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BMC Helix ITSM vs SolarWinds Service Desk comparison

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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

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
641
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 (1st), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
BMC Helix ITSM
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (9th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (8th)
SolarWinds Service Desk
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
IT Service Management (ITSM) (16th)
 

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.
KN
Senior Application Developer BMC at Balfour Beatty
Self-service portal significantly reduces resolution time and transforms service process with advanced features
We initially had a lot of tickets generated via the service desk through calls and emails. Now, we have almost moved out of email creations by introducing the DWP features on the Studio pages, with about 90% of the tickets coming in via our self-service portal. Recent upgrades offer different types of views for particular business lines, which was missing earlier. The new landing pages have allowed us to add banners, images, and internal videos, encouraging most customers to use these DWP self-service features. Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal. Additionally, the availability of knowledge articles, chatbots, and the new Helix GPT feature has improved service processes.
Vaibhav Patkar - PeerSpot reviewer
CISO at Orient Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Improved service requests and network monitoring have increased efficiency but integration needs work
SolarWinds Service Desk is a recognized product across the world and a dependable product. Kaseya is somewhat dated, and SolarWinds Service Desk has better connectivity in terms of superior integration facilities compared to Kaseya. Additionally, SolarWinds Service Desk offers multiple options within the same tool, including ITSM as well as NOC and network monitoring capabilities. SolarWinds Service Desk has much greater acceptability in the market and a wide range of implementations and integrations with various tools and applications. Life becomes simpler when choosing a standard product, whereas Kaseya may not be as highly regarded in the market. SolarWinds Service Desk may have some flaws, but work is being done to address them. SolarWinds Service Desk is an affordable product. SolarWinds Service Desk is suitable for all customers ranging from small to enterprise. There are some small customers, and the primary usage is within the company itself, and then as customers require it, access can be provided to them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One good thing in A2019 is that all products of Automation Anywhere, like IQBOT services, Meta Bot Designer, Discovery Bot, and Control room are all together in one product which is very effective for any business team."
"The immediate impact is administrative tasks which were traditionally done manually are now being done by robots. This reduces the workload for people."
"I found the new feature of integrating Python and HTML the most valuable."
"Toward this life cycle, we have a very structured approach of governing, monitoring, and tracking, that's the approach we have taken. Insights we gain from this governance, we apply towards automation strategy and implementations. We've done this for many clients across the globe. We are happy to share those experiences with some of you as well."
"For the tasks that I do repeatedly, I can record processes using Automation Anywhere. I record mouse and keyboard actions and create a workflow for those activities. This minimizes my workload. The recording option is very useful."
"The valuable features that I see for automation with enterprise RPA are IQ Bot and Bot Insights. If you do anything, Bot Insight will provide the dashboard. It starts from the developer with artificial intelligence and the dashboard, which will provide the visibility of business-level metrics as well as operational-level metrics. Those are the good things I see in automation."
"Movement on cloud architecture according to me provided by AA2019, will be most beneficial as it will be easy to use and will provide flexibility."
"At run time, Automation Anywhere can let you know which line of code the bot is running and what it is doing. It is very clear."
"Call logging and escalation features are the most valuable for us because they are easy to use and with them, we can assign a request to a specific person or department."
"So far this is the best tool that I have used."
"Having the solution on the cloud brings increased scalability."
"The mobile features are the best part of the new version, as it is easy to be notified and update your work from a mobile, which is great."
"BMC Helix ITSM gives us email and SMS notifications, we can check the tickets, and give feedback. All the basic features that we need are available."
"It was a full-featured product. Based on my experience where I was responsible for Remedy, and for a later project where I worked on a very sophisticated implementation of BMC Remedy, it is full-featured and could do almost anything that you can think of in the ITIL portfolio."
"This product allows us to efficiently track all outstanding tickets, enabling the submitter to update the diaries, reopen tickets, expedite and reroute for faster processing."
"The main valuable feature is the flexibility of the product -- the ability of being able to make it do almost anything we need it to do to adjust to our business needs and to do it very quickly."
"SolarWinds Service Desk is a recognized product across the world and a dependable product."
"The solution is very stable."
"What I appreciate the most about the product is that, as per the name given, it brings better visibility to the client in terms of their infrastructure, application, and performance."
 

