Microsoft System Center Service Manager vs. ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft System Center Service Manager is an integrated platform that is designed for automating and adapting IT Service Management best practices to an organization’s requirements. The platform includes built-in processes for incident and problem resolution, change control and asset lifecycle management.N/A
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
ServiceDesk Plus is free help desk software from ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corporation.
$10
Starting Price Per Month
Pricing
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Standard
$10.00
Starting Price Per Month
Professional
$21.00
Starting Price Per Month
Enterprise
$50.00
Starting Price Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Considered Both Products
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
Chose Microsoft System Center Service Manager
It has its similarities between the two from a ticketing standpoint but as a primarily Microsoft shop it is nice to have a product that was created to play along with other tools that we are using such as SCCM. We like Jira for the project management tools and Cherwell for …
Chose Microsoft System Center Service Manager
I can't really compare them as we haven't used an "all in one" tool like SCCM. There are other patch management software, other remote control applications, and to be honest, I find those work better when compared to SCCM. However, there hasn't been an application yet that does …
Chose Microsoft System Center Service Manager
We selected MCSM because it is a solid product that we could use very quickly, compared to other tools there is a lot more effort for integration into the infrastructure, costing time and money. We implemented the tool very quickly and since it integrates with other Microsoft …
Chose Microsoft System Center Service Manager
Not easy to customize, like ServiceNow, but default configuration works much more stably than SNow implementations I saw. Cannot be implemented as a service and requires underlying infrastructure. Jira is much more lightweight, but very limited in functionality. At the same …
Chose Microsoft System Center Service Manager
We use this program on the thin client side of things. We don't utilize it as much as SCCM so I am not sure how it compares to tell you the truth. We are about to explore this option to see if this is a better way to manage the thin clients, which it is pointing in that …
Chose Microsoft System Center Service Manager
IT auditing , asset tracking and timeline tracking have been the driving factors for our IT staff using Microsoft System Center Service Manager. The ROI from the time management of our IT staff has been the driving factor and its built for IT professionals to use. So …
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
I use Jira Service Management in my personal lab environment to explore its features and DevOps integrations. While it's powerful and flexible, I find ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus more user-friendly and practical for enterprise IT environments.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Spiceworks was free, which obviously had both benefits and limitations - I will say that the community around Spiceworks has always been great. If we could replicate that experience with the ME user base, it would be terrific.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Jira Service Management is one of the strongest rival of Manage Engine Service Desk Plus. If we compare, both of them are really good for incident management and workflows. But when time to decide, Manage Engine Service Desk Plus is front of Jira Service Management with a few …
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk just had the right combination of features available that our business required, and a more reasonable price than some of the other products that were looked at.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Compared to Cherwell, SDP is much much faster, and easier to deploy, set up, and use. But it does not have automation, and has limited customization. Since it is smaller and easier, it does not require any development effort. On the other hand, it is far more expensive, …
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
We decided to make the change to move from ManageEngine Service Desk Plus to Spoke for our ticketing system solution. We have never looked back. Everything from the UI to the AI-driven auto responses is "night and day" better. It isn't even a question and we wouldn't be …
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Spiceworks was free and was not a good looking interface. With ServiceDesk Plus we are able to brand it specifically for our company.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Zendesk is more intuitive and has a better interface. We have other areas on campus like our front facing students center that use Zendesk. Zendesk provides better in-depth reporting and is easier to roll-out to other areas on campus.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
We are actually moving away from ServiceDesk Plus to JIRA Service Desk. This is because of the flexibility that JIRA offers versus the more "locked in" fields in ServiceDesk. It also is going to allow us to better customize our requests and track our SLAs on different types of …
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
We use Jira and Spiceworks in different departments in our company, but neither had the features we were looking for when it comes to end user facing help desk solutions. Jira is great for our coding/development teams but it doesn't have the ease of use that service desk plus …
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Just ended up being the winner of the tortoise race. Showed the most promise but costs to fulfill those promises made it fall short of expectations.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Spent a lot of time reviewing these type of software packages, this one does more right in a webified package. GotoAssist has the remote capability but lacks the resolution tracking of ServiceDesk Plus.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
We are able to do more things on SDP other than what TrackITcould do. And we went paperless, something TrackIT couldnt do.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Great overall ticketing system. Everything is very organized. Easy for someone to learn quickly without even seeing the product before.
