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BMC FootPrints Service Core vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 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
6.9
Number of Reviews
659
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 (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
BMC FootPrints Service Core
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (30th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (27th)
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (33rd)
 

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.
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…
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When this technology first came to market, I thought it was about robotic things, which we cannot do, however, when I started to learn about Automation Anywhere, it's completely different; it's a user friendly tool with drag and drop commands and a person just needs technical, logical thinking."
"Automation Anywhere has positively impacted my organization by providing a lot of hours and dollars saved for many business teams across the company, and it helps spark ideas for people to look at their own business processes and learn how to automate them from end to end."
"The scheduling feature allows for scheduling of the bots to a specific time every day, which helped remove the dependency on humans completely."
"So far, the organization has 20+ bots, which has generated more than $50K of ROI."
"In general, when you set up the cloud solution, it's very, very easy."
"It's really easy to use. We have a number of people at our firm who are now certified RPA developers that had no development background. They did that just by the online training in some cases. In some cases, it was the online training, as well as a three day class that we brought in-house and had taught."
"It is easy to use. It helps to reduce your man-hours and manual effort."
"I have in fact told all my friends and colleagues who are in the RPA domain to work with Automation Anywhere because it's easier to run as well as to implement."
"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."
"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."
"I feel confident in saying that BMC FootPrints Service Core is definitely one of the best products in the market."
"I have used Tier II BMC support a few times. They were very responsive and recreated my environment in their lab to support me."
"We can track issues easier and run reports on issues to see if there are patterns."
"Technical support is good."
"​Ability to auto-generate email messages, process email messages, and approvals."
"We use BMC FootPrints Service Core to manage network issues, infrastructure issues, software issues, ERP, and our facility, using it for work orders and as an extra ticketing system."
"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."
"In general, it's been pretty stable."
"The solution is very easy to work with."
"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."
"Overall, it's a good product that I would recommend."
"Overall, it has helped us continuously improve our business processes."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"Compared to other RPA tools, the UI of Automation Anywhere is not that great and is not that easy to pick up for people, which takes more time for a newbie."
"Automation Anywhere can be improved by reducing the time of the processes and enhancing the efficiency of people."
"The integration in UiPath is much better. Automation Anywhere's latest version has improved. It's fine but not as good as UiPath."
"They need to make the AA stable across all browsers and I hope to see it fixed in the next version."
"Product support for our customers needs improvement. They should increase the support personnel."
"I feel a lack of convenience when I try to scale it."
"It does not easily integrate with customized solutions."
"Technical support needs to be worked on as the turnaround time can be around a week, even though we are just using the solution on a pilot basis. We are working in real-time with realistic data. While the process of a logging a ticket is good, the process from logging a ticket to closure needs faster support time."
"We need more customizable reporting functionality."
"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."
"Sometimes it is difficult to make the application do exactly what you need."
"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."
"To improve the product for our usage, the pricing maybe could be a bit lower."
"It would be nice if they added the ability to go directly to a form via a deep link URL."
"The pricing could be a little lower and the product should cover more iTel versions."
"There are still a few odd issues in FootPrints 12.x, which are frustrating."
"The product is kind of clunky to use."
"What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly."
"Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."
"The user interface is not very interesting."
"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."
"Technical support can be slow in terms of resolving issues."
"The reporting in relation to updating could be improved upon."
"It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We would like them to change the license model of charging per bot."
"We have a few licenses. They cost roughly $10,000 each."
"Automation Anywhere is flexible in terms of costing and licensing."
"The setup and licensing cost is affordable, and it is not exaggerated like UiPath."
"This is a comprehensive automation offering with a scalable architecture and flexible pricing models."
"I feel the cost of licensing is very high for the A2019 version."
"It is affordable for us."
"If it is saving FTE and Generating a good ROI then it is Worth Investing."
"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."
"Our costs are well over $250,000."
"This solution has good pricing."
"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 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."
"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
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
21%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Performing Arts
15%
Construction Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business157
Midsize Enterprise83
Large Enterprise551
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise3
 

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)
FootPrints Service Core
SmartCloud Control Desk
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Cast & Crew
St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,988 professionals have used our research since 2012.