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HaloITSM vs OpenText Service Management (SMAX) comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 8, 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
6.8
Number of Reviews
669
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 (2nd), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
HaloITSM
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (26th)
OpenText Service Management...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (12th)
 

Featured Reviews

Nadeem K. - PeerSpot reviewer
Rpa Developer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Automation has freed teams from repetitive finance and supply tasks and supports global operations
In the current organization, we had trouble initially because I think the documentation and support could be better than what it is now. This is one difference between Automation Anywhere and other RPA tools such as UiPath. In UiPath, if you have an issue, you go to the UiPath website and search for it, and you get lots of help materials. In Automation Anywhere, you do not get exactly what you are looking for. You get a very large number of results when you search for something, and from this large result set, you have to filter out what you need, or only partial information will be available. User handbooks are available for each product. In that regard, I would say Automation Anywhere is lagging compared to other RPA tools. It is difficult to get hold of their customer support team. I want to clarify that it is not a matter of us building logic on Automation Anywhere and it failing. When it is a product-related issue, they have to give us support because we only know how to develop within Automation Anywhere. We do not know how to fix Automation Anywhere itself. Whenever we have an issue, trying to get in touch with them always takes three to four business days.
Ian MacFarlane - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at Elifiatek
Codeless with no customization required and excellent pricing
We have just displaced a ServiceNow installation, which is a major win. We have become partners with Halo and reduced our partnerships with other enterprise ITSM providers. We've actually become partners with Halo, and we've got rid of our partnership with Ivanti ITSM. It's a real market changer, for sure.
HugoAlmeida - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Delivery at Timestamp ITM
Centralized service processes have improved cross‑department visibility but reporting still needs work
The machine learning capabilities in OpenText Service Management (SMAX) are somewhat not published the way they should be. They work pretty well, but they are not used as much in the current experience of our customers. They have them; the solution has them, but they usually go a little bit below the radar in terms of visibility. I believe there is room for improvement when it comes to machine learning capabilities. OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has room to improve mainly on reporting components. The reporting components include dashboards, and while OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has a reporting module, it's somewhat limited, so I believe it has room to improve there, with more inclusion of artificial intelligence in the models and more in project management and portfolio management capabilities. We want to see better use and more functionalities enabled with the already existing capabilities such as AI and reporting in the next OpenText Service Management (SMAX) release, but one important thing we think should be included is a module for metrics, similar to Google Analytics, that focuses on the metrics of the tool usage. The module shouldn't just report on the components of OpenText Service Management (SMAX) but also track how the tool is used by end users, for example, what functionalities users utilize more frequently, the performance of those functionalities, and how long it takes them to open a ticket or log in, focusing on applicational monitoring metrics and performance management metrics.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We automated these processes so they will be processed automatically, and users will get the end result for validation—it is basically time-saving for them."
"Without thinking twice, I would recommend going for Automation Anywhere."
"We are automatizing redundant activities, releasing employees to do value-added activities."
"IQ Bot is one of the most valuable features because it helps in processing different formats from different vendors."
"The bottom line is that it is extremely simple and developer-friendly."
"The best features are the ease of use, the short learning curve, and the good support from our local partner."
"The feature I appreciate the most about Automation Anywhere is the interface."
"Having no restriction for any single programming language is very useful."
"The solution's initial setup process was quite straightforward... I rate the technical support a nine and a half out of ten."
"The product’s UI is very good."
"The most valuable aspect is that is is codeless."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is effective for all sectors, such as IT and HR."
"I've used this kind of application for more than 20 years and from my perspective, SMAX is one of the best products on the market."
"The product provides an interface for the end users to make requests."
"It offers a range of tools for sales and configuration. It's like a business process improvement platform, suitable for various lines of business operations."
"OpenText Service Management Automation X provides valuable features such as topic analytics for incident and problem management. It also includes natural language processing for analyzing technical descriptions. Additionally, it features a virtual chatbot capable of processing natural language to interact effectively with end users. This service enhances customer support and is not subject to the limitations often found in offerings from other vendors."
"The most valuable features of Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX) are that it is user-friendly, easy to configure, and adaptable."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is evolving in addressing the needs across different sectors like IT or HR."
"The customization features are quite good, and we have a very good local vendor helping us in this regard."
 

