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BMC Helix Discovery vs IBM Maximo 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 Discovery
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (2nd)
IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

BMC Helix Discovery and IBM Maximo aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. BMC Helix Discovery is designed for IT Asset Management and holds a mindshare of 8.5%, up 7.8% compared to last year.
IBM Maximo, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), holds 28.8% mindshare, up 26.5% since last year.
IT Asset Management
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Shirish Kamalapurkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Very stable, fast, and powerful with valuable inventory management features
Our company uses the solution as an inventory tool for customers. The solution discovers your infrastructure and lets you know what servers and network devices are on it. It gives you details about applications, hardware, and software such as how they are connected and the dependencies between…
Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
A very strong and powerful tool in the market preferred by a variety of industries
I rate the technical support a seven out of ten. Three levels of support in IBM. The first one is a fixed level, while levels two and three are very good. Here, level one is not very good, as it takes time to go from level one to level two and from level two to level three. So, level one is of low capacity.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"BMC Helix Discovery comprehends the infrastructure you've procured and deployed within your environment."
"I've used other discovery tools, but I found BMC Helix Discovery to be more UI-friendly, and that's the most valuable feature of the solution."
"The solution is definitely useful."
"It provides comprehensive dependency mapping, which is essential for reducing the time spent and addressing problem-solving between data centers."
"Accuracy and clarity are vastly improved for the service lines."
"It is agentless, which means you don't have to install anything on all the different pieces of hardware that you are looking to discover."
"The initial setup is simple."
"The most valuable feature of BMC Helix Discovery is it operates well. It is well known and has gained recognition for its software."
"Preventive maintenance management."
"​Maximo is very stable. We really do not have problem with stability.​"
"IBM Maximo is a very strong and powerful tool in the market…Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The Preventive Maintenance feature, especially in its inspection routines and KPI abilities, is valuable."
"Work order management and scalability enables the businesses' needs to be met."
"The large range of configurability of the product is great, since everyone has a different way of doing things."
"The most powerful features are the database and integration with CMDB."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
 

Cons

"What would make BMC Helix Discovery better is if it had more client-side discovery features, for example, printers and desktops. Right now, it's focused more on data center discovery, so if it had additional features focused on the client-side discovery, that would be great. In the next release of BMC Helix Discovery, I'd like more client-side discovery features such as desktop discovery, printer discovery, and other IP-based client-side discovery features. The solution can discover desktops and printers, but there's still room for improvement on the client side."
"The CMDB could be improved. Getting data from the CMDB is the greatest challenge."
"If the dependency maps can go live and we can work through the process with a click, we're reaching the stage where issues are identified and mitigated. It would be ideal if we could utilize it to reduce vulnerabilities or address any other feedback."
"The solution is definitely useful."
"We would like updates more often."
"The solution's scalability is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are needed."
"There are certain limitations in the mapping feature of the solution."
"The license model could be more flexible and cheaper pricing."
"IBM is a big company and they have a lot of products. Level One, the first level of tech support, is the one that is used to stop the tsunami. For everyone, it's always work to get past that."
"Revision management of file attachments."
"Initial setup is a longer process because Maximo is bigger and has more processes."
"It needs full-service visibility. There are a lot of things that are hard for users to find out. For example, the Service Catalog is not too friendly. You really have to know what you're looking for."
"The interface is not very easy or user-friendly and is in need of improvement."
"The pricing model of the solution has room for improvement as well as the after-sales support."
"The latest version is slow due to the power it requires."
"You can get lost using the application"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution offers yearly licenses."
"You need a license to use BMC Helix Discovery. The license is paid yearly, though I have no idea how much it costs."
"BMC is available for a reasonable price compared to ServiceNow — it's half the price."
"The licensing fee is very low."
"I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. All BMC products are expensive."
"Operating cost is actually high compared to other products, actually. It's a little expensive only, but it's very good than other products."
"The licenses are very complex and quite costly."
"We have a perpetual license for the solution."
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"IBM has changed the licensing policy. As I understand now, they are going from a complex way of licensing to a more simple way of licensing."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is low and ten is high, I rate the pricing a nine. The price is very high."
"$USD700 per agent user."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
18%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
29%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix Discovery?
I like the artificial intelligence and machine learning that it uses in the solution. Because once the solution discovers all the assets, all the infrastructure, and all the dependencies between se...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Discovery?
The price of BMC Helix Discovery is licensed by asset. It is challenging to maintain licenses, as every piece of equipment is considered a license. We pay attention to the growth of assets. The pri...
What needs improvement with BMC Helix Discovery?
I would like to see a lower price and better technical support.
What do you like most about IBM Maximo?
It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world.
What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
Though I liked it a lot, I think it was lagging a lot. It was very slow due to the lagging issues. So that was kind of frustrating, considering how slow it was while functioning. The aforementioned...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world. With IBM Maximo,...
 

Also Known As

Discovery, ADDM, Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping
Maximo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Windstream Communications, News UK, Mercator Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, BMC, Qualys and others in IT Asset Management. Updated: January 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.