Cons

"They are already working on this: The boom of generative AI, the next-gen technologies, including advanced AI and ML technologies, are in the roadmap. I would like to see more and more AI integration and a bit more analytics. That would be great."
"Automation Anywhere can be improved with respect to the user-friendliness of the interface because most of the competitors are now using a flowchart-like structure, thus making it easy for anyone to learn and study it."
"My main issue with Automation Anywhere might be the logging of bots and getting more detailed feedback of what my bot is doing, step by step. It is hard to track fine-tuning in larger codes."
"A2019 should have more improvement for developers, as it was in v11.x."
"In Automation Anywhere, the logging process is manual."
"The Recorder action in the A2019 Community edition is not supported."
"We would like a better coding interface for developers. We would also like to have a user interface which reduces the time to learn the product so more people in the organization can use software, like Automation Anywhere, quickly automating processes."
"I noticed that from version 10.5 to 11.3 the number of clicks to start a bot through the Control Room and Schedule Manager have increased. In certain cases, I would like to see that become simpler, faster, and easier."
"When BMC Helix ITSM did some upgrades it caused some issues. They have fixed some of the problems but more improvement is needed."
"Maybe it could be more simplified and easier to change the reporting point of view, like from a different vendor to another."
"The reports need improvement, it is not a good functioning tool."
"Provide documentation on the content of the REST API interfaces. Right now, it is pretty much non-existent."
"SmartIT could include PR. This would help us greatly in bridging the gap between Remedy's views and SmartIT."
"We used to use it and we don't want to use it anymore."
"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."
"We found that there was numerous issues upgrading from 8.1 to 9.1 in that all our licenses were broken for almost a year and a half. We chased down a total of 14 hotfixes, patches, and service packs before things were finally resolved. During that time, said "fixes" also broke other things, so it was quite the sore spot with management for some time."
"The integration with other applications can use improvement because, for example, it was nearly impossible to integrate SolarWinds Service Desk with monday.com because we had to get an add-on from Zapier."
"The primary concern so far is the integration part because of the APIs; this is the main area of concern."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing strategy for us is one license for development. It is more complicated than that depending on the options you choose."
"The setup and licensing cost is affordable, and it is not exaggerated like UiPath."
"We save approximately 10,000 hours per year."
"The solution is costly and the licensing is very confusing."
"It's an ideal pricing model to customize the components based on everyone's needs."
"The solution itself is free unless we want to add the support option but we have to pay for the bots we use."
"We save 34,000 hours of time per year and have recouped up to $6000 in lost revenue."
"I do not know the price, but I am told that it is cheaper than UiPath."
"Just make sure you really sit down and look at what you will be using per user, therefore you will not be surprised with a big bill. You do not want every user having every license, it really is not needed."
"It is not very expensive and not very cheap. It is somewhere in-between. Some of the features are more expensive. There are also additional costs. If you want to use most of the features, you need to pay more."
"The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive."
"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."
"It is costly, but it is well worth it."
"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."
"The solution's pricing should come down."
"We did not compare the price of BMC Helix ITSM to other vendors. However, it has a mid-range price."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
8%
Government
5%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business154
Midsize Enterprise82
Large Enterprise536
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise55
No data available
 

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 ITSM?
Although BMC Helix ITSM is a strong enterprise platform, there are areas where it could be improved. One key area is ...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix ITSM?
My main use case for BMC Helix ITSM is validating and automating core ITSM workflows, such as incident, change, and s...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix ITSM?
My thoughts on the pricing and licensing cost of BMC Helix ITSM are that it is flexible.
What needs improvement with SolarWinds Service Desk?
The primary concern so far is the integration part because of the APIs; this is the main area of concern. Currently, ...
What is your primary use case for SolarWinds Service Desk?
SolarWinds Service Desk is used for ITSM and network monitoring purposes. The major use cases being utilized are from...
What advice do you have for others considering SolarWinds Service Desk?
I think the pricing of SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability is now comparative and suited to our business model, whi...
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy, BMC Helix IT Service Management
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix ITSM vs. SolarWinds Service Desk and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,838 professionals have used our research since 2012.