Chose ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
No contest. Remedyforce required a full time investment to understand the use of cryptically named variables, so all changes needed to be made by a specially trained administrator. Remedy had terrible problem handing capability. ServiceDesk Plus is a polar opposite - most …
Features
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
7.8
Ratings
4% below category average
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
7.1
Ratings
13% below category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets8.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Expert directory7.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Service restoration7.00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Self-service tools8.70 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications7.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation9.70 Ratings10.00 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards7.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
8.2
Ratings
0% below category average
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
7.7
Ratings
6% below category average
Configuration mangement9.80 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard8.70 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement6.00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
6.7
Ratings
22% below category average
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
8.0
Ratings
5% below category average
Change requests repository6.10 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Change calendar6.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Service-level management8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Likelihood to Recommend
I think any organization that runs windows on their computers that is size over 50 workstations and looking for a complete package to manage their windows machines must have Microsoft System Center Service Manager, especially if they have Windows servers and VMs. The capability of managing multiple devices at ones can save a lot of time for the IT jobs.
Read full review
The cost for what you get is very good.
The amount of additional functionality is great too - we originally went in expecting to use it for just a helpdesk but eventually it evolved into change management and asset tracking.
We also started using the invoicing addon which helped massively and allowed us to track items from point of purchase to decommission.
Read full review
Pros
  • Imaging - Can hold all of your images and allow them to be deployed from one central place
  • Patching - Able to manage patches from a central database and have reporting on machines out of compliance
  • Reporting - ability to utilize several reports to check compliance and other items you may want to review
Read full review
  • It's very simple to submit and handle ticket for both user and Engineer.
  • Set some customize template for intent replay or job done reply.
  • SLA management is the good option to maintain workflow.
  • There is solution option where user can resolve their common issues.
Read full review
Cons
  • Reporting in System Center could be more user-friendly. While the data is there, sometimes several reports have to be run to get what you want
  • SCCM would be better making updates to SCCM easier. We see risk in updates, so it causes delays, which creates more risk
  • Improving the application deployment log files , making them easier to read
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  • When trying to select the top row ticket, you have to be careful not to select all tickets. Happened to us twice and we assigned all open tickets to one technician. Took a few minutes to correct.
  • Site is sometimes a bit sluggish to respond. Don't know if that is an issue with our network infrastructure or the program itself, though.
  • When users send emails to the help desk, we sometimes experience delays until the tickets appear on the site for the technicians.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
we are looking at other tools like Zendesk which may replace ServiceDesk. We are currently evaluating both tools to see which one would serve our needs better
Read full review
Usability
No answers on this topic
It is still very cumbersome, lots of data entry on the back end to build how we want it but it is still not completely user friendly. Many functions still dont work and contacting someone for help isnt always easy or we get told solutions for issues we have just arent built yet.
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Support Rating
The customer support service is excellent. They help from start/deployment through to any time later on. They responded quickly and resolved our issues professionally and in no time.
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Our network administrator usually gets a good response when contacting ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus customer service. They are quick to respond and so far have been able to eliminate most of our issues. We have been through several upgrades of the software over the years and have no issues to report in regards to customer service.
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Alternatives Considered
It has its similarities between the two from a ticketing standpoint but as a primarily Microsoft shop it is nice to have a product that was created to play along with other tools that we are using such as SCCM. We like Jira for the project management tools and Cherwell for their customization but the latter took lots of effort to get that piece working.
Read full review
No contest. Remedyforce required a full time investment to understand the use of cryptically named variables, so all changes needed to be made by a specially trained administrator. Remedy had terrible problem handing capability. ServiceDesk Plus is a polar opposite - most customization is done using plain English and simple screens.
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • "Quick" patch management -- once the process is nailed down.
  • The ability to include remote control in a central place.
  • Reporting is great.
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  • It has provided better visibility to upper management in terms of the scale of the workload of the IT department
  • It has allowed licensed software to be tracked more efficiently, allowing redundant license to be reclaimed, rather than additional ones being purchased
  • It has fulfilled the requirements for multiple audits, including Microsoft audits, as it allows the assets and their software to be tracked
Read full review
ScreenShots