OpenText Service Management (SMAX) vs OpenText Service Manager [EOL] comparison

OpenText Service Management (SMAX) and OpenText Service Manager [EOL] are both solutions in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category. Additionally, 88% of OpenText Service Management (SMAX) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 79% of OpenText Service Manager [EOL] users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

OpenText Service Manager [EOL] and OpenText Service Management SMAX compete in IT service management. SMAX appears more favored for its advanced automation and AI capabilities, providing better long-term value.

Features: OpenText Service Manager EOL offers comprehensive IT service request management, robust integration capabilities, and customization options. SMAX boasts advanced automation, AI-driven insights, and a modern architecture, which are often preferred for their enhanced functionality.

Room for Improvement: OpenText Service Manager EOL could enhance its cloud capabilities, reduce deployment resource requirements, and simplify its integration process. SMAX might improve by refining its reporting tools, enhancing dashboard customization, and expanding customer support to meet complex demands.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenText Service Manager EOL involves a traditional deployment model that can be resource-intensive, but it offers strong customer support. SMAX provides a more flexible deployment through cloud-based technologies, allowing for quicker implementation and improved satisfaction from its responsive service.

Pricing and ROI: OpenText Service Manager EOL typically has a lower initial setup cost, appealing for budget concerns. SMAX requires a higher initial investment but offers a better return on investment over time due to its scalable, flexible features that enhance efficiency, justifying the total cost of ownership.

To learn more, read our detailed IT Service Management (ITSM) Report (Updated: July 2026).

Buyer's Guide

IT Service Management (ITSM)

July 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 909,099 peers since 2012

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

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash

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.

Read full review

HugoAlmeida

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.

Read full review

MEKKAB Raouf

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.

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

"It reduced cost and effort significantly; yearly, our organization saved $14,000, the company started to save more, and increased efficiency in the field of automation then started to pioneer."

"The recorders are highly beneficial when automating web scraping or web automation tasks."

"Speed is the most valuable feature. E.g., for a human, it could take around 60 minutes to create a report with a few errors. Occasionally, a person will miss something. With this bot, we can get the work done in around five minutes. So, it takes only five minutes for a report to scan and be created with fewer errors."

"With Automation Anywhere bots, we are able to cut down the manual efforts by 80% in generating Excel and Power BI reports, extracting and uploading files to various sites, and many other web-based administrative tasks."

"It eliminates redundant work from our offshore team to free up FTEs."

"The universal recorder along with the Excel basic and advanced packages has been highly valuable."

"AA improves process consistency and reduces human error."

"AA has improved our organization in a positive manner."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"The product provides an interface for the end users to make requests."

"This is a cordless application that can be used throughout any organization."

"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 customization features are quite good, and we have a very good local vendor helping us in this regard."

"The tool is very easy to use."

"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 (SMAX) is effective for all sectors, such as IT and HR."

"The most valuable features of Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX) are that it is user-friendly, easy to configure, and adaptable."

More OpenText Service Management (SMAX) pros

"Service Manager's best features are flexibility and customizability."

"It has an intuitive front end which allows us to roll out good customer end user experiences."

"It's easy to scale."

"It is a rich content solution and a good and complete solution, along with a lot of functionality."

"It has features such as integration with Skype for Business, smart analytics, and smart ticketing."

"I advise others to use the HP Service Manager because it's a powerful and capable enterprise solution."

"The interface is good, I like it, it's easy to use, it's intuitive and it does go to the mobile app for verification and approvals and it's easy to use on the mobile app."

"Micro Focus Service Manager is fine."

More OpenText Service Manager [EOL] pros

Cons

"Setup and deployment of this product could be difficult for those without experience. These processes should be made easier."

"It is good for standard procedures with an SOP. For those, it works well. But there are processes that are tricky and need human intervention and intelligence. In those cases, the process gets stuck."

"I would like to see better and more technical use cases for the AI features, showing how to build them instead of repeated general examples."

"We have had some quirkiness happen when integrating the Automation Anywhere with other solutions, such as weird Excel issues or temperamental legacy system issues."

"In the A2019 community edition, while running its taking time to run RPA bots and having few bugs related to IQ Bot server connectivity and other things."

"When it comes to Citrix automation, AA should improve or add more features in such a way that all the commands should work when automating a Citrix application."

"We have done some automation of incoming documents, but it has been somewhat hard."

"We have some ERPs tools which are not compatible with Automation Anywhere because they are legacy systems. We find that Automation Anywhere does not work with these at times. Just enabling the usability of Automation Anywhere on some of these legacy ERPs would help us, as we struggle regularly with this issue."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"The contract management feature can be improved."

"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has some stability challenges that are crashable and not stable at times."

"SMAX lacks in integrations as well as written documentation."

"The solution lacks sufficient documentation."

"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."

"The product's connectivity with third-party products is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The tool has negatively impacted our productivity."

"The reporting functionality is not the best as it is not easy to use."

More OpenText Service Management (SMAX) cons

"Customization can be difficult at times because scripting is often required."

"The user interface is very clunky."

