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OpenText Service Management (SMAX) vs Samanage comparison

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 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
666
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)
OpenText Service Management...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (12th)
Samanage
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (25th), IT Asset Management (19th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (26th), License Management (8th)
 

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.
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.
MC
Consult at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Detects incidents quickly, improves our SLA performance and solves issues faster
We mainly use it for incident logging. We'd like to add service request functionality, but we don't have the knowledge to configure the requests and the workflows properly. We'd like to integrate our workflows with the incident management, so we use it to manage our work better. We'd like to implement the service request feature. Right now, we just record everything as incidents. Some activities can take a long time, maybe one or two weeks. This makes it hard to maintain a good SLA, even if we work hard. So, response speed and workflow improvements.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With Automation Anywhere, they receive their financial statements while still on the call."
"AA improves process consistency and reduces human error."
"I implemented AA in different environments, the AA installation is the smoothest compared to other RPA software installs."
"Web-based control is the most valuable feature. We can access it from anywhere in the world with the control room URL and in any browser. Bot Insights make our report generation and other insights view easier. We can export the data in the form of CSV, PDF, etc."
"Adding Automation Anywhere is a tremendous value-add in the long-term."
"Features such as MetaBot and IQ Bot are very advanced and capable as compared to reading PDFs using OCR."
"We are using it to backfill a lot of our resources who are retiring, so we are hiring less people as we go."
"The company continues with research and development to expand the capabilities of the product to meet market needs."
"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."
"This is a cordless application that can be used throughout any organization."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is effective for all sectors, such as IT and HR."
"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 evolving in addressing the needs across different sectors like IT or HR."
"The product provides an interface for the end users to make requests."
"The tool is very easy to use."
"The best part is the ability to keep records, especially incident records. It's easy to use the tool to store data and monitor it."
"I would recommend Samanage from the IT support perspective because it's a great ticketing system and the only downside is the site shutdowns and the messy nature of the UI and UX."
"The solution has a great filtering feature."
"Samanage has not only taken over asset and inventory management, but it also has the ability to function across departments, making it easy for end users to submit help desk tickets for IT, HR, and Finance."
 

Cons

"The initial cost of Automation Anywhere, including license fees and integration costs, is high. It is challenging for business users to operationalize the tool independently."
"In the 10.7 version, the back-end port for the MetaBot password has looping. This has been a type of limitation."
"We have used the technical support. I am quite unhappy with the support part. The higher priority tickets are not getting resolved within the SLA. Higher priority tickets for production issues should be looked into immediately. However, until they get escalated, tickets are not receiving higher priority. I would like to see this improve."
"The Automation Anywhere community is less active than the UiPath community, which is a downside. When I ask questions in the Automation Anywhere community, responses take a longer time."
"Apart from the Chrome issue, which took them maybe a week to fix, we lost a lot of processes during that time, but it just happens unfortunately."
"The key area where improvement can happen is understanding the different perspectives and different industries that they're serving in terms of industry-wise use cases."
"The product falls behind in working with webhooks."
"The scheduling is a little difficult at times. Rather than setting up individual instances, it would be really nice if we had the ability to set repetitive jobs easily. Right now, if you want a job to run every 15 minutes, you have to schedule it a lot of times. I'd rather have the ability to just say 'run every 15 minutes.'"
"The tool has negatively impacted our productivity."
"The solution lacks sufficient documentation."
"OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has some stability challenges that are crashable and not stable at times."
"The reporting functionality is not the best as it is not easy to use."
"The contract management feature can be improved."
"The product's connectivity with third-party products is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"SMAX lacks in integrations as well as written 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."
"We've had some problems with the system shutting down about once a month. It sometimes takes five or 10 minutes to start working again but it can also take hours."
"The setting up process is not quite easy. It's quite difficult."
"The system shuts down about once a month which is frustrating."
"There are definitely areas for improvement, but so far, so good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a yearly basis, our licensing costs are about $80,000. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
"AA comes at a more affordable price than the other tools."
"We paid separately for the Runner and Creater components. The final cost depends on the structure of your environment."
"The cost is anywhere between $10,000 and $100,000."
"It has good licensing costs which are average for the market."
"Their overall pricing falls in the middle of the market. Cost-wise, Automation Anywhere is quite expensive because of their analytics, IQ Bots, and MetaBots. For a standalone machine, the pricing is okay. When adding in the licensing for IQ Bots (or MetaBots), it can become quite costly."
"Automation Anywhere is competitive... Pega is somewhat comparable, but Pega also requires a lot more infrastructure and a lot more experience to get up and running."
"While calculating the setup cost you should account for the server, virtual machines, product licenses, maintenance costs, and running costs."
"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."
"It is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business161
Midsize Enterprise85
Large Enterprise561
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
No data available
 

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 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.
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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)
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

 

Overview

 

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).
SXSW, PRA Group, Fandango, Inteva Products, Amherst College, Tensator
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Service Management (SMAX) vs. Samanage and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.