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Microsoft Configuration Manager vs SymphonyAI IT Service Management 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

Microsoft Configuration Man...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Software Distribution (1st), Server Monitoring (6th), Configuration Management (3rd), Patch Management (2nd)
SymphonyAI IT Service Manag...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (27th), IT Asset Management (15th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (24th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Systems Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Configuration Manager is designed for Server Monitoring and holds a mindshare of 4.0%, down 6.5% compared to last year.
SymphonyAI IT Service Management, on the other hand, focuses on IT Service Management (ITSM), holds 1.7% mindshare, up 1.6% since last year.
Server Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Configuration Manager4.0%
Zabbix13.4%
Checkmk6.6%
Other76.0%
Server Monitoring
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SymphonyAI IT Service Management1.7%
ServiceNow15.8%
JIRA Service Management7.3%
Other75.2%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

NS
Senior System Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Centralized endpoint control has streamlined deployments and improved security compliance
In my experience, the best features of Microsoft Configuration Manager are software deployments and updates, OSD, hardware and software inventory, compliance and configuration baseline, reporting and monitoring, and integration with Intune hybrid management. These features make endpoint management efficient and scalable. The feature I rely on the most day-to-day is software deployment and patch management. It keeps endpoints updated and secure with minimal manual effort. Inventory and compliance monitoring are also important, but daily deployments are critical. Microsoft Configuration Manager has had a significant positive impact on our organization in several ways: improved efficiency, enhanced security and compliance, standardization, scalability, and visibility reporting. Overall, Microsoft Configuration Manager has helped us save time, reduce risk, improve operational efficiency, and maintain strong control over our endpoints. One of the biggest impacts Microsoft Configuration Manager has had on efficiency is the reduced manual work for software deployment and patching. For example, deploying a new application or security updates to hundreds or thousands of devices previously required several days of manual effort, including running scripts, checking devices individually, and validating installation. With Microsoft Configuration Manager, these tasks are automated and managed, allowing deployments to complete in hours rather than days. We also have automated reporting for deployment success and compliance which saved the IT team significant time that used to be spent gathering and reconciling inventory data from multiple tools.
AS
Senior Practitioner at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Comprehensive IT service processes have been supported but customization and support need improvement
All ITSM functionalities of SymphonyAI IT Service Management, including incident, problem, change, service request, and their out-of-the-box functionalities, are pretty good. SymphonyAI IT Service Management does not have too many integrations and does not have too many out-of-the-box integrations compared to other peers in the market. I think that is the only place where they lack. However, they did have a functionality where we could build our own integration, so we were using that. If they had any out-of-the-box capabilities for some of the common infrastructure tools, that would have been easier for us. The out-of-the-box functionalities were good, including AI. However, the moment we had to customize options, that becomes very difficult with SymphonyAI IT Service Management. As long as we were using out-of-the-box, it worked great.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gives us the ability to set up schedules, according to what our security requirements are, to automate the patching of our servers and desktops."
"I really like SCCM."
"It is a good choice for deployment that performs very well."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager is it's incredibly simple to configure and execute changes in bulk, allowing for seamless deployment. With this solution, you can easily track the status of all modifications and send them with ease, making it a comprehensive and efficient solution for any necessary adjustments."
"I would tell potential users that for 15,000 or 30,000 machines, you must go with Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager as it's the best tool."
"It's a stable product."
"It uses detailed descriptions of the workstations, and that is good for me."
"By having less IT support you can handle more workstations."
"All ITSM functionalities of SymphonyAI IT Service Management, including incident, problem, change, service request, and their out-of-the-box functionalities, are pretty good."
"The product has the best features for ITSM."
"The most valuable feature is remote access. People are working from home, and we can take remote access through it."
"It was easy to access and fast. Our experience using it solely as a ticketing tool. We used fetch reports from the tool, particularly with regard to SLA tracking for our partners."
"It is a good tool to use."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's chat box feature has reduced our service discount, and because it's intelligent, the responses that go out to the users have improved, and the resolutions are much faster."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's chat box feature has reduced our service discount, and because it's intelligent, the responses that go out to the users have improved, and the resolutions are much faster."
 

