Microsoft System Center Service Manager vs. Zendesk Suite

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
Score 8.3 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
Zendesk Suite
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
The Zendesk Support suite is a cloud-based customer support software built for better customer relationships. Designed to improve customer satisfaction and to support customers on any channel: text SMS, web, mobile app, phone, email, social media. The vendor states more than 200,000 companies such as Uber, Groupon, Box, Airbnb, and Slack are using Zendesk to lower their support costs, raise productivity, and increase customer satisfaction. Zendesk offers a full suite of products to meet customer…
$55
per month agent
Pricing
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Support Team (Foundational Support Only)
$19
per month agent
Suite Team
$55
per month agent
Support Professional
$55
per month agent
Suite Growth
$89
per month agent
Suite Professional
$115
per month agent
Support Enterprise
$115
per month agent
Suite Enterprise
$169
per month agent
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
7.8
7 Ratings
4% below category average
Zendesk Suite
8.2
112 Ratings
4% above category average
Organize and prioritize service tickets8.04 Ratings8.5111 Ratings
Expert directory7.03 Ratings7.270 Ratings
Service restoration7.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service tools8.75 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications7.04 Ratings7.676 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation9.76 Ratings8.171 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards7.16 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.2112 Ratings
Ticket response00 Ratings8.9111 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
8.2
7 Ratings
0% above category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Configuration mangement9.86 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard8.77 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
6.7
6 Ratings
22% below category average
Zendesk Suite
-
Ratings
Change requests repository6.16 Ratings00 Ratings
Change calendar6.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Service-level management8.05 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.0
99 Ratings
3% above category average
External knowledge base00 Ratings7.995 Ratings
Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.189 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Microsoft System Center Service Manager
-
Ratings
Zendesk Suite
8.0
110 Ratings
4% above category average
Customer portal00 Ratings7.786 Ratings
IVR00 Ratings7.835 Ratings
Social integration00 Ratings7.366 Ratings
Email support00 Ratings8.6108 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.679 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Small Businesses
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Agiloft Flexible Service Desk Suite
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Ivanti Neurons for ITSM
Score 9.1 out of 10
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(7 ratings)
8.3
(150 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(40 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.4
(23 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(13 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(10 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(2 ratings)
9.0
(29 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(9 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(18 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.3
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Microsoft System Center Service ManagerZendesk Suite
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
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.
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Zendesk
1. A lottery winner has a question about claiming their prize that involves tax implications. You can easily loop in a tax specialist from your finance department within the ticket itself for a collaborative resolution. 2. Lottery players frequently ask about specific drawing times or eligibility rules. You can set up automated responses within Zendesk to answer these common questions, saving time for your team.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • This tool is used to track support requests among our IT staff.
  • We use this tool to automate some more routine tasks.
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Zendesk
  • Reporting and Analytics
  • Ease of Agent Training and Use
  • Able to add multiple brands with related custom reports and dashboards
  • Adding a new brand and basic help center is easy to do without the need of an expert or web team
  • Ability of agents and supervisors to see customer history across multiple channels
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Kind of clunky.
  • Takes a lot a lot a lot of configuration.
  • There is a lot of jargon to learn to be able to use it to its full ability.
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Zendesk
  • I think the Graphical User Interface could use a facelift. It not the most aesthetically pleasing platform in my experience.
  • Particular things like where the default is when you click on each and every dropdown menu.
  • The macro integration could be a little more simplified.
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk is super easy to use and navigate. I really enjoy the sleek layout, the ability to tailor tickets, the macro option, and the quick key guide they have to make your use of time even more effective. My whole team loves working with Zendesk and rarely ever has problems.
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Usability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
As an agent it's very simple to use. As an admin it's also easy to use, but sometimes lacks some functionality that would be nice to have such as expanded native 2 way sync functionality for many major apps that are commonly used today like HubSpot and Salesforce. The ability to add followers to tickets to they get updates and are in the know without the customer seeing this agent cc'd is a nice touch. This ensures additional visibility and easily following the communication without having to appear as a CC to the customer, who could accidentally remove that person in a response, thus breaking the visibility
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Reliability and Availability
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
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Performance
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
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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Zendesk
Every time I contacted them they were not only very responsive and knowledgable, but always seemed to have a positive upbeat attitude. It probably helps that we did not have significant service outages or sev 1 level issues, but even my lower severity issues were quickly answered. And the positive and upbeat attitude really made things feel comfortable.
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Online Training
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
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Implementation Rating
Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Zendesk
I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
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 products, it was very easy to get up and running.
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Zendesk
If spoken honestly Intercom is a level-par with any nearest competitor, Tools like Zendesk has to catchup with them in speed. However, there is an advantage to Zendesk with its simple and easy-to-get software which falls in every mid and small-size business pocket wherein Intercom is way too expensive and needs a tech admin to customize the product. The kick-starting feature with negligible configuration made Zendesk the ideal choice of our organization + the budget fell under our expenses.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Save a world of time when imaging
  • Save a world of time with patch management
  • Provides decent reports to get a snapshot quickly
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Zendesk
  • The positives weigh more than the negatives here, as it gives us a one-stop portal where we can tend to customer needs using one web app
  • It has also helped us identify areas of improvement based on the reporting feature
  • The value it provides outweighs any missing or lacking features that I'm sure will be available in the future
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ScreenShots

Zendesk Suite Screenshots

Screenshot of Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations