BMC Helix ITSM Reviews

BMC products have been built over the years to make them highly stable and scalable, inline with the ITIL best practice.

The best part about these products is that it can be easily twisted and tweaked without compromising any of the underlining fundamental components, adding immense value to customers, vendors and partners.

BMC Software provides ETL tools that support seamless integration and data load activities, reducing the timelines to deliver.

ETL tools have helped automating the foundation data, CI and SLM data load process significantly reducing daily manual task.

SRM helped fast track On-boarding of Employees and fulfilment of user request.
BMC Remedy on-demand framework is highly scalable to support on boarding of more than 400 Customers at a time.

BMC Remedy applications like IM, PM, CM, AM are extremely robust and are fundamental to provide support for IT infrastructure.

Did come across few hiccups around some product documentation not available or not very useful or not enough support available or may be a utility not working as desired, however, these were not show stoppers and we managed to work our way around these. I will recommend good fall back in terms of very well documented products and utilities, and strong technical support.

At times, some consoles, forms are loaded with too much information and for the user it can get confusing, suggest take "Less is more" approach and make them intuitive and easy to use.

I have been implementing, customizing and integrating BMC products for the past 10 years.

Deployment issues have been encountered like compatibility issues of ITSM and SLM. Similarly issues of installing Analytics with BO on Red hat Linux platform.

BMC products are quite stable.

BMC products are quite scalable.

Customer service and technical support is exceptionally good in some cases and will certainly need improvements in some areas of concern. For ex. When we were trying to resolve issues regarding installation of BO on Red Hat, support from third party Vendor was very poor, and Customer was really concerned about the progress of installation.

None other than BMC remedy.

Initial setup is quite straightforward. You follow all the steps recommended and voila, you system is ready for use.

We had an in-house team for implementation.

For any project to be successful, everything should be meticulously planned and executed. Communication and collaboration with all the stakeholders is essential. Requirements and scope should be well defined and documented. Solution design should be optimal. One needs a great team with appropriate skill set for implementation. Check points should be well defined and system should be thoroughly tested before handing it over to the Customer. Post deployment support and documentation are important for smooth transition.

The trouble ticket history is valuable if the technician details the resolution of the problem noted.

It tracks all trouble tickets and provides a ticket history. Problems can be researched and solutions applied based on past tickets. It lets the organization know how well the Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 folks are doing.

Making it easier to use is very important, and the searching of tickets should be an easy procedure instead of being complex.

I've been using it for three years.

Some settings in the browser had to be adjusted for daily operations.

None that I am aware of.

Most responses are via email support, but the system is quite complex.

They're good.

No, this is the solution the government went with, but after taking a look at BMC Remedy and performing a cost analysis, I did not suggest buying this product. However, powers above me wanted Remedy so it was purchased.

It was complex to setup.

A vendor team setup the initial configuration, and an SME was available for configuration issues. A day's training class, just on how to use it, was provided.

I would estimate that it is quite low, or running at a loss.

I provided my report three years ago, but my suggestion was not taken.

This is a complex product that is quite expensive and there are other solutions out there at a lower cost, or you could work a trouble ticket system by using a Microsoft product.

We use Helix to manage services for clients in Latin America and provide a service desk. 

The Helix chatbot is helpful, and we can use its workflow features to automate some of the use cases for our clients.

Helix is not quite as mature as ServiceNow, which is a complete product. All of its technology is current. 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.

We have around 25 clients and are in the process of moving one client to Helix. We will continue the deployment over the next 18 months or so.

Helix is stable.

Helix is scalable enough to handle our use cases. We plan to implement it for 200 users, but right now we're at fewer than 20.

We're BMC partners in Latin America, so we have strong support in the region. It isn't a problem.

I can't say much about the implementation because my team handles that, but I think it isn't complex.

We paid a service fee for implementation, and there's an ongoing monthly fee for the Helix, license based on the current number of named users. 

We evaluated ServiceNow, and the features are similar. ServiceNow probably has better functionality. However, BMC offered a better price, so it was ultimately an economic decision. Considering the cost of both solutions, Helix provides the best value for the money.

I rate Helix eight out of 10. 

