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Clarity SM vs SysAid comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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

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
SysAid
Ranking in Help Desk Software
19th
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
18th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of Clarity SM is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SysAid is 0.7%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Help Desk Software
 

Featured Reviews

Türker Kara - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Todd Blake - PeerSpot reviewer
A solution that streamlines ticket creation for the staff members of a business and enables efficient issue resolution by the IT team
SysAid is similar to Nintex AssureSign. Some of the back-end configurations of the solution are very difficult. So, we always need SysAid's help. Also, there are almost too many features that we are not taking advantage of in our company since we don't even know about them. A little bit of a streamlining or simplification of the main features would be a good improvement. I would like to see SysAid present its solution more easily. There is a lot in the solution, and it is more than what we need in our company.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It also provides the front end for the employees too. It's pretty basic, but it gives them the means to reach out to IT so they don't have to pick up the phones."
"As of late, I really like the BI functions."
"Scalability is very good. We have scaled to more users and more functionality."
"Clarity is flexible to implement and integrate. It gives the developer or consultant a broad space to work and customize based on what the customers want."
"It has helped us to organize a lot of our assets, so we have configuration items to attach to our change management. We can have tickets for change management and set them aside for an approval process."
"It's fairly easy to use, from a UI standpoint."
"The UI is very user-friendly."
"the ticket system makes sure that everyone gets taken care of, and that makes for a better customer experience. Using the system verifies that no one gets left behind."
"The SysAid team provided excellent service to implement the solution for us. From the very first day, we received a comp manager, and a project manager, to implement the product. They continued to inquire about our business needs and then finalized the best path for us."
"The service desk orchestration, overall, is good. It allows an organization to build that service desk concept into its organizational and support strategy. And it allows an organization to digest that and create a support model very quickly around the tools. The fact that the tools are integrated within the system itself gives the organization a really robust way to integrate everything and have a complete support model."
"The solution can scale."
"It's really customizable. It's very user-friendly to change very quickly. We've developed lots of custom forms and things, without any need for thousands of accounting consultants which was one of our main aims of it."
"The simplicity of the solution is excellent."
"The solution provides us with multi-layered service management along with all our support pieces integrated in one system. Our entire system is run on SysAid, from Tier 1 to Tier 3. All the other IT department functionality is captured in SysAid, like development, warehousing, and application. So, it has vertical and horizontal coverage."
"I would say the overall flexibility of the product is its most valuable feature."
"It tracks everything that the technicians are doing. We can account for time and manage resources."
 

Cons

"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."
"Clarity tech support has gotten worse since Broadcom acquired CA Technologies. We're not getting the support we've come to expect as a large enterprise. Clarity's support needs to improve, or it's going to lose market share."
"Ease of support and upgrades need much improvement."
"The SDM administration and customisation needS deep information about architecture and vendor support continuously."
"We need a mobile solution. We are not using any mobile functionality for the product, but we think that this necessary."
"The interface for the users is a bit old-fashioned and not user-friendly."
"The interface is pretty straightforward, but I think for some end-users a little more simplified user interface would help."
"The API is very, very bad so we developed our own."
"There is a learning curve for the users."
"The automation needs improvement. The workflow has some improvements to do. There's some stuff that they are working on like having cascaded fields. For example, we're categorizing tickets by location, by site and by building and then by data room within a data center. At the moment they're all separate fields."
"The administrative side of the user interface could be a little more user-friendly. It is easier for me to export our reports into Excel, then do a server retrieval and get the information. Whereas, to do a report, you have to go through a configuration type of process, which is kind of difficult and complicated. I have been using this solution for two years now and I still haven't gotten the hang of the reports."
"We would like them to approve the security functionalities, e.g., management security features."
"Currently, SysAid does not have a mobile application."
"Monitoring needs improvement. At the moment we are looking for some advanced monitoring tools, which are using AI and machine learning as well. This product currently does not offer that."
"SysAid has fewer AI features compared to other tools."
"One of the features that I'm hoping comes at some point is that currently you can only have one Knowledge Base instance within it. For me, it would be beneficial to have multiple instances for different purposes. I'd like to have a completely separate one for customers and the only way I can achieve that right now, where I can tag articles to only be viewed by customers, would be if I use its portal function."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think pricing of this model is suitable for growing corporations."
"The pricing is based on a subscription model."
"I don't see anyone other than large companies being able to afford this system."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The solution is quite reasonable compared to other solutions in the market."
"The pricing of SysAid is less than its competitors."
"Once you're interested, talk with SysAid. You can have them come in and look at your company and advise you on the best solution. They will tell you what comes with each separate package and also advise you what application to activate. If you want something that they don't have, they have a department that can design something based on your unique requests."
"We saw our investment back at the end of year one."
"Though I am not really sure about SysAid's prices, I know that it is competitive compared to some of the other products that our company looked at, like ConnectWise and ServiceNow."
"SysAid is a good solution, especially from a pricing perspective."
"Overall, the price is good. It's all about what you get for the base amount. From my perspective, you want to look at what you're getting out-of-the-box. SysAid does a good job of putting key stuff in the box for you."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Retailer
8%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about SysAid?
SysAid is more user-friendly, and its configuration is easier than other tools.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SysAid?
Though I am not really sure about SysAid's prices, I know that it is competitive compared to some of the other products that our company looked at, like ConnectWise and ServiceNow.
What needs improvement with SysAid?
With SysAid, most of the customers are requesting a native mobile application. SysAid has fewer AI features compared to other tools.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

CA Service Desk Manager, Clarity Service Management, CA Service Management, Unicenter Service Desk, CA SDM, CA Service Catalog, CA Business Service Insight
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Banco G&T Continental City of Perth, FEMSA, Fujitsu, Manpower, Muslim Commercial Bank - MCB, Punjab National Bank, Santa Clara County Social Services, Stefanini
Disney, Sears Holdings Corporation, LAN Airlines, Schneider Electric, On Semiconductors, Toyota, Sky, KPMG, Georgetown University Law Center, Motorola, North York General Hospital, Volksbank, Xerox, Bacardi, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Manpower, Nucor, Ecobank
Find out what your peers are saying about Clarity SM vs. SysAid and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,207 professionals have used our research since 2012.