BMC FootPrints Service Core vs Clarity SM comparison

BMC and Broadcom are both solutions in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category. BMC is ranked #30, while Broadcom is ranked #28. BMC holds a 0.6% mindshare in ISM, compared to Broadcom’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

BMC FootPrints Service Core

Read 10 BMC FootPrints Service Core reviews

216 Views
108 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Clarity SM

Read 107 Clarity SM reviews

522 Views
302 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

BMC FootPrints Service Core

Clarity SM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Clarity SM and BMC FootPrints Service Core are both formidable contenders in the service management software domain. BMC FootPrints Service Core holds a distinctive advantage with its extensive feature set that outweighs the higher costs, making it particularly appealing to businesses looking for robust capabilities.

Features: Clarity SM enhances efficiency with its excellent resource management, user-friendly integrations, and a secure environment. BMC FootPrints Service Core stands out with powerful automation, highly customizable workflows, and comprehensive incident management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Clarity SM could benefit from enhanced reporting features, improved customization tools, and a wider range of plug-ins. BMC FootPrints Service Core might improve on ease of use, more streamlined deployment options, and better pricing flexibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Clarity SM offers a straightforward cloud deployment with responsive support ensuring rapid adaptation. BMC FootPrints Service Core, while involving a complex setup, provides valuable documentation and superior customer service, helpful for detailed implementations.

Pricing and ROI: Clarity SM is attractive for its competitive pricing and substantial ROI from lower setup and maintenance costs. BMC FootPrints Service Core, though pricier, offers a strong ROI through its expansive feature set and long-term operational benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM

April 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

BMC FootPrints Service Core

Ranking in Help Desk Software

28th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

30th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Clarity SM

Ranking in Help Desk Software

26th

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

28th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

107

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC FootPrints Service Core is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.0%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Service Management (ITSM)

Featured Reviews

Carrie Wu

Sr. Systems Analyst at Vancouver Fraser Port Authority

Supports the convergence of ticket management, IT, and customer services

I would give this product a rating of 8 out of 10 because it's a good system and it meets most of our requirements. It still has a lot of space to improve because the service desk function is changing all the time. This solution has to continually be innovative. It should also generate more user-friendly reports utilizing a collaborative framework. Additionally, I would tell anyone looking at similar solutions to first figure out their most important requirements. Then compare their requirements with the function of the ITMS to ensure compatibility. While at the same time they should look ahead at future requirements such as the cloud configuration, along with other vendor capabilities before making a decision.

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Türker Kara

Application & Software Architect at Turkiye Finans Participation Bank

Quite good back-end architecture for end users but the API is very, very bad

Our company uses the solution for system, program, service request, change, and knowledge-based management. We perform CMD authorizations and use a lot of integrations for our in-house or third-party applications. We also use Salesforce automations and Microsoft orchestrations. We have about…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I think the most important feature is the ability to receive valuable ticket status support in a timely manner with little to no downtime interruptions."

"We can track issues easier and run reports on issues to see if there are patterns."

"I like the fact that FootPrints is a relational database, so every item in the database can be linked to another. This helps create history and audit trails for each CI."

"Technical support is good."

"I have used Tier II BMC support a few times. They were very responsive and recreated my environment in their lab to support me."

"Having a one stop shop for linked assets and tickets has improved end user adoption and led to a reduction in phone/email tickets."

"Implemented system-wide process for approving and tracking "employee move" requests for over 15,000 employees."

"The discovery feature is very flexible."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core pros

"Time sheets are a powerful tool."

"As of late, I really like the BI functions."

"It allows IT to handle users on a personal basis. It allows IT to have a name and a face, and we interact with the end-users."

"It improves our service delivery process. We're more efficient. We're leveraging the ticketing system, which is always more efficient, so we can measure and improve."

"The tool itself is valuable as a result of all its features combined. Therefore, I have found that there is no feature more valuable than another."

"The solution's back-end architecture is very good for end users."

"Ability to write macros, which can in turn trigger some condition or could be conditioned to basically trigger notifications, the workflow desk, or web calls. It is huge benefit to customize it."

"It has given us the ability to automate a lot of tasks, things we couldn't do before."

More Clarity SM pros

Cons

"It would be better if it were more user-friendly. The reporting part in the version we have is a little complicated. It takes too long to build and report. It would also be better if there were another way to manage notifications."

