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BMC Helix ITSM 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 ITSM
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (9th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (8th)
IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

BMC Helix ITSM and IBM Maximo aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. BMC Helix ITSM is designed for IT Service Management (ITSM) and holds a mindshare of 5.5%, down 11.2% compared to last year.
IBM Maximo, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), holds 13.1% mindshare, down 29.1% since last year.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC Helix ITSM5.5%
ServiceNow14.2%
JIRA Service Management6.9%
Other73.4%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Maximo13.1%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management7.3%
IFS Cloud Platform6.6%
Other73.0%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
 

Featured Reviews

KN
Senior Application Developer BMC at Balfour Beatty
Self-service portal significantly reduces resolution time and transforms service process with advanced features
We initially had a lot of tickets generated via the service desk through calls and emails. Now, we have almost moved out of email creations by introducing the DWP features on the Studio pages, with about 90% of the tickets coming in via our self-service portal. Recent upgrades offer different types of views for particular business lines, which was missing earlier. The new landing pages have allowed us to add banners, images, and internal videos, encouraging most customers to use these DWP self-service features. Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal. Additionally, the availability of knowledge articles, chatbots, and the new Helix GPT feature has improved service processes.
Antony Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Software Engineer at GPA
Asset management has become streamlined and decision-making is now driven by lifecycle data
The best features IBM Maximo offers are that it is very simple to deploy on OpenShift using Ansible playbooks. It also has excellent support for integration, is simple to configure, and the asset register is very straightforward. Work management and managing inventory are seamless. In terms of integration support, I have used preventive maintenance, work generation, accurate work execution planning, tracking actuals, and I can easily integrate with other tools and systems. IBM Maximo Suite gives me a single place where service cycles are standardized and tied to compliance. IBM Maximo has positively impacted my organization as it has been a very useful tool. It reduced human error by moving away from pen and paper-based scheduling. It saved cost by minimizing unexpected downtime of assets, with approximately 50% of time being saved. We have also reduced overwork among staff by removing redundant information and smoothing task flows. It helps us scale our team without micromanaging small issues.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is suitable for the present circumstances, providing reliability and adhering to the necessary procedures. Having ITSM and proper knowledge is essential for our work to be acknowledged and effectively contribute to the team's efforts. Utilizing ITSM ensures that our work, especially in chat windows and events from application support, is duly acknowledged. This is crucial for handling high-level events (HLEs) and maintaining accurate records. The system facilitates easy tracking, enabling managers and higher-ups to gather data for appraisals and other purposes efficientl"
"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."
"Customer support is always fantastic and willing to help."
"In BMC, you can do absolutely anything; you can customize, you can configure, and you can customize and develop pretty much anything."
"The way you can customize this product to adapt to the process the customer is already using is what sets this apart from other ITSM products out there, helping customers adapt to the tool pretty quickly."
"The service desk (incident management) function is the lion's portion of use and value, and it has been instrumental in aligning our service desk with the ITIL fundamentals and continuously improving the operating metrics of that area."
"For large organisations, or a medium organisation that is now growing due to new acquisitions etc. (typically several thousand people strong and a large presence in one or more countries) BMC Remedy is surely a very good choice."
"The solution's most valuable features are automation and orchestration."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"It is configurable, where you can add extra fields to screens and to the database."
"IBM Maximo has increased our efficiency by 65%."
"We were doing all kinds of paperwork for every type of order and to maintain our assets but with the use of the IBM Maximo application, we can automate a lot of the processes."
"The incident management feature is good because it allows you to keep track of and classify issues."
"When we integrated the Maximo DB with the BI tool, we were able to track and manage the inventory levels in a much more controllable way, and reduced the inventory levels significantly within one year."
"The most valuable aspect is the level of flexibility Maximo provides because it is more code-based and more Java-based, so our development team and support partners are able to customize and relatively easily tailor it to our needs."
"Our measurable results show that unplanned downtime decreased by a minimum of 15 to 20%, work order processing time decreased by 30%, data consistency across sites significantly improved, and preventive maintenance compliance increased by 20 to 25%."
 

Cons

"I have customers that always would like to adapt and personalize BMC Helix ITSM more."
"It's expensive, particularly in the emerging market where you see a lot of customers that have a budget crunch over issues."
"It takes a long-time to plan and deploy the on-premise solution."
"In User Group sessions held by BMC in India, I mentioned the challenges with vast documentation, making it difficult to find the right information quickly. However, we lack access to a sandbox for in-house development, which was very helpful for hands-on work with new features."
"Provide documentation on the content of the REST API interfaces. Right now, it is pretty much non-existent."
"We found that there was numerous issues upgrading from 8.1 to 9.1 in that all our licenses were broken for almost a year and a half."
"BMC needs to keep improving their support. It is still far from what it was back in the days of Remedy."
"Upgrading to a new ARS version in a complex environment remains a challenge."
"The mobile solution has a lot of room for improvement, especially in geopositioning capabilities, tracking capabilities, and configuration capabilities, in order to let the tech operate online and offline.​"
"IBM Maximo can be improved because the user interface is not as modern as newer SaaS tools, and implementation and configuration can be time-consuming."
"The mobile solution has a lot of room for improvement, especially in geopositioning capabilities, tracking capabilities, and configuration capabilities, in order to let the tech operate online and offline."
"Areas for improvement would be the user interface and support for Arabic. They could also be more customer-oriented."
"​Maximo is a big system, so the initial setup is complex."
"The initial setup was complex, because it is a complex product."
"Licensing costs for IBM Maximo are now more expensive relative to some of the cloud-based platforms that offer cheaper solutions and are more flexible in terms of fees."
"Many improvements are needed in the customer support service department because of delays in response, which are very costly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We did not compare the price of BMC Helix ITSM to other vendors. However, it has a mid-range price."
"There are licenses to use this solution."
"The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive."
"If you are looking for some kind of professional services form the OEM then you would have to purchase that."
"While purchasing, try to negotiate on per user licensing costs, associated maintenance, and purchase 20% more then what you think you should have. Bulk is always cheaper."
"Please always get the latest quote from a BMC partner or from BMC. Check for the latest offerings."
"It is costly, but it is well worth it."
"Just make sure you really sit down and look at what you will be using per user, therefore you will not be surprised with a big bill. You do not want every user having every license, it really is not needed."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"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."
"​Explore internal processes in order to evaluate the correct number of users in each Maximo module, then evaluate the different offers of pricing and licensing.​"
"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
6%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise55
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise22
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with BMC Helix ITSM?
Although BMC Helix ITSM is a strong enterprise platform, there are areas where it could be improved. One key area is usability and simplification of configuration, especially for new administrators...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix ITSM?
My main use case for BMC Helix ITSM is validating and automating core ITSM workflows, such as incident, change, and service request management. I focus on ensuring that these workflows function cor...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix ITSM?
My thoughts on the pricing and licensing cost of BMC Helix ITSM are that it is flexible.
What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
The only thing that I need from IBM Maximo is more simplicity. The application has been designed in a way that it is serving the enterprises. It needs to be simpler for the SMEs, or for the compani...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
There are different use cases for IBM Maximo that I work with mostly. We use it for complete asset management. Anything that comes into the asset repository, asset management, asset evaluation, any...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
AWS is more recommended for IBM Maximo. You can go into Microsoft as well, but AWS is preferred. IBM also has their own cloud as well.
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy, BMC Helix IT Service Management
Maximo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: April 2026.
892,943 professionals have used our research since 2012.