OpenText ALM Octane vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management comparison

OpenText and ServiceNow are both solutions in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category. OpenText is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while ServiceNow is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.8. OpenText holds a 1.8% mindshare in EAP, compared to ServiceNow’s 5.4% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of OpenText users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

OpenText ALM Octane

Read 40 OpenText ALM Octane reviews

1,120 Views
624 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Strategic Portfo...

Read 32 ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management reviews

2,206 Views
1,574 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

OpenText ALM Octane

ServiceNow Strategic Portfo...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

OpenText ALM Octane and ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management compete in the project management and Agile planning sector. OpenText ALM Octane seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive Agile planning and integration capabilities.

Features: OpenText ALM Octane is known for its strong agile framework support, extensive traceability for complex projects, and high-quality integration capabilities across various environments. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is appreciated for project portfolio management features, multiple project methodologies including Agile and Waterfall, and customization of project workflows.

Room for Improvement: OpenText ALM Octane could improve in handling microservices testing, simplifying its administration features, and flexible reporting functionalities. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management users seek enhancements in user-friendliness, faster Agile process iterations, and better financial integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenText ALM Octane is typically deployed on-premises, offering robust tech support with direct R&D communication, though resolution delays on complex issues are noted. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is deployed in public cloud environments, valued for easy customization and immediate tech support, along with active feedback loops from development teams.

Pricing and ROI: OpenText ALM Octane, while expensive, is viewed as cost-effective over time due to automation and centralized management features, despite initial high costs for smaller businesses. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is considered costly, especially for mid-sized organizations, though it offers bundled pricing models beneficial for large enterprises, with complex pricing structures that sometimes require additional fees for certain features.

To learn more, read our detailed OpenText ALM Octane vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

OpenText ALM Octane vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

January 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

OpenText ALM Octane

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (7th)

ServiceNow Strategic Portfo...

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Portfolio Management (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of OpenText ALM Octane is 1.8%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is 5.4%, down from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

Featured Reviews

GeorgNauerz

Managing Partner at Georg Nauerz Consulting

Makes team collaboration between IT and non-IT users easier with more transparency

The user experience is a lot better than any tool that I have used before. Overall, it is great. It has a smooth interface, which is very user-friendly. It makes it easier to work together and have more transparency and customization, which is very good. There are a lot of features where you can add fields, input individual fields, and input rules, like templated rule-based interaction between entities. The Backlog management is really interesting, because it is all in one place. You don't have a feature here and a feature there, instead you have the Backlog and testing using different backup items, like user storage features and tasks, all in one place. In addition, we are able to write documents, which we can transfer to backup items. Then, we can test them in the same solution without switching tools, or even switching from one part of the tool to another part, because it is all in one place. We use the solution’s Backlog and Team Backlog capabilities. They make our DevOps processes easier through transparency and asset collaboration.

Read full review

Srinivasa Neelapu

Associate Director - ServiceNow Lead Platform Architect at Novartis Pharmaceuticals

Strategies and goals are aligned with demands and partners, making it a strategic approach for the enterprise but the finance part needs improvement

SPM is definitely strong for project management, but its finance capabilities are not as robust. While there is a separate Financial Management product, it would be beneficial to have more out-of-the-box support for finance integrations within SPM. I’m not suggesting replacing systems like SAP for finance, but there should be better support for financial integrations. Currently, connecting to SaaS solutions is complicated, and getting into detailed financial calculations is challenging. Forecasting is manageable, but handling actual financials is not as straightforward. The finance area needs improvement, specifically making finance application integrations easier. Generic finance capabilities should be more user-friendly and integrated into SPM. Although they have started this journey, it hasn’t been fully released yet. There seems to be a roadmap, and once complete, it will be very useful. Additionally, incorporating a Q&A feature for entire strategies or project demands and enhancing text analytics within SPM would be beneficial.

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's more streamlined because we have it all under one umbrella. And once the business requirements and rules have been created, we can do test cases and apply them to the business rules."

"The most valuable features of the solution are its ability to manage test scenarios, test results, and test automation, which are its primary functionalities."

"Octane works well with the Jira portfolio to track the project with two methods: Agile and Waterfall. We can track all the testing in Waterfall or Agile and synchronize it with Agile tools."

"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Octane creates a gentle approach to Agile-based projects."

"I like the fact that you can use it on top of Jira."

"The platform's most valuable feature is pipeline integration or continuous integration services."

"People really how easy it is to customize. In some previous tools, that has been very limited, or you had to know how to write code to do some of the customizations, or it was very confusing. Going back to the user interface, they've made the customization of the tool, the workspace settings, very easy for people to figure out and use."

More OpenText ALM Octane pros

"As a product, the primary reason we like it is it gets integrated with our ITSM solution so that we don't have to go for an external product for project management like Jira."

"The demand management tool is very strategic because it helps assess risk, gives you a visual of different demands, and rates those values."

"The program is stable."

"ServiceNow brings to the market different layers with different pricing, so you can customize. And all the layers are really enterprise-ready."

"The product is quite convenient and user-friendly."

