IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs IFS Cloud Platform comparison

IBM and IFS are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. IBM is ranked #28, while IFS is ranked #21 with an average rating of 6.5. IBM holds a 1.3% mindshare in HDS, compared to IFS’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of IFS users who would recommend it.

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Read 9 IBM SmartCloud Control Desk reviews

659 Views
652 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

IFS Cloud Platform

Read 31 IFS Cloud Platform reviews

5,297 Views
848 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

IFS Cloud Platform

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

IFS Cloud Platform and IBM SmartCloud Control Desk are prominent players in the cloud service and enterprise management markets. IFS Cloud Platform may have an advantage due to its flexible integration and superior industry standards, yet IBM gains strength with its robust incident and asset management capabilities.

Features: IFS Cloud Platform includes a complex pricing matrix, rich warehouse functionality, and customizable components, enabling in-house development. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk excels with a robust service catalog, CMDB-based architecture, and strong incident management. Both provide significant enterprise management solutions and flexible integration options.

Room for Improvement: IFS Cloud Platform could enhance its end-user interface, error messaging, and handle high-volume transactions better. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk needs a more modern user interface and improved graphical elements. Both systems should improve user experience and functionalities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IFS Cloud Platform supports hybrid and private cloud deployments. Customer service quality varies across regions. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is typically used on-premises, and users note a need for streamlined support. Both platforms aim for consistent global support, yet face challenges.

Pricing and ROI: IFS Cloud Platform offers user-based pricing, competitive against ERP rivals like SAP, but potentially expensive for smaller businesses. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk employs a yearly license model, generally more costly but suitable for larger firms. Both show good ROI post-implementation, though IFS could provide a scalable financial edge over time.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. IFS Cloud Platform Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. IFS Cloud Platform

December 2025

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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

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

28th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

IFS Cloud Platform

Ranking in Help Desk Software

21st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM (35th), Customer Experience Management (9th), Field Service Management (2nd), ERP (19th), Activity Based Costing Software (9th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (4th), Local Government CRM (15th), IT Asset Management (15th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (19th), License Management (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is 1.3%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 1.8%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IFS Cloud Platform	1.8%
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk	1.3%
Other	96.9%

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Klemen Muhvič

Computer System Engineer at Informatika d.d.

Has centralization and asset management features, and a helpful and knowledgeable technical support team

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.

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Thangaraj Ramasamy

Consultant at Arcwide

Has supported project management and business customization through strong modular flexibility

The cloud feature in IFS Cloud Platform is predominantly valuable, especially the enterprise asset management module, which IFS has very good business into, along with strong finance, project management, and supply chain management modules; these are the major modules that are performing well with IFS, and the cloud options along with user-friendly customizations for any technical developments are additional advantages. The integration of IoT with IFS Cloud Platform is performing well, enabling us to integrate with predominantly any third party through the standard inbuilt connectors that are readily available, and if we need to customize the integration, we can certainly do that too.

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 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."

"The solution is very easy to work with."

"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."

"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."

"A feature I found most valuable in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is the service request. Another feature I like most about the solution is IT asset management, which tells you who owns a specific asset in the company and from which date."

"The solution has been stable."

"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."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk pros

"The workflow of the solution is very good."

"The product is quite flexible."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users."

"The main reason for the ERP project was to bring together our fourteen sites, which had until then worked in separate silos."

"I like the connectivity and interfaces. In V10, it's easy to modify the interfaces and layouts, but it's becoming more complicated in the cloud. IFS is excellent at asset maintenance and incident management. They have specialized modules for IFS that cover incident and asset management and everything else connected to finance. The reporting in IFS is also easy to use."

"A high level of ERP can be handled in IFS."

"When it comes to financing, the solution has helped us to concentrate finance functions like accounting processes in one system. This includes about 70 internal entities around the world."

"Feature-wise, I like the way it provides inventory details...It is a stable solution."

More IFS Cloud Platform pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The main issue that we hear from our customers is that the self-service user interface is a little bit old, possibly due to the fact that IBM is such a large enterprise company. People say that they think they're in the year 2004, because you can very clearly see that the technology is lagging behind modern trends."

"The reporting in relation to updating could be improved upon."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk cons

"We have upgraded to the latest version right now. We have issues with the quality. We tried to enroll in their Evergreen program which was meant to help us adopt any service update or anything that the tool’s providers come up with."

"It would be ideal if, in the future, the product could incorporate IoT and blockchain elements. We'd like to explore more of these types of features going forward."

"Some kind of bot assistance, some kind of artificial intelligence to help people solve the problems, would be interesting."

"Ability to place approval check-points in the custom workflow, so clients can decide what they want it."

"There should be some improvements in the predefined templates in IFS Applications."

"Aspects of HR and payroll could be better."

"Sometimes from the sales perspective, clients don't always fully understand how large a task or a project they're getting involved in when they decide, "We're going to switch across to IFS." They could probably do a little bit more, maybe around preparing people for these projects."

"IFS uses Crystal Report mostly, which isn't too user-friendly. Developing reports isn't easy and requires a lot of dev time. Since SAP bought it, Crystal Report has become more complicated to use on IFS. You have a dashboard for reporting that is good, but it's incomplete. Most of our clients use Power BI or some additional tooling for BI."

More IFS Cloud Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Licensing is on an annual basis, with no additional costs."

"There's an additional yearly cost for support."

"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."

"Pricing is an area that could be improved. They could be more competitive."

"We pay for a license to use the solution, which is not very expensive."

"IFS Applications are competitive in terms of pricing compared to other vendors, such as SAP, Oracle, and Epicor. They are generally cheaper, especially for licensing costs."

"Ask for all-inclusive pricing, as they are pretty flexible if you ask for custom models."

"It is better to buy implementation services from IFS than from partners"

More IFS Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?

The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive features and minimal need for customization. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IFS Applications?

When it comes to AI, I feel that is the area where we expect something more from IFS Cloud Platform. They are working on IFS AI, but we have not explored much into that yet, and if they want to kee...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IFS Applications?

Currently, I am working with Arcwide, which is a service industry that predominantly focuses on IFS consulting, including IFS implementations, rollouts, upgrades, and support services.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 24% of the time

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Compared 19% of the time

Ameyo Fusion CX vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Compared 15% of the time

Zendesk vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Compared 15% of the time

ServiceNow vs IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Compared 14% of the time

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SAP ERP vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 14% of the time

IBM Maximo vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle E-Business Suite vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 6% of the time

IFS assyst vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 4% of the time

ServiceNow vs IFS Cloud Platform

Compared 4% of the time

More IFS Cloud Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

January 2026

Download IBM SmartCloud Control Desk product report

Buyer's Guide

IFS Cloud Platform

January 2026

Download IFS Cloud Platform product report

Also Known As

SmartCloud Control Desk

IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud

Overview

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

IFS is the world’s leading provider of Industrial AI and enterprise software for hardcore businesses that make, service, and power our planet. Our technology enables businesses which manufacture goods, maintain complex assets, and manage service-focused operations to unlock the transformative power of Industrial AI™ to enhance productivity, efficiency, and sustainability. Industrial AI is IFS.ai.

IFS Cloud is a fully composable AI-powered platform, designed for ultimate flexibility and adaptability to our customers’ specific requirements and business evolution. It spans the needs of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Information Technology Service Management (ITSM), and Field Service Management (FSM). IFS technology leverages AI, machine learning, real-time data and analytics to empower our customers to make informed strategic decisions and excel at their Moment of Service™.

IFS

Sample Customers

St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology

China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia.

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. IFS Cloud Platform

December 2025

Free Report: IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. IFS Cloud Platform

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