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BMC Helix ITSM vs IBM Maximo comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

BMC Helix ITSM
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (4th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (4th)
IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

BMC Helix ITSM and IBM Maximo aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. BMC Helix ITSM is designed for IT Service Management (ITSM) and holds a mindshare of 11.4%, down 13.3% compared to last year.
IBM Maximo, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), holds 28.7% mindshare, up 26.7% since last year.
IT Service Management (ITSM)
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Fairoz Gadad - PeerSpot reviewer
Development team is quick to address bugs or shortcomings in their product
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.
Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
A very strong and powerful tool in the market preferred by a variety of industries
I rate the technical support a seven out of ten. Three levels of support in IBM. The first one is a fixed level, while levels two and three are very good. Here, level one is not very good, as it takes time to go from level one to level two and from level two to level three. So, level one is of low capacity.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Helix is stable."
"Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal."
"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."
"The solution is already aligned with the framework, so it is easy for us to proceed with any ISO 27K certification."
"BMC offers excellent customer solutions, and they're quick to address bugs or shortcomings in their product."
"The valuable feature for me is that it's a tool that allows me to track processes right from the initial user request."
"The way you can customize this product to adapt to the process the customer is already using is what sets this apart from other ITSM products out there. This helps customers to adapt to the tool pretty quickly."
"The most valuable features of BMC Helix ITSM are the ease to use and integration."
"The most valuable features are the ability to create work orders and preventative maintenance."
"The Preventive Maintenance feature, especially in its inspection routines and KPI abilities, is valuable."
"The most powerful features are the database and integration with CMDB."
"Reliable, very configurable, and it's all integrated in the same database."
"They have a real strength of tracking the asset itself along with the condition of the asset, the maintenance of the asset and who has access to the asset, etc."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to correct maintenance."
"IBM Maximo is a very strong and powerful tool in the market…Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"It is configurable, where you can add extra fields to screens and to the database."
 

Cons

"The interface is somewhat dated as compared to technologies in use today."
"The interface isn't that great."
"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."
"The tool needs greater customization flexibility, particularly concerning notifications and the progressive view web page. This is significant because it encompasses various aspects like incident management, problem management, change management, work orders, and tasks. Aligning the GUI interface with these functionalities requires more flexibility."
"It needs to be more comfortable for the end-user."
"Support could be better."
"It can have more features for hardware discovery and hardware information. The integration with IQ operations management should be streamlined. ITSM and ITOM should be more integrated, and there should be better integration from Helix Discovery to Helix CMDB. There were some issues regarding this integration, and they were difficult to resolve in big environments. We have a lot of devices and users to manage. Therefore, the integration should be better."
"SmartIT could include PR. This would help us greatly in bridging the gap between Remedy's views and SmartIT."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"The latest version is slow due to the power it requires."
"The solution is not stable. We can have one day when it is stable and another day it is not. Sometimes it crashes or becomes very slow, and there are times we are not even able to download all the databases. Without the database, we cannot work on that application. These are the small glitches, and stability issues we are facing."
"Revision management of file attachments."
"You can get lost using the application"
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is easy and one is difficult, I rate the setup process a two since it is very complicated."
"The interface is not very easy or user-friendly and is in need of improvement."
"IBM Maximo can improve the financial support and financial application, to make it more similar to an ERP as opposed to an EAM. Overall they can improve the financial processes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are licenses to use this solution."
"We did not compare the price of BMC Helix ITSM to other vendors. However, it has a mid-range price."
"If Customer and IT agents are happy, that is one of the greatest ROI. However, one of the major factors is Leadership, because at the end they have to justify the cost."
"If you are looking for some kind of professional services form the OEM then you would have to purchase that."
"Please always get the latest quote from a BMC partner or from BMC. Check for the latest offerings."
"The solution's pricing should come down."
"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."
"While purchasing, try to negotiate on per user licensing costs, associated maintenance, and purchase 20% more then what you think you should have. Bulk is always cheaper."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"$USD700 per agent user."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"​Explore internal processes in order to evaluate the correct number of users in each Maximo module, then evaluate the different offers of pricing and licensing.​"
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
33%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix ITSM?
If we consider major players like Ford or BMW, their core focus is manufacturing products like cars. To ensure smooth operations, any arising issues, be it security concerns or issues within depart...
What needs improvement with BMC Helix ITSM?
BMC Helix ITSM is difficult for us to customize, and most customizations require vendor support, which leads to extra costs. The interface should be more user-friendly, and the customization should...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix ITSM?
We are currently using BMC Helix ITSM in our organization. We are in the process of implementing new modules like CMDB and discovery.
What do you like most about IBM Maximo?
It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world.
What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
Though I liked it a lot, I think it was lagging a lot. It was very slow due to the lagging issues. So that was kind of frustrating, considering how slow it was while functioning. The aforementioned...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world. With IBM Maximo,...
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy
Maximo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: March 2025.
845,564 professionals have used our research since 2012.