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BMC Helix Client Management vs CA Harvest Software Change Manager 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 Client Management
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Device Management (MDM) (11th), Endpoint Compliance (8th)
CA Harvest Software Change ...
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

BMC Helix Client Management and CA Harvest Software Change Manager aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. BMC Helix Client Management is designed for Mobile Device Management (MDM) and holds a mindshare of 4.8%, up 3.2% compared to last year.
CA Harvest Software Change Manager, on the other hand, focuses on Software Configuration Management, holds 3.2% mindshare, up 3.1% since last year.
Mobile Device Management (MDM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC Helix Client Management4.8%
Jamf Pro11.9%
NinjaOne6.8%
Other76.5%
Mobile Device Management (MDM)
Software Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
CA Harvest Software Change Manager3.2%
Endevor12.4%
IBM Rational ClearCase11.2%
Other73.2%
Software Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

AA
Senior Account Executive at FDS
Efficient remote control capabilities; compliance features greatly reduced customers' licensing costs
The on-premises version of BMC Client Management has powerful remote control functionality and decent compliance features, but these features both rely on the discovery tool in order to gain a complete set of insights about the endpoint's environment. Now, BMC's discovery solution depends on having an agent installed in each endpoint and sometimes the agent doesn't work properly, making it difficult to get an accurate understanding of the environment (including special topologies) even with BMC's discovery tool. This can be a pain when it comes to the area of compliance, since you might not have full access to everything running in the organization, including important infrastructural components such as servers and databases. For example, some endpoints may have gotten their software updates from servers not visible to the discovery tool, and this can further impact operations when it comes to patch management. Compare this scenario with the way Red Hat handles patch management: their software is always updated from the main patch providers, so you will always know what is running on the endpoints in this kind of environment. Although their endpoint management has its pros and cons, this is where BMC Client Management is at a bit of a disadvantage and I believe they need to improve on this area. Another area BMC could look into improving is the mobile device side of client management. It has lots of support for Microsoft products in terms of client management, but lacks comprehensive mobile device management support, such as for Android devices.
it_user572910 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Configuration Analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Has helped us track the application flow across each of our environments, promotion from dev to our higher environments, to production.
One feature that we are looking for is traceability, and also merging. That is a little cumbersome right now. We have provided our feedback to their representatives so they can provide us a good merging capability next time. One thing that I would like to improve is making the tool a little more user friendly. It takes a little bit of time to adjust to the tool because it's a little different than other version control tools out there in the market. But, it has its own benefits and own security, but that user experience, if they're going to improve it, that would be really great.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The support from BMC Client Management is very good."
"The solution provides multiple features in one place."
"One of our customers is a financial institution with more than 15,000 endpoints, and we use BMC Client Management to manage their regulatory compliance needs, manage the endpoints from a security perspective, and integrate it with service management as well."
"The most valuable features of the solution are patch management and software license management."
"BMC Client Management has helped us be able to patch our OS or any software to the latest version."
"It's a scalable solution. We have deployed it for customers using 3000 nodes to those using 300,000 nodes."
"The inventory and patch management tools are very valuable."
"The most valuable features of the solution are its patching capabilities and the help it offers when it comes to use cases, like prompting for the reboot after a certain period of time."
"The ability to give our teams functionality from a control perspective, allowing them to decide how they want to implement the tool, is valuable."
"I have not encountered any stability issues."
"Using this solution, we were able to implement a full process for all of our lifecycles."
"The auditing capability is one aspect that I would really recommend other colleagues to look into, because all the other version control tools out in the market provide speed, but the auditing capability is missing; the change management interaction; etc."
"The most valuable feature I would say is we can integrate that with our change management process and use that to control what goes into production and what doesn't."
"CA Mainframe Software Manager (CA Harvest SCM) provides a great way for us to store our source control."
 

Cons

"BMC Client Management could improve in the area of integration."
"In BMC Client Management, I would like to see more features for executing commands remotely. For example, with SAP, there isn't the capability to execute all the commands available in the console. The latest version includes more endpoints, but they do not cover everything the operations team needs. Additionally, I think improving the hierarchy for managing endpoints is crucial. Extending the endpoint capabilities would be highly beneficial."
"BMC Client Management supports only iOS devices. It would be good if they would support Android as well."
"The on-premises version of BMC Client Management has powerful remote control functionality and decent compliance features, but these features both rely on the discovery tool in order to gain a complete set of insights about the endpoint's environment. Now, BMC's discovery solution depends on having an agent installed in each endpoint and sometimes the agent doesn't work properly, making it difficult to get an accurate understanding of the environment (including special topologies) even with BMC's discovery tool."
"The solution needs to add whitelisting because many customers request it."
"It would be good if BMC Client Management can perform vulnerability assessment scanning at the endpoint on its own and mitigate that. Then, we wouldn't have to rely on a third party VA tool. I would like to see this application move to being a web-based one."
"The solution does not offer the functionality of remote access to users."
"Security features can be improved."
"Technical support for this solution is very good, although they can still use improvement in some regards."
"It needs to be simpler. This is the most difficult SCM tool I’ve ever used."
"One feature that we are looking for is traceability, and also merging. That is a little cumbersome right now."
"When you're trying to do collaboration or when you're trying to cater to multiple users and developers who submit code changes, it gets challenging with Harvest."
"Password complexity is not enforced by the tool."
"The features don’t always work as advertised."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is low cost."
"To use BMC Client Management they charge annually per node."
"BMC Client Management is a very affordable solution. There is one main server license which I believe is around $1,000 per year, and then there is the license for the actual solution. With the solution license, you can opt for a suite license where you get access to all the features and benefits, or alternatively you can buy any of the five main components of the suite license individually."
"BMC Client Management is a high-priced solution, but given its performance and capabilities, I think it offers great value. I don't have the exact number for the yearly licensing costs. I believe there is an additional cost of around two hundred dollars."
"Once you purchase your licenses, there is maintenance support that is renewed every year."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Retailer
10%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
No data available
 

Also Known As

BMC Helix Client Management, Helix Client Management, BMC Fromdistance Mobile Device Management
CA Harvest SCM, CA Software Change Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Charter Manufacturing
State of New Hampshire, Blue Hill
Find out what your peers are saying about JAMF, Microsoft, Kandji and others in Mobile Device Management (MDM). Updated: July 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.