OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) vs ServiceNow comparison

OpenText Service Management...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

ServiceNow and OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) are competitors in the IT service management category. ServiceNow appears to have an upper hand due to its broader adoption rate, while SMAX stands out with its powerful automation features and industry-specific functionalities.

Features: ServiceNow offers integrated workflows, powerful analytics, and a robust ecosystem enabling scalability. SMAX provides AI-driven automation, flexible orchestration, and seamless integration with OpenText products, making it appealing for advanced customization needs.

Room for Improvement: ServiceNow may benefit from simplified deployment processes, more competitive pricing, and enhanced industry-specific functionalities. SMAX could improve its market presence, expand its community resources, and further streamline integration with non-OpenText solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ServiceNow is praised for expedited setup and comprehensive training, with extensive documentation and support. SMAX offers streamlined deployment with reduced initial configuration and focuses on personalized customer service tailored to organizational needs.

Pricing and ROI: ServiceNow generally comes with higher setup costs but aims for high ROI through extensive functionalities over time. SMAX has a competitive pricing structure that attracts cost-conscious organizations, promising quick ROI through reduced implementation times and operational efficiencies.

To learn more, read our detailed OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) vs. ServiceNow Report (Updated: March 2025).

OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) vs. ServiceNow

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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 Service Management...

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

16th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

ServiceNow

Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

216

Ranking in other categories

Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) is 2.1%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 24.2%, down from 27.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Service Management (ITSM)

Featured Reviews

Mourad Ali

ITSM Consultancy Head at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Offers topic analytics for incident and problem management

The only challenge with Azure customers is when they have a specific requirement that is not available out of the box and is inflexible to adjust. Sometimes, customers have tough requirements that are not flexible enough to be adjusted, even if SMAX can provide a better alternative. They need this specific feature. This challenge is common with SMAX, BMC, ServiceNow, IBM, or other similar tools. When working with enterprise tools that are not developed in-house, I don't have access to the source code and am limited to the features and capabilities provided by the leading vendors. So, this challenge is common across SMAX, BMC, and ServiceNow. The solution could have more customization flexibility.

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Somnath Kand

Team Lead at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Custom integration and reporting lead to efficient ticket management

There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow. Although there are child incidents or tickets, tracking primary issues or bugs within enhancements is not present. The reporting features in the new portal could be more user-friendly. While it provides options to minimize chart and image sizes, actual implementation doesn't always reflect these changes.

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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

"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."

"The product provides an interface for the end users to make requests."

"This is a cordless application that can be used throughout any organization."

"The most valuable features of Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX) are that it is user-friendly, easy to configure, and adaptable."

"The tool is very easy to use."

"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."

"One feature of ServiceNow that is important is the workflow engine. From my perspective [as a consultant] the power to be able to structure processes, represent workforce management for organizations, and the visibility provided by the reporting are additional top features."

"Straightforward tool."

"It's great for keeping everyone informed in the company - not just IT. Everyone becomes aware of change requests and incidents so the entire company is on the same page."

"Consolidating multiple functionalities into a single platform reduces the need to invest in various separate solutions. ServiceNow integrates ITSM, CMDB, Discovery modules, and more into one cohesive system."

"It provides internal clients with greater transparency about their projects and deliverables."

"The most impactful feature in our day-to-day operations is the ticket status, which provides crucial visibility into the progress of each resource or incident."

"The flow designer for application development is the most valuable. The newest version of flow designer allows us to develop applications quite fast. We can have custom and mobile applications. It has an interface for mobiles, and it also has a good reputation."

"I like the reporting aspect of it. It helps us know where we stand regarding the types of issues we're receiving... It also shows us trends. That enables us to possibly predict an issue that might come up in the future as well as what is happening right now. We will like that feature. With it, we can either avoid certain issues or know where we need to focus more regarding the service we provide."

More ServiceNow pros

Cons

"The product's connectivity with third-party products is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The tool has negatively impacted our productivity."

"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."

"The contract management feature can be improved."

"The solution lacks sufficient documentation."

"Very expensive."

"Change Management is the area I have found that this tool can be improved because there are so many fields which are missing, such as urgency of the customer request and how the priority is defined. These are some of the areas in which I found that BMC Remedy is much better than ServiceNow."

"The solution could improve by being more stable."

"The technical support SLA can be improved because sometimes they take a long time to answer our queries."

"The level of complexity and the level of discovery are the two areas that can be improved. Its UI needs to evolve. They focus a lot on cool colors and other little things, which don't bring value in terms of functionality. They need to focus less on presentation and more on the functionality within the UI. Its discovery mechanism should be improved. There is a component in ServiceNow that discovers the assets, but it doesn't do an immediate discovery, and there is a lag. If I want to open a ticket for a laptop or an asset, that asset needs to exist within ServiceNow for me to be able to say that I need to have its disk space or memory increased. It is referred to as a CI or configuration item in ServiceNow. Sometimes, ServiceNow doesn't discover these items, and as a result, I cannot open a ticket and tag that system or asset. If a system was introduced to the environment last week and it is still not listed, it becomes a problem. I will either have to wait or manually enter that system or asset. So, if I have a laptop with only 8 GB of memory and I want to request 16 GB of memory, I won't be able to do that in ServiceNow because my system or asset hasn't been discovered yet. Discovery is not immediate, and there is a lag."

