The primary use case was basic ITIL/ITSM.
Consultant / Project Manager at a tech consulting company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Full-featured, gave us incident/event management, based on monitors in our environment
Pros and 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."
- "If I'm working with a client who wants to expand and move into other areas - they want to expand their workflow and other parts of the organization, they want to do some work with project management, they want to do some work with HR - I'm not sure that BMC Remedy is doing that. And it's because of their platform. Any software has a lifecycle. To me, BMC is a dated architecture."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It replaced an older system, called ManageNow. It had no major impact on the way we operated. We more or less continued, we had a well-performing organization, so it really didn't change much. Everything we had in ManageNow, we had in BMC Remedy, including basic incident management, event management, based on monitors spread around our environment.
What is most valuable?
It was a full-featured product. Based on my experience where I was responsible for Remedy, and for a later project where I worked on a very sophisticated implementation of BMC Remedy, it is full-featured and could do almost anything that you can think of in the ITIL portfolio.
What needs improvement?
BMC Remedy has more features now than I know about and have used, so it would be presumptuous for me to try to suggest improvements for a future release.
What I do find is that, 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.
However, if I'm working with a client who wants to expand and move into other areas - they want to expand their workflow and other parts of the organization, they want to do some work with project management, they want to do some work with HR - I'm not sure that BMC Remedy is doing that. And it's because of their platform. Any software has a lifecycle. To me, BMC is a dated architecture. I wish them well but I don't see how they're going to keep going, long-term, without a total rewrite and coming out with a new system.
Buyer's Guide
BMC Helix ITSM
November 2024
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814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
Three to five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
BMC Remedy is good. It's solid. I don't remember ever having any stability problems with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I didn't see any limits. I worked with one client who had, to me, what seemed like a lot of servers. They had some 25,000 servers. They had a lot of BMC workflows. They had a lot of users on the system. I never really got a full feel for how many, based on what I was doing, but I saw no scalability issues. ServiceNow and BMC Remedy scale about equally.
How are customer service and support?
There were times when we needed to talk with BMC service support, and we got good response. It was something that we paid for, but we got good response.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The old system was at the end of its lifecycle, it was being phased out. The name of it was ManageNow, and I don't know that it exists anymore. It was very old and BMC Remedy was a step up, in the right direction, to a modern system.
When selecting a vendor it depends on the client. In my case, I was selecting for a client and BMC Remedy was the best available at the time. We did an evaluation of all the vendors, and BMC Remedy was the best. That was eight years ago.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was like any other similar implementation. There are certain things that you have to do, tables that you have to build, configurations that you have to work with. There are a few modifications that you have to make so that it fits into your environment. We tried to stay as close as we could to the out-of-the-box solution. So it was fairly straightforward.
There are portions of BMC Remedy that are proprietary. One of those was attachments. If I attached an image, if I attached a project plan, if I attached a screen print, getting those out was very difficult when we moved servers to ServiceNow. So if you're not planning on moving, it's not an issue. It's when you move it the issue.
What other advice do I have?
ServiceNow is expanding. If I were just choosing an ITSM system right now, it would be hard to choose, if you ignored the underlying platform. BMC Remedy is very old. It has a very old infrastructure. So if I ignored that, and the "openness" issue, it would be very hard to choose between BMC and Service Now.
I would rate at nine out of 10. It did what we wanted it to do. We had some issues, but we caused those issues by the way we implemented it. I found that BMC training and BMC availability for learning how the system worked and for answering questions - if it wasn't in their manual, it was very difficult to get that information. You had to pay, it wasn't open. It was a "closed" environment. If it had been much more open, so I could get into understanding everything, that would have been better.
In terms of advice, if you're working for a large company on an ITSM solution, where you're talking about incidents, problems, change, knowledge, there are three, maybe four vendors. I would say look at those very hard, learn what you can, and make the best decision for your organization. It's a limited market.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Information Systems Computer System Controller at a insurance company with 11-50 employees
The solution has helped track processes and provide support
Pros and Cons
- "The valuable feature for me is that it's a tool that allows me to track processes right from the initial user request."
- "Working with numerous processes can be complex, and the processes are not always transparent in the solution."
What is our primary use case?
The solution supports our supporting processes. My responsibilities include reporting on the services we offer to end-users, primarily through channels like email. I focus on coordinating arrangements for the services we provide.
What is most valuable?
The valuable feature for me is that it's a tool that allows me to track processes right from the initial user request. It helps in updating the solution throughout the workflow. I use it to gather information about the people involved, track time, and more.
What needs improvement?
Working with numerous processes can be complex, and the processes are not always transparent in the solution. At times, users may not be aware of the meaning behind various processes when receiving certain information. The most frequently requested change for the solution is integrating the latest technology to facilitate interactive resolution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for the past 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. I have several servers working together in a cluster.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We haven't needed customer support extensively. However, we did encounter some delays, waiting for several hours to receive a satisfactory answer. Fortunately, there have been no issues with the technical components.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have worked with SentinelOne and ServiceNow.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is best-suited for medium-sized companies. I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
BMC Helix ITSM
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about BMC Helix ITSM. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Consultant at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Helpful linking of parent and child tickets, and automatically calculates SLA
Pros and Cons
- "This product has helped us to maintain our OLAs (Organisation level Agreements) and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) by tracking incidents, requests, problem records, and change requests, all in the form of tickets."
