BMC Helix ITSM Reviews

We use it for the entire service management portfolio. We do instant problem changes and asset management, CMDB. We use it for the entire service management module.

The out-of-the-box features are great. You can look at those before you jump into customization or integrations.

Technical support has been fine. 

The dashboard can be better. 

The remote reporting can be improved.

I'd say that the tool itself can be lighter in weight. It's too heavy.

Technical support is not very fast.

For the discovery, which is top to bottom, I would have an option for scanning sideways.

The functionality could be better.

The stability has been good. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. I would rate it eight out of ten in terms of reliability.

The scalability is okay. I'd rate it seven out of ten since it is a bit heavy and gets heavier quite easily.

We might have around 100 people using the solution right now. That includes end-users and developers. 

We've used technical support in the past and find them to be okay. However, it depends on the type of agreement you've got with them.

We have a service provider who contacts BMC for us. That said, there had been some occasions where I was involved with the support along with the service provider. They are okay. However, they take a lot of time to find a resolution.

I've worked with ServiceNow in the past and find it to be a much better product.

While I wasn't around when it was installed, my understanding is that it is pretty straightforward. 

The cost is pretty good. That might have been a deciding factor when choosing the product.

I can't speak to the exact cost of the solution. It's not part of my scope to look into licensing. 

I wasn't at the company at the time it was set up. I'm not sure if they evaluated other options. 

We're customers. 

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're on. However, it being on the cloud, it does update automatically.

I would definitely recommend ServiceNow over BMC. I have an experience in ServiceNow. It's much better. It is lightweight, and easy to use, the integrations are easy, the scalability is extremely easy, the dashboard is wonderful, and the discovery is the best. I would rate ServiceNow much higher than BMC.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It is a strong tool and is a good application to do your ITSM. It's just that it's a bit complex to integrate with your other applications. It's a big elephant. It's too heavy. The dashboard is quite confusing. It's not that state of the art in today's world and at the user level, the customization is not so easy in BMC.

We are using BMC Helix ITSM mainly to manage the infrastructure network in terms of our CMDB. It is used for maintaining all the network elements, such as all the incidents, changes, and problems around the infrastructure network.

The most valuable features of BMC Helix ITSM are its customization ability and the addition of new features. As a built-in Suite, it covers all that is needed in the IT guidelines, which is good. Each customer has their own needs, and the customization the solution provides is beneficial.

BMC Helix ITSM could improve by having a cloud version. They are working on it which is a good thing because their competitors, such as ServiceNow, already provide cloud services.

I have been using BMC Helix ITSM for approximately 10 years.

The stability of BMC Helix ITSM is good.

BMC Helix ITSM can be configured on load balance services, and there are different ways it can scale. We can build the DR servers to run side by side, there are multiple options to maintain scalability.

We have approximately 1,000 users using this solution. The users that use the solution consist of the change management team, all the technicians, problem management module, and the service assurance team that works with the incidents and create problems and work on them.

BMC Helix ITSM support is used all the time. They're responsive, and they always are willing to assist and extend their help.

The initial setup of BMC Helix ITSM is straightforward.

We have two BMC Helix ITSM experts that are supporting this tool.

BMC Helix ITSM is a comprehensive solution. The market is booming toward the Cloud and that's why most customers are targeting ServiceNow. I can't say I'm an expert in ServiceNow, but the flexibility that the semi-cloud version, BMC Remedy ITSM, has in terms of customization, is one of the best.

I rate BMC Helix ITSM a nine out of ten.

The main use case for Helix ITSM is managing break/fix tickets and all other issues with the product. It tracks customer issues using an incident model. 

We have problem management for recurring issues and do a deep dive if we need some change to fix the root cause. We can also identify if a change caused the issue with a holistic analysis. 

BMC Smart IT is somewhat rigid, but they have a powerful backend that supports our complex need for extension versus customization. Between extension and customization, you can achieve complex business processes. That's one of the main advantages of BMC.

There's some confusion with the BMC roadmap. The BMC Remedy Mid Tier architecture didn't have a good-looking frontend, but you could build any functionality, so it had a lot of flexibility. The frontend of BMC Smart IT is relatively limited in its ability to change, hide, and show fields and those kinds of things that pop up.

With Helix, they're trying to build things and add a little more capabilities, but they still have a  long way to go. It's not a complete solution. For example, they are phasing out Smart Reporting because it doesn't fit well in an ITSM solution.

It needs a more organic workflow, so every field you create is labeled throughout the stack. BMC has a few products that they try to bundle together. Generally, that solution works. BMC should take a step back and think about the overall solution—not only ITSM but also CTI Integration along with chat. They have all that, but it's not an end-to-end holistic solution with the added reporting analytics.