"It became kind of complex to set it up without a general lack of knowledge of the particular feature-function capabilities. Features and capabilities could have been explained better to the end-users."

"The visuals are the one area where there is opportunity for improvement."

"They need to be providing vendors and implementation partners with materials and guidance on implementation."

More ServiceNow cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The solution is somewhat cheaper than the competitors."

"The setup cost is high compared to others, especially when the scope is not fixed."

"Certainly, from a product-platform perspective, the price is not too bad."

"It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."

"The pricing is reasonable and affordable, making it suitable for businesses ranging from small to large scale."

"The license model is based on a number of fulfillers (active users who play some role within the ServiceNow functionality). Therefore, you can serve as many end-users as you want, without additional costs."

"The mandatory minimum is US$ 20,000 for licensing."

"They could be more competitive with their licensing."

"The pricing is on the high side, but if you look at the stability and option to work, it's kind of justified."

More ServiceNow pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions are best for your needs.

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842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

28%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?

The tool is very easy to use.

What is your primary use case for Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?

The solution is used for the end-user portal. It is used for incident management, requests, and other informational purposes.

What advice do you have for others considering Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)?

The tool is appropriate if we don't have a complicated use case. It is the right tool for simple use cases. It's a lot cheaper than ServiceNow. It is an appropriate tool for a smaller business or m...

Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?

The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into that platform for good. The business model is to lock in and then keep pumping th...

Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?

Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ServiceNow has a very strong module (Performance Analysis) reporting which will ...

What do you like most about ServiceNow?

The solution has a user-friendly interface.

JIRA Service Management vs OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX)

Comparisons

Compared 33% of the time

BMC Helix ITSM vs OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX)

Compared 22% of the time

ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus vs OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX)

Compared 11% of the time

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BMC Helix ITSM vs ServiceNow

Compared 8% of the time

Microsoft Power Apps vs ServiceNow

Compared 7% of the time

Pega Platform vs ServiceNow

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Maximo vs ServiceNow

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs ServiceNow

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

IT Service Management (ITSM)

Download OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) product report

OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) report

Download ServiceNow product report

Also Known As

OpenText Service Manager, Micro Focus Service Management Automation X (SMAX)

No data available

Interactive Demo

OpenText

Demo not available

Overview

OpenText™ SMAX is a SaaS-based solution that delivers a smart approach to IT and enterprise service management with built-in analytics, codeless configurations, and private generative AI chatbots.

OpenText SMAX delivers a smart approach to service management, with full capabilities for IT service management (ITSM), IT asset management (ITAM), and enterprise service management (ESM). Empower users to self-resolve common requests with private generative AI chatbots that offer human-like responses. Give your team what they need—ITIL best-practice templates, codeless configurations, and built-in AI and analytics for automating workflows, improving processes, and solving issues. With SaaS deployment, SMAX eliminates the hassle of installation, maintenance, and upgrade. What’s more, SMAX offers flexible and affordable licensing that adapts to your business needs and saves you money.

SMAX has a flexible and transparent pricing model that lets you change license allocations or add capabilities without costly surprises. Pricing starts at $79 per agent per month for a full range of processes and features that include a service portal, mobile app, AI, analytics, federated CMDB, ITSM, ESM, discovery, and orchestration. Visit the OpenText ITSM SaaS pricing page for details.

OpenText

ServiceNow is a cloud-based task-management platform that specializes in IT operations management (ITOM), IT services management (ITSM), and IT business management (ITBM). ServiceNow allows users to manage their teams, projects, and customer interactions using a variety of different plugins and apps with which it easily integrates.

ServiceNow offers prebuilt applications to support any process, as well as a framework and tools that allow you to build your own.

ServiceNow’s service management solutions include change, request, incident, problem, and cost management, as well as HR, IT, field service, and facilities management solutions. They also cover business management solutions such as vendor performance management, financial management, performance analytics and project portfolio suite, as well as governance, risk, and compliance.

“The Smarter Way to Workflow”

ServiceNow’s activities, processes, and tasks are overseen as part of a comprehensive managed workflow that supports such features as real-time collaboration, communication, and resource sharing. ServiceNow’s suite of products allow for operation using serverless computing, and include the categories of Business Apps, Customer Service, HR, IT, and Security.

ServiceNow can be used to support most workflows because of the wide range of tools it offers. These include on-suite ticketing tools, predictive modeling to manage workflows, and benchmarking for the tracking of progress. ServiceNow can assist with artificial intelligence and machine learning processes and can be used to organize the cases of a help/service desk as well as for instance management and problem management. It also smoothly integrates with many legacy systems.

ServiceNow offers service management software for industries including:

Cloud services
Education
Financial services
Government
Healthcare
Manufacturing
Telecommunications

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot users prefer ServiceNow to its competitors because of its scalability, stability, and ease of use. It helps everyone in the company to be on the same page by creating a single source of record across all departments. One user stated that “I’ve definitely used over 20 project management solutions, but they can't be compared with ServiceNow.” Another said that “ServiceNow is an industry leader in multiple areas and provides an excellent ROI.”

Sample Customers

Zurich Airport, Envirosuite, Norsk Helsenett, Achmea, University of Milan, World Vision, Petroleum Development Oman, Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (TJDFT).

AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow

OpenText Service Management Automation X (SMAX) vs. ServiceNow