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BMC Helix Platform vs IFS Cloud Platform 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 Platform
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
23rd
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IFS Cloud Platform
Ranking in IT Service Management (ITSM)
10th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
CRM (20th), Customer Experience Management (8th), Field Service Management (1st), Help Desk Software (12th), ERP (12th), Activity Based Costing Software (6th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (2nd), Local Government CRM (8th), IT Asset Management (10th), License Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the IT Service Management (ITSM) category, the mindshare of BMC Helix Platform is 0.4%. The mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 1.6%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
IT Service Management (ITSM)
 

Featured Reviews

MohammedOmer - PeerSpot reviewer
Complies with industry standards but needs easier setup and better navigation
It depends on the tier level - for the front-end users, BMC Helix Platform is easy with minimal training required. For mid-tier and back-end, training is required as the product is vast and has many different capabilities that need to be learned to extend those capabilities into other platforms. The licensing should be simplified. The functionality of the product is divided into many versions, and offerings are not bundled. We have to obtain different modules, and that complexity can be standardized. The website doesn't have much information about offerings until you engage with them. More information should be clearly mentioned on their website and product sites regarding licensing. Product features and capabilities shown in their marketing materials are limited. Their PDFs focus heavily on TrueSight but don't emphasize outcomes and real offerings of features for ITSM or line of business service requests. They can provide template-based solutions for departments as functionality remains similar throughout different business verticals. Out-of-the-box offerings for service requests and catalogs for HR and admin departments could help expedite implementation and gain more momentum and trust from the market.
Brendan Fisher - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, customizable, and modern
IFS is a very large and complex software, and implementation of IFS can be challenging and may lead to a difficult lengthy project. It can take between 12 and 24 months in some cases to deploy. I have found that not all clients are fully aware of how big the task is that they're undertaking when they make a decision to move to software like this. Companies need to be more aware of the complexity of an ERP implementation project and while I fully recommend moving to IFS, it is not easy and does require business change when adopting an ERP solution. New features are a difficult ask - I work across multiple industries and everyone would probably choose a different feature. Maybe BIM in Construction or Customs link-ups for importers/exporters.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The BMC Helix Platform is perfect."
"The most valuable features of BMC Helix Platform for service delivery include Helix GPT, which uses AI and GPT within the enterprise service management space."
"BMC Helix Platform helps in digital transformation and internal workflows and processes being adopted from different departments in line of businesses."
"Some of the strengths are Enterprise Management Solutions and the series of Management solutions which is number one in Gartner's report and has been for the last five years."
"One of our favorite features is the "Info-Zone", which provides operational intelligence in flight and in context to guide both business users and support teams to productivity."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users."
"A high level of ERP can be handled in IFS."
"IFS has been completely rebuilt, modernized, and cloud-based so we don't need bulky software installations."
"Individual user profiles that can be configured as templates to minimize data entry."
"There are fewer fields on the user screen compared to other products."
"The most valuable features of IFS Applications in the latest version are the new user Arena interface. It's from Apps 9, but it brings more flexibility in usage, especially around different devices, such as mobile usage, which doesn't restrict you from using a computer. We are it for the HR side, and it's proving quite good. It has a new modern feel to it similar to a standard cloud application which enhances the user experience."
 

Cons

"We faced some stability issues with BMC Helix Platform's cloud version. Services and integration to AD weren't working properly at times."
"The cost of BMC Helix is very high, with an estimation of not less than $100,000 making it difficult for us to adopt the platform fully."
"To improve BMC Helix Platform, they could enhance the mobile experience."
"The solution needs to improve its documentation and user-friendliness."
"The next version has already been released, and some of the technical things are a little bit behind the curve in development. This is specifically security, maintenance, security role maintenance, and creation. This is in their new product, called IFS Cloud."
"I'm a business analyst, so I do a lot of customer-facing work. I take calls from businesses I have to troubleshoot. One thing that bugs me is the error messages you get from IFS. If I get an error message, I have to dig to find the cause because, often, the error message doesn't precisely describe the problem. It'll hint about where the problem lies, but you have to work to find the root cause. It doesn't help in my situation. You expect an error message to point to the field or what is causing the issue."
"Technical support could be improved."
"It would be ideal if, in the future, the product could incorporate IoT and blockchain elements. We'd like to explore more of these types of features going forward."
"Documentation-wise, they need more."
"The solution's reporting tools still require improvement."
"The support provided by IFS Applications has room for improvement. I'm based in Poland, and when my company had an issue, finding people from IFS to give my company the support it needed was difficult."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Regarding the cost, it's not expensive for enterprises but can be costly for small to medium-sized businesses. I recommend implementing a pricing model tailored for small to medium businesses to attract a larger customer base. Approximately, the license cost is around sixty dollars per month."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"It is better to buy implementation services from IFS than from partners"
"The pricing of the solution may appear to be expensive for smaller companies with only tens of users; however, for larger and mid-size industrial companies, IFS is able to win deals and the pricing is competitive in the market."
"IFS Applications are competitive in terms of pricing compared to other vendors, such as SAP, Oracle, and Epicor. They are generally cheaper, especially for licensing costs."
"Ask for all-inclusive pricing, as they are pretty flexible if you ask for custom models."
"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."
"There's an additional yearly cost for support."
"IFS Applications is expensive software, but it's on par with SAP and Oracle. It's for large enterprises and government entities and not for small and medium-sized enterprises. They have one licensing model, but if you want to have a module-specific license, they provide component-based licenses. Unlike SAP and Oracle, it doesn't have different levels of licensing. It's one level of licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Platform?
In terms of cost for BMC Helix Platform, it falls in the middle range, rating about six or seven out of ten. It is less expensive compared to ServiceNow, which is very expensive.
What is your primary use case for BMC Helix Platform?
We are migrating to BMC Helix Platform, and we are also using BMC Control-M product, Control-M. We have seen their monitoring platform but haven't decided yet whether to choose Datadog. There is a ...
What advice do you have for others considering BMC Helix Platform?
A rating of five means it is difficult to set up. I recommend evaluating if BMC Helix Platform is really needed because it requires dedicated resources to manage. It is not suitable for non-technic...
What do you like most about IFS Applications?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?
The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive features and minimal need for customization. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
I am not able to recall much about batch. Documentation-wise, they need more. There is not much available online, and the documentation availability is on the lower side compared to other products,...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Helix Platform vs. IFS Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.