"Everything is valuable. It is tough to choose a particular feature, but project portfolio management along with agile 2.0 are two key product features that I would suggest for services companies like us."

"Competitive in terms of research"

"We mainly use the solution to support operations and align our ITSM operations with our business goals. This involves coordinating between our application development, support teams, and network engineering teams. When there's an issue at the product or network level, we raise a ticket, and our team works together to resolve it."

More ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management pros

Cons

"I would like to see the mobile testing improved so that we can simply select a mobile device, then specify what parameters we want, and the testing will be run based on that."

"There are some challenges when we want to integrate the tool with other products, and it takes time for a team to figure out how to do it."

"The biggest problem with ALM Octane is that it's very complex, so it's difficult to use and scale."

"The elements in filtering need to be improved, meaning the number of filters I can use in widgets or in the grid views in parallel. There's a limitation which bothers a lot of our users. Filtering in text, or having a complex filter is limited. In a given field, for example, I can use a filter only once. I cannot say, 'Include the values 1, 2, and 3, and exclude value 17.' This is not possible but we have requested it often."

"Security and security management, meaning the integration of the security, could be enhanced. We know about Fortify, but it would be better to have security features in the original Octane platform without the need for another solution or another application."

"The limitation of Octane is that we can't do a release outside of the sprint. We can only plan the release in the sprint. With Agile and JIRA tools, we can plan the release outside the sprint and do a global release of all the projects from the sprint."

"The reporting needs to be improved and allow for customization. I want to build my own widgets, but I don't want to use the ones already in the system. I want to build mine from scratch."

"There is an opportunity for them to do a little more with the dashboarding. We still feel that HPE Quality Center/HPE ALM reporting is very powerful. We talked with R&D, and there are some things on their roadmap, but at the same time, their strategy is to connect Octane with visualization tools such as Power BI."

More OpenText ALM Octane cons

"We track salaries or paychecks of the resources. They change from time to time, such as every six months or every year. If they can come up with a default or out-of-the-box feature to manage those multiple payable costs so that we can automatically calculate the project costs rolled up. That would be the coolest feature that we can expect from ServiceNow. We would like to have an automatic feature to manage the payable costs. We should be able to manage or maintain multiple pay costs so that while calculating the project roll-up costs for individual projects, the respective pay costs in a particular period are picked up automatically from the backend. Currently, we have to customize that. It is doable. We have done it but through customization."

"A major improvement we would like to see is definitely around agile management."

"When we originally set it up, we had some kind of success manager free of charge, and now it's an additional charge over and above what we're paying."

"The price keeps going up, and to remain competitive, it needs to have a competitive edge. I would like to see more of the latest innovations, in terms of AI, ML, and all of the latest cutting-edge technologies, included in the platform."

"When we import a really big project with a lot of tasks on it, we face some issues with dependencies. The links between tasks are not working very well. There is definitely room for improvement there. Microsoft Project, in my opinion, is the best option for such a use case."

"ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management could improve by having more Agile features. Other solutions, such as Rally have more."

"It could be more user-friendly."

"The interface isn't user-friendly."

More ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution has reduced our testing costs."

"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. The product is neither cheap nor expensive."

"The product is highly priced compared to other tools."

"I rate the tool's pricing an eight on a scale from one to ten, where ten is very expensive."

"The comparison is always with Jira, so the pricing of Octane is a bit on the higher side. But if you look at what you have to add to Jira, on the plug-in side, to have the same abilities you have with Octane, you're more or less even, or even ahead with Octane."

"It will be as expensive as ALM.NET, if not more expensive. But here's a good tip: If you have ALM.NET, you are able to share your licenses from ALM.NET to Octane. You just have to define a dedicated number of licenses on ALM.NET and then you can share them with ALM Octane, with some configuration effort. This is something that you have to take into account, that there is a possibility of such license sharing that could decrease your costs. Compared to open-source tools, the price the ALM Octane is definitely higher, in terms of the licensing cost."

"There is a conversion fee for changing licenses."

"It's pretty pricey, one of the most expensive ones on the market... The value depends on if you use all the features that it has. It comes with a lot of features. The difference between the license structure of ALM and Octane versus JIRA, is that you get everything with ALM and Octane... For JIRA, you buy the pieces one piece at a time."

More OpenText ALM Octane pricing and cost advice

"I would rate the cost as five out of ten."

"The cost of the solution should not be more than $50,000 annually."

"It's more suitable for larger companies as the licensing cost is relatively high. Not everyone can afford this tool."

"The tool is expensive."

"The licensing is based on metrics and is tailored to customer's needs."

"The solution is expensive."

"The solution was quite expensive."

"We have a team of about 6,500 employees across the globe. So, the amount of money I'm going to save by putting the money on the table for the implementation and licenses is very high."

More ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Government

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Is Jira better or would you go with Micro Focus ALM Octane?

Hi Netanya, Basically , it all depends on the use cases for your environment and the business needs. Hope the below data may be relevant to you for identifying your needs and deciding on the approp...

See all answers

What do you like most about Micro Focus ALM Octane?

The platform's most valuable feature is pipeline integration or continuous integration services.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus ALM Octane?

