Accruent EMS vs. BMC Helix ITSM vs. IBM Maximo Application Suite

Accruent EMS is well-suited when it comes to room utilization and transparency but with regards to onboarding other departments such as A/V and Catering, it becomes a challenge because there are other software that meets the needs of these departments that EMS does not have. The use of multiple systems for other departments is a nuisance especially with inventory mangement.

Incentivized

BMC Helix ITSM fits our environment particularly well, where standardized, auditable processes are already in place: Incident and Problem Management can be structured cleanly, with clear ownership, escalations, and fully traceable documentation—crucial in a highly regulated banking context. Through the customer platform/portal, users can log incidents and requests consistently, track their status transparently, and use a single central communication channel across service boundaries. This supports a service-oriented setup spanning multiple business services and locations. It becomes less suitable—or at least more effort-intensive—when core foundation data is not yet stable: an immature CMDB, insufficient ITAM data quality, and an unstructured knowledge base limit the value of automation and self-service. In addition, heterogeneous integrations and strict authorization models can increase implementation and ongoing maintenance efforts, especially when SLAs are not harmonized across different customer environments.

The software is very well-suited to asset lifecycle management and system condition monitoring. User-friendliness of the product and effectiveness in managing work orders. The software's pricing is much more affordable than that of other EAM systems. Many improvements are needed in the customer support services department. Delays in response are costly.

Incentivized

• It's user friendly. By doing a little self-exploration one can find out the many features that EMS offers.
• It is simple to add or remove conference rooms and provide details of the conference rooms.
• I appreciate that there are different ways of reserving conference rooms. This allows each user to feel comfortable in their use of EMS by finding what works best for them.

Incentivized

• AI drive incident correlation leading to identifying problems and major incidents quickly.
• Digital Workplace gives end-users a modern and personalized UI to submit requests, monitor service health, and receive self-help.
• As an enterprise ITSM, it is critical that Request, Incident, Problem, Asset, and Change Management are integrated and flow together. BMC Helix is built on this principle.

Incentivized

• Delivers Out-of-Box solutions for various industries without the need for customization and configuration
• Modules and Applications are well developed and linked in an orderly way, with proper documentation and help guides that allow end users to start using the system with ease
• Powerful Work Management, Contracts, Inventory, and Purchasing applications and features that are a better match to other ERP applications today

Incentivized

• Incredible complexity on the back end. While its highly configurable nature lends to flexibility, it also makes it a challenge to manage.
• Support has not been as quick as we'd like when we've needed to reach out.
• Most likely due to the company recently changing hands, we had real trouble with their billing department attempting to double charge us for our services, and sorting it out took 6 months of back and forth.

Incentivized

• Service Level management configs can be lengthy, and when changes are needed to specific SLA, it does take a long time to configure. Templates work but only for certain things, lots of manual work is still required.
• The Online product documentation can be confusing or in same cases not correct.
• BMC products are sometimes expensive. When partners try to resell licenses or increase their own allotment, it becomes very expensive.

Incentivized

• Usually, we have problems with the mobile apps. For about seven out of ten customers, we need to use third-party mobile applications. It’s been a rollercoaster — Anywhere was terrible, then Maximo Mobile for 8 was pretty good, and now with Maximo 9, it’s problematic again. So it’s been ups and downs. But the good thing is that the architecture is open, so we can use third-party applications or even develop our own add-ons. Still, IBM could do this better.

Incentivized

Accruent EMS has always been a one-stop-shop for our organization when it comes to scheduling conference rooms, offices, apartments, services, etc. It has a wide array of reporting, and what isn't set up as a standard report, can usually be created as a query to report on the information you are looking for. Accruent EMS has pushed out new releases with updates to bugs and other add-ins and stays current and up-to-date with market trends.

Incentivized

It provides the tool we need and is able to be customised to meet new requirements. Cost to change in training and integrations would be considerable.

IBM Maximo Application Suite has provided a solution to our desire to consolidate the multiple applications serving the layers of the Procurement process we has been accustomed to using. By consolidating applications, licensing and software costs are reduced, and the overall headcount to support the various applications was able to be minimized.

Incentivized

Most new users would greatly benefit from (or possibly require) at least some training on how to use EMS, but the training doesn't need to be extensive for the users to get comfortable with it. Most functions are easy and straightforward, so users tend to not have many issues with it.

Incentivized

Overall the product enhances the capability of incident management, problem management and change management. The AI based framework helps generated better visibility and reports. The effectiveness of enhanced service desk suuport improves end user experience as the incidents are handled well in time and aged incidents are highlighted at the right time.

Incentivized

The IBM Maximo Application Suite is well known for inventory management solutions. This solution is in use by many corporations but mostly I have seen its use in Ports, defense and aerospace industries. Some of the benefits are 1. asset tracking is amazing 2. Maintenance cost is less 3. Reduced inspection costs 4. Less downtime 5. It allows customization 6 Simplify data management 7. Highly adaptable

Incentivized

Currently I can only access EMS from my work computer, from in my office, on campus. While I'm sure this isn't an Accruent issue, and mostly our IT issue, Accruent hasn't exactly stepped up and tried to help when these issues have been addressed.