- "To raise any ticket, there are too many fields to be filled and it makes generating tickets very time-consuming."
What is our primary use case?
This tool is used for ticketing purposes, to track down daily issues and requests as part of business requirements.
It includes ITIL practices such as incident management, problem management, change management, asset management, and configuration management. We are able to link tickets to one another.
It is used to create, modify, update, and resolve tickets. Parent/child tickets are possible to create. It can also create problem tickets and change requests. It will easily calculate SLAs and can create and customize reports as per user requirement.
How has it helped my organization?
This product has helped us to maintain our OLAs (Organisation level Agreements) and SLAs (Service Level Agreements) by tracking incidents, requests, problem records, and change requests, all in the form of tickets.
We can easily check the progress of these tickets and follow up with the respective teams.
It provides us the facility to maintain a KEDB (Knowledge database), which is indeed very beneficial for day to day activities.
It can easily add notes to every ticket with the status update.
For us, this tool is essential for ticketing purposes.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the linking of parent and child tickets. When there are major issues, through the help desk, multiple tickets are raised for the same issue. This allows us to segregate it by parent or child tickets and link the child tickets to the parent.
It's easy to calculate the SLA as it provides the timing as to when the ticket was raised, and the clock automatically stops when the ticket is on pending status. Thus, at the time of resolution, it provides the SLA, whether the ticket met the SLA or not.
What needs improvement?
To raise any ticket, there are too many fields to be filled and it makes generating tickets very time-consuming. Some fields should take data automatically; for example, ticket routing to the teams after entering the team's respective CI (Configuration Item). This will save time and creating tickets would be faster.
The GUI looks a bit complex and can be much better.
When generating reports, there are limited options to customize as per user requirement. It is in need of better customization so that these requirements can be satisfied.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using BMC Helix ITSM for six years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
BMC ITSM Remedy Administrator / Developer / Architect with 1,001-5,000 employees
Using Service Request Management creates a Change Request and then sends, via a web service, a request to start a job on VMware to automatically create a server.
What is most valuable?
- CMDB is very useful and it is used to manage client and non-client CI
- Freedom to use your ow way to integrate other systems with BMC Remedy
- Not too difficult to customize workflows
How has it helped my organization?
Using Service Request Management creates a Change Request and then sends, via a web service, a request to start a job on VMware to automatically create a server. When the job is finished and server is created it send back the name of the server back to remedy and automatically creates the CI in CMDB and create relationships. In this way we created an automatically way of requesting a server.
What needs improvement?
In 8.1.02 the Atrium core in the Midtier should be improved. It is using flex technology which is not so reliable. I think in v9 it was changed the technology.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this product for almost eight years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
There were no major issues with the deployment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There have been no major issues with the stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There have been no issues with the scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
The first level is not so skilled . If you manage to go to second level they are good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
There was no previous solution in place.
How was the initial setup?
It was a complex one, because our company was bought by another one and both companies had different versions of remedy installed which needed to be unified. The complexity was from the level of customizations each instance of Remedy needed.
What about the implementation team?
We did it via a vendor. It would be good to create a knowledge in hour which knowledge should be transferred from the vendor side.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not involved in this area.
What other advice do I have?
The BMC Remedy products are reliable and cover all the ITIL processes. An advice would be to try to keep as low as possible the level of customizations.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Jeevan ChaukarPrincipal Consultant at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
Hi there,
Yes, 9.X version has removed the Flex UI which proved troublesome from various perspectives as far as I know.
I partially agree with your comments about first and second level support people. It depends to whom you get routed to - varies a lot from agent to agent.
First level support is not necessarily technically weak but their mandate unfortunately seems to be to obtain a bit more time by asking variety of logs and once shared, then identify some more gaps in logs or config files and again ask for more logs or to reproduce cases etc.
Once this initial stage is crossed then only the next level of experts will look at you. This isn't such a desirable thing.
Basically, BMC has a separate relatively much more responsive and higher quality support service which is called as PREMIER SUPPORT. So ideally they would want any large customer to take such service and immediate response is key feature of that. In Normal service, you are just one among several customers in a queue while Premier is like dedicated priority service just for you. So normal support can never be as responsive as that - otherwise there can be no point in Premier!
Having said that, I would also like to say that support given by BMC is still far more responsive than many top tier software vendors in my experience!
Service Assurance Manager at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees
Stable and scalable, but is difficult to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is already aligned with the framework, so it is easy for us to proceed with any ISO 27K certification."
- "There are plugins to the solution that have come onto the market, so the solution should also be updated in terms of administration to increase efficiency."
What is our primary use case?
