

BMC Helix ITSM and OpenText Service Management compete in the IT service management space. BMC Helix ITSM appears to have an advantage in ease of use and service support, whereas SMAX delivers more features offering long-term value and flexibility.
Features: BMC Helix ITSM is noted for its robust incident management, workflow automation, and seamless third-party integrations. SMAX, on the other hand, stands out with its AI-driven functionalities, extensive integration capabilities, and adaptability to changing environments.
Room for Improvement: BMC Helix ITSM could improve its feature set for future-proofing and integration flexibility. It also needs enhancements in AI capabilities. SMAX requires a more user-friendly deployment process, better customer support structures, and simplification of initial setup efforts.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: BMC Helix ITSM offers straightforward deployment and strong customer service, fostering quick adaptability. SMAX, while requiring more initial setup, benefits from a scalable deployment model that offers long-term advantages.
Pricing and ROI: BMC Helix ITSM provides competitive pricing and consistent ROI through effective support and delivery. SMAX, with higher initial setup costs, justifies this investment with significant long-term ROI due to its comprehensive feature set and adaptability.
There are issues with misrouting and a preference for email rather than direct communication via phone calls.
Support for OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is better.
The product's scalability is adequate for us, yet its complex customization sometimes restricts extensive adaptability.
I find BMC Helix ITSM stable, and that is why we have been with the product for the past 15 years.
Over the past five years, we have experienced no major issues or downtime during upgrades.
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) has some stability challenges that are crashable and not stable at times.
BMC Helix ITSM is difficult for us to customize, and most customizations require vendor support, which leads to extra costs.
We lack access to a sandbox for in-house development, which was very helpful for hands-on work with new features.
The custom reports that were already prepared work fine.
Different scenarios require different workflow configurations.
The pricing of BMC Helix ITSM and its implementation costs are quite high, including subscription and maintenance costs per year.
OpenText Service Management (SMAX) is okay, not expensive and not the cheapest.
Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal.
These features are crucial as we complete the implementation and maintain data accuracy in the CMDB.
Reporting tools and sophisticated customization options are available with different capabilities.
Configuration is available for different scenarios including change request, incident management, and problem management.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| BMC Helix ITSM | 6.0% |
| OpenText Service Management (SMAX) | 2.3% |
| Other | 91.7% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 19 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 14 |
| Large Enterprise | 54 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 3 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 2 |
| Large Enterprise | 3 |
BMC Helix ITSM is a cutting-edge IT service management platform that leads the service management industry. It is built natively for mobile with an intuitive, beautiful, people-centric user experience that makes your whole organization more productive. This platform leverages artificial intelligence to automate and streamline various service management processes. In doing so, it will ultimately make your organization more efficient. This simple-to-use platform is capable of handling even your organization’s most advanced management requirements.
BMC Helix ITSM is a predictive platform that does not simply wait for problems to occur. The advanced analytics software aims to improve your organization’s efficiency by spotting weak areas and then proposing solutions. This platform can improve your resource deployment efficiency by as much as 45% .This is why it is trusted by corporations across a variety of industries.
Key Features
Some of BMC Helix ITSM’s key features include:
Reviews from Real Users
BMC Helix ITSM’s software stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two of these are the robust activity tracking features and the lightweight nature of the solution.
A PeerSpot user who is a technical Program Manager and Site Lead at a computer software company notes the nature of Helix’s task tracking when they write, “The most valuable features I have found are the activity logs. Additionally, the other features where you are able to continuously address issues and are able to annotate notes inside to convey them to the customer. The customer can read the notes and are able to know where you are in the procedures and process of fixing the problem for them. It has a good interactive piece for dialogue with customers where you do not have to interact with them personally, but they can do it on their own just by going into that activity log. This is great for the customer to have the ability to find out how things are being progressively taken care of.”
Another PeerSpot user, who is a Practice Director of Global Infrastructure Services at a computer software company, notes, “Many other tools are similar. I've used these tools and find that they meet my requirements. Helix is more lightweight than these tools. It's a traditional tool that was developed more than 10 years ago. Ease of use is the operative word.”
OpenText Service Management Automation X delivers efficient service management automation with user-friendly configurability across IT, IoT, HR, and finance sectors. It enhances business processes through integrated incident management and natural language processing with virtual chatbots.
OpenText SMAX blends user-friendly design with broad language support and robust storage. It enables organizations to deploy in both on-premise and cloud environments using Kubernetes. SMAX excels in business process improvement, incident management, and uses intelligent agents for autonomous alerts and issue resolution. However, it requires enhancements in integration capabilities and documentation, third-party product connectivity, and contract management. Users face challenges with process automation and search functionality, demanding greater customization and flexibility.
What are the key features of OpenText SMAX?Banks and telecom companies primarily employ OpenText SMAX for service management automation, leveraging its ESM and ITSM capabilities. Deployed on-premise and via cloud, organizations in regions such as Saudi Arabia focus on integrations and upgrades, using SMAX as an end-user portal for incident management.
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