"We're coming to end-of-life on the product we've got."

"I've heard that it's been fairly complex, but I haven't done it myself."

"We had quite a lot of issues with stability and the quality of the product so far."

"The interface could be better. It's hard to integrate as there's no interface in place for the solutions to interface with each other."

"It needs to be easier to use for the end users because one problem we had was that we are handling different kinds of cases."

"The user interface was not really good, but they improved it a little bit."

More OpenText Service Manager [EOL] cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive. I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten in terms of pricing."

"The cost can be reduced a little for users."

"One of the things that will be good for the community will be to get the free version to download, which came out just a month ago called Community Edition. So, you can actually download it and try it for yourself."

"Our annual licensing costs for the entire company are $100,000."

"The product’s pricing is reasonable."

"From my experience, I can say that the initial setup cost is easily recovered over a period of time once the bots start running in production."

"There are a lot of savings in terms of effort and time as well as costs. Automation Anywhere automates a lot of processes. It allows an organization to save the efforts of a lot people. It saves a lot of time because people can't work a whole day (24/7), but Automation Anywhere bots can."

"We were required to purchase licenses and bot runners, which determined the permissible run times for the bots."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"The solution is somewhat cheaper than the competitors."

"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."

"HP Service Manager has moderate pricing."

"The license is not cheap."

"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."

"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."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

909,099 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Construction Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	157
Midsize Enterprise	81
Large Enterprise	558

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	38

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Ask a question

Earn 20 points

Comparisons

UiPath Platform vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 9% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 6% of the time

AutomationEdge vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

WorkFusion vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

More Automation Anywhere Competitors

ServiceNow vs OpenText Service Management (SMAX)

Compared 17% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs OpenText Service Management (SMAX)

Compared 13% of the time

Ivanti Voice vs OpenText Service Management (SMAX)

Compared 13% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs OpenText Service Management (SMAX)

Compared 5% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs OpenText Service Management (SMAX)

Compared 5% of the time

More OpenText Service Management (SMAX) Competitors

ServiceNow vs OpenText Service Manager [EOL]

Compared 18% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs OpenText Service Manager [EOL]

Compared 14% of the time

JIRA Service Management vs OpenText Service Manager [EOL]

Compared 13% of the time

SCSM vs OpenText Service Manager [EOL]

Compared 9% of the time

Clarity SM vs OpenText Service Manager [EOL]

Compared 8% of the time

More OpenText Service Manager [EOL] Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

August 2026

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

OpenText Service Management (SMAX)

July 2026

OpenText Service Management (SMAX) report

Download OpenText Service Management (SMAX) product report

Buyer's Guide

OpenText Service Manager [EOL]

July 2026

Download OpenText Service Manager [EOL] product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

OpenText Service Manager, Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)

Micro Focus Service Manager, HPE ITSM, HPE Service Manager

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

OpenText

Demo not available

OpenText

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

OpenText Service Management Automation X delivers efficient service management automation with user-friendly configurability across IT, IoT, HR, and finance sectors. It enhances business processes through integrated incident management and natural language processing with virtual chatbots.

OpenText SMAX blends user-friendly design with broad language support and robust storage. It enables organizations to deploy in both on-premise and cloud environments using Kubernetes. SMAX excels in business process improvement, incident management, and uses intelligent agents for autonomous alerts and issue resolution. However, it requires enhancements in integration capabilities and documentation, third-party product connectivity, and contract management. Users face challenges with process automation and search functionality, demanding greater customization and flexibility.

What are the key features of OpenText SMAX?

User-Friendliness: Simplifies service management across departments.
Configurability: Allows customization to meet specific needs.
Adaptability: Effective across IT, IoT, HR, and finance.
Language Support: Broad language capabilities for diverse users.
Storage Capabilities: Efficient and reliable data management.
Process Improvement: Tools for streamlining business operations.
Incident Management: Effective handling and resolution of issues.
Natural Language Processing: Chatbots that enhance customer support.
Automation: Facilitates seamless logistics and service catalog management.

What benefits and ROI should users evaluate?

Enhanced Efficiency: Streamlines service management processes.
Improved Customer Support: Virtual chatbots provide superior assistance.
Scalability: Adaptable to growing business needs.
Cost Reduction: Optimizes resource usage and reduces operational costs.
Employee Onboarding: Simplifies and accelerates onboarding processes.

Banks and telecom companies primarily employ OpenText SMAX for service management automation, leveraging its ESM and ITSM capabilities. Deployed on-premise and via cloud, organizations in regions such as Saudi Arabia focus on integrations and upgrades, using SMAX as an end-user portal for incident management.

OpenText

Service Manager on SaaS provides you with a cloud-based, industry leading IT Service Management solution.

OpenText

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

Zurich Airport, Envirosuite, Norsk Helsenett, Achmea, University of Milan, World Vision, Petroleum Development Oman, Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT).

resultspositive, Globicon

Buyer's Guide

IT Service Management (ITSM)

July 2026

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: July 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

909,099 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our list of best IT Service Management (ITSM) vendors.

We monitor all IT Service Management (ITSM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.