takes three to four business days.
HugoAlmeida - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Delivery at Timestamp ITM
Centralized service processes have improved cross‑department visibility but reporting still needs work
The machine learning capabilities in OpenText Service Management (SMAX) are somewhat not published the way they should be. They work pretty well, but they are not used as much in the current experience of our customers. They have them; the solution has them, but they usually go a little bit below the radar in terms of visibility. I believe there is room for improvement when it comes to machine learning capabilities. OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has room to improve mainly on reporting components. The reporting components include dashboards, and while OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has a reporting module, it's somewhat limited, so I believe it has room to improve there, with more inclusion of artificial intelligence in the models and more in project management and portfolio management capabilities. We want to see better use and more functionalities enabled with the already existing capabilities such as AI and reporting in the next OpenText Service Management (SMAX) release, but one important thing we think should be included is a module for metrics, similar to Google Analytics, that focuses on the metrics of the tool usage. The module shouldn't just report on the components of OpenText Service Management (SMAX) but also track how the tool is used by end users, for example, what functionalities users utilize more frequently, the performance of those functionalities, and how long it takes them to open a ticket or log in, focusing on applicational monitoring metrics and performance management metrics.
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

"It reduced cost and effort significantly; yearly, our organization saved $14,000, the company started to save more, and increased efficiency in the field of automation then started to pioneer."
"We have benefitted a lot now, but expect that we will benefit even more in the future as we get better at using intelligence."
"I think most of the keystroke level activities that users used to do in probably the last five years is now taken care completely by Automation Anywhere and similar RPA providers."
"The ability to find objects easily through the 'Capture' option saves your time most significantly."
"If we talk about the automation RPA, it definitely has worked very well for us, giving good savings of more than 180 FTEs after implementing more than 200 plus bots."
"Workbench, which is a development tool, is very friendly. It is complete. Compared to Power Automate, Automation Anywhere is much more comprehensive and easy to understand."
"We have automated our critical functions, like supply chain management and purchase orders, and we have staff who have been moved out of the mundane tasks and are now doing value-added activities."
"The recording feature accelerates the timeline of your implementation."
"OpenText Service Management Automation X provides valuable features such as topic analytics for incident and problem management. It also includes natural language processing for analyzing technical descriptions. Additionally, it features a virtual chatbot capable of processing natural language to interact effectively with end users. This service enhances customer support and is not subject to the limitations often found in offerings from other vendors."
"This is a cordless application that can be used throughout any organization."
"The most valuable features of Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX) are that it is user-friendly, easy to configure, and adaptable."
"The product provides an interface for the end users to make requests."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is evolving in addressing the needs across different sectors like IT or HR."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is effective for all sectors, such as IT and HR."
"It offers a range of tools for sales and configuration. It's like a business process improvement platform, suitable for various lines of business operations."
"I've used this kind of application for more than 20 years and from my perspective, SMAX is one of the best products on the market."
"Essential service management solution all in one, like 100- for service request, 200- for change request, 300- for incidents, 400- for problems."
"CA Technologies support is excellent."
"It’s provided self-service and automation, notifications, and reporting, and it’s good on a day-to-day and macro perspective."
"This is the best product for Large Infrastructure companies/organizations to monitor their infrastructures/servers etc."
"The ability to add Additional Information Screens on the fly."
"It's quite a complete entry into the SaaS ITSM market with a reasonable price point."
"Improved the effectiveness of my Service Desk Team and improved the SLA timing."
"The support is pretty good, the follow up is great; it is 24 hours, so that’s been useful, and it has a good escalation path, which is essential."
 

Cons

"The solution doesn't offer all the capabilities that we need, so we have to use it in conjunction with other software."
"While the community provides a platform for interaction and resource sharing, not all training content aligns with the specific needs of developers."
"PDF extraction and cognitive automation need improvement."
"My biggest suggestion would be to allow us to set up test and development licenses or environments that don't use unattended licenses needed for production."
"Web automation capability needs to be improved."
"At some places, the if-else statements become so confusing so, at that place, they can change the UI for better understanding. Apart from this I liked this tool and would like to continue working on this."
"We need a native way in Automation Anywhere's framework to tie all that information together, including AI dashboard, governance dashboards, and document automation results."
"We have a lot of use cases that depend on certain Java applets, and currently we're not able to leverage the Object Cloning that would speed up our automation designing. So we have to revert to more image recognition-type of designing, and it just takes a long time to get that bot built."
"The reporting functionality is not the best as it is not easy to use."
"The initial setup of Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX) is complicated, but once it is set up the configuration is straightforward to adapt to the users' or customers' needs."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has some stability challenges that are crashable and not stable at times."
"The contract management feature can be improved."
"The solution lacks sufficient documentation."
"The product's connectivity with third-party products is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has room to improve mainly on reporting components. The reporting components include dashboards, and while OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has a reporting module, it's somewhat limited, so I believe it has room to improve there, with more inclusion of artificial intelligence in the models and more in project management and portfolio management capabilities."
"The tool has negatively impacted our productivity."
"Few probes need improvement in their function and the way they get deployed for monitoring."
"I would love to see better two-factor authentication as that would really help us and make a big difference."
"This is not appropriate for a small or even a medium-sized business. Too much overhead for a small company."
"Usability for IT analysts could be improved."
"We have been seeing a little bit of latency here and there, but we haven't been able to identify it."
"I think they could update some of the interface. It doesn't look as pretty as some of the other ones."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cloud-based version comes at an increased cost, although our clients are happy with the new features and have not complained about the pricing."
"I have heard that Automation Anywhere is expensive."
"Automation Anywhere has an advantage in terms of licensing. It is more cost-efficient compared to all other RPA platforms. It is a recommended solution when clients need a cost-efficient automation tool to perform unattended automation."
"The price of this product is good."
"Their licensing processes are in par with most industry standards."
"The product starts at $10,000 and then it's up to you regarding how much you can consume."
"We paid separately for the Runner and Creater components. The final cost depends on the structure of your environment."
"It is expensive. I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten in terms of pricing."
"The cost of the license for SMAX varies depending on the configuration, including the number of seats for users and the customer's specific requirements. It's not a fixed cost and can vary."
"The solution is somewhat cheaper than the competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
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 Business162
Midsize Enterprise86
Large Enterprise565
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
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.
What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
We mostly deal with OpenText Service Management (SMAX), Service Management, and UCMDB, the UD Discovery, Unified Disc...
What advice do you have for others considering Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
We are still working with OpenText and Splunk. I remember that Splunk is now with what Cisco AppDynamics bought. We a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is okay, not expensive and not the cheapest. It is overall good.
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Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
OpenText Service Manager, Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)
Serviceaide ISM (Intelligent Service Management), Nimsoft Service Desk, CA Cloud Service Management , ChangeGear
 

Interactive Demo

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Zurich Airport, Envirosuite, Norsk Helsenett, Achmea, University of Milan, World Vision, Petroleum Development Oman, Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT).
Oakwood Systems Group
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Service Management (SMAX) vs. Serviceaide ChangeGear and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.