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ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs OpenText Service Manager [EOL] comparison

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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

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
662
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 (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (4th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (3rd)
OpenText Service Manager [EOL]
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Consultant at Accenture
Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions
Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.
Mostafiz Miah - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Presales & Technical Lead at Elitbuzz Technologies Ltd
Automation has transformed daily request handling and now tracks every customer interaction
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus helps my team manage and resolve requests compared to previous methods as we previously managed things through paperwork and diaries. After deploying ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whenever any customer request comes, we provide the customer a product demo if they ask about the products. We then convert that request to a lead, which is converted to a demo, and then to the product POC, allowing us to follow up every stage of the requests. Everything can be tracked from ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, whether at the closing stage or the initial stage. I use ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus daily in a unique way because previously everyone managed their own tracking system through their diary, but now everyone inputs data into this solution so that at the end of the day, we can get reports on how many leads we have taken care of and when they need to be taken care of. This information is visible from the ServiceDesk tool, and using the dashboard, we can easily identify it, providing an at-a-glance view. The best features ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers for my team include automating manual tasks, which allows whatever tasks we previously did manually to be converted into automatic tasks. Currently, they have also introduced Zia, a very helpful solution for us. Using Zia, we can search for anything, not only inside the tool but also outside, integrating it with ChatGPT and Teams, and it can integrate with other ManageEngine solutions as well as solutions such as Jira and ServiceNow. When we integrate our network monitoring solutions with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus, it automatically raises an incident ticket and assigns it to the right team whenever any incident has occurred, which saves us time and reduces manual tasks. Previously, we had to communicate to the right people through mail or phone calls after an incident, but now the incidents are automatically converted and assigned to the relevant support groups along with the SLA. The integration with Teams allows us to raise tickets without logging into the portal, and we can see the ticket status and add comments through Teams, which is very helpful. Additionally, mail integration can automatically convert emails into tickets, adding further efficiency. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus has positively impacted our organization, particularly in customer satisfaction. Previously, customers managed service requests, incidents, changes, and problems manually, but after integration, most of these processes are automated. This includes change requests that now follow a workflow based on organizational needs and ITIL best practices, making tracking incidents and requests much easier for end customers through scheduled reports.
MEKKAB Raouf - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Service Manager & Technology Integration DevOps at Djezzy
Excellent pricing with great change management and service management capabilities
We started with version 9.3, and now we're on 9.6 with the full solution, including the CMS. They have lots of options. They propose a full solution for technology and IT service management. We are a telecom company. We are a leader in the market, and therefore, we need to have all details about our own environment and assets. So far, Micro Focus answers all our needs. I'd advise new users to go directly to the SMAX solution, the last, last version of Service Manager. If they are a technical company or information technology company with engineers and developers, they can use it on-premise. If they don't have such competence in the company, they can ask for the solution on the cloud. It is easily available on Microsoft, Amazon, or Google clouds. I'd rate the product nine out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The impact of Automation Anywhere on our organization has been significant; it has helped us save a considerable amount of time, approximately 30% to 40%, in repetitive processes and has improved automation accuracy."
"Human errors have been rectified due to bot usage."
"Automation is going to become a new area we will certainly encourage a lot of people to pursue because of the lasting dividends it provides, including saving time and manpower."
"The most valuable feature is the screen recorder, which helps to automate processes easily."
"My impression of the Bot Store is good. It is a really smart offering. A lot of the time customers need the same things, and there's not necessarily a lot of logic in reinventing the wheel. When you take the Bot Store, you allow people to share knowledge, you allow best practices to be immediately adopted by users, and you can share good knowledge, saving a lot of time for customers. It's a really good thing."
"The recorder feature for front end automation and email packages is the most valuable feature as it has more features and it makes the email server related tasks easier and more independent on the email client."
"By implementing it, we were able to solve the issue of automation, which we had almost given up on."
"I feel that it save us time and provides ROI as a monetary benefit because it reduces FTE, the number of headcount working for a particular project."
"When somebody wants to follow up with a problem from the past, the solution makes it easy. It keeps everything in one system and updated."
"The solution is free for up to five users."
"The primary benefit of ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is its ease of use."
"The solution allows you to solve certain problems by categorizing the technicality of the problem and to prioritize critical issues."
"The solution is user-friendly and has all the features we need; it is very effective in its operation."
"The tool's most valuable feature is task creation. The tickets get timestamps as well."
"The costing for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is very flexible and is considered low-priced."
"The ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus SaaS model helped us because it was easy on our pockets but also easy to use, configure, and manage."
"The flexibility and the integrity of the product allow me to have a rock-solid platform for change, problem, and incident control."
"Service Manager does what it should, but it's quite outdated."
"Service Manager's best features are flexibility and customizability."
"Fast, responsive and modern design."
"It integrates well with multiple Management Information Bases (MIB's)."
"It's the point of control for managing issues and offers control in the implementation of the changes."
"So far, Micro Focus answers all our needs."
"Technical support is absolutely very good."
 