We use BMC Helix ITSM as a managed ticketing solution for the telecom industry.
What is most valuable?
The solution is already aligned with the framework, so it is easy for us to proceed with any ISO 27K certification. We should take a certification in terms of Service Assurance and Service Framework.
What needs improvement?
There are plugins to the solution that have come onto the market, so the solution should also be updated in terms of administration to increase efficiency. That is why we have come up with other products that have a similar use case. BMC needs to come up with a plug-and-play system that requires a minimal partition, it would be highly beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I give the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I give the scalability an eight out of ten.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not simple. We require a skilled administrator to complete the deployment. Depending on the customer's requirements the solution can be deployed on-premises or cloud.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a seven out of ten.
The differences between BMC Helix and other ITSM solutions depend on the use case, process alignment, and organizational requirements. We have realigned the entire product to suit telecom operations, so it depends on the organization's strategy regarding ticketing solutions.
I recommend the solution to others.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lead, Tools implementation & Project Management at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Simple to use with a nice user interface, but it needs a richer text editor
Pros and Cons
- "It provides a good user experience."
- "There is a text editor that we use to enter our incident description or service request description, and it should be richer in terms of features."
What is our primary use case?
This is an IT Service Management tool for incident management.
I use this product as an end-user and not an administrator. This is not a product that I use extensively. We primarily use it for incident tracking and service request tracking.
What is most valuable?
The interface is nice and it's simple to use.
It provides a good user experience.
What needs improvement?
Functionality-wise, it falls short of our expectations. This could be the way we have it deployed. Perhaps, the functionalities have not been enabled 100% in our organization. There could be some additional features that our enterprise is not aware of, yet is available.
There is a text editor that we use to enter our incident description or service request description, and it should be richer in terms of features. For example, it would be helpful if we had more formatting options.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have not faced too many issues with stability. It's fairly okay.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is used enterprise-wide, with between 600 and 800 users.
How are customer service and support?
Our administration teams are the ones that have contact with technical support. As such, I have not had any experience with them.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to using BMC Helix, we used CA Service Desk.
I prefer using BMC.
What about the implementation team?
We used a system integrator for the deployment.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at Will Consulting
Digital workplace is good; log in process is unnecessarily complicated
Pros and Cons
- "The digital workplace is appealing."
- "Log in process is unnecessarily complicated."
What is our primary use case?
I'm a service management specialist and I'm in partnership with BMC.
What is most valuable?
I like the digital workplace, it's an appealing feature for me.
What needs improvement?
One of the issues with the solution is the requirement to provide a lot of information in order to log a request. I'm not talking about end users, technicians or engineers need to provide too much information to initiate a work order or an incident. It doesn't flow; access should require minimal effort. They should consider using ITIL principles and not just IT.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup required an engineer for configuration, to load data on the system. The datasheet form isn't user friendly, a client wouldn't be able to fill it in, a tech savvy person is required.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I like the tools BMC offers but it's very expensive. The pricing model needs to be revisited.
What other advice do I have?
BMC is definitely not for small businesses, especially those in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. It's difficult to get small businesses onto BMC because of the cost. For functionality, I would give this solution an eight out of 10 but I have a serious problem with the pricing and that brings my rating down to a six.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Software Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The versatility and customizability of the product is what I like most
Pros and Cons
- "The way you can customize this product to adapt to the process the customer is already using is what sets this apart from other ITSM products out there. This helps customers to adapt to the tool pretty quickly."
- "The versatility and customizability of the product is what I like most."
- "The interface is one major complaint about this product."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
I have implemented and worked on this product at many customer sites. The way you can customize this product to adapt to the process the customer is already using is what sets this apart from other ITSM products out there. This helps customers to adapt to the tool pretty quickly.
What is most valuable?
The versatility and customizability of the product is what I like most. It provides a strong customization platform in the AR System.
What needs improvement?
The interface is one major complaint about this product. With the recent introduction of Digital Workplace and SmartIT products. I think BMC is finally going in the right direction on that front.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: November 2024
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I agree with majority of your comments. However, you should know that ultimately Service Now has started doing few things the way BMC used to do and vice versa :-) E.g. Service Now training and certification process was relatively simple and affordable initially (which was contrasting with BMC that was far more expensive). But now Service Now started making training mandatory and certification policies are now such that you have to frequently keep certifying as an admin or developer on newer versions - which is a bit of pain and also much more expensive for an individual where organization may not be sponsoring the bill!
Other thing was - BMC Remedy was always very flexible about allowing customization for ON-PREMISE variant while it was quite restrictive about customization (and continues so as per my understanding) in R-O-D (cloud variant). Service Now was relatively flexible and still continues to be more flexible about customization in Cloud variant - but now I am hearing from some experienced people that Service Now has started getting more restrictive gradually. Larger enterprises that have varied processes requiring more customization may face issues due to these restrictions or may end up spending more than anticipated money and time.
Personally I have not gone into that aspect of service now but the sources are reliable - just to be clear. But anyone deciding between these leading solutions, should consider this aspect as well.