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BMC Helix ITSM vs IBM Maximo vs ServiceNow 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC Helix ITSM5.7%
ServiceNow15.8%
JIRA Service Management7.3%
Other71.2%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Maximo15.2%
Oracle Enterprise Asset Management8.5%
IFS Cloud Platform7.3%
Other69.0%
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow15.8%
JIRA Service Management7.3%
BMC Helix ITSM5.7%
Other71.2%
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

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.
MT
Manager of Security Engineering & Architecture at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Seamless data integration and advanced automation improve service delivery efficiency
I think that nothing needs to be improved with the product; you just need the user to commit and spend appropriate time to overcome that learning curve. Once that is done, the product itself is pretty wonderful. I've seen a very nicely built interface with ServiceNow, and I've also seen the ugliest version that feels outdated. ServiceNow does allow that team to exist. They should modernize their fonts and their layout, the UI friendliness. They did introduce AI, chatbots, and AI on the back end, so that's wonderful and extremely useful if you train it. If you don't train it, it's pretty useless. Assessing the impact of ServiceNow's automation on service delivery times is complicated. The engineers who operate on ServiceNow find it isn't straightforward because the data set is accessible by everybody. The problem is that understanding how to manage that data set requires an enormous amount of engineering skill set to run the product. I would not hand the key to the customer; I would highly recommend that ServiceNow take control of that. Instead of offering support for the software, they should offer administrative support for the software. They should provide professional service or some kind of support system that allows us to use their product at a faster pace. I'm sure they offer something, but it's often outrageously expensive, or they rely on another company to resell their product and offer professional service. 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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Considering the cost of both solutions, Helix provides the best value for the money."
"Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal."
"It has been instrumental in aligning our service desk with the ITIL fundamentals and continuously improving the operating metrics of that area."
"Compared with other solutions in the market, for example, Manage Engine, which has technical limitations, BMC is robust."
"It has the power to automatize several different tasks in the ITSM world."
"MyIT is simple to use and its mobility is a big plus for our on the go users."
"Automatic orchestration is the most valuable. The feature for designating some cases or incidents to the right PM for resolution, first call resolution, and change management are also important. The self-service feature and knowledge base resolutions are helping the customers in resolving issues rather than opening tickets."
"The ease of use and integration made it a worthwhile investment, since we did some integrations with other tools making our lives easier."
"They have a real strength of tracking the asset itself along with the condition of the asset, the maintenance of the asset and who has access to the asset, etc."
"The incident management feature is good because it allows you to keep track of and classify issues."
"Its capabilities let us organize our work."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"For some clients we have up to 89% downtime reduction of equipment that generates over 1.2 million euro growth in revenue because we don't spend that much money on downtime and repair costs."
"When it comes to their reporting and analytics capabilities, I find them to be superb."
"We have fully used Maximo for maintenance and inventory and purchasing management to manage cement factory operations and maintenance for more than 11 years."
"Simplicity of Change Manager."
"If you're looking for a flexible tool that's going to grow with you, that's going to expand your flexibility, or expand your team, or expand how you do things and streamline things, I would do it."
"HR Case Management and Customer Service Management are two of the key areas which clients are using."
"I would recommend this solution because I make good use of it."
"I would rate ServiceNow nine out of ten."
"Compared to other ITSM platforms, ServiceNow is by far the most agile, robust, and scalable platform."
"The most valuable feature is that this is a Cloud solution."
"The main features of ServiceNow that I use are incident approval management and the ability to link all the information we receive from the finance bureau service."
 

Cons

"It takes a long-time to plan and deploy the on-premise solution."
"The interface isn't that great."
"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."
"Functionality-wise, it falls short of our expectations."
"The product's customization capabilities, price, and technical support are areas of concern where improvements are needed."
"The initial setup of BMC Helix ITSM is complex because it has different integrations with other tools. Additionally, it needs to be integrated with the active directory and have different databases. The environment will dictate how difficult the process is."
"Some parts of the solutions are using the old interface."
"BMC Helix ITSM is difficult for us to customize, and most customizations require vendor support, which leads to extra costs."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
"It was very slow due to the lagging issues. So that was kind of frustrating, considering how slow it was while functioning."
"From that perspective, the UI is quite old-fashioned, and that would be one of my main concerns."
"The solution is expensive and is quite difficult within this space."
"IBM Maximo is similar to an ARP. Because it's so massive, you can easily get lost using the application."
"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."
"IBM Maximo is expensive, and it is not a very well-known product in India."
"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.​"
"Before implementing this solution, you should have the ITSM model in place for chain management requests. That is a prerequisite because you cannot perform tasks without it."
"We find it good in general. Obviously, there are areas of improvement for every capability. As they evolve more, if they keep on adding more intelligence into the capabilities, it will improve. The improvement areas are more integration across the landscape and more intelligence for the overall capability of the solution."
"I'd like to see improvement in their mobile space just because that's certainly my priority."
"With scalability, we have grown quite significantly in the last two years and the performance of our instance has really taken a hit."
"Right now I'm working on finding out how duplicate usernames are being created in our ServiceNow instance and that causes problems because we need to assign a ticket to somebody and then it shows two names but they don't know which one to choose so they choose the one that's not active."
"The solution could improve by making the CMDB integrate with a CI better to allow it to be seen across multiple platforms."
"Sometimes it could be better and faster."
"I find the way you need to attach things like screenshots and stuff is a bit gimmicky."
 

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."
"If you are looking for some kind of professional services form the OEM then you would have to purchase that."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"I am not sure the exact price we pay for the solution but I know it is in the high seven-figure amount annually."
"The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive."
"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."
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
"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."
"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."
"The price of IBM Maximo could reduce, it is expensive."
"The platform offers a free trial, by providing a free developer instance once you sign up."
"The price of this solution is expensive."
"While the option exists to pay for a monthly license, we are dealing with large enterprises and these typically involve multi-year licenses of ten or five years, at a minimum."
"It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."
"The pricing is reasonable and affordable, making it suitable for businesses ranging from small to large scale."
"There are licensing fees."
"The price is okay for us. It's reasonable."
"The setup cost is high compared to others, especially when the scope is not fixed."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
 

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
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business55
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise168
 

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...
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 ...
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 s...
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 ...
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. Anythi...
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 o...
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 do you like most about ServiceNow?
The solution has a user-friendly interface.
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy, BMC Helix IT Service Management
Maximo
No data available
 

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
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 ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: March 2026.
885,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.