The tool's price is extremely high. When I was using Micro Focus, there were ten licenses, costing around 1,38,000, which was outrageous.

See all answers

What do you like most about ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?

We mainly use the solution to support operations and align our ITSM operations with our business goals. This involves coordinating between our application development, support teams, and network en...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?

It's a bit costly currently. Efforts are being made to explore cost-benefit measures for investing in it.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?

There is always scope for improvement. As of now, making the product more cost-beneficial would help more organizations consider investing in it.

See all answers

Comparisons

Jira vs OpenText ALM Octane

Compared 51% of the time

OpenText ALM / Quality Center vs OpenText ALM Octane

Compared 28% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs OpenText ALM Octane

Compared 10% of the time

TFS vs OpenText ALM Octane

Compared 3% of the time

More OpenText ALM Octane Competitors

Jira vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

Compared 19% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

Compared 18% of the time

Jira Align vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

Compared 18% of the time

monday.com vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

Compared 5% of the time

Smartsheet vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

Compared 4% of the time

More ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

OpenText ALM Octane

February 2025

Download OpenText ALM Octane product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

January 2025

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management report

Download ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management product report

Also Known As

Micro Focus ALM Octane, Micro Focus Octane

IT Business Management, ServiceNow IT Business Management Suite, ServiceNow ITBM Suite, ServiceNow ITBM

Overview

OpenText ALM Octane helps organizations implement a “quality everywhere” approach and improve Agile and DevOps development and testing processes to improve the flow of work across the software delivery value stream. You can tightly align quality efforts from development to release, employ a broad range of tests anchored by automation, and continuously monitor and improve for increased throughput. OpenText fosters an open approach so that quality is visible, traceable, and continuously improved. By synchronizing quality and testing with Agile and DevOps processes, risks are mitigated early in the software delivery value stream – speeding the way for faster delivery and improved customer satisfaction.

ALM Octane facilitates a tailored and scalable approach for large enterprises. You can deploy your way and minimize infrastructure needs with deployment options spanning on-premises, SaaS, and public cloud (Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure Marketplaces). Similarly, various licensing options can tailor the features to meet specific needs with support for thousands of concurrent users in geographically disperse locations.

OpenText

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is a highly regarded value-added Portfolio Management solution and also a top-ranked Enterprise Agile Planning tool. Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) relates to the tools and processes that business organizations utilize to manage their usable resources and satisfy calculated business objectives.

ServiceNow SPM ensures organizations are able to precisely identify and promote the best investment initiatives that accurately match the organizational objectives, which will facilitate that the most profitable outcomes are consistently achieved.

Enterprise organizations can include the desired various factors of their business processes to include in their unique strategic portfolio. These factors can include but are not limited to employee performance initiatives, product promotions, client services, and more. When assembled together, these factors become integral elements to promote the most effective business process decisions that will ensure appropriate outcomes that align with the organization's overall goals and objectives.

ServiceNow SPM Best Practices

Evaluate and catalog: Organizations should ensure that all stakeholders are aware and in agreement with the organization's goals and objectives, both short and long-term. Additionally, all the elements and components that are needed to accomplish those objectives have been accounted for and are available.
Set effective parameters: The organization should set clear parameters to monitor processes and performance to ensure that objectives are being maintained and consistently satisfied.
Productivity analysis: Review processes to eliminate redundancies to maintain balance and process alignment so that desired outcomes can be achieved.
Continuous process management: ServiceNow SPM provides a single transparent view that includes all processes (pending, ongoing, or completed) and how they align with the overall organizational goals and objectives.

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management Benefits:

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management has many valuable benefits. Some of its most valuable benefits include:

Big Picture Visualization
Improved Decision Making
Improved Process Management
Seamless Scalability
Increased Productivity
Improved Efficiency
Improved Time Management
Better Outcomes
Improved Communication
Comprehensive Reporting and Tracking
Improved Return on Investment

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management's primary focus is to align business strategy with work. Decision-makers are able to plan, complete and easily track progress across different methodologies and processes. The solution has been developed to ensure that the appropriate activities and processes are being completed in a timely manner to satisfy the organization’s goals consistently and achieve the most profitable outcomes.

Reviews from Real Users

“The feature I find the most valuable is the one that lets you see how much time has been used in processing a ticket. This allows us to better monitor performance.” Lenny L., Support Engineer at a tech services company

“The ease of use is the most valuable feature. It's very intuitive to set up. Everything has a logical sequence, and you can see how it all links together. It's a good win for ServiceNow.” Fabrizio M., Head of Business Applications at Bio Products Laboratory Limited

“The demand management tool is very strategic because it helps assess risk, gives you a visual of different demands, and rates those values.” A Manager at a manufacturing company.

ServiceNow

Sample Customers

Orange, Airbus, Haufe Group, Kellogg's, Claro, Bon Secours, World Wide Technology

Proximus, UNT SYSTEM, SAP SuccessFactors

Buyer's Guide

OpenText ALM Octane vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

January 2025

Free Report: OpenText ALM Octane vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management

Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText ALM Octane vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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