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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
6.6
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Help Desk Software (8th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (5th)
IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
30
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 5.7%, down 12.0% compared to last year.
IBM Maximo, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), holds 15.4% mindshare, down 27.8% since last year.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
BMC Helix ITSM5.7%
ServiceNow15.9%
JIRA Service Management7.3%
Other71.1%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Maximo15.4%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management8.5%
IFS Cloud Platform7.0%
Other69.1%
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.
Tajek Lawrence - PeerSpot reviewer
Digital Marketing Manager at UPS
Streamlined asset lifecycle management has reduced downtime and improves data‑driven decisions
IBM Maximo is my daily companion, and the software supports asset management. Using the software, we can monitor and optimize our system's performance and conduct predictive maintenance to prevent sudden downtime. The software is very robust and cost-effective.IBM Maximo is very well suited to asset lifecycle management and system condition monitoring. The product is user-friendly and effective in managing work orders. The software pricing is much more affordable than that of other EAM systems. The best features IBM Maximo offers in my experience include workflow, assets tracking, and integration with other apps. The software is very effective in trend analysis and downtime tracking and is well-suited for preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance. Additionally, it has ease of use and seamless integration with other tools such as M-Power, Omino, and IBM Maximo. The reporting feature is excellent, as it allows for order and job card updates. IBM Maximo has positively impacted my organization, as we have noticed significant advantageous changes. The use of the software has significantly improved operational efficiency in our organization by streamlining processes and preventing system failures. IBM Maximo has reduced unplanned downtime by enhancing preventive maintenance. The introduction of this product in our industry enabled data-driven decision making through real-time performance analytics and reporting. We have experienced specific outcomes, with fewer downtime instances of around ten percent. We have also experienced improved operational efficiency in our organization of approximately seventy percent.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of use and integration made it a worthwhile investment, since we did some integrations with other tools making our lives easier."
"It has been instrumental in aligning our service desk with the ITIL fundamentals and continuously improving the operating metrics of that area."
"Provides a clean front-end for our users to log requests and has rich ITSM functionality."
"Customer support is always fantastic and willing to help. No matter what time of day we have a problem."
"BMC offers excellent customer solutions, and they're quick to address bugs or shortcomings in their product."
"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."
"The most valuable features of BMC Helix ITSM are the collaboration, integrated with the help of another solution called Entity. We can do all the integration and receive an automatic ticket with the help of email. We are able to receive SMS alerts to clients and end users. Every step of the ticket is generated and we are able to resolve and close them. It's very helpful to have the ability to inform the user with detailed information."
"It's a very integrated solution."
"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."
"It is configurable, where you can add extra fields to screens and to the database."
"The most valuable features are the ability to create work orders and preventative maintenance."
"The large range of configurability of the product is great, since everyone has a different way of doing things."
"​Maximo is very stable. We really do not have problem with stability.​"
"We are very thankful to have IBM integrated with our own Legacy cloud-based system"
"Its capabilities let us organize our work."
 

Cons

"Compared to ServiceNow, BMC Remedy is somewhat "closed." I can go to the ServiceNow website and learn everything there is to know about the product, and training is available. That really wasn't available with BMC Remedy."
"It can have more features for hardware discovery and hardware information. The integration with IQ operations management should be streamlined. ITSM and ITOM should be more integrated, and there should be better integration from Helix Discovery to Helix CMDB. There were some issues regarding this integration, and they were difficult to resolve in big environments. We have a lot of devices and users to manage. Therefore, the integration should be better."
"The interface isn't that great."
"We have experienced outages, because some other customers did something on the same cluster that we share."
"There are some limitations or restrictions to using BMC Helix. For example, when we do some reporting, the reporting interface should be more user-friendly from my point of view."
"From time to time, we had issues with stability, but I think that is our fault due to extra processes that we implemented to fit our business needs."
"Encountered issues with scalability and stability."
"The documentation could improve in BMC Helix ITSM."
"The interface is not very easy or user-friendly and is in need of improvement."
"​Maximo is a big system, so the initial setup is complex."
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is easy and one is difficult, I rate the setup process a two since it is very complicated."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"The solution is not stable. We can have one day when it is stable and another day it is not. Sometimes it crashes or becomes very slow, and there are times we are not even able to download all the databases. Without the database, we cannot work on that application. These are the small glitches, and stability issues we are facing."
"The standard reports that shipped with the package need to be enriched with more advanced reports, especially for the Inventory Management sections."
"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."
"Vendor management needs enhancement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Please always get the latest quote from a BMC partner or from BMC. Check for the latest offerings."
"It's a yearly subscription but there are a couple of customers who go for the monthly subscription."
"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."
"The cost is relatively high, especially for the BMC Controller application. However, the expense is justified by the standard and reliable features it offers. This product's reputation in the market is strong, providing assurance in terms of data and other considerations."
"There are licenses to use this solution."
"BMC Helix ITSM is a very cost-effective solution."
"I am not sure the exact price we pay for the solution but I know it is in the high seven-figure amount annually."
"BMC is a little bit cheaper than ServiceNow, but BMC doesn't have the same capabilities in its entry-level product at the moment. The basic version does not have the DWP features that most of our customers are requesting."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"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."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"​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.​"
"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."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise54
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix ITSM?
If we consider major players like Ford or BMW, their core focus is manufacturing products like cars. To ensure smooth operations, any arising issues, be it security concerns or issues within depart...
What needs improvement with BMC Helix ITSM?
Currently, we are not utilizing the AI functionality in BMC Helix ITSM as we are still in the roadmap and development phase at this point in time. There isn't anything that I would suggest for impr...
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix ITSM?
We use BMC Helix ITSM for the complete end-to-end ITSM suite, mainly for ticketing and service management. BMC Helix ITSM supports our IT service management processes primarily for all incident, pr...
What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo can be improved by providing developers with more documentation. I think IBM lacks a lot of documentation and hopefully the community who uses IBM Maximo can help if other developers hav...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
My main use case for IBM Maximo is as a technical consultant, so I help companies to use IBM Maximo. A quick, specific example of how I've helped a company use IBM Maximo is that it is quite generi...
What advice do you have for others considering IBM Maximo?
IBM Maximo in their last version includes mobility functionalities which can use the offline mode for technicians that do not have internet connection, and that is really helpful for them. Addition...
 

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: January 2026.
882,410 professionals have used our research since 2012.