BMC Helix ITSM Reviews

This is an IT Service Management tool for incident management. 

I use this product as an end-user and not an administrator. This is not a product that I use extensively. We primarily use it for incident tracking and service request tracking.

The interface is nice and it's simple to use.

It provides a good user experience.

Functionality-wise, it falls short of our expectations. This could be the way we have it deployed. Perhaps, the functionalities have not been enabled 100% in our organization. There could be some additional features that our enterprise is not aware of, yet is available.

There is a text editor that we use to enter our incident description or service request description, and it should be richer in terms of features. For example, it would be helpful if we had more formatting options.

We have not faced too many issues with stability. It's fairly okay.

This product is used enterprise-wide, with between 600 and 800 users.

Our administration teams are the ones that have contact with technical support. As such, I have not had any experience with them.

Prior to using BMC Helix, we used CA Service Desk.

I prefer using BMC.

We used a system integrator for the deployment.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

I'm a service management specialist and I'm in partnership with BMC.

I like the digital workplace, it's an appealing feature for me. 

One of the issues with the solution is the requirement to provide a lot of information in order to log a request. I'm not talking about end users, technicians or engineers need to provide too much information to initiate a work order or an incident. It doesn't flow; access should require minimal effort. They should consider using ITIL principles and not just IT. 

The initial setup required an engineer for configuration, to load data on the system. The datasheet form isn't user friendly, a client wouldn't be able to fill it in, a tech savvy person is required.

I like the tools BMC offers but it's very expensive.  The pricing model needs to be revisited.

BMC is definitely not for small businesses, especially those in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. It's difficult to get small businesses onto BMC because of the cost. For functionality, I would give this solution an eight out of 10 but I have a serious problem with the pricing and that brings my rating down to a six.

The primary use case of this solution for individuals calling into the help desk to have a ticket created over the phone, which becomes an incident. If the incident gets upgraded then it becomes a problem and then they work on it.

The most valuable feature is knowledge management.

All products can be improved. For this solution, the customization could be improved.

BMC has its own community where we can go in and suggest ideas and changes to the products, which is great, but at times BMC is not very responsive. There have been suggestions that were submitted five years ago and still not delivered. BMC has indicated that it was in development.

They could be more responsive to feedback from their community board.

I have been working with BMC Solutions from Remedy since 1994.

I have used it since it was released.

This solution is stable, it's very good. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.

This solution is scalable and I think that it's the best that you can get. I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten.

The current project has 140 people, which excludes the users. There are approximately 20,000 users for this project. This site is quite large.

I have worked on sites that have a couple of hundred users to many thousands.

This solution is suitable for medium to large-sized companies.

The technical support is very good and I would rate it a nine out of ten.

At times, you have a critical issue and you need an answer very quickly. Even if it takes half an hour or a day to get an answer, it takes longer than you expect.

There is always room for improvement, although BMC has improved over the last couple of years.

I have worked with other competing products for integrations. I focus on BMC solutions.

The initial setup is complex. If you know what you are doing and what you want then it's straightforward. Most clients don't know what they want and it becomes complex.

I have worked with three or four consultants where you have small teams, and I have worked on larger teams where there is a huge undertaking to implement it.

I implement this solution for my clients.

BMC Helix is a marketing term. The name changed from BMC Remedy ITSM to BMC Helix a few years ago. It's also linked to BMC's CMDB, where they have an image of all of the assets in the company.

In BMC, you can do absolutely anything. You can customize, you can configure, and you can customize and develop pretty much anything.

It might take some time and it may have some consequences later on when you are upgrading and you want to install a newer version, especially when you are on-premises.

Other solutions may have a better BEB Cloud interface or better sales organization, but BMC is a trustworthy company and they keep their promises. Some other competitors make promises but don't always honor them.

My advice to others would be the following:

1. Get a support contract directly with BMC. 
2. Pick your BMC partner or reseller.
3. Get in-house resources and knowledge, and train your employees, or employ someone with the BMC Remedy skills.
4. Get external contractors to top it up with contractors and consultants from the partner.
5. Set up a good project team that communicates with BMC contract partners, your employees, and the contractor.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

The solution supports our supporting processes. My responsibilities include reporting on the services we offer to end-users, primarily through channels like email. I focus on coordinating arrangements for the services we provide.

The valuable feature for me is that it's a tool that allows me to track processes right from the initial user request. It helps in updating the solution throughout the workflow. I use it to gather information about the people involved, track time, and more.

Working with numerous processes can be complex, and the processes are not always transparent in the solution. At times, users may not be aware of the meaning behind various processes when receiving certain information. The most frequently requested change for the solution is integrating the latest technology to facilitate interactive resolution.

I have been using the solution for the past 20 years.

The solution is stable. I have several servers working together in a cluster.

The solution is scalable.

We haven't needed customer support extensively. However, we did encounter some delays, waiting for several hours to receive a satisfactory answer. Fortunately, there have been no issues with the technical components.

I have worked with SentinelOne and ServiceNow.

The solution is best-suited for medium-sized companies. I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

We use Helix to manage incidents and requests. 

The user experience could be better. 

I have used Helix for one year.

Helix is stable.

Helix is scalable.

Setting up Helix is complex, and it takes about a day to deploy. 

We use BMC Helix ITSM as a managed ticketing solution for the telecom industry.

The solution is already aligned with the framework, so it is easy for us to proceed with any ISO 27K certification. We should take a certification in terms of Service Assurance and Service Framework.

There are plugins to the solution that have come onto the market, so the solution should also be updated in terms of administration to increase efficiency. That is why we have come up with other products that have a similar use case. BMC needs to come up with a plug-and-play system that requires a minimal partition, it would be highly beneficial.

