IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs Salesforce Service Cloud comparison

IBM and Salesforce are both solutions in the Help Desk Software category. IBM is ranked #27, while Salesforce is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3. IBM holds a 0.7% mindshare in HDS, compared to Salesforce’s 2.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Read 9 IBM SmartCloud Control Desk reviews

401 Views
197 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Salesforce Service Cloud

Read 53 Salesforce Service Cloud reviews

609 Views
494 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Salesforce Service Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

Salesforce Service Cloud and IBM SmartCloud Control Desk are two significant players in the service management sector. Salesforce Service Cloud appears to have an edge with its comprehensive feature set and adaptability, while IBM SmartCloud Control Desk excels in asset and service request management.

Features: Salesforce Service Cloud offers case management, robust workflow automation, and integration capabilities with platforms such as Marketo. It provides automatic upgrades and customization options tailored to business needs. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk provides excellent asset management, centralized request handling, and IT asset tracking.

Room for Improvement: Salesforce Service Cloud could improve its email integration, mobile app functionality, and pricing. Users seek better reporting and analytics integration. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk requires an updated user interface, better performance, and enhanced usability, addressing its outdated feel compared to competitors.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Salesforce Service Cloud is cloud-based, offering flexibility and easy access, with well-regarded customer service and technical support. While its standard support is mixed, premium support is favored. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk, typically on-premises, faces integration challenges but is praised for its stability. Technical support is satisfactory but could benefit from faster ticket resolution times.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Service Cloud is considered pricey but offers a significant return on investment due to its extensive features and efficiency improvements. Price negotiation is advisable. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk, also expensive, targets large enterprises and justifies its cost through ROI. Both solutions offer value, although scalability and cost-effectiveness depend on organizational size and setup.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud

April 2025

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Helped 847,625 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

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

Ranking in Help Desk Software

27th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Salesforce Service Cloud

Ranking in Help Desk Software

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (2nd), Knowledge Management Software (2nd), IT Alerting and Incident Management (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Help Desk Software category, the mindshare of IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is 0.7%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Service Cloud is 2.2%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Help Desk Software

Featured Reviews

Jose Pedro Muñoz

Director of operations at Vetasi

Helps standardize our workflow, track client tickets, and it's very flexible

Initially we used HPE Service Desk. Then, Remedy (IBM SmartCloud Control Desk) version 5. When selecting a vendor, the most important thing for us is the flexibility of the tool. It must be very flexible to change the workflow or to add new workflows for the clients. It must have stability and scalability as well.

Read full review

ChanchalSaxena

Lead Digital Transformation at Kohler Co.

High scalability with good plugins and excellent customer visibility

The solution should improve: 1. Reports & dashboard - The product should be capable of delivering complex reports as per company requirements without the need for a Tableau license. 2. Einstein has limited capabilities, and it suggests the analysis by predefined algorithms - but in a practical scenario, businesses need to ask real-time questions, and AI products should be capable of delivering the exact answers. Generic answers may not be effective.

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

"The solution is very easy to work with."

"The brand name is the most valuable aspect of this solution for me. It's IBM. It's a global company that supports this product, it's not something open source or something like that."

"The most valuable are its flexibility and agility. It's quick to change it, to adapt it to your needs. That's the most important for us."

"A feature I found most valuable in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is the service request. Another feature I like most about the solution is IT asset management, which tells you who owns a specific asset in the company and from which date."

"The workflow capability is useful. It's not a manual helpdesk operation. It's fully automated, even when an alarm has occurred. It covers the complete cycle of initiation to resolving the events. This is its most strong feature that is easily integrable with a monitoring solution. It creates tickets, and the workflow feature is the most important one."

"SLA integrations, reports, and integration with other applications are the most valuable."

"What I like about the Control Desk is that everything is centralized. You have all the requests in one place, you know which ones are for whom and who is working on them."

"In the early stages of our company, all requests were done in notebooks, and none of it was centrally managed. But now we have a central tool which is an entry point for all requests that come in."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk pros

"It is a stable product."

"We are very happy with the support team from Salesforce."

"The three major pillars of Salesforce Service Cloud are the SSL, Chatter, and the Dispatcher Console, which routes calls to the technicians."

"Salesforce Service Cloud improved our organization with its mobile capabilities."

"Salesforce Service Cloud offers several notable features. It includes robust case routing, escalation capabilities, entitlement mapping, and entanglement rules. Additionally, it supports Computer Telephone Integration (CTI), which allows for automatic case generation when a call is made to a designated number."

"The instant input of feedback into the CRM systems by case management is one of the impactful features"

"The plug-ins that work with other standard systems have made the product industry-ready."

"The main benefit of Salesforce Service Cloud is that everything is in the cloud. We can track the entire customer journey from lead to account or opportunity. The CRM is in the cloud, while the financial transactions are in NetSuite. By integrating these applications, we get a complete view of the business. Some integrations are event-driven, while others are batch integrations that run at scheduled times. We also build reports using our in-house analytics tool to help leadership make decisions."

More Salesforce Service Cloud pros

Cons

"Support has been the biggest problem for us. I understand that because we use the product of a global company, some changes are not quick to deploy."

