BMC Helix Discovery vs ServiceNow Discovery comparison

BMC and ServiceNow are both solutions in the IT Asset Management category. BMC is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while ServiceNow is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.2. BMC holds a 8.7% mindshare in IAM, compared to ServiceNow’s 4.7% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of ServiceNow users who would recommend it.

BMC Helix Discovery

Read 25 BMC Helix Discovery reviews

2,948 Views
1,467 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

ServiceNow Discovery

Read 40 ServiceNow Discovery reviews

1,141 Views
566 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

BMC Helix Discovery

ServiceNow Discovery

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between BMC Helix Discovery and ServiceNow Discovery based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two IT Asset Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery

October 2024

Download the complete report

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Categories and Ranking

BMC Helix Discovery

Ranking in IT Asset Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

ServiceNow Discovery

Ranking in IT Asset Management

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Server Monitoring (3rd), Cloud Resource Discovery Services (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the IT Asset Management category, the mindshare of BMC Helix Discovery is 8.7%, up from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Discovery is 4.7%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

IT Asset Management

Q&A Highlights

MOHSIN SHAWL

Configuration Management at a agriculture with 10,001+ employees

Jan 06, 2023

Which product do you prefer: BMC Helix Discovery or ServiceNow Discovery?

I have implemented both, and BMC Helix Discovery including its earlier versions is a far easier solution to implement than the ServiceNow Discovery offering. The BMC discovery solution integrates with Remedy and ServiceNow CMDBs and is also a technically superior product if you also want application service mapping. Contact me directly if you need a more detailed explanation.

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Featured Reviews

Shirish Kamalapurkar

Solutions Architect at Kinsfolk Technology Private Limited

Feb 22, 2023

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…

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RISHI GUPTA

Senior Manager at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jan 20, 2023

Valuable relationship building that discovers and auto-builds to make cleanup easy

Proof of concept for the solution doesn't make much sense. It totally depends on the capability of your partner. Choose the partner very carefully while you plan to use the solution. If you get a very competent and capable partner, then life will be easy. If you have a partner who only does technical implementations, then that won't help you. You need to have CMDB and CSDM experts on the team because the solution is for CMDB and CSDM. If you don't design your data model really well, then the solution will not give you much result. The solution is not fully automated so you still need to make some effort. You have to go through the complete remodeling cycle for non-useful data elimination whenever you add a new LAN segment or new mid-server on a new data center or service. It is a little bit of effort, but it is worth the effort. Based on the necessary but important effort, the solution is rated a seven out of ten.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its application dependency mapping."

"The speed at which it's able to collect a wide-range of information, then make it useful for you, like asset management, knowledge management, and incident management."

"The most valuable feature of BMC Helix Discovery is it operates well. It is well known and has gained recognition for its software."

"It immediately understands which component it is, and it provides the exact API details with all the components."

"The tool's accuracy of the results we receive looks promising in general. Its values are more than 95 percent accurate compared to other clients or different tools. I would say that Discovery offers a valuable mechanism to discover information."

"It is a stable solution. The stability is okay."

"It provides comprehensive dependency mapping, which is essential for reducing the time spent and addressing problem-solving between data centers."

"The initial setup was quite easy."

More BMC Helix Discovery pros

"The service management and operations management modules are valuable."

"The best part about ServiceNow Discovery is that it is included in the ServiceNow suite."

"The product provides great scalability features."

"The most valuable feature is its integration with CMDB, as it collects all the data."

"It has given us an understanding of each layer from a server application."

"I am impressed with the tool's incident problem change management."

"We can scale the solution."

"It has been stable since deployment."

More ServiceNow Discovery pros

Cons

"The solution's scalability is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are needed."

"The solution should have different portals and logins for each customer so only that customer's assets show."

"It would be nice to see more updates to the solution."

"There isn't much that could be improved. The solution is pretty thorough, very easy to implement, and very easy to operate."

"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."

"The support from BMC Helix Discovery can improve, it takes a long time before we receive any feedback. It can take days to months sometimes."

"The solution is definitely useful."

"BMC is agentless discovery, followed by hybrid discovery, which performs discovery across clouds, on-premises, and then dynamic service modeling."

More BMC Helix Discovery cons

"I find it valuable to enhance IP address management. I've been in this field since around 2011, and my experience since then has revolved around automation, deployment, distribution, and comprehensive inventory management, all crucial for deploying various components, including patches. When we talk about patch management or vulnerability management, it's more complex than just applying patches; sometimes, you need to undergo significant upgrades or phase out old components for new ones, and this can turn into a substantial project, explaining why vulnerabilities persist. Now, the role of ServiceNow Discovery and security operations, or at one point, looking at vulnerability management in ServiceNow Discovery, is crucial. It allows you to identify vulnerabilities on assets and, with the addition of discovery, service mapping, and event management, you gain a business context for these vulnerabilities. It's not merely about knowing they exist on a server; it's about understanding which services are responsible for critical business processes or transactions, like payroll. This knowledge changes the approach and execution of vulnerability remediation."

"On the Software Asset Management part of it, I expect additional reconciliation and Discovery features there."

"ServiceNow Discovery should be updated to provide its users with more out-of-the-box information and attributes to support the routers and switches from Cisco."

"ServiceNow Discovery should improve its cloud capabilities."

"ServiceNow is very costly."

"What needs improvement in ServiceNow Discovery is the reporting UI because I didn't find it as friendly compared to other tools. Other tools have better reporting UI than what's currently in ServiceNow Discovery. What I'd like to see in the next release of ServiceNow Discovery is more user-friendly out-of-the-box reporting that would be helpful for non-technical users. Some users such as managers would want to just do a few clicks to access the reports and shouldn't be required to do search queries, but right now, reporting in the tool isn't very user-friendly."

