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BMC FootPrints Service Core vs SCSM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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

BMC FootPrints Service Core
Ranking in Help Desk Software
29th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
29th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SCSM
Ranking in Help Desk Software
10th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
10th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC FootPrints Service Core is 1.3%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SCSM is 1.8%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SCSM1.8%
BMC FootPrints Service Core1.3%
Other96.9%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

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…
LuisSanchez3 - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think the most important feature is the ability to receive valuable ticket status support in a timely manner with little to no downtime interruptions."
"It is stable and its technical support is good and quick."
"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."
"I like the fact that FootPrints is a relational database, so every item in the database can be linked to another. This helps create history and audit trails for each CI."
"Implemented system-wide process for approving and tracking "employee move" requests for over 15,000 employees."
"​Ability to auto-generate email messages, process email messages, and approvals."
"This product solidly handles incident management, problem management, and change management."
"Many more features than other comparable products."
"The solution offers good productivity at a low price point."
"A very convenient package like an all-in-one tool but it is actually five or six products acting well together."
"If it is correctly configured, you can access and give service quickly to all the end users."
"If it is correctly configured, you can access and give service quickly to all the end users."
"We use SCSM to manage all of our IT operations, including incident and service requests and problem management."
"The solution's setup process is relatively straightforward due to the familiar deployment steps similar to other Microsoft solutions."
"SCCM provides remote tool functionality, which is not in Intune."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"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 mobile version of this product does not support asset management."
"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."
"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."
"They need more integration with open-source products."
"The patch management aspect of the solution should be improved. It's quite complicated and not user-friendly. If your systems are not patched properly, you are unable to pull reports."
"Resources for understanding compliance and relative compliance need to be made available."
"One of the disadvantages in this product is that the reporting module is not very easy. It requires SQL development skills, which not all customers or IT professionals have."
"Mobile application integration would be an improvement."
"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 crashes our client's computers. Sometimes they get blue screens. It would be useful if SCSM could check the upgrades or patches before we implemented them to see if they are going to crash a client's system. Or, if it does install, and the client's system crashes, it would be good if the solution could revert back somehow."
"We have had some issues with the SCSM on-premise deployment version in the imaging aspects."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our costs are well over $250,000."
"This solution has good pricing."
"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."
"The price of the solution could be better. My organization has an enterprise annual license with Microsoft which provides us support."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The platform is competitively priced."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Licensing can be complex and confusing."
"It is a lower price vs. other things on the market."
"The license for SCSM is cheap."
"I would rate the pricing as two out of five."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Government
19%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about SCSM?
The solution offers good productivity at a low price point.
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.
What needs improvement with SCSM?
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...
 

Also Known As

FootPrints Service Core
System Center Service Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cast & Crew
Fibabanka, UMC Health System
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. SCSM and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.