"What needs improvement in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is its graphical interface because it needs to be more user-friendly. IBM is a big company, but this solution is a little bit outdated. The most common comment I get from customers is that IBM SmartCloud Control Desk looks old and needs a refresh. Its frontend needs a little bit of work. The solution needs to be more modern. In the programming world, you see a lot of new technologies, but this particular solution is still on Java. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk isn't like web-based service request tools, and that's an area for improvement. What I'd like to see in the next version of the solution is a more upscale technology. IBM SmartCloud Control Desk has small issues with document links and attachments, and those could bother you when you're using it for a long time. A more user-friendly GUI is also another improvement I'd like to see in the next version of the solution, plus a better user experience, and it would be great if IBM could resolve the current issues I've noticed in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"The time calculations can be improved. While working on reports, it was taking the time only in seconds, which was hard for me to work out. While creating some dialogs in the service portal, you have to use certain data types in some fields. It was very tricky to make them work. I was testing a certain type of input, and it didn't work. It didn't show me the domain that the fields have to show. I had to make the change to the database, and only then it worked. It was a tricky thing to make them work with the dialogs. Their technical support can also be improved in terms of response time."

"The user interface is not very interesting. If you look at other products like JIRA and ServiceNow, they have made it much easier for the end-users. Maybe not ServiceNow, but JIRA is quite flexible. From a presentation point of view, IBM should make more user-friendly interfaces."

"It could use more facility or flexibility for reporting, and business intelligence in the tool."

"Overall the user experience, as opposed to the system and databases, could be improved. It does work as it should and it's good, but they should invest more in the user interfaces to be less data oriented and more appealing for the user."

"The solution lacks a graphical user interface."

"The reporting in relation to updating could be improved upon."

More IBM SmartCloud Control Desk cons

"The product should be capable of delivering complex reports as per company requirements without the need for a Tableau license."

"The solution’s user interface could be improved."

"The pricing of Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive compared to other solutions like our current SAP CRM, which is much cheaper."

"Since customization can increase the cost from an implementation standpoint, we focus on showcasing Service Cloud's built-in features and possibilities."

"The support team is limited and does not typically go above and beyond like some companies. Unless you have premium support, assistance is restricted."

"I would like to add some bot features."

"The main concern for me revolves around the speed of certain integrations."

"The pricing for what Salesforce Service Cloud offers is not great."

More Salesforce Service Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing we have for IBM Control Desk is on a yearly basis. They have a concurrent license and an administrative license. And with these, you get all the products. There aren't any additional fees for extra add-ons or anything like that."

"It's basically for a big company because of the costs. A small company can't afford the licensing cost. For medium and large companies, it's the best product. The price of the license is on the higher side compared to others."

"The license for IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is paid yearly and is on a per-user basis. You buy the product and pay for its license yearly. IBM is changing the licensing structure, but for now, it's a yearly license. There's no additional cost. It's just the license that you need to pay for to use IBM SmartCloud Control Desk."

"We pay a yearly licensing fee for Salesforce Service Cloud, which is expensive."

"Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive. I worked with ExactTarget over five years ago, and it was quite pricey then. Not everyone could afford it. Salesforce has different tiers for different kinds of users. It's expensive considering their features and services, but they offer best-in-class solutions."

"I believe that in our country, Colombia, we utilize this platform for the Latin American region. In terms of expenses, it's somewhat higher compared to other products. I would rate it as expensive and nine out of ten."

"The tool is pretty expensive."

"The product is expensive. There is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing costs attached to the product."

"Salesforce is very cost-effective."

"Only enterprise businesses can afford the solution, and small companies cannot afford it."

"The price is too expensive."

More Salesforce Service Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Service Cloud?

The approximate licensing costs for Salesforce Service Cloud are around three hundred dollars a year per user.

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What needs improvement with Salesforce Service Cloud?

The pricing of Salesforce Service Cloud is expensive compared to other solutions like our current SAP CRM ( /products/sap-crm-reviews ), which is much cheaper.

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What is your primary use case for Salesforce Service Cloud?

I used Salesforce Service Cloud ( /products/salesforce-service-cloud-reviews ) for our sales agents to track visits, gather feedback from customers, and capture orders.

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Comparisons

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Compared 100% of the time

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JIRA Service Management vs Salesforce Service Cloud

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk

April 2025

Download IBM SmartCloud Control Desk product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Service Cloud

March 2025

Download Salesforce Service Cloud product report

Also Known As

SmartCloud Control Desk

Service Cloud

Overview

IBM Control Desk on Cloud offer an access to a user friendly self-service, automated service management, and seamlessly-integrated, best-practice based service desk capabilities. IBM Control Desk provides the IT service management (ITSM) needed to simplify support of users and infrastructure. It also offers a unified IT asset and service management software provides a common control center for managing business processes for both digital and physical assets and enables control, governance and compliance to applications, endpoints and assets to protect critical data and prevent outages. Control Desk is IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-compliant, accessible through mobile devices and integrates with social media and development tools.

IBM

Service Cloud is fully customizable support and help desk that provide faster, smarter service that will increase loyalty, retention, and satisfaction. From call-center software to self-service portals, our service solutions enhance your customer service with more responsive, more intuitive, more flexible support that anticipates customer needs.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

St Vincent's Health Australia, Kalibrate Pty. Ltd., Cognizant Technology

Stanley Black & Decker, Coca-Cola, Activision, Wells Fargo, Spotify, Aldo, Philips, The Red Cross, Blue Shield of California, Sprouts Farmers Market, Direct Energy Solar, Inspirato, Kiva

Buyer's Guide

IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud

April 2025

Free Report: IBM SmartCloud Control Desk vs. Salesforce Service Cloud

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