Cons

"As of now IQ Bot only takes/fetches the record of the places that we have marked. e.g. Invoices fields that are dynamic in nature are very difficult to fetch the data from the scan copy. If this feature gets added, it will save a lot of time for developers."
"The Automation Anywhere calibrating needs to be more user-friendly to avoid human error."
"We have HTML mode and Window mode, but Automation Anywhere is limited in this. It would be better if they were able to provide different specification modes."
"One way Automation Anywhere can be improved is in ticketing."
"It would be nice to have the IQ Bots integrated with the Enterprise Edition without requiring extra licenses. That would be great."
"The setup and deployment processes for this product also need to be improved, e.g. made easier."
"We'd like to see more AI features."
"They should consider being more multi-platform."
"As a partner, their technical support can respond better to the tickets. We provide deployment services and also support products as a partner. We get a lot of tickets from clients complaining about certain issues related to the system, but when we send or escalate an issue to the agent, sometimes, there is a delay. That's something that they could improve on. Because we are a local partner, we are able to copy to some employees who can try to push a ticket to close, but it would be best if they can respond a bit quicker."
"ServiceDesk's reporting module could use an update. It looks outdated, and the interface could be more intuitive."
"If it could have a tighter integration with Microsoft 365, particularly for email flow, it would be great."
"There could be some improvement regarding integration with other platforms like Sharepoint."
"I think that the tool should try to streamline the user interface even more because there are a lot of options that can be offered to users."
"The biggest friction point or frustration I have run into with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is the upgrade risk and manual patching, along with the rigid reporting engine and clunky analytics."
"When I think of improvements the first thing that comes to mind would have to be the active management function."
"They could improve the screens."
"I think it brings uncertainty, and they're well aware of that."
"Same, it wasn't always stable. Actually, I wouldn't call it stable now either."
"There could be some slight fixes to managing the catalog, because you can customise the items so much you can't really change the items in dropdown lists easily."
"It, still, has a bit of more of improvement possibilities in the codeless part. But, I can see that they are working on it, so that's quite good as well."
"Service Manager is at the end of its life. The architecture, performance, and look are all way behind."
"Part of our reason for moving away from Service Manager is that HP was not on the leading edge of the technology and was consequently being surpassed by SaaS offerings."
"In general, we were not satisfied with technical support."
"I think one area which is the most painful from my point of view is if you need to integrate a lot of the tools, and being able to make that a lot more seamless."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost could be improved. It costs a lot. At the very least, the developer licenses and the control panels should be made free to enterprises, and the production environment licensed."
"I think it's $5,500 per license."
"It is expensive. Automation Anywhere has reduced the price slightly, as we have grown. However, the price is still excessive enough that we are engaged in PoCs on other tools."
"There may be room for the product to be more competitively priced to excel in the market."
"The product starts at $10,000 and then it's up to you regarding how much you can consume."
"Automation Anywhere is expensive."
"We paid separately for the Runner and Creater components. The final cost depends on the structure of your environment."
"We have seen about a 10 percent monetary savings."
"For our 500 assets that are using the professional version of the solution, we pay somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000 per year."
"It is cheaper than its competitors."
"The price of the solution is low. However, it still could be less expensive."
"Its price is very lucrative. It would be great if the price can come down, but overall, its price is great. It is half or maybe one-third of the price of other market leaders."
"For 90 service agents and our need for a cloud solution with incident management and service request management, it annually costs around 12,000. If you need additional development or deployment support from the vendor, there might be an additional cost."
"ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus' pricing is reasonable."
"It is above average. But it is neither cheap nor expensive."
"We use the cloud model, which is subscription-based, and each year, the subscription fees seem to go up, making it a more expensive solution."
"I would say that identify your requirements and pay for the support to implement and test those requirements, and then hope that you did a good job because the cost of their service is fairly expensive."
"I pay for Service Manager on a yearly basis, and the price is reasonable - I would rate it five out of ten."
"Micro Focus Service Manager is a little cheaper than other options. You have to pay a monthly subscription fee."
"HP Service Manager has moderate pricing."
"The license is not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business157
Midsize Enterprise81
Large Enterprise558
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise24
Large Enterprise20
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise38
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
Regarding pricing, ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus offers three editions: Standard edition, Professional, and Enterpris...
What needs improvement with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
The biggest friction point or frustration I have run into with ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is the upgrade risk and ...
What is your primary use case for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus?
My main use case for ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is that we are receiving tickets from multiple users regarding iss...
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Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
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Micro Focus Service Manager, HPE ITSM, HPE Service Manager
 

Interactive Demo

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Tranter IT Infrastructure Services Limited, Sterlite Technologies, averda, Radiology Associates
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Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: July 2026.
908,877 professionals have used our research since 2012.