The solution is for all IT management. It takes care of the day-to-day operations and customers' policies. The initial implementation was to start creating a knowledge base and capture information as it happened. Then by using that knowledge base analysis and see what trends are occurring within the systems.

The most valuable features I have found to be the activity logs. Additionally, the other features where you are able to continuously address issues and are able to annotate notes inside to convey them to the customer. The customer can read the notes and are able to know where you are in the procedures and process of fixing the problem for them. It has a good interactive piece for dialogue with customers where you do not have to interact with them personally but they can do it on their own just by going into that activity log. This is great for the customer to have the ability to find out how things are being progressively taken care of.

The reports need improvement, it is not a good functioning tool. No one in my organization seems to be able to use the reports properly. I think it is a dysfunction in the product because there has to be a more simplistic form for building those reports to allow the extrapolation of information for trend analysis and other operations. You want to be able to pull information from a variety of sources to see how you are providing support to the customer, this is what your performance base is. This is why those reports are a significant piece of the equation. You need to be able to produce those right now. People would rather create spreadsheets on their own and just thumb through all kinds of time-consuming tasks, why not use the actual databases that are there to produce that information.  

I have been using this solution for many years.

When updates come out I am very hesitant when they put out a patch or an update because it disrupts some operations or functionality that is important. It makes it harder for us to readjust the solution and have to start implementing things all over again because the patches are not properly vetted.

I have found the solution to be scalable. However, other competitors products such as ServiceNow are more robust and scalable. We have many people using the BMC solution in the organization, service managers, individual managers, problem manager, vendors, and individual tiers 0-3. The amount of people is needed as we service over 60 thousand people.

The tech support is not consistent. You might get a good person to help you out and actually knows what he is doing or you get somebody who is trying to figure out a solution on their own. You both are left trying to figure out a solution together because you get the feeling you do not have the expertise that you should have for the product. When you initially make the calls, you have to break down the issue to such a deep level of explanation when it should be simplistic for them to understand. This causes some difficulties for the customer. This type of inexperienced customer service devaluates the product, this needs to be improved.

The maintenance of the solution is overseen by a staff of approximately seven people.

I am not sure the exact price we pay for the solution but I know it is in the high seven-figure amount annually.

I was trying to get my organization to use ServiceNow because it is more cloud-based. I have seen several demos of ServiceNow and I like the features that it has. It is more intuitive, easier to implement, define roles and manage.

I would advise others to consider other options before choosing this solution such as ServiceNow. 

I rate BMC Helix ITSM a four out of ten.

Managing our customer products, problems, and take-ons as well as our IT  operations and change management. We also use it to manage our ever growing infrastructure.

The MyIT product has given our end users a much better perception of Remedy and made the product look more fluid. This has made people more likely to log calls rather than do work offline allowing us to get a better picture of what is going happening on a daily basis and monitor trends correctly.

MyIT is simple to use and its mobility is a big plus for our on the go users.

SmartIT could include PR. This would help us greatly in bridging the gap between Remedy's views and SmartIT. We would love to see this feature in the near future.

From time to time, but I think that is our fault due to extra processes that we implemented to fit our business needs.

No issues.

Its mostly great. Sometimes, it takes a little while on the more complex issues, but generally it is fast.

HEAT. It was a dated product with limitations.

At first, the setup was complex, but we have evolved since then.

We implemented in-house. Our whole team is well-seasoned in Remedy.

It is costly, but it is well worth it. 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.

We did not. We went to Remedy because we knew it was the way to go.

Give it a try. Demos are easy to come by. Speak to others using the product. If you are a medium or enterprise business, it is a great value.

I've found that the complete set of modules very valuable. All the features, including all modules like asset management, incident management, Service Request Management, CMDB, developing the applications using workflow, etc., are really cool.

ARS has helped to automate various business needs to our client. Remedy is used to track our client's asset inventory which has improved the organizational functions a lot.

Upgrading to a higher version should be easier. Also, performance is the factor which needs a lot of improvements. Apart from that all modules need small small enhancements which I believe would have been taken care in higher version as I never used a higher version.

I am using Remedy ITSM solution for last 4 years.

I was never a part of initial deployment. But apart from that small deployments and enhancements keep coming as per business requirement and I never faced any issue.

No issue with stability. I have not found any stability issues.

