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BMC Helix Discovery vs CA Asset Portfolio Management comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
666
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (2nd), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (1st), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (1st), Agentic Automation (1st), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (2nd), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (2nd), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
BMC Helix Discovery
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (10th)
CA Asset Portfolio Management
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (15th), License Management (3rd)
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Consultant at Accenture
Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions
Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.
JP
Presales Manager at HCLSoftware
Comprehensive discovery has populated our CMDB and provides deep insight into asset relationships
The applicability depends on the customer environment. Usually it is straightforward to apply the policies. BMC Helix Discovery is seamless and has many plugins available. It is a good feature that they offer. I have heard about it, but I am not currently using it, though I know that they have that feature available. BMC Helix Discovery provides a lot of information that can be obtained from discovery, including the relationship between the CIs and how many CIs are orphans. The analytics capabilities are strong.
reviewer1998918 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enterprise systems management team lead
Integrates well, highly stable, and scalable
CA Asset Portfolio Management can improve the uploading of batch information. I have to upload large amounts of information and it can take a long time to finish. There are some other solutions that are better, such as Micro Focus. We have approximately 10,000 PCs that we are busy processing and we have to upload information to them but when we use this solution it is complex. When we use Micro Focus it is better.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We have definitely experienced an ROI in terms of saving, for example, the costs of service delivery contracts have come down because of our use of automation and it saves me around $100,000 a year."
"Being able to implement automation is valuable. We take the business logic and provide a solution to the client. Defining the intelligence pipeline is the most interesting and challenging aspect for me."
"There are quite a few very strong features available to users."
"We have been able to take an accounting task and clear a very large backlog, therefore being completely up-to-date on the task since implementing a bot on it."
"This product has helped us a lot by improving and growing the business in different domains."
"Technical support for this solution is the quickest and the best."
"The standout qualities of Automation Anywhere were the ease of automation and that it is an intuitive tool. After a simple walkthrough, a couple of hours or two, you would be able to hit the ground running."
"Most clients prefer Automation Anywhere because it is easy to implement. You don't need to know rocket science to learn this solution. If you know logic, that is sufficient. Automation Anywhere is more user-friendly."
"It immediately understands which component it is, and it provides the exact API details with all the components."
"It improved efficiencies and saved money by replacing manual methods."
"Start anywhere application modelling brings a fantastic opportunity for users to see what is where."
"The most valuable feature of BMC Helix Discovery is it operates well. It is well known and has gained recognition for its software."
"BMC Helix Discovery is very intuitive."
"BMC Helix Discovery has delivered a very good return, and we cannot stop using it at this moment."
"It now comes with a very flexible deployment solution, whether you want to keep it inside your data center or want to have the cloud, depending on if you're cloud forward or not."
"It provides comprehensive dependency mapping, which is essential for reducing the time spent and addressing problem-solving between data centers."
"This product has added value to our organization by our increased ability to track assets, status, and lifecycle as well as being able to monitor assets when they are active."
"Reduces software cost. Reduces the risk of software audits."
"You build the items one time and then you have your discovery that's coming in and the system will let you know whether or not you're out of compliance."
"They're staying up to date as vendors make changes to how they want to manage the software. CA is usually really quick about getting those updates in the system."
"My organization now understands what type of products they have: warranties, how long the warranties last, depreciation; we never really knew what our depreciation values were, so it was really nice to have that on hand as well, and it gives us a better view of our hardware, which is really beneficial."
"Cost, time, and risks that relate to auditing of compliance are greatly reduced with the use of IT asset manager."
"IT asset manager simplifies the management and administration of the life cycle of IT assets thus lowering the capital and operational expenditure."
"From an implementation standpoint, and what we've seen so far of what it can do, I'd say we're extremely satisfied."
 

Cons

"They can further improve the AI. It is already at a certain level, but it can be improved."
"Technical support needs to be much faster. I also had the project delivery. I had six clients whom I looked after. Whenever we got stuck, it was all about sprinting. There was a two or three week sprint. Within that, if you just wait for two to three days, it doesn't make sense. The support needs to implode, because I was just talking to a customer now who came directly and asked us, "Can you give us a dedicated support team?" It's feedback from our customer that support takes too long."