"The product should improve its customer interface, web interface, and front end. I would like to see the integration of keyboard chat with the solution."

"The solution should improve the classes of discovery assets to disregard more junk data."

More ServiceNow Discovery cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. All BMC products are expensive."

"The licenses are very complex and quite costly."

"The solution offers yearly licenses."

"I've heard that the solution was expensive earlier but is now much cheaper than its competitors."

"We have a perpetual license for the solution."

"The price was fair compared to competitors. BMC is very affordable. There are optional consulting services to assist with implementation."

More BMC Helix Discovery pricing and cost advice

"Setting up and licensing for ServiceNow can be expensive, especially for enterprise service management."

"ServiceNow Discovery's licensing is not a very small investment, but it definitely pays off."

"There is a need to make payments every quarter of a year towards the licensing costs of the solution. ServiceNow Discovery is an expensive tool."

"It costs a lot. It is probably close to over a hundred thousand. It's an expensive platform, but you can't compare ServiceNow's Discovery functionality to other discovery tools. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison of ServiceNow to a configuration management tool to an asset management tool because it does those things, but it's not those things."

"As per a general discussion I had with the stakeholders, I figured out that it is a costly tool. There is a need to make additional payments apart from the licensing fees for better support services from ServiceNow."

"The pricing is determined based on the CIs."

"The product is not cheap."

"The product pricing is fair and reasonable for the value it provides."

More ServiceNow Discovery pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

MOHSIN SHAWL

Configuration Management at a agriculture with 10,001+ employees

Jan 6, 2023

Which product do you prefer: BMC Helix Discovery or ServiceNow Discovery?

Hello Mohsin, Unfortunately, I don't have experience with ServiceNow Discovery. But I have been using BMC Helix Discovery for more than five years. It is a really fast and user-friendly system. There is no need for an agent when installing the solution. I recommend this solution.

2 out of 3 answers

Chris Georgiou

Project Manager & Managing Director at Geo Consulting (Aust) Pty Ltd

Dec 23, 2022

Read full answer

Madhurima Singh

Lead Consultant | Service Assurance & Automation at Column Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd

Dec 26, 2022

Hi Mohsin, Not only BMC Helix or ServiceNow Discovery, but a few other Discovery tools are also available in the market and every discovery tool has a unique feature, hence as per me, choosing a discovery tool for your organization should be based on the organization's needs and infrastructure. I suggest you go for proper requirement assessment sessions, i.e. infrastructure architecture, existing implemented tools, their features, use, possibilities & integrations, kind of devices in scope to discover, focused data center discovery, focused client-side discovery, or both. What I mean to say is do not choose any tool for its features but choose the one best suitable for your organization that can provide the best output with less investment after a proper assessment of the organization's requirements and expectations from a tool. I know my reply to your query is not the exact answer you looked for but yes, this is what I would suggest to you on the basis of my experience. As far as tool comparison is concerned, you can find it in many places with the help of search engines but I think once you know what you want then reading tool features on the tool's official website will help you more to choose the best suitable Discovery tool for your organization. Thanks, Madhurima

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

17%

Energy/Utilities Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Healthcare Company

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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BMC Helix Discovery?

I would rate the pricing around four out of ten. It is quite expensive.

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What needs improvement with BMC Helix Discovery?

The improvement I want to see is a reduction in duplicate records. In comparison with SCCM, SCCM does not have any duplicate records, which is a significant advantage. Discovery should adopt a simi...

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What do you like most about ServiceNow Discovery?

The solution can prioritize the discovery of IP ranges. The product automatically places all Discovery CIs into the correct class within the CMDB.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Discovery?

The product pricing is fair and reasonable for the value it provides. However, it is important to factor in the ongoing maintenance costs, as the system requires professional upkeep to ensure optim...

See all answers

What needs improvement with ServiceNow Discovery?

The continuous improvement in the quality and customization of the product features would be beneficial, particularly as more customers rely heavily on its capabilities.

See all answers

Comparisons

ServiceNow vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 69% of the time

Device42 vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 8% of the time

BMC Remedy vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 6% of the time

Lansweeper vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 4% of the time

Qualys VMDR vs BMC Helix Discovery

Compared 2% of the time

More BMC Helix Discovery Competitors

Tanium vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 30% of the time

Lansweeper vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 18% of the time

Microsoft Configuration Manager vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 13% of the time

ScienceLogic vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 6% of the time

SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor vs ServiceNow Discovery

Compared 5% of the time

More ServiceNow Discovery Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Discovery

November 2024

Download BMC Helix Discovery product report

Buyer's Guide

ServiceNow Discovery

October 2024

Download ServiceNow Discovery product report

Also Known As

Discovery, ADDM, Atrium Discovery & Dependency Mapping

No data available

Learn More

BMC

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ServiceNow

Overview

BMC Discovery, formerly ADDM, is a digital enterprise management solution that automates asset discovery and application dependency mapping to build a holistic view of all your data center assets and the relationships between them.

ServiceNow Discovery finds applications and devices on your network, and then updates the CMDB with the information it finds. Discovery is available as a separate subscription from the rest of the Now Platform.

Sample Customers

Windstream Communications, News UK, Mercator Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR)

York, National Grid, DXC Technology, experian, BEACHBODY

Buyer's Guide

BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery

October 2024

Free Report: BMC Helix Discovery vs. ServiceNow Discovery

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