Cons

"I would like to have the ability to work on a remote desktop connection, run the recording on it and use all commands."
"On the cognitive side, some of their competitors, when we were originally shopping, were a little more advanced in that space. Making use of probabilistic outcomes and presenting them to a business user is a feature that, at the time of our evaluation, did not feel like a strong, mature solution for Automation Anywhere. Nevertheless, they won our business. That is one feature where I feel they are trying to make investments to address those gaps."
"Additionally, the user interface is quite outdated and could be more user-friendly. The licensing cost is also too high, which means many small-scale industries may not choose this product."
"Currently, Automation Anywhere's debugging functionality is minimal."
"When we try to process structured documents but with some little pen marks, improper partitions, or faded documents, IQ Bot fails to extract data properly out of them."
"The quality and response time of the support, even on Sev-1 tickets, is not satisfactory."
"More interactions with PDFs would be great for Automation Anywhere. The ability to use more legacy technology for object cloning, flash plugins, etc. A lot of their Excel commands could use some improvement."
"The areas that need improvement are the license management, user access permission, user role access management, and technical support."
"The product does not have its own orchestration engine."
"There are no improvements needed. There is very little that HALO has not already built that is not on its roadmap."
"The solution's integration part needs to improve...In the future release of the solution, I expect to see certain changes in the programming of the solution. A customer of the solution should be able to customize it as per their need."
"The contract management feature can be improved."
"SMAX lacks in integrations as well as written documentation."
"The product's connectivity with third-party products is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The initial setup of Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX) is complicated, but once it is set up the configuration is straightforward to adapt to the users' or customers' needs."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has room to improve mainly on reporting components. The reporting components include dashboards, and while OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has a reporting module, it's somewhat limited, so I believe it has room to improve there, with more inclusion of artificial intelligence in the models and more in project management and portfolio management capabilities."
"The tool has negatively impacted our productivity."
"The reporting functionality is not the best as it is not easy to use."
"The solution lacks sufficient documentation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have seen the tangible benefits of taking monotonous work off people's plates, creating capacity, and cost reductions."
"Despite being less expensive than UiPath, Automation Anywhere remains cost-prohibitive for many small and medium-sized businesses."
"The cost of this solution is a little bit high, but it is worth the price."
"Our pricing a year ago was $600 per license."
"Our company is investing a lot of money in Automation Anywhere. They have saved money wherever humans are working. They invest a lot of money in FTEs and other logistics, so the money saving is very pretty good with Automation Anywhere. While I don't know the exact figure, the tool is saving us millions of dollars as well as saving about 40,000 hours in the last year."
"The certifications are free of cost."
"The setup cost depends on multiple factors, so you need to get details before choosing."
"We are restricted to use one license on one PC. However, if my license is not working, I want to be able to use it somewhere else. This would be a nice improvement to the licensing, as other competitors in the market have better licensing terms."
"It's $69 per user per month. Only administrators need a license, and there is no limit to the number of endpoints."
"The product’s pricing is competitive and less complicated."
"The solution's pricing model is good. Also, they still follow the old concurrent licensing method."
"The cost of the license for SMAX varies depending on the configuration, including the number of seats for users and the customer's specific requirements. It's not a fixed cost and can vary."
"The solution is somewhat cheaper than the competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
12%
University
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business162
Midsize Enterprise86
Large Enterprise566
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
 

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.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
We mostly deal with OpenText Service Management (SMAX), Service Management, and UCMDB, the UD Discovery, Unified Disc...
What advice do you have for others considering Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
We are still working with OpenText and Splunk. I remember that Splunk is now with what Cisco AppDynamics bought. We a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is okay, not expensive and not the cheapest. It is overall good.
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
NetHelpDesk
OpenText Service Manager, Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)
 

Interactive Demo

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Innocent Drinks, SKY TV, Sports Direct, Suzuki, Siemens, NHS, Cardiff City Council, Atos, AO.com, Ambitious about Autism, SEPA, York University etc.
Zurich Airport, Envirosuite, Norsk Helsenett, Achmea, University of Milan, World Vision, Petroleum Development Oman, Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT).
Find out what your peers are saying about HaloITSM vs. OpenText Service Management (SMAX) and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,523 professionals have used our research since 2012.