I have been working with BMC for nearly 15 years.

BMC is more stable than the average product. I'm not certain, but I've heard Salesforce has some performance issues with similar infrastructure. BMC has a robust backend, so we've never had issues. It's a highly stable environment, so I don't need to invest a lot of time dealing with support.

The pricing depends on the contract.  If you ask three different people, you get very three different answers, but I don't deal with it. The people in charge of procurement handle that. 

We're currently trying out Salesforce Service Cloud, and in a few months, I should be able to compare Helix and Salesforce better. Salesforce is a little more open than Helix ITSM. For example, you can integrate HR Case Management with ITSM. One kind of application can talk to another application. That's the biggest advantage of Salesforce. The Service Cloud and Sales Cloud can talk to each other. 

BMC should think about the future and redesign the whole solution. More companies are moving to low and no-code solutions, but BMC still requires a great deal of development skill to use. Businesses don't have time for that.

I rate BMC Helix six out of 10. BMC is changing, but they're still behind in 2022. 

Most of our customers use ITSM for incident, problem, and change management, and BMC gives them a complete solution. 

It would be great if BMC could integrate some new solution — something like DevOps — and improve the smart reporting features. Plus, I would like to see the BMC add advanced DWP features and customization to the standard package.  Furthermore, BMC does not have any leverage for non-IT services, so it would be nice if BMC could integrate something like HR Change Management into ITSM itself.

Our company is a BMC partner, and we've been using and promoting BMC products to our end customers for the past 20 years. Also, we install and customize BMC products.

Version 20.02 was stable, but I don't think 20.08 is quite stable because we have identified many bugs and reported them to BMC. So currently, BMC is working on that.

I think most BMC products are scalable. I have somewhere close to 125 customers, and the number of users per client varies. Some only have a few hundred. Others have a medium-sized user base in the 3,000 range. At the highest end, our customers have upwards of 30,000. The only issue is the DWP catalogs or the DWP. We should be able to customize the DWP more. 

BMC's technical support team needs to improve. Right now, the problem over here is we are not getting the exact answers on time.  Their engineers are mainly based in the US or Israel, and we get comprehensive dedicated support. Some of the Indian customer service representatives are also outstanding. Unfortunately, in the past six months or seven months, I've been getting brand-new engineers. Either they're not entirely aware of most cases, or they don't know how to troubleshoot further. So for any product to be stable and work correctly, BMC must ensure that customer service is excellent. Even though if your product is a hundred percent, we'll have problems marketing it to our customers.

Installing and upgrading are relatively straightforward even if the customer is updating from a really low version, like 4.1 or 7.6. So a customer should be able to upgrade to 20.02 or 20.08, but would need to do it step by step. For example, you would have to upgrade to either 9.1 or 18.05 and then from 18.05 to 20.02. That entire process will take around six months to one year for the customer to come up to the scale or start utilizing the new version. So if I get a database and it's the proper version, BMC should be able to handle it. When I do a fresh installation, it should be competent enough to identify the entire workflows or whatever has been designed in the database and start the process. It should be a quick start rather than taking a year to come up with all the integrations and everything.

The license that we provide to our customers is yearly. We don't offer a monthly license because we only sign yearly contracts with our customers. So you would need to get the customer's side of the story to answer whether Helix ITSM's price is fair because ServiceNow is currently capturing the ITSM market. BMC is a little bit cheaper than ServiceNow, but BMC doesn't have the same capabilities in its entry-level product at the moment. The basic version does not have the DWP features that most of our customers are requesting. When we do demonstrations, BMC uses the premium version, but customers can't afford the license for the advanced version. So they're missing some of the features they want, especially the ability to change the banners. 

I would BMC Helix eight out of 10 because I have been working with BMC for almost 20 years now, and it's one of my favorites. BMC offers excellent customer solutions, and they're quick to address bugs or shortcomings in their product. I will definitely recommend the solution to other users.

I use the solution as an end user to log calls and get updates from my resolver groups. 

My company is in mining and has 4,000 employees, but not all employees use the solution. 

The solution has not improved functions within our organization. We are not sure if it's the tool itself or the middleman provider, but we are changing to ManageEngine regardless. 

The solution has good capabilities for analytics. 

Our middleman provider limits the available functionality so we cannot even do our own analytics. It is important to check your products and services. We used to be able to draw data, export, and do our own analytics. Now, we have to rely on our provider and that is not a good relationship.

I have been using the solution for one year. 

The solution is stable so stability is rated a nine out of ten. 

