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BMC Helix ITSM vs ServiceNow vs SymphonyAI IT Service Management 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

As of April 2026, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC Helix ITSM is 5.7%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow is 15.8%, down from 24.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SymphonyAI IT Service Management is 1.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow15.8%
BMC Helix ITSM5.7%
SymphonyAI IT Service Management1.7%
Other76.8%
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.
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 I've seen a very nicely built interface with ServiceNow, and I've also seen the ugliest version that feels outdated.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.
AS
Senior Practitioner at a outsourcing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Comprehensive IT service processes have been supported but customization and support need improvement
All ITSM functionalities of SymphonyAI IT Service Management, including incident, problem, change, service request, and their out-of-the-box functionalities, are pretty good. SymphonyAI IT Service Management does not have too many integrations and does not have too many out-of-the-box integrations compared to other peers in the market. I think that is the only place where they lack. However, they did have a functionality where we could build our own integration, so we were using that. If they had any out-of-the-box capabilities for some of the common infrastructure tools, that would have been easier for us. The out-of-the-box functionalities were good, including AI. However, the moment we had to customize options, that becomes very difficult with SymphonyAI IT Service Management. As long as we were using out-of-the-box, it worked great.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"So far this is the best tool that I have used."
"BMC offers excellent customer solutions, and they're quick to address bugs or shortcomings in their product."
"Resolution time has decreased significantly since implementing the self-service portal."
"The most valuable features of BMC Helix ITSM are its customization ability and the addition of new features. As a built-in Suite, it covers all that is needed in the IT guidelines, which is good. Each customer has their own needs, and the customization the solution provides is beneficial."
"Having the solution on the cloud brings increased scalability."
"The solution has good capabilities for analytics."
"Since 8.1 is compatible with the ADDM discovery tool, we automated discovery and mapping of assets (CIs) and their relationships migration to the CMDB."
"The standards and the framework that it follows are most valuable; it has an ITIL and out-of-the-box framework."
"I prefer ServiceNow to the competition because of its ease of use, installation and configuration."
"I would recommend it and I love this tool."
"ServiceNow is a very good tool."
"Flexibility is the most valuable feature of ServiceNow, that is, being able to modify it to do what we need it to do."
"It acts as a one-stop shop for customers to be able to go in and create instant problem tickets if the incident is severity one or two."
"Simplicity of Change Manager."
"Usability, application customizations and ease of building your own product within the tool was a very positive edge for ServiceNow to be leaps and bounds beyond the market tools."
"The solution helps us to collaborate and it's great that it is knowledge-based."
"The product has the best features for ITSM."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's chat box feature has reduced our service discount, and because it's intelligent, the responses that go out to the users have improved, and the resolutions are much faster."
"All ITSM functionalities of SymphonyAI IT Service Management, including incident, problem, change, service request, and their out-of-the-box functionalities, are pretty good."
"It was easy to access and fast. Our experience using it solely as a ticketing tool. We used fetch reports from the tool, particularly with regard to SLA tracking for our partners."
"The most valuable feature is remote access. People are working from home, and we can take remote access through it."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's chat box feature has reduced our service discount, and because it's intelligent, the responses that go out to the users have improved, and the resolutions are much faster."
"It is a good tool to use."
 

