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BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.6
Automation Anywhere boosts efficiency, cuts costs, reduces errors, and enhances productivity, benefiting finance, HR, and customer experiences.
Sentiment score
6.5
BMC Helix Discovery delivers 314% ROI through automation, operational efficiencies, and significant cost savings despite its higher cost.
Sentiment score
6.3
ServiceNow increases efficiency and ROI through automation, workflow optimization, and integration, despite perceived costs and varied implementation timelines.
In terms of cost, we participated in projects achieving two to three million dollars in annual savings.
Software Developer at Boston Scientific
As a return on investment, we have achieved a 250% ROI in six to nine months, and sometimes it increases up to 380% percent.
Software Engineer Intern at a university with 11-50 employees
Automation Anywhere has helped us save money.
RPA Solution Architect at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
You should expect at least one year and a half for ROI.
Presales Manager at HCLSoftware
BMC Helix Discovery has delivered a very good return, and we cannot stop using it at this moment.
System Administrator at Porto Editora
Thanks to ServiceNow's end-to-end automation, we save five to ten days of cycle time for each invoice.
Application Development Associate & Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
They have removed the costs associated with on-prem infrastructure, including data center costs, power costs, and physical server costs.
General Manager at sPerception IT
You should invest in ServiceNow only if you're looking at a long-term strategy and your requirements are very, very clear.
Senior Business Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Automation Anywhere's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, despite occasional delays, valuing communication and feedback integration.
Sentiment score
6.0
BMC Helix Discovery support is praised for professionalism but criticized for slow response times, with mixed user ratings from 2-10.
Sentiment score
7.0
ServiceNow's customer service is generally praised for quick, helpful support, though complex issues can face delays.
Whenever we need help, we can reach out to them, and they help us out.
Software Developer at Boston Scientific
We also have dedicated account managers and technical experts to solve our problems related to Automation Anywhere.
Software Engineer Intern at a university with 11-50 employees
We just have to raise a ticket, after which we receive a call, email, or ping from the Automation Anywhere team.
Solution architect at Boston Scientific
When opening a severity one ticket, they respond within four to six hours, which is commendable.
Systems Integration Specialist Advisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sometimes it is quite responsive, particularly when you go higher up in the organization.
Presales Manager at HCLSoftware
The response has been satisfactory, though improvements could be made in response time and overall competence.
System Administrator at Porto Editora
Users can raise tickets for platform issues, workflow errors, integrations, or production incidents through ServiceNow's support portal.
Cloud Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The support is exemplary and deserves a perfect rating.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Obtaining support for maintenance is the current challenge because they don't have a presence in the local market.
General Manager at sPerception IT
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Automation Anywhere excels in scalability, efficiently expanding across projects, integrating with infrastructures, and adapting via centralized management.
Sentiment score
7.1
BMC Helix Discovery provides scalable, flexible solutions for diverse environments, supporting easy integration and expansion for medium to enterprise use.
Sentiment score
7.4
ServiceNow excels in scalable, cloud-based IT service management, favored for consistent deployments and smooth scalability in large enterprises.
As we are using Microsoft Copilot for our AI agents, I look forward to integrating it with Automation Anywhere and its solutions, seeing it as a beneficial partnership as Automation progresses toward AI as the main solution.
Sr. Manager, Finance Transformation at Amkor Technology, Inc.
The centralized control room allows us to orchestrate and manage bots seamlessly.
Associate Leadership Team at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
I can scale it in terms of hundreds of bots and configure hundreds of parallel robots easily.
Director at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
There are no limitations or performance issues with ServiceNow; it is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
It is capable of vertical scaling with no issues.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
ServiceNow's scalability is very good as it can be deployed in each environment.
Workload Automation at nab
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Automation Anywhere is praised for stability and reliability, with user expertise and infrastructure influencing performance despite occasional upgrade issues.
Sentiment score
7.2
BMC Helix Discovery is stable, highly rated, with robust Linux architecture, resolving issues promptly, and performs well in complex environments.
Sentiment score
7.7
ServiceNow is reliable with rare, brief issues, minimal bugs, effective support, and high user satisfaction with performance and adaptability.
With the latest applications, there are no significant issues like freezing or crashing.
Senior RPA Team Leader at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
From a stability and reliability perspective, we can remain confident that the product performs as an enterprise solution and meets expected standards.
Director Automation CEO at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
If you have good best practices, reusable code, an effective framework, and a solid development methodology, bots can be very stable.
Intelligent Automation Engineering Manager at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
In the past four to six years, I cannot recall encountering any bugs.
Systems Integration Specialist Advisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is a reliable cloud platform with good uptime and workflow performance, supporting business-critical processes effectively when configured properly.
Cloud Administrator at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is cloud-based, so it is highly scalable and performs well.
General Manager at sPerception IT
I haven't faced any issues with stability; I've rarely seen any downtime.
Solution Engineer - Digital Platform | Mobile at British American Tobacco
 