Cons

"The deployment process is lengthy and should be quicker to complete."
"This solution should be simpler, and more consistent across modules/sections."
"We'd like the solution to make it easier to manage remote users."
"Their compliance reporting is not accurate, and they admitted it on the phone when we had a call with them."
"I would like to see some improvements in WSUS and control of other, non-Microsoft, product updates."
"The database should be made to be more stable and robust, but not so much the configuration."
"Regarding this, I'd like to mention the agent situation. When the agent on an end-user device is not functioning correctly, it can be quite problematic. It would be highly beneficial if there were a self-healing mechanism in place. Essentially, if the agent becomes corrupted or encounters issues, it should be able to rectify itself autonomously. This is particularly critical because, in order to utilize a tool like MECM (assuming you're referring to Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager), we need to deploy agents, known as AsMs, on all the devices we use, such as Windows 10 or Windows Server. Sometimes, when we deploy configurations or updates, they don't apply properly due to agent issues. This issue has been present since we began using MECM around 23 years ago. Unfortunately, there is currently no built-in mechanism for the agent to detect its own problems and initiate self-repair. Microsoft doesn’t have any feature to scan vulnerabilities and hence, they could include those."
"There is a reboot issue with the patching. Sometimes, if patching runs into any issue whatsoever, it doesn't reboot but it doesn't tell you it errored out. It just sits there and we don't find out until the next day whether it patched or not. That was a big issue for us. We're working through that. They added some stuff in there now where you can actually tell reboot is pending. But we still need some kind of notification that if something fails or is pending, we know. We shouldn't have to go in and look. They don't have anything for that right now."
"Technical support takes too long for any issues to get resolved, and that created a lot of frustration."
"I would like them to add software inventory in the next release. We don't have that right now."
"There could be flexibility in terms of customization."
"Integration was a major limitation with SummitAI."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's project management and operational management features could be improved."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's project management and operational management features could be improved."
"I would like them to add software inventory in the next release. We don't have that right now."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing is negotiable with Microsoft, depending upon which of their packages you choose."
"Along with buying a license for MECM, we also have to buy a service called CMG (Cloud Management Gateway) which is a virtual machine in the cloud with which you can link your MECM to the Azure tenant so as to manage teleworkers."
"Pricing and licensing are a downside of SCCM. It's expensive. I'd have to confirm this, but I think they changed the licensing to core-based instead of socket-based. It's not cheap, because you have to buy the software, you have to buy SQL. Another thing we learned from talking to Microsoft is that they provide you a license for SQL if you run it on the same box as the primary server. If you run it outside that box, you have to buy SQL. Microsoft does recommend you running it on the same box because of performance. But then, in order to run SQL, SCCM, and everything on the same box, you better have some resources. It's an expensive solution. There's no doubt about it."
"We have a support license from Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager and the overall price of the solution is reasonable."
"As far as I know, it is an annual operating expense license."
"Pricing and licensing are horrible. You have to not look at dollar value to use SCCM. It's super-duper expensive but it works. The acquisition cost is expensive, it's labor-intensive. But it works."
"Overall, I think it's fine. It's pretty much in-line because there are ways to offset it with the Office 365 licensing."
"The price of SCCM depends on the size of the organization. The price is competitive."
"The product's cost is average."
"We have a regular license."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's pricing is a bit expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise66
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

How does Ansible compare to Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (SCCM)?
Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager takes knowledge and research to properly configure. The length of time that the set up will take depends on the kind of technical architecture that your org...
How to choose between ManageEngine Desktop Central and Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (formerly SCCM)?
ManageEngine Desktop Central is very easy to set up, is scalable, stable, and also has very good patch management. What I like most about ManageEngine is that I can log on to every PC very easily a...
What do you like most about SCCM?
One of the standout features of SCCM is its application management capabilities. It allows us to create packages efficiently and deploy them to specific groups within our network. This streamlined ...
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Also Known As

Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM ), Microsoft SMS
Summus IT Management Suite
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank Alfalah Ltd., Wªrth Handelsges.m.b.H, Dimension Data, Japan Business Systems, St. Lucie County Public Schools, MISC Berhad
Magma, Toyota, Evidera, Netik, KPMG, Innodata, ABB, DAIKIN, Toshiba, Emerson, Dell, Pansonic, DBS, PWC, EY, Hexaware Technologies, Deloitte, NEC, Birla Soft, Panasonic, Harman, SBI, Kotak Life Insurance, SREI, Marico, Perfetti, Manipal Hospitals, Maruti Suzuki, Royal Enfield, Toyota, CEAT, ABB, L&T, VIP, Knight Frank, Adithya Birla
Find out what your peers are saying about Zabbix, Broadcom, Tanium and others in Server Monitoring. Updated: March 2026.
885,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.