Incentivized

for now we are satisfied. first two months 😉

Incentivized

The only other software we use in conjunction with EMS is Epaper Signs by Visix. Once we worked out the initial bugs, the integration has been seamless. It does not slow down our software or cause any errors. Our signs are updated every 15 minutes with any problems.

Incentivized

could be faster. db is slower from introducing postgresql

Incentivized

Depends on DB tuning, Query builds etc

Incentivized

Since the merger, our team has found that there are a select few of the tech team that can actually support our questions. More often than not, we have already tried the suggestions that they give us and they are either unable to answer our questions and submit them as update suggestions or they have to be sent to supervisor for an answer. Once or twice in the last year we have received bad advice that resulted in system issues. Prior to last year, the customer support system was at the top of the list of tech support departments that I have ever had to deal with, especially during our upgrade to 4.0.

Incentivized

Their tech support is top notch. They respond and get back to us, even on lower level incidents and issues, very quickly. It is rare that we deal with a support technician who does not know what they are doing.

I have regularly contacted IBM Support to report issues and raise requests for issues we face during project implementations. The response from them has overall been good and to the point, and they get back to us within a day or 2 and guide us through the process of fixing it or providing an interim fix of the product

Incentivized

we had brought out several consultants over the course of the past couple years and they have been fantastic from Brandy Cahill to Matt Luther

Incentivized

As expected, good content and instructions

Incentivized

It was great but could have been a little better. I feel like there are different ways to use some of the software and some of that was not explained. I think at the time the training was great but now that we are more experienced with the product I can see we missed training based on what part of EMS the instructor thought we were going to use.

Incentivized

the trainers dont have so much practical experiences. its mostly follow up and reading existing documentation withou own input. of course experiences people are on shore or have no free time. sad truth

Incentivized

I think one of the biggest things is to step back and see how you want your organization to function and use the product prior to quickly diving in and configuring. I think some (based on some EMS Live conference sessions I attended) built their systems on how they used their old systems or old processes, but thinking about how you want your organization to function moving forward will help you configure it the best way and make the necessary changes from the start rather than having to go back and adjust.

Incentivized

Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!

Incentivized

Implementation of IBM MAS as a service provider has been easy. The functionality in the OEM space has been the best of its class with all related modules and application subject to maintenance

Incentivized

[Accruent] EMS is very robust, and a great all in one solution for hospitality and Event management needs. I have dealt with a few other software solutions in the past that try to handle event planning and management, but have run into the need to have multiple solutions to handle all those needs.

Incentivized

I believe Remedy's performance and market share exceeds its competitors. But it is worth mentioning that Microsoft's SCCM has excellent integration with Microsoft enterprise solutions and has is less expensive and not efficient. The IBM solution has better analytics but lacks the wide features and capabilities of Remedy. HP & CA are the real competitors for Remedy but lacks the stability, maturity, and effectiveness in Remedy

Incentivized

As a computerized maintenance management system i do not have experience of any other system. The only experience I have is for Maximo and it works excellent for me. I am using many modules available in Maximo and all of these modules are almost fulfilling all of my business needs.

Incentivized

unclear. lot of for less

Incentivized

We purchased the client, web version, and Outlook plug-in. I'll be honest, we haven't pushed the email part, but I did test it and liked it. After the old program we placed, I have simply been gun-shy about implementing another email plug-in. However, the client for the super users to get department alerts, etc. and the web version for all users to create reservations has been fabulous and easy to use and understand.

Incentivized

Again, always room for improvement, but a very stable product none-the-less.

Incentivized

i dont use it

Incentivized

• The most noticeable improvements in our usage of EMS is our ability to process requests more efficiently using a standardized form that has a professional presentation. Before we began using EMS, we processed our parking requests by simply typing an email with a few details. Pricing was jumbled in with the wording and clients often did not read the fine print. EMS has definitely made an impact with projecting a professional image to our clients when they receive confirmations and invoices.

Incentivized

• Positive: an introduction to ITIL and viewing Asset, User Management from the perspective of ITIL, and how BMC has implemented those processes
• Negative: The development team needs to communicate better with the sales and support side, and they need offer an open API
• Negative: Currently the Asset Management side has little security and validation of Asset input: anyone can make API (mostly), at any item, which is a problem that I am apart of solving.
• The UX needs updating, badly. Its quality is poor: it functions, but it is cumbersome, click-heavy and requires several hours to understand how to function with it. Also, it needs to ditch IE11 support, altogether.

Incentivized

• Being the core business of my organization, IBM Maximo had a complete ROI for our objectives. We are able to successfully maintain and offer multiple solutions based on our interaction with Maximo.
• Based on our contracts, we are able to provide a great partnership with IBM thru Maximo and it's tools.
• We are able to maintain our business with steady market growth based mainly on our offer of the IBM Maximo in various layers.

Incentivized