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Cherwell Service Management vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk comparison

Ivanti and IBM are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. Ivanti is ranked #25, while IBM is ranked #27. Ivanti holds a 0.7% mindshare in HDS, compared to IBM’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Ivanti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of IBM users who would recommend it.
Cherwell Service Management
Read 6 Cherwell Service Management reviews
  • 536 Views
  • 218 Comparison Views
80% willing to recommend
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Read 9 IBM SmartCloud Control Desk reviews
  • 387 Views
  • 191 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Cherwell Service Management and IBM SmartCloud Control Desk are competing IT service management solutions. While Cherwell Service Management is known for its pricing and support, IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is a superior option due to its comprehensive features that justify its cost.

Features: Cherwell Service Management offers rich customization options and integrates well with existing systems, providing flexibility. It has an easy-to-use dashboard feature and comprehensive reporting functionality. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk excels in asset management, change management, and automation capabilities, enhancing operational efficiency. Its service request management and workflow automation are also notable features.

Room for Improvement: Cherwell Service Management could improve in areas such as advanced automation capabilities, scaling for larger environments, and user interface enhancements for better experience. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk could benefit from simplified deployment processes, reduction in complexity to improve usability for smaller organizations, and improved customization flexibility to meet diverse customer needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cherwell Service Management offers a more straightforward deployment process supported by strong customer service, reducing complexity during initial setup. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk, while more challenging to deploy due to its advanced capabilities, provides extensive support and resources for large-scale implementations.

Pricing and ROI: Cherwell Service Management presents a competitive setup cost, providing quick ROI through reduced overhead and adaptable solutions. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk, though positioned at a higher price point, offers significant ROI through its advanced automation and asset management features that optimize long-term IT operations.

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To learn more, read our detailed Cherwell Service Management vs. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk Report (Updated: April 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Cherwell Service Management vs. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
April 2025
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Helped 850,236 peers since 2012

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

Cherwell Service Management
Ranking in Help Desk Software
25th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (29th)
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Ranking in Help Desk Software
27th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Cherwell Service Management is 0.7%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is 0.8%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Thobile Moeketsi - PeerSpot reviewer
Having everything in one location has significantly improved our efficiency and reporting
We need to be on VPN in order to set up and access the solution, and that has created some challenges. Even though it uses our Windows login, we still have to be on VPN. The product should be able to log tickets directly from system to system. We haven't got there yet and I'm not sure it's possible but it would determine the product's capability to integrate with other systems.
Read full review
Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps standardize our workflow, track client tickets, and it's very flexible
Initially we used HPE Service Desk. Then, Remedy (IBM SmartCloud Control Desk) version 5. When selecting a vendor, the most important thing for us is the flexibility of the tool. It must be very flexible to change the workflow or to add new workflows for the clients. It must have stability and scalability as well.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The dashboard and the reporting functionality are the solution's most valuable features."
"The dashboard is very useful to get a quick overview of current tasks."
"All our activities are carried out in the one place."
"Its integration features, orchestration features, and discovery tools are the most valuable. It is also pretty stable, and it can be as scalable as you want."
"Clear processes with transparent responsibilities led to more efficiencies within the teams."
"The most valuable features are problem management and change management."
"The solution is very easy to work with."
"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."
"SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable."
"The brand name is the most valuable aspect of this solution for me. It's IBM. It's a global company that supports this product, it's not something open source or something like that."
"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 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."
"The solution has been stable."
More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk pros
 

Cons

"Areas for improvement would be the service catalog and customer catalog, which is not very user-friendly. The shopping cart experience is also terrible - you submit and go straight to the cart, you can't continue shopping or see your overall cost."
"Access is only available if we're on VPN."
"The stability, specifically in the on-premises deployment model, could be improved."
"Application service mapping, GRC, SecOps, and things like that need improvement."
"The solution lacks a graphical user interface."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The time calculations can be improved. While working on reports, it was taking the time only in seconds, which was hard for me to work out. While creating some dialogs in the service portal, you have to use certain data types in some fields. It was very tricky to make them work. I was testing a certain type of input, and it didn't work. It didn't show me the domain that the fields have to show. I had to make the change to the database, and only then it worked. It was a tricky thing to make them work with the dialogs. Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."
More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For an ITIL user, the cost is probably about 50 bucks a month."
"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
Educational Organization
60%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
5%
Healthcare Company
4%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Comparisons

ServiceNow vs Cherwell Service Management Logo
ServiceNow vs Cherwell Service Management
Compared 100% of the time
More Cherwell Service Management Competitors
ServiceNow vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk Logo
ServiceNow vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Compared 100% of the time
More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
IT Service Management (ITSM)
April 2025
Cherwell Service Management reportDownload Cherwell Service Management product report
Buyer's Guide
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
April 2025
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk reportDownload IBM SmartCloud Control Desk product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
SmartCloud Control Desk
 

Overview

Cherwell Service Management is a powerful IT service management (ITSM) solution that provides IT organizations the flexibility needed for rapid configuration and customization, minimal overhead, and frictionless upgrades at a fraction of the cost and complexity associated with legacy ITSM solutions. Cherwell's codeless design architecture means you can add new functionality without modifying a single line of code, integrate easily with third party applications, and upgrade without fear of breaking what you've built.
Ivanti
IBM Control Desk on Cloud offer an access to a user friendly self-service, automated service management, and seamlessly-integrated, best-practice based service desk capabilities. IBM Control Desk provides the IT service management (ITSM) needed to simplify support of users and infrastructure. It also offers a unified IT asset and service management software provides a common control center for managing business processes for both digital and physical assets and enables control, governance and compliance to applications, endpoints and assets to protect critical data and prevent outages. Control Desk is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-compliant, accessible through mobile devices and integrates with social media and development tools.
IBM
 

Sample Customers

Ausenco, Highlights for Children, B/E Aerospace
St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology
Buyer's Guide
Cherwell Service Management vs. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
April 2025
Free Report: Cherwell Service Management vs. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk
Find out what your peers are saying about Cherwell Service Management vs. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
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