Room For Improvement

Automation Anywhere struggles with integration, costs, learning curve, and needs improvements in documentation, interface, AI, and OCR features.
BMC Helix Discovery requires enhancements in cloud handling, customization, usability, scalability, integrations, and competitive pricing for improved user experience.
ServiceNow aims to enhance licensing, interfaces, workflows, data access, integration, mobile apps, AI/ML, customization, and support.
It is better to write a Python script instead of using Automation Anywhere's package when dealing with Excel because it is buggy and tends to break.
Low Code Developer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Making the product more lightweight by reducing its dependency on infrastructure could greatly help in the long run.
Software Developer at Boston Scientific
It would be beneficial if the platform provided options for power developers to integrate seamlessly with languages like Java or C#, allowing them to write their own scripts and code.
Rpa Infrastructure Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I would like to see a lower price and better technical support.
System Administrator at Porto Editora
It uses a Berkeley database, and the query language is not easy to master for performing complex queries.
Systems Integration Specialist Advisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It makes no sense in my opinion, and they should offer the team at the front to help customize the product to fit each company's needs, as every company has different demands and forms of submitting a request that need adjustment over time.
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
My priority points for improvement are the UI glitches and modern AI technology integrations for faster incident management.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
There is a need for bug or error tracking in ServiceNow.
Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Automation Anywhere offers competitive pricing and features for large-scale projects, with flexibility that justifies its higher costs.
BMC Helix Discovery pricing is mixed, with reports of lower costs than competitors but concerns over high setup and licensing.
ServiceNow is costly but offers scalability and efficiency, with complex pricing tailored for large enterprises' ITSM needs.
It is more cost-efficient compared to all other RPA platforms.
AI/Robotics Process Automation Specialist at Bell
Automation Anywhere costs are aligned with UiPath and Blue Prism, which are also expensive.
Developer at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It is not cheap, with costs ranging between 700 to 800 dollars per month.
Director, Co-Founder & CEO at HEDEHI Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
The price is about twelve per license per year, and the support is included.
System Administrator at Porto Editora
The setup cost is on the expensive side.
Presales Manager at HCLSoftware
ServiceNow's pricing can be justified if more functionality is required.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
ServiceNow does come with a price.
Associate Vice President at Wissen infotech
ServiceNow PPM product to a competitive product like Jira, which is an Atlassian product, they were offering better functionalities at one-tenth of the price.
Senior Business Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Automation Anywhere offers user-friendly automation, boosting productivity and efficiency with AI features and seamless business application integration.
BMC Helix Discovery offers intuitive, agentless application modeling with strong security, AI insights, and scalability for efficient IT operations.
ServiceNow offers customizable workflows, user-friendly interface, integration, automation, cloud updates, insights, and low-code rapid development.
I can set it up to provide users with a form to fill in all required information, and then the bot operates based on those specifications.
Low Code Developer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
For example, the email module has been enhanced over the years to support all the latest authentication technologies. That is very important as we move away from username and password and embrace multi-factor authentication.
Automation Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Automation Anywhere has undergone drastic changes over the past five years, transitioning from version 10 to A360, including desktop-based and cloud-based options.
Solution architect at Boston Scientific
This is very useful for compliance as it helps in audits by providing a comprehensive view of all assets and software.
System Administrator at Porto Editora
BMC Helix Discovery provides a lot of information that can be obtained from discovery, including the relationship between the CIs and how many CIs are orphans.
Presales Manager at HCLSoftware
The best aspect of BMC Helix Discovery is its flexibility. You can perform scanning at any time, and it provides substantial data for extraction.
Systems Integration Specialist Advisor at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
ServiceNow provides a wide range of functionality, covering all the necessary modules, unlike Jira which is primarily for IT.
Service Now Developer at Bangmetric services pvt ltd
Automation capabilities are impressive, bolstered by a vast repository of out-of-the-box connectors and plugins that facilitate integration with various applications worldwide.
Security Architect at وزارة الثقافة Ministry of Culture
The features of ServiceNow that I find most valuable include its ability to easily access ticket details if you know the ticket number, monitor the timeline of when the ticket was created, and see the current status.
IT infra Admin at synu
 

