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BMC Helix Discovery vs IBM Maximo 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 Discovery
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
IT Asset Management (2nd)
IBM Maximo
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (1st), Billing Software (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

BMC Helix Discovery and IBM Maximo aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. BMC Helix Discovery is designed for IT Asset Management and holds a mindshare of 8.7%, up 7.9% compared to last year.
IBM Maximo, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), holds 28.7% mindshare, up 26.7% since last year.
IT Asset Management
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
 

Featured Reviews

Shirish Kamalapurkar - PeerSpot reviewer
Very stable, fast, and powerful with valuable inventory management features
Our company uses the solution as an inventory tool for customers. The solution discovers your infrastructure and lets you know what servers and network devices are on it. It gives you details about applications, hardware, and software such as how they are connected and the dependencies between…
Jose Pedro Muñoz - PeerSpot reviewer
A very strong and powerful tool in the market preferred by a variety of industries
I rate the technical support a seven out of ten. Three levels of support in IBM. The first one is a fixed level, while levels two and three are very good. Here, level one is not very good, as it takes time to go from level one to level two and from level two to level three. So, level one is of low capacity.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is definitely useful."
"A valuable feature concerns the ability to integrate with different solutions."
"Accuracy and clarity are vastly improved for the service lines."
"The most valuable feature of BMC Helix Discovery is it operates well. It is well known and has gained recognition for its software."
"It is a scalable solution."
"BMC Helix Discovery has delivered a very good return, and we cannot stop using it at this moment."
"It provides comprehensive dependency mapping, which is essential for reducing the time spent and addressing problem-solving between data centers."
"Start anywhere application modelling brings a fantastic opportunity for users to see what is where."
"There are not many enterprise asset management systems on the market and not many that have the categories that IBM Maximo has."
"Work order management and scalability enables the businesses' needs to be met."
"IBM Maximo is the best software for assets management."
"We can manage, organize, and track incidents, claims, jobs, tasks, preventive and corrective maintenance, locations, and assets."
"The most valuable features of IBM Maximo are the overall power and interface, and there are a lot of different modules that we use that are helpful. Additionally, it's an integrated solution and it has a lot of capabilities."
"The most valuable feature is asset management maintenance as well as asset management overall."
"It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world."
"Reliable, very configurable, and it's all integrated in the same database."
 

Cons

"BMC Helix Discovery needs more customization options."
"The CMDB could be improved. Getting data from the CMDB is the greatest challenge."
"If the dependency maps can go live and we can work through the process with a click, we're reaching the stage where issues are identified and mitigated. It would be ideal if we could utilize it to reduce vulnerabilities or address any other feedback."
"The product falls short compared to storage discovery mechanisms offered by Tenable or ServiceNow ITOM. In the market, there are various applications available that provide different sets of features. Its drawback is that it doesn't give the database configuration customers need out of the box. Additionally, the classification of storage virtualization is relatively lacking. Therefore, there is room for improvement, particularly in the database areas."
"The license model could be more flexible and cheaper pricing."
"What would make BMC Helix Discovery better is if it had more client-side discovery features, for example, printers and desktops. Right now, it's focused more on data center discovery, so if it had additional features focused on the client-side discovery, that would be great. In the next release of BMC Helix Discovery, I'd like more client-side discovery features such as desktop discovery, printer discovery, and other IP-based client-side discovery features. The solution can discover desktops and printers, but there's still room for improvement on the client side."
"An area that can be improved is the IoT."
"The product is not fully automated."
"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.​"
"I feel that the interface is a little too complicated with a large number of fields to enter."
"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is easy and one is difficult, I rate the setup process a two since it is very complicated."
"It was very slow due to the lagging issues. So that was kind of frustrating, considering how slow it was while functioning."
"The initial setup was complex, because it is a complex product."
"The solution is not stable. We can have one day when it is stable and another day it is not. Sometimes it crashes or becomes very slow, and there are times we are not even able to download all the databases. Without the database, we cannot work on that application. These are the small glitches, and stability issues we are facing."
"The standard reports that shipped with the package need to be enriched with more advanced reports, especially for the Inventory Management sections."
"Areas for improvement include: an enhanced Service Catalog on Mobile; Agent intelligence; better dashboards for KPIs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not a cheap product. But the benefits it delivers is that it's a fair price."
"I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. All BMC products are expensive."
"I've heard that the solution was expensive earlier but is now much cheaper than its competitors."
"The price was fair compared to competitors. BMC is very affordable. There are optional consulting services to assist with implementation."
"You need a license to use BMC Helix Discovery. The license is paid yearly, though I have no idea how much it costs."
"BMC is available for a reasonable price compared to ServiceNow — it's half the price."
"The licenses are very complex and quite costly."
"Operating cost is actually high compared to other products, actually. It's a little expensive only, but it's very good than other products."
"Explore the possibility of using DB2. You will avoid the cost of SQL Server or Oracle licenses."
"​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.​"
"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."
"IBM Maximo offers a licensing application, and you have to comply with the license."
"You pay for what you get. There are lots of options depending on how you would like to implement Maximo."
"I do not know about the price of the solution. However, this has been an expensive project overall."
"The concurrent user license is much more effective in management and cost-wise, as it is more suitable for maintenance management."
"$USD700 per agent user."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
18%
Energy/Utilities Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
34%
Energy/Utilities Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Helix Discovery?
I like the artificial intelligence and machine learning that it uses in the solution. Because once the solution discovers all the assets, all the infrastructure, and all the dependencies between se...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Discovery?
The price of BMC Helix Discovery is licensed by asset. It is challenging to maintain licenses, as every piece of equipment is considered a license. We pay attention to the growth of assets. The pri...
What needs improvement with BMC Helix Discovery?
I would like to see a lower price and better technical support.
What do you like most about IBM Maximo?
It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world.
What needs improvement with IBM Maximo?
Though I liked it a lot, I think it was lagging a lot. It was very slow due to the lagging issues. So that was kind of frustrating, considering how slow it was while functioning. The aforementioned...
What is your primary use case for IBM Maximo?
It can be particularly useful for power line operations, enabling linemen in the field to gather information and send it across the country as well as different parts of the world. With IBM Maximo,...
 

Also Known As

Discovery, ADDM, Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping
Maximo
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Windstream Communications, News UK, Mercator Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)
Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V., DTE Energy, Swedish Match, Projetech, Fingrid, East Coast
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, BMC, Qualys and others in IT Asset Management. Updated: January 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.