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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 (24th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (26th)
IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
23
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 1.1%, up 1.1% compared to last year.
IBM Maximo, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), holds 25.7% mindshare, down 27.0% since last year.
IT Service Management (ITSM)
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…
Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
A very strong and powerful tool in the market preferred by a variety of industries
I rate the technical support a seven out of ten. Three levels of support in IBM. The first one is a fixed level, while levels two and three are very good. Here, level one is not very good, as it takes time to go from level one to level two and from level two to level three. So, level one is of low capacity.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The new xFlow interface that was introduced for Level 1 analysts really helps the them to achieve the best and fastest result for their users/customers."
"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."
"The value for the clients is that you can save information in the application and get reports with that information."
"The most valuable features are the requests and incident tracking."
"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."
"You can customize it and make it work to the client's needs."
"As of late, I really like the BI functions."
"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 incident management feature is good because it allows you to keep track of and classify issues."
"I have found Work Order management the most valuable feature. Additionally, it is a very robust and powerful solution."
"It is configurable, where you can add extra fields to screens and to the database."
"Provides great flexibility."
"​Maximo is very stable. We really do not have problem with stability.​"
"IBM Maximo is the best software for assets management."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
 

Cons

"They should enhance the service desk manager's service point function to be more customizable."
"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."
"They really want user names in the document owner and subject expert fields, and that is just not practical."
"The interface for the users is a bit old-fashioned and not user-friendly."
"I would like to see the API cleaned up."
"Diversifying notification methods with pop-ups or ready-made WhatsApp or Skype integration packages would be welcome."
"If I had to choose, it would be more around the user interface than the mobile experience."
"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."
"Coding can be complex when customization is required."
"The standard reports that shipped with the package need to be enriched with more advanced reports, especially for the Inventory Management sections."
"The interface is not very easy or user-friendly and is in need of improvement."
"Initial setup is a longer process because Maximo is bigger and has more processes."
"It's not user-friendly. It could use shortcuts for frequently requested services."
"Although you can create notifications with Maximo, the configuration and options could be improved."
"It was very slow due to the lagging issues. So that was kind of frustrating, considering how slow it was while functioning."
"I feel that the interface is a little too complicated with a large number of fields to enter."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."
"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."
"It is a bit expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. It is worth it!"
"Pricing is simple, as it’s per concurrent analysts."
"I think pricing of this model is suitable for growing corporations."
"The pricing is based on a subscription model."
"I don't see anyone other than large companies being able to afford this system."
"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."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"​Explore internal processes in order to evaluate the correct number of users in each Maximo module, then evaluate the different offers of pricing and licensing.​"
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"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."
"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."
"$USD700 per agent user."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: June 2025.
862,499 professionals have used our research since 2012.