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
636
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 Discovery
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (7th)
ServiceNow
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
232
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (1st), IT Asset Management (1st), IT Service Management (ITSM) (1st), Rapid Application Development Software (2nd), No-Code Development Platforms (1st)
 

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.
JP
Presales Manager at HCLSoftware
Comprehensive discovery has populated our CMDB and provides deep insight into asset relationships
The applicability depends on the customer environment. Usually it is straightforward to apply the policies. BMC Helix Discovery is seamless and has many plugins available. It is a good feature that they offer. I have heard about it, but I am not currently using it, though I know that they have that feature available. BMC Helix Discovery provides a lot of information that can be obtained from discovery, including the relationship between the CIs and how many CIs are orphans. The analytics capabilities are strong.
Hemanthreddy Vakiti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Structured workflows have improved SLA compliance and now support prioritized incident handling
I think the licensing and pricing of ServiceNow is quite expensive compared to other tools. For large organizations, it is acceptable, but specifically for small and medium organizations to track incidents or change requests, ServiceNow is quite expensive. Sometimes performance can be slow when workflows and integrations are configured for complex tasks. For advanced customizations or advanced features which we rarely use, the documentation is not up to standard. The documentation needs to be improved for advanced customization features. However, the platform is stable overall and the features are quite good. The user experience and performance concerns I mentioned are areas I want to be improved. When many workflows and interactions are configured, performance is slow. For the features it is providing, it is quite expensive. If these performance features are improved, we can easily pay that price and get the return on investment.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business152
Midsize Enterprise82
Large Enterprise535
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business57
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise179
 

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 Discovery?
The interface is quite old and can be outdated.
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix Discovery?
BMC Helix Discovery is used for discovery of the assets and configuration items so that you can populate the CMDB.
Which solution is better for developing non-ITSM applications: OutSystems or Service Now?
The short answer is that OutSystems is far better for 2 main reasons. Firstly, with Service Now you are locked into t...
Would you choose ServiceNow over Microsoft PowerApps?
Hi Netanya, I will choose ServiceNow because ServiceNow is a very good tool compared to Microsoft PowerApp. Because ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow?
ServiceNow operates on a subscription-based pricing model with custom pricing based on modules, users, and business r...
 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
Discovery, ADDM, Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
Windstream Communications, News UK, Mercator Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)
AAA, AstraZeneca, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Broadcom, Christus Health, Epicor, Equinix, GE Capital, Intuit, KPMG, Loyola Marymount University, OshKosh, Quantas, RedHat, Royal Bank of Scotland, Swiss Re, U.S. Department of Energy, Safeway, Yale University, and Zillow    
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
899,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.