No, Remedy is best solution to enhance growth of an organization. We have onboarded lot of customers without any issues.

Customer service is good.

7 out of 10. Tech support should be improved. There is lot for BMC to improve their tech support.

No, I never used any other solution. And I find this perfect as well.

I don't know. I was not involved that time, it was long time ago :)

I don't know as I was not available that time.

From customer perspective, more customizable solutions should be available.

From a developer/support personnel perspective, logging should be more friendly.

Licensing and pricing is quite expensive as compared to other competitors but in long run Remedy is the remedy to all business needs.

No. I started my career with Remedy.

To me, I would say this is one of the best solution for Enterprise customers to fulfill their business needs. Be it managing their assets inventory or working through modules. It's quite user friendly as well. However, licensing and deployment may be difficult for the developers and implementers.

We are mostly involved in service assurance for telecommunications; service assurance and network provisioning for telecommunications. We use BMC Helix ITSM in these areas.

Most of our use cases involving BMC Helix ITSM are for change management and trouble ticketing. If you look at telecommunications companies, everything revolves around incident problems and change.

The most valuable feature for our customers using BMC Helix ITSM is change management.

BMC Helix ITSM encourages the use of APIs as much as possible. They're looking to use machine learning in the future, and all the time moving towards a zero-touch type environment.

I have customers that always would like to adapt and personalize BMC Helix ITSM more.

I have been using BMC Helix ITSM since it came out. 

BMC Helix ITSM is stable.

Having the solution on the cloud brings increased scalability. The scalability of BMC Helix ITSM is good.

The deployment of BMC Helix ITSM is difficult. If you deploy it in a single-use enterprise it's probably fairly simple. A lot of the deployments of the solution we are doing are at a global level where there is a lot of consolidation. BMC Helix ITSM requires individuals that are doing the process to have a deep understanding of the solution.

A lot of people are moving from legacy on-premise systems to SaaS cloud versions. The most difficult element of doing this is data migration. This process could improve. There are good processes in place for migration, but it's having the level of understanding about what data do you need to migrate that can be difficult.

We use an Agile approach to the implementation of BMC Helix ITSM. We could have a delivery phase that requires six or seven people as part of the delivery in the Agile scrum-type approach. Your next iteration could be two or three people or more. Then you have your consultants on top of that and your architects. However, it is depending on what is required for that sprint. 

What we tend to do is use an initial waterfall approach to create the base, or the minimum viable solution, up and running. Then we move to an Agile sprint approach for iterations and for meeting customer requirements. We figure out what the business requirements are and what are the priorities, et cetera. There can be a lot of teams involved, such as testing and redelivery teams.

I would advise others before implementing this solution to be clear on what they are trying to achieve.

I rate BMC Helix ITSM a nine out of ten.

We are not using this product. Rather, we are proposing it as a part of our solution because we have experience with the on-premise and the ROE (remedy on demand). We upgrade and do the installation for our customers.

What I have found to be the most valuable is that it offers the radius deployment package not only to the BMC cloud but also to the public cloud such as Azure. You can also deploy it to a private cloud.

The Helix platform is not restricted to the ITSM. It has the capability to do the workflow management, the digital workplace, the discovery, and the monitoring. 

If you want to have to migrate from on-premises to Helix or from Helix to a ServiceNow, or from cloud to on-premises, it's easy but it requires additional tools. It should be included in the existing package, rather than clients having to go with a third-party tool. It could be offered to customers as a value on a separate line item.

There are some companies that provided a customized solution to identity what customization has been done, and to reduce the number of your upgrade cycle. If they had this type of solution included, it would be helpful.

In the next release, I would like to see AI used for classification or categorization.

I have been working with this solution since it's was launched, which has been a couple of years.

It's a stable solution.

It's easy to scale.

I belong to a larger enterprise. With this solution, you can go from smaller organizations to a large enterprise.

The technical support is good.

The initial setup is easy. Within a few hours, you are up and running.

It's straightforward to install and configure it.

Pricing on the licensing depends on how you want to position it. If you are looking for some kind of professional services form the OEM then you would have to purchase that.

When you evaluate other products they all have their pros and cons.

The cost differs, as well as some of the functionalities.

I recommend this solution and I would rate it an eight out of ten.