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Clarity SM vs IBM Maximo comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Clarity SM
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (25th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (27th)
IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Clarity SM and IBM Maximo aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Clarity SM is designed for IT Service Management (ITSM) and holds a mindshare of 1.2%, up 1.2% compared to last year.
IBM Maximo, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), holds 22.6% mindshare, down 26.0% since last year.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Clarity SM1.2%
ServiceNow21.0%
JIRA Service Management8.7%
Other69.1%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Maximo22.6%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management9.1%
IFS Cloud Platform9.0%
Other59.3%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
 

Featured Reviews

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…
Omar Samy - PeerSpot reviewer
Improved resource management and streamlined operations enhance organizational efficiency
IBM Maximo could be improved if they added a comprehensive finance module, as that would make it a more complete standalone application. Currently, if you need specific finance software, you need to purchase something such as SAP and integrate it with IBM Maximo. Coverage in this area would help reduce dependency on additional software. Regarding finance features, I would want to see payment capabilities added to IBM Maximo, particularly for factories making payments with providers and collections. This feature isn't adequately covered in IBM Maximo. Additionally, enhanced finance reporting and managing GL would be beneficial. IBM Maximo covers GL but only at a surface level. It doesn't provide deep account analysis.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Clarity is flexible to implement and integrate. It gives the developer or consultant a broad space to work and customize based on what the customers want."
"The in-service catalog is quite useful."
"It allows IT to handle users on a personal basis. It allows IT to have a name and a face, and we interact with the end-users."
"We especially like the look of xFlow. That looks very personal, so they can keep track of how things are going with their ticket, if it has been worked on, what the status of it is. It seems to be a little more user friendly. The user can see more from a distance right away."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The value for the clients is that you can save information in the application and get reports with that information."
"It's fairly easy to use, from a UI standpoint."
"All the interactions and orchestrations of every problem, we can analyze what happens in the organization and which kind of incident we have."
"​Maximo is very stable. We really do not have problem with stability.​"
"We are very thankful to have IBM integrated with our own Legacy cloud-based system"
"It is configurable, where you can add extra fields to screens and to the database."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to correct maintenance."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world."
"The most valuable features are the ability to create work orders and preventative maintenance."
"We were able to scale perfectly.​"
 

Cons

"The methodology introduced for Level 1 analysts needs to be taken to Change Management Process. It would be useful to be able to look in Change Management and see the current status of the process."
"We went from 12.1 to 14, so there was a lot involved in it. The issues we had were migration issues, getting our information from one place to the next and making sure everything was as everyone needed."
"We would like to see them integrate more of a service catalog, which is more of an Amazon-type fill in your bucket, then sign in, once you decide what you want."
"Ease of support and upgrades need much improvement."
"I am not able to see tickets on a bigger scale. I can't see the overall bigger picture."
"The interface for the users is a bit old-fashioned and not user-friendly."
"Nowadays every person is used to an interface that is more user-friendly and this one is not so user-friendly maybe due to the fact that, if you need to let people customize everything, sometimes you lose out on a clean user experience."
"The UI needs to be upgraded."
"It needs full-service visibility. There are a lot of things that are hard for users to find out. For example, the Service Catalog is not too friendly. You really have to know what you're looking for."
"The interface is not very easy or user-friendly and is in need of improvement."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"The solution is not stable. We can have one day when it is stable and another day it is not. Sometimes it crashes or becomes very slow, and there are times we are not even able to download all the databases. Without the database, we cannot work on that application. These are the small glitches, and stability issues we are facing."
"The pricing model of the solution has room for improvement as well as the after-sales support."
"Could use some alignment regarding some standards and the tracking of the IT assets. Even though they have all of the information (i.e. where are the assets, who owns the asset, etc.), they were not mapping it to different cyber standards."
"The mobile solution has a lot of room for improvement, especially in geopositioning capabilities, tracking capabilities, and configuration capabilities, in order to let the tech operate online and offline.​"
"IBM is a big company and they have a lot of products. Level One, the first level of tech support, is the one that is used to stop the tsunami. For everyone, it's always work to get past that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."
"The pricing is based on a subscription model."
"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."
"Pricing is simple, as it’s per concurrent analysts."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"IBM has changed the licensing policy. As I understand now, they are going from a complex way of licensing to a more simple way of licensing."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is low and ten is high, I rate the pricing a nine. The price is very high."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"$USD700 per agent user."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Performing Arts
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise66
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

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What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo could be improved if they added a comprehensive finance module, as that would make it a more complete standalone application. Currently, if you need specific finance software, you need t...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
My main use case for IBM Maximo is managing maintenance. I used it first as an end user, and later joined the implementation team. Now I'm administrating and implementing IBM Maximo. The transition...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
There are many good implemented functions in IBM Maximo, but I see these two functions as the most valuable ones from my point of view. My advice to others considering IBM Maximo is that top manage...
 

Also Known As

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

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Banco G&T Continental City of Perth, FEMSA, Fujitsu, Manpower, Muslim Commercial Bank - MCB, Punjab National Bank, Santa Clara County Social Services, Stefanini
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, BMC Helix and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: October 2025.
871,408 professionals have used our research since 2012.