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BMC FootPrints Service Core vs Clarity SM comparison

BMC and Broadcom are both solutions in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category. BMC is ranked #30, while Broadcom is ranked #28. BMC holds a 0.7% mindshare in ISM, compared to Broadcom’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.
BMC FootPrints Service Core
Read 10 BMC FootPrints Service Core reviews
  • 216 Views
  • 108 Comparison Views
90% willing to recommend
Clarity SM
Read 107 Clarity SM reviews
  • 522 Views
  • 302 Comparison Views
85% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Clarity SM and BMC FootPrints Service Core are both formidable contenders in the service management software domain. BMC FootPrints Service Core holds a distinctive advantage with its extensive feature set that outweighs the higher costs, making it particularly appealing to businesses looking for robust capabilities.

Features: Clarity SM enhances efficiency with its excellent resource management, user-friendly integrations, and a secure environment. BMC FootPrints Service Core stands out with powerful automation, highly customizable workflows, and comprehensive incident management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Clarity SM could benefit from enhanced reporting features, improved customization tools, and a wider range of plug-ins. BMC FootPrints Service Core might improve on ease of use, more streamlined deployment options, and better pricing flexibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Clarity SM offers a straightforward cloud deployment with responsive support ensuring rapid adaptation. BMC FootPrints Service Core, while involving a complex setup, provides valuable documentation and superior customer service, helpful for detailed implementations.

Pricing and ROI: Clarity SM is attractive for its competitive pricing and substantial ROI from lower setup and maintenance costs. BMC FootPrints Service Core, though pricier, offers a strong ROI through its expansive feature set and long-term operational benefits.

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To learn more, read our detailed BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM
April 2025
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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
28th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Clarity SM
Ranking in Help Desk Software
26th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
28th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC FootPrints Service Core is 0.7%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.1%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

CW
Supports the convergence of ticket management, IT, and customer services
I would give this product a rating of 8 out of 10 because it's a good system and it meets most of our requirements. It still has a lot of space to improve because the service desk function is changing all the time. This solution has to continually be innovative. It should also generate more user-friendly reports utilizing a collaborative framework. Additionally, I would tell anyone looking at similar solutions to first figure out their most important requirements. Then compare their requirements with the function of the ITMS to ensure compatibility. While at the same time they should look ahead at future requirements such as the cloud configuration, along with other vendor capabilities before making a decision.
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Türker Kara - PeerSpot reviewer
Quite good back-end architecture for end users but the API is very, very bad
Our company uses the solution for system, program, service request, change, and knowledge-based management.  We perform CMD authorizations and use a lot of integrations for our in-house or third-party applications. We also use Salesforce automations and Microsoft orchestrations.  We have about…
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is stable and its technical support is good and quick."
"This product solidly handles incident management, problem management, and change management."
"We have found the reports and the lockdown on a ticket valuable, so only one person can update issues."
"Technical support is good."
"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."
"I have used Tier II BMC support a few times. They were very responsive and recreated my environment in their lab to support me."
"Having a one stop shop for linked assets and tickets has improved end user adoption and led to a reduction in phone/email tickets."
"Implemented system-wide process for approving and tracking "employee move" requests for over 15,000 employees."
More BMC FootPrints Service Core pros
"The solution's back-end architecture is very good for end users."
"Our users access it via the web. We have external and internal sources, and we're now introducing the mobile app portion so our computer engineers can respond to tickets remotely."
"It also provides the front end for the employees too. It's pretty basic, but it gives them the means to reach out to IT so they don't have to pick up the phones."
"Self-service interface means people can check their own tickets."
"The flexibility and being able to connect to multiple products are valuable. It allows to use it the way we want to use it versus the way it came out of the box."
"Being able to specify event rules and SLAs that can help to automate some of the processes that people are doing manually is valuable."
"It's fairly easy to use, from a UI standpoint."
"It improves our service delivery process. We're more efficient. We're leveraging the ticketing system, which is always more efficient, so we can measure and improve."
More Clarity SM pros
 