"The integration is not always seamless. Sometimes, it takes a while to get everything to communicate and be ready to go into production."
"The initial setup is difficult because Automation Anywhere does not have a GitHub integration. They need to build a patch for that."
"Automation Anywhere can improve process mining."
"It is negative right now. What we are expecting, for one bot creation, is a six-month turnaround for getting ROI, but that is only the developer man-hour versus actual time saved."
"A2019 should have more improvement for developers, as it was in v11.x."
"The assign value function is not there in the A2019 Community edition, which makes it hard for a developer to manipulate the data."
"BMC is agentless discovery, followed by hybrid discovery, which performs discovery across clouds, on-premises, and then dynamic service modeling."
"The monitoring tools could be more stable."
"The solution should have different portals and logins for each customer so only that customer's assets show."
"What would make BMC Helix Discovery better is if it had more client-side discovery features, for example, printers and desktops. Right now, it's focused more on data center discovery, so if it had additional features focused on the client-side discovery, that would be great. In the next release of BMC Helix Discovery, I'd like more client-side discovery features such as desktop discovery, printer discovery, and other IP-based client-side discovery features. The solution can discover desktops and printers, but there's still room for improvement on the client side."
"Resolution time is what's bothering me, as it's not always easy to get to the correct person or the right technical level needed to resolve the issue."
"There are certain limitations in the mapping feature of the solution."
"The improvement I want to see is a reduction in duplicate records."
"BMC Helix Discovery is a bit tough to use and administer."
"Complex software to understand at the beginning."
"As I'm looking into financial reporting and audits, new features to help with this would be good."
"IT asset manager is very complex when integrated with other systems like HR, help desk, procurement and supply chain systems."
"There were a lot of things that we had to prepare for that we weren't thinking about with this installation. I think from a CA standpoint, the software was good. But us preparing for that, we had a lot more work to do."
"I would like to see more control over audit trail features, where you can turn on and off fields."
"It was much more complex than we were anticipating. Definitely a complex and very resource-involved setup."
"Very complex to setup with Human Resource, help desk, procurement, and supply chain systems."
"CA SAM is not a CA product. The vendor is Aspera and CA is the distributor, so support is difficult. It's more difficult to get a good response."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is cost-efficient in terms of licensing. I found their support good when I was working for the airline client. However, I hear from my managers here that the support price for Tier 3 or premium is a little higher. That is why we are not going for Automation Anywhere. Its price was okay for our client, but for us, it seems expensive."
"I believe it is $10,000 for Bot Creator."
"The licensing cost for Automation Anywhere is high."
"The solution itself is free unless we want to add the support option but we have to pay for the bots we use."
"Considering the cost, it is a bit high, but worth the price because the output accuracy is high."
"Initially, they charged a premium, but now the rest of the vendors have increased their overall pricing and Automation Anywhere is not that high at this time. It's pretty viable."
"AA comes at a more affordable price than the other tools."
"Roughly, as of today, it is around $250,000 annually."
"The price was fair compared to competitors. BMC is very affordable. There are optional consulting services to assist with implementation."
"I've heard that the solution was expensive earlier but is now much cheaper than its competitors."
"We have a perpetual license for the solution."
"The licenses are very complex and quite costly."
"You need a license to use BMC Helix Discovery. The license is paid yearly, though I have no idea how much it costs."
"BMC is available for a reasonable price compared to ServiceNow — it's half the price."
"Operating cost is actually high compared to other products, actually. It's a little expensive only, but it's very good than other products."
"The licensing fee is very low."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Outsourcing Company
22%
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business161
Midsize Enterprise86
Large Enterprise563
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.
What needs improvement with BMC Helix Discovery?
The interface is quite old and can be outdated.
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix Discovery?
BMC Helix Discovery is used for discovery of the assets and configuration items so that you can populate the CMDB.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
Discovery, ADDM, Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping
CA IT Asset Manager, CA Asset Manager, ITAM, IT Asset Manager, CA SAM, CA Software Asset Manager, Asset Portfolio Management, Asset Portfolio Manager
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Windstream Communications, News UK, Mercator Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)
First Horizon National Corporation, Logicalis, Racing and Wagering Western Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix Discovery vs. CA Asset Portfolio Management and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
918,614 professionals have used our research since 2012.