I have been using the solution for seven years.

I give the stability an eight out of ten.

I give the scalability an eight out of ten.

The initial setup is not simple. We require a skilled administrator to complete the deployment. Depending on the customer's requirements the solution can be deployed on-premises or cloud.

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

The differences between BMC Helix and other ITSM solutions depend on the use case, process alignment, and organizational requirements. We have realigned the entire product to suit telecom operations, so it depends on the organization's strategy regarding ticketing solutions.

I recommend the solution to others.

I am supporting the top bank in Pakistan, and they are using BMC Helix ITSM. There are multiple solutions in BMC Helix ITSM, such as asset management, configuration management, and tools that are used for monitoring purposes.

The solution can perform well for large-sized companies.

The documentation could improve in BMC Helix ITSM.

I have been using BMC Helix ITSM for approximately eight months.

I rate BMC Helix ITSM an eight out of ten.

We have three to four people using this solution.

The solution is best suited for enterprises.

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

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

Neutral

The initial setup of BMC Helix ITSM requires a technical expert. An expert is required for the configuration and management of the different servers.

The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive.

I rate BMC Helix ITSM a seven out of ten.

It's a help desk software. It is an ITSM system. We are an MSP. We use it in-house and then we use it for a bunch of our other customers.

It's a stable, reliable product.

The solution can scale and expand well.

It's one of the top solutions on the market for ITSM capabilities. 

We used to use it and we don't want to use it anymore. We're actually now replacing it.

The interface isn't that great. Also, it just doesn't integrate with as many systems as ServiceNow.

The initial setup is complex. 

I've been using the solution for 11 years or so. 

The stability is very, very good. I'd rate it four out of five in terms of reliability. It doesn't crash or lag on us. There aren't bugs or glitches. 

It is highly scalable. We have lots of users. We've never had a problem expanding it. It's not a problem.

Their support is not really good yet. Due to our scale, when we work with their support, it's not very good.

Neutral

We are actually on the way to phasing this solution out. We are replacing it with ServiceNow. ServiceNow integrates with more solutions. 

The initial setup is pretty complex. 

We had the competency to handle the setup in-house. 

The cost is high and going up. Part of the reason why we're changing products is that the pricing actually went up recently by a lot.

We're an MSP. We resell it for BMC amongst other things.

This solution is a SaaS, a Software as a Service, solution. 

It's probably the second-best solution out there. It's just that, as an MSP, we just need to work with a bunch of other toolsets. When that happens, then you run into more support issues and run into more integration issues. That said, I would still say it's the second-best ITSM solution out there.

I'd rate the solution five out of ten. 

We are mostly involved in service assurance for telecommunications; service assurance and network provisioning for telecommunications. We use BMC Helix ITSM in these areas.

Most of our use cases involving BMC Helix ITSM are for change management and trouble ticketing. If you look at telecommunications companies, everything revolves around incident problems and change.

The most valuable feature for our customers using BMC Helix ITSM is change management.

BMC Helix ITSM encourages the use of APIs as much as possible. They're looking to use machine learning in the future, and all the time moving towards a zero-touch type environment.

I have customers that always would like to adapt and personalize BMC Helix ITSM more.

I have been using BMC Helix ITSM since it came out. 

BMC Helix ITSM is stable.

Having the solution on the cloud brings increased scalability. The scalability of BMC Helix ITSM is good.

The deployment of BMC Helix ITSM is difficult. If you deploy it in a single-use enterprise it's probably fairly simple. A lot of the deployments of the solution we are doing are at a global level where there is a lot of consolidation. BMC Helix ITSM requires individuals that are doing the process to have a deep understanding of the solution.

A lot of people are moving from legacy on-premise systems to SaaS cloud versions. The most difficult element of doing this is data migration. This process could improve. There are good processes in place for migration, but it's having the level of understanding about what data do you need to migrate that can be difficult.

We use an Agile approach to the implementation of BMC Helix ITSM. We could have a delivery phase that requires six or seven people as part of the delivery in the Agile scrum-type approach. Your next iteration could be two or three people or more. Then you have your consultants on top of that and your architects. However, it is depending on what is required for that sprint. 

What we tend to do is use an initial waterfall approach to create the base, or the minimum viable solution, up and running. Then we move to an Agile sprint approach for iterations and for meeting customer requirements. We figure out what the business requirements are and what are the priorities, et cetera. There can be a lot of teams involved, such as testing and redelivery teams.

I would advise others before implementing this solution to be clear on what they are trying to achieve.

I rate BMC Helix ITSM a nine out of ten.

We use Helix to manage services for clients in Latin America and provide a service desk. 

The Helix chatbot is helpful, and we can use its workflow features to automate some of the use cases for our clients.

Helix is not quite as mature as ServiceNow, which is a complete product. All of its technology is current. Helix needs to enhance some of its functionality with the latest technology. For example, Helix could improve its chatbot automation to automate more use cases.

We have around 25 clients and are in the process of moving one client to Helix. We will continue the deployment over the next 18 months or so.

Helix is stable.

Helix is scalable enough to handle our use cases. We plan to implement it for 200 users, but right now we're at fewer than 20.

We're BMC partners in Latin America, so we have strong support in the region. It isn't a problem.

I can't say much about the implementation because my team handles that, but I think it isn't complex.

We paid a service fee for implementation, and there's an ongoing monthly fee for the Helix, license based on the current number of named users. 

We evaluated ServiceNow, and the features are similar. ServiceNow probably has better functionality. However, BMC offered a better price, so it was ultimately an economic decision. Considering the cost of both solutions, Helix provides the best value for the money.

I rate Helix eight out of 10.