Cons

"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."
"It would be better if it were more user-friendly. The reporting part in the version we have is a little complicated. It takes too long to build and report. It would also be better if there were another way to manage notifications."
"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."
"Hyphens are not allowed in the quick search bar. This has created a problem in our environment where we use hyphens in our asset names."
"It would be nice if they added the ability to go directly to a form via a deep link URL."
"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."
"The pricing could be a little lower and the product should cover more iTel versions."
"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."
More BMC FootPrints Service Core cons
"Report solutions are a little short."
"On permissions, there are options to do groups and options to do roles. What is practical, you have to pick one or the other, for both read and write permissions."
"Improvements would include simplification in the user interface, being more expandable, better documentation. The user interface is fairly cluttered, and we can update it the way we need to, but it just seems dated."
"The API is very, very bad so we developed our own."
"I would like to see the API cleaned up."
"We need a mobile solution. We are not using any mobile functionality for the product, but we think that this necessary."
"I would also like to see a simpler reporting tool. They went from one fairly robust, very complex, reporting tool - it was great - and then they went to another one that was also fairly complex and robust. That's a great tool for people who are report writers, but for the average person who just wants to get a quick little report, it's like handing somebody a chainsaw because they have to break some toothpicks in half."
"I am not able to see tickets on a bigger scale. I can't see the overall bigger picture."
More Clarity SM cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing for FootPrints is a perpetual license with an annual support fee."
"Cost was on par with other service desk products, and well below Remedy, while still being a BMC product."
"Our costs are well over $250,000."
"This solution has good pricing."
"The pricing is based on a subscription model."
"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."
"Pricing is simple, as it’s per concurrent analysts."
"I don't see anyone other than large companies being able to afford this system."
"It is a bit expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. It is worth it!"
"Clarity offers a perpetual license. Customers purchase the license once and then pay for maintenance. CA provides a subscription model as well. Both models are available for our customers."
"I think pricing of this model is suitable for growing corporations."
"There is a subscripted needed to use Clarity SM. The price of the solution could be less expensive. ServiceNow is less expensive and BMC Helix is priced similar to Clarity SM."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
16%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Comparisons

Rezolve AI Platform vs BMC FootPrints Service Core Logo
Rezolve AI Platform vs BMC FootPrints Service Core
Compared 53% of the time
ServiceNow vs BMC FootPrints Service Core Logo
ServiceNow vs BMC FootPrints Service Core
Compared 47% of the time
More BMC FootPrints Service Core Competitors
ServiceNow vs Clarity SM Logo
ServiceNow vs Clarity SM
Compared 100% of the time
More Clarity SM Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
IT Service Management (ITSM)
April 2025
BMC FootPrints Service Core reportDownload BMC FootPrints Service Core product report
Buyer's Guide
Clarity SM
April 2025
Clarity SM reportDownload Clarity SM product report
 

Also Known As

FootPrints Service Core
CA Service Desk Manager, Clarity Service Management, CA Service Management, Unicenter Service Desk, CA SDM, CA Service Catalog, CA Business Service Insight
 

Overview

FootPrints Service Core integrates IT service and asset management for end-to-end business services, and it's easy to install, use, and support. With configurable capabilities that streamline service delivery, FootPrints improves customer satisfaction and IT's reputation with your business users.
BMC

Service desk capabilities, an integral part of the CA Service Management solution, can enable you to deliver efficiencies in IT service management to business consumers, power users and decision makers. Mobility and collaborative self-service capabilities provide a modern user experience for accessing services and performing tasks, which can help drive user adoption, satisfaction and productivity.

Learn More: https://www.ca.com/us/products...

Broadcom
 

Sample Customers

Cast & Crew
Banco G&T Continental City of Perth, FEMSA, Fujitsu, Manpower, Muslim Commercial Bank - MCB, Punjab National Bank, Santa Clara County Social Services, Stefanini
Buyer's Guide
BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM
April 2025
Free Report: BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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