BMC Helix ITSM Reviews

I used this solution as part of my previous role where I was a solution architect designing comprehensive solutions for customers in the APAC region, including India. The customers predominantly have challenges with respect to the ITSM area.

The primary use cases could be particular incident problems and change management modules. There are of course requirements on your cellphone catalog front. Along with other BMC products, it could be discovery or it could be your monitoring solution.

Every fourth or fifth client I have worked with has had the BMC solution.

It's a cloud solution and deployed on-prem.

The most valuable features are the simplicity and the in-duty features. Most of the time people don't use the tool because they either find it clumsy or very difficult to understand. The biggest challenge is that I don't know where I need to raise the request. BMC addresses all these solutions, so that is something I like.

The second thing is the scalability, which isn't a problem at all. You go and buy any product in the market and of course to a certain limit they can work, but the scalability that BMC offers is really great. 

Thirdly, it provides tons of integration options. We haven't faced any issues with integration.

It's expensive, particularly in the emerging market where you see a lot of customers that have a budget crunch over issues. They like the products a lot, but when it comes to the costing part of it, sometimes they say it's not in their budget.

They go and they compromise, instead of compromising on the budget front. Sometimes they go with an open source or a cheaper tool. They have scalability issues, and they don't get quality support.

Sometimes on the pricing front, we lose some deals, particularly in the emerging market.

I have been using this solution for 10 years.

It's stable.

The scalability is very good.

Whenever we are stuck or whenever we need support, the technical support is very much appreciated. They have helped me a lot in these areas.

Implementation is easy and simple most of the time. The knowledge base is pretty good. The community pages are very good.

The amount of time it takes to deploy depends on the use cases. Typically, we take around two to three months for implementation, which covers at least six to seven processes of implementation, any incident problem, change, or configuration.

It's a yearly subscription but there are a couple of customers who go for the monthly subscription.

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

I would recommend this solution for those who want to start using it.

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 departments like HR or finance, require a swift resolution. This is where the product comes into play. It provides a platform for raising tickets and obtaining quick solutions.

For instance, if you require a virtual machine from a specific data center group, you no longer need to endure traditional processes. Automation kicks in, and you have all the necessary details within moments. This efficiency level isn't confined to just IT; it also permeates management levels. Beyond that, the tool offers scalability and flexibility, facilitating the maintenance of knowledge repositories and standard release processes. Additionally, it has features where users can make service requests based on their specific needs, thanks to tailored questionnaires. This ensures that only the exact resources that can support us will be allocated. 

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 also needs improvement in product categorization and information organization based on feedback and surveys. Currently, there are limitations in terms of user-friendliness and customization options. For instance, the inability to adjust certain categories or banners hampers usability, especially compared to other platforms like AngularJS or NodeJS. 

The tool needs improvement in monitoring. Every asset has a plethora of monitoring tools available in the market. Requirements may vary from customer to customer, but from what I've observed in large-scale industries, it falls short.

From my experience, it typically takes around six to seven months for BMC Helix ITSM to go through the discovery phase, provide releases, test them repeatedly, and so on. Over the past four or five years, I've raised various cases with different companies, and it consistently took a minimum of three to six months to resolve them. Sometimes, I had to close the cases because I had to move to a newer version to overcome those bugs. Apart from that, it's been quite challenging when it comes to performance because we haven't received that level of support. So, there's a need for improvement or better resources to be allocated at the initial stage. I wouldn't say that we don't receive support, but if the right resources are aligned at the right time, it would make things easier for the end customer.

I have been using the product for more than seven years. 

When evaluating the tool's overall stability, I would rate it around a six out of ten upon fresh installation. However, as the system adapts to its environment and smoothens out, the stability significantly improves, reaching around a nine out of ten. So, shortly after installation, it may start at six out of ten, but within six months to a year, it typically stabilizes and earns a rating of nine out of ten for its stability.

The expanding nature of the environment may be unfamiliar. The requirements BMC Helix ITSM suggests for installation are also uncertain, as they haven't been tested in the live environment. Real repercussions become apparent once you proceed with infrastructure installation, including real-time unexpected issues.

My company has more than 1000 product users. 

The ease of installation largely depends on your specific requirements when it comes to the initial installation of BMC Helix ITSM. If you're opting for a containerized deployment, it's not necessarily straightforward; I'd rate it around a six out of ten on a scale of difficulty. However, if you're leveraging cloud-based deployment, the tool manages everything, including instances and scalability. 

I have experienced all the phases of BMC Helix ITSM: standalone, on-premises, containerized, and cloud-based. I have worked in all these environments. ITSM deployment depends on various factors. Currently, we are transitioning to containers instead of the cloud. Specific dependencies influence this choice. Many large companies opt for containerization, while some move to the cloud. The primary reason is the reluctance to expose their data publicly.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten. 

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. 

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.

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 are using BMC Helix ITSM mainly for incident and change management.

The most valuable features of BMC Helix ITSM are the service level management, configuration, and reporting tool.

When BMC Helix ITSM did some upgrades it caused some issues. They have fixed some of the problems but more improvement is needed.

BMC solutions are now multiple solutions, they are not one comprehensive solution. It would be beneficial if there was one installation that could be done for all the solutions together. It would make it a lot easier to upgrade.

They should improve the reporting and dashboard. However, we have seen the smart report and dashboard, it was very good and I know they have enhanced it with Grafana. They are using Grafana with the latest version, but we did not try it yet.

I have been using BMC Helix ITSM for approximately 25 years.

BMC Helix ITSM is a highly stable solution.

The scalability of BMC Helix ITSM is good. We are able to scale to solution up and down.

I rate the scalability of BMC Helix ITSM a nine out of ten.

I have had a bad experience with the support. Their knowledge was lacking, the response times were not always good for the reported case. Depending on the reporting case the support could be better or worse. 10 to 20 percent of the reported cases are not handled in a timely manner.

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

Neutral

The initial setup of BMC Helix ITSM is straightforward.

I rate the initial setup of BMC Helix ITSM a nine out of ten.

We used a third-party consultant for the implementation of the solution.

We did not compare the price of BMC Helix ITSM to other vendors. However, it has a mid-range price.

I rate the price of BMC Helix ITSM a six out of ten.

I rate BMC Helix ITSM an eight out of ten.