"Reporting could be improved along with the option to create more fine tuned reports and to create specific fields for each type of ticket."

"Hyphens are not allowed in the quick search bar. This has created a problem in our environment where we use hyphens in our asset names."

"The mobile version of this product does not support asset management."

"The workflow should be made to be more user-friendly. It should also have more granular scalability."

"It is pretty clunky and not very intuitive. Even though I have used it for many years, I don't think it is a very good ITSM platform in general. In the telecom space, a lot of telco providers use this solution, but from my perspective, it is not very user friendly. It is a bit more laborious. There are still too many human touchpoints. There can be a little bit more automation. It would also be good to integrate it with other tools. Integration is quite difficult, especially in the telco space."

"It would be nice if they added the ability to go directly to a form via a deep link URL."

"We need more customizable reporting functionality. We could also use more collaboration of service desk tickets. This will allow for two departments to share the same information, track the progress of the total task scope no matter how complex the request is."

More BMC FootPrints Service Core cons

"The cost of this solution is too high, which is why we're leaving."

"On permissions, there are options to do groups and options to do roles. What is practical, you have to pick one or the other, for both read and write permissions."

"The interface is pretty straightforward, but I think for some end-users a little more simplified user interface would help."

"We would like to see them revamp, or rework, a lot of their configuration management database structures. We hear that is on the horizon."

"The product needs to have a better user experience in the interface and mobile functionality."

"The API is very, very bad so we developed our own."

"They really want user names in the document owner and subject expert fields, and that is just not practical."

"Improvements would include simplification in the user interface, being more expandable, better documentation. The user interface is fairly cluttered, and we can update it the way we need to, but it just seems dated."

More Clarity SM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Our costs are well over $250,000."

"Cost was on par with other service desk products, and well below Remedy, while still being a BMC product."

"This solution has good pricing."

"The licensing for FootPrints is a perpetual license with an annual support fee."

"Clarity offers a perpetual license. Customers purchase the license once and then pay for maintenance. CA provides a subscription model as well. Both models are available for our customers."

"There is a subscripted needed to use Clarity SM. The price of the solution could be less expensive. ServiceNow is less expensive and BMC Helix is priced similar to Clarity SM."

"The pricing is based on a subscription model."

"I think pricing of this model is suitable for growing corporations."

"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."

"It is a bit expensive, but you definitely get what you pay for. It is worth it!"

"Pricing is simple, as it’s per concurrent analysts."

"I don't see anyone other than large companies being able to afford this system."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

17%

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

11%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Clarity SM?

It is the most stable product in the market.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Clarity SM?

The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market.

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What needs improvement with Clarity SM?

They should enhance the service desk manager's service point function to be more customizable. Presently, there are so many limitations in this particular UI. Thus, similar to the existing UI, they...

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Comparisons

ServiceNow vs BMC FootPrints Service Core

Compared 51% of the time

Rezolve AI Platform vs BMC FootPrints Service Core

Compared 49% of the time

More BMC FootPrints Service Core Competitors

ServiceNow vs Clarity SM

Compared 100% of the time

More Clarity SM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IT Service Management (ITSM)

March 2025

Download BMC FootPrints Service Core product report

Buyer's Guide

Clarity SM

April 2025

Download Clarity SM product report

Also Known As

FootPrints Service Core

CA Service Desk Manager, Clarity Service Management, CA Service Management, Unicenter Service Desk, CA SDM, CA Service Catalog, CA Business Service Insight

Overview

FootPrints Service Core integrates IT service and asset management for end-to-end business services, and it's easy to install, use, and support. With configurable capabilities that streamline service delivery, FootPrints improves customer satisfaction and IT's reputation with your business users.

BMC

Service desk capabilities, an integral part of the CA Service Management solution, can enable you to deliver efficiencies in IT service management to business consumers, power users and decision makers. Mobility and collaborative self-service capabilities provide a modern user experience for accessing services and performing tasks, which can help drive user adoption, satisfaction and productivity.

Learn More: https://www.ca.com/us/products...

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Cast & Crew

Banco G&T Continental City of Perth, FEMSA, Fujitsu, Manpower, Muslim Commercial Bank - MCB, Punjab National Bank, Santa Clara County Social Services, Stefanini

Buyer's Guide

BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM

April 2025

Free Report: BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM

Find out what your peers are saying about BMC FootPrints Service Core vs. Clarity SM and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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