The solution is scalable so scalability is rated an eight out of ten. 

I have not utilized technical support. 

The setup is straightforward so is rated an eight out of ten. 

We implemented the solution in-house. One technical team member handled implementation which did not take too long. 

In the next few months, we are switching from the solution to ManageEngine. 

Our issues with the solution are solely related to our middleman provider. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten for logging and resolving calls. 

Our primary use case of this solution is as a ticketing system, it's our work order system. This is a help desk software and I deal with the server side. We are customers of BMC.

I like the fact that you can go in there and designate how you close the ticket. You can put notes in, upload files and images, and give a detailed report of how you resolved an issue. The information is stored in a knowledge-based format so people can revert back to the data that's been entered. I like the single sign-on, it works very well. Once you're in the ticket, your administrators can set up and define dropdown windows, and do some customization. I can go through the tickets I receive, fixing them through resolution, and then do a full closure of the ticket. With other software, you can get to a certain point, and then another customer has to come in and close the ticket for you. 

The dashboard and search features could both be improved. You can't edit a ticket via the console which is frustrating. It requires opening the default view that takes you to an older version of Remedy. There are other small drawbacks although there could be a couple of things that need to be improved on our end. CMDB is not up to par yet and requires some work. 

Other than the sluggishness of opening a ticket the solution is stable. 

I've never dealt with them directly and I haven't heard anything really negative about the tech support. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

In general, for incident management, it's okay. It can fit tasks based on user management or change management. These kinds of modules are okay. 

We've had some small problems using the solution. It doesn't work perfectly.

There are some limitations or restrictions to using BMC Helix. For example, when we do some reporting, the reporting interface should be more user-friendly from my point of view. When compared to ServiceNow, it is lacking.

Also, there are so many restrictions when I am using the reporting. For example, there's a limitation on the number of records that can be returned. Maybe it is a performance issue? Therefore, the reporting aspect definitely is one of the things that need to improve for BMC Helix.

One of the things it can improve is the mobile app for support. When we submit a ticket on the incident and assign it to someone, we must use the computer instead of the mobile app. We'd like it to be mobile based as well.

My organization has used the solution for two or three years. I myself have only used the solution for one year.

When we do reports, I'm not sure if we have issues related to the performance or not.

It would be nice if they offered mobile support. Right now, we have to go to a desktop in order to get assistance and make a ticket.

The price is very high. It's an expensive product.

I pay for the solution yearly.

I have compared BMC against ServiceNow.

I'm a customer and end-user.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten since I would like a mobile app for support, and the reporting needs to be better. 

We have a different project in which we implement BMC Helix ITSM, including a built-in ERP solution that has different supply chain management, such as finance, and other projects. Each team assigns the tickets, and if any client is facing an issue in a particular model, they will create the ticket and it will go through this particular use case.

If it relates to supply the chain, it goes to a particular administrator or developers. In this use case, we use approximately 500 users in BMC Helix ITSM.

This solution provides complete incident management to our organization which has improved the organization. We have different projects and different models for handling incidents and resolving the client's issues. The solution has helped to manage all the tracking and has enabled us to manage. Additionally, it has helped us with cybersecurity incidents, it's very helpful to visualize and track the exact moment of a particular incident, which is crucial.

The most valuable features of BMC Helix ITSM are the collaboration, integrated with the help of another solution called Entity. We can do all the integration and receive an automatic ticket with the help of email. We are able to receive SMS alerts to clients and end users. Every step of the ticket is generated and we are able to resolve and close them. It's very helpful to have the ability to inform the user with detailed information.

I have been using BMC Helix ITSM for approximately seven years.

BMC Helix ITSM is a stable solution.

The scalability of BMC Helix ITSM is based on the license. If you need to scale you can purchase licenses.

We have approximately 500 users of this solution. We do not have plans to increase the usage of the solution in the future.

I rate the support from BMC Helix ITSM a five out of five.

Positive

I did not use other similar solutions to BMC Helix ITSM.

The initial setup of BMC Helix ITSM is complex because it has different integrations with other tools. Additionally, it needs to be integrated with the active directory and have different databases. The environment will dictate how difficult the process is.

We did receive an ROI using the solution. It is a requirement for any organization for handling incidents, without it, it is not possible to do it in an automated or systematic way.

We evaluated Snow before choosing BMC Helix ITSM.

For the maintenance of the solution, we require one system administrator because sometimes it creates issues on the server level. One system administrator does not need to be dedicated, but then have other tasks such as the creation of groups and user for the applications, such as the ARM server.

This is a good tool and I would recommend it to others.

I rate BMC Helix ITSM a nine out of ten.