Cons

"One of the issues with the solution is the requirement to provide a lot of information in order to log a request."
"It needs a more organic workflow, so every field you create is labeled throughout the stack. BMC has a few products that they try to bundle together. Generally, that solution works. BMC should take a step back and think about the overall solution—not only ITSM but also CTI Integration along with chat. They have all that, but it's not an end-to-end holistic solution with the added reporting analytics."
"Its performance can be improved. Sometimes, there is a performance issue, and it is a little slow and difficult on the usage side. It would be beneficial for us if there is a lighter version of this solution. There is also a limitation on the number of columns and memory for extracting a report, and this functionality can be improved. We would like to have better integration and UI in this solution. The user interface should be easy to navigate. Its integration with other tools, such as SharePoint or Jira, can also be improved, which would be beneficial for us. In terms of new features, there should also be a mobile version. The desktop version is available, but the mobile version is not available, which is one of the challenges that our team has. For users who work on Remedy and who raise the ticket, it would also be very beneficial to have some chatbot features."
"BMC needs to keep improving their support. It is still far from what it was back in the days of Remedy."
"Whenever you start exploring some new product features, you run into defects. It has been like this for the last six years."
"Needs less infrastructure requirements."
"Customer Service could use some improvement – while they are technically very good, some of the agents have poorer communication skills than others."
"The biggest issue for our customers is the back office for the specializations through the second and third lines of support."
"I think the biggest thing that I've seen is when we've moved to the knowledge-based version three, which happened relatively recently, there were a lot of new improvements that came with that, but there were a lot of things that actually seemed like a little bit of a step back."
"A new user does need training or time to learn the solution before jumping in. It was very hard in the beginning to understand everything."
"This solution needs to be improved for global use. Currently, it's very oriented to the processes and needs of the US customer base, like their compliance solution or GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance), and not so much for customers from other parts of the world. Some users may like the things that ServiceNow is improving, but those are very oriented to users based in the United States and Europe."
"I'm not sure if they have the software-as-a-catalogue yet, as far as bringing in the software titles with all of the rules of engagement for the software licensing."
"Where it could be improved is Discovery. This may sound odd since I just praised the value of ServiceNow Discovery, but improvements to its automatic detection, the breadth of devices, and the depth of devices covered, as well as keeping up with new technologies, are all essential."
"The Software Asset Management feature can be improved. We would like to see more features for the Software Asset Management functionality."
"Currently, we are finding it a bit difficult to monitor the subscriptions that are being used. The reporting feature related to this can be improved."
"The capital expenditure neeed to get the tool up and running is extensive."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's project management and operational management features could be improved."
"Integration was a major limitation with SummitAI."
"I would like them to add software inventory in the next release. We don't have that right now."
"I would like them to add software inventory in the next release. We don't have that right now."
"Technical support takes too long for any issues to get resolved, and that created a lot of frustration."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's project management and operational management features could be improved."
"There could be flexibility in terms of customization."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It is costly, but it is well worth it."
"There are licenses to use this solution."
"BMC Helix ITSM is a very cost-effective solution."
"The price of BMC Helix ITSM is expensive."
"I am not sure the exact price we pay for the solution but I know it is in the high seven-figure amount annually."
"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."
"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."
"It has a higher cost compared to local/regional solutions."
"There is an annual subscription to use this solution."
"Initially, the licensing model ServiceNow came up with was very good. But now, from a licensing perspective, they are changing their model day by day. It is becoming a bit expensive for customers."
"Getting the solution up and running is expensive."
"The CapEx version is great."
"The cost is quite high."
"The setup cost is high compared to others, especially when the scope is not fixed."
"In Tunisia, the companies find the licensing costs to be expensive."
"SummitAI IT Management Suite's pricing is a bit expensive."
"The product's cost is average."
"We have a regular license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
9%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
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 Business55
Midsize Enterprise35
Large Enterprise169
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise4
 

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...
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.
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

Remedy ITSM, Remedy, Helix Remedy, BMC Helix IT Service Management
No data available
Summus IT Management Suite
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Brookfield, HealthSouth Corporation, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Mercator, SAP, Stanford University
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    
Magma, Toyota, Evidera, Netik, KPMG, Innodata, ABB, DAIKIN, Toshiba, Emerson, Dell, Pansonic, DBS, PWC, EY, Hexaware Technologies, Deloitte, NEC, Birla Soft, Panasonic, Harman, SBI, Kotak Life Insurance, SREI, Marico, Perfetti, Manipal Hospitals, Maruti Suzuki, Royal Enfield, Toyota, CEAT, ABB, L&T, VIP, Knight Frank, Adithya Birla
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Atlassian, ManageEngine and others in IT Service Management (ITSM). Updated: March 2026.
885,728 professionals have used our research since 2012.