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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

"Reports have helped us to improve our IT processes, and the main benefit is providing the right information to our decision-makers."
"ARS really shines when its workflow directly supports critical business processes."
"Provides a clean front-end for our users to log requests and has rich ITSM functionality."
"I would recommend this solution because it includes all the best practices of ITIL and ITSM used across the industry."
"Helix is stable."
"BMC products have been built over the years to make them highly stable and scalable, inline with the ITIL best practice."
"It's one of the top solutions on the market for ITSM capabilities."
"It's easy to customize and provides a range of features you can customize with practically no exceptions unlike its competing products like ServiceNow, etc. which have many limitations."
"IBM Maximo is the best tool for the asset management solution."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"IBM Maximo has positively impacted my organization, as we have noticed significant advantageous changes."
"For what it represents and what it gives you, it is a very powerful tool."
"We were able to scale perfectly.​"
"When it comes to their reporting and analytics capabilities, I find them to be superb."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to correct maintenance."
"IBM Maximo has positively impacted our organization by decreasing inventory costs and optimizing engineers' work time."
 

Cons

"The reports need improvement, it is not a good functioning tool."
"The documentation could improve in BMC Helix ITSM."
"Upgrading to a new ARS version in a complex environment remains a challenge."
"The biggest issue for our customers is the back office for the specializations through the second and third lines of support."
"The interface is one major complaint about this product."
"BMC Helix ITSM is difficult for us to customize, and most customizations require vendor support, which leads to extra costs."
"Helix needs to enhance some of its functionality with the latest technology. For example, Helix could improve its chatbot automation to automate more use cases."
"Needs less infrastructure requirements."
"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."
"The standard reports that shipped with the package need to be enriched with more advanced reports, especially for the Inventory Management sections."
"It's not user-friendly. It could use shortcuts for frequently requested services."
"IBM Maximo can improve the financial support and financial application, to make it more similar to an ERP as opposed to an EAM. Overall they can improve the financial processes."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"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."
"It's quite reliable, but new versions often are not too stable. They bring in enhancements but they break other stuff."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"It is not very expensive and not very cheap. It is somewhere in-between. Some of the features are more expensive. There are also additional costs. If you want to use most of the features, you need to pay more."
"If you are looking for some kind of professional services form the OEM then you would have to purchase that."
"Please always get the latest quote from a BMC partner or from BMC. Check for the latest offerings."
"If Customer and IT agents are happy, that is one of the greatest ROI. However, one of the major factors is Leadership, because at the end they have to justify the cost."
"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."
"The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive."
"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."
"$USD700 per agent user."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"​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.​"
"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."
"Where available, concurrent licenses can be more cost efficient and provide more flexibility."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
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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.
892,776 professionals have used our research since 2012.