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BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB) vs. CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    BMC Helix CMDB

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AThe BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB, formerly known as Atrium CMDB) is a configuration management database.N/A

    CA Service Management

    Score5.4 out of 10
    N/ACA Service Management, including CA Desk Manager, is a fully-featured ITSM platform, now from Broadcom. It competes with BMC Remedy, ServiceNow, FrontRange ITSM, Cherwell Service Management etc. It is based on technology acquired by CA in 2010 with Nimsoft, and is now supported by Broadcom since the 2018 acquisition.N/A
    Pricing
    BMC Helix CMDBCA Service Management
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    BMC Helix CMDBCA Service Management
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    BMC Helix CMDBCA Service Management
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    Feature
    BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
    -
    Ratings
    CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    8.6
    6 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.76 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings8.75 Ratings
    Service restoration00 Ratings8.46 Ratings
    Self-service tools00 Ratings8.66 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings7.96 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings9.76 Ratings
    ITSM reports and dashboards00 Ratings7.55 Ratings
    ITSM asset management
    Comparison of ITSM asset management features of BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    Feature
    BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
    -
    Ratings
    CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    9.2
    6 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Configuration mangement00 Ratings9.76 Ratings
    Asset management dashboard00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Policy and contract enforcement00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Change management
    Comparison of Change management features of BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    Feature
    BMC Helix Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
    -
    Ratings
    CA Service Management, with CA Service Desk Manager
    9.1
    6 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Change requests repository00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
    Change calendar00 Ratings8.64 Ratings
    Service-level management00 Ratings9.55 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    BMC Helix CMDBCA Service Management
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Ivanti ITSM
    Score6.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    BMC Helix CMDBCA Service Management
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (5 ratings)
    9.0
    (12 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.1
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    BMC Helix CMDBCA Service Management
    Likelihood to Recommend
    BMC Helix
    Lets you run more effective CABs with accurate configuration and dependency data. Understand the impact of change on other assets applications and services. Detecting potential underlying issues [when multiple] changes are made. Provides very adaptable and highly reliable data quality and integrity engines configured through rules [to] ensure normalization, data source prioritization, and deduplication.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    It is a suitable tool for a large organization with extensive user needs. It is not for a small shop as it may be over-engineered for smaller organizations that don't have teams that can manage a solution of this size. It does have some significant hardware and configuration needs, but that should not deter customers from deploying it in-house. I've seen it deployed in the cloud as well as in-house; the downside to deploying it as a hosted solution is you're forever at the mercy of the vendor for customizations, and they cost an arm and a leg. The simplest things take a long time and cost much more money than necessary, so you can't truly get a custom solution and end up with mostly vanilla services (unless you have very deep pockets.)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    BMC Helix
    • ITIL helps to meet customer expectations.
    • Beat competitors offerings
    • Allign with legal and regulatory requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    • A large community where, if help is needed, is usually very helpful and quick to respond.
    • Various sites with good information on various issues. If you have a problem, there's a good chance some else already had it and documented it.
    • Fairly easy installation of the product if recommendations are followed and prep-work is done.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    BMC Helix
    • Speed and flexiability
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    • The right-click feature is disabled in this application and users are unable to copy and paste with mouse or touchpad.
    • The application also freezes quite a bit and a user will have to quite often close and reopen browser to get it functioning properly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    BMC Helix
    No answers on this topic
    Broadcom
    While the concepts of Service Desk and EITM were solid. The user interface, tool capabilities, and integrations fell behind the rest of the industry. Too often it seemed like CA bought and rebranded products without fully integrated them with their other products. It was a coat of paint, without the parts under the hood being updated. The overhead for administration was too high and the reporting capabilities were absolutely amongst the worst I've seen.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    BMC Helix
    Once you have an understanding of the many use cases that this software can meet, you will be able to tightly integrate this into a ticketing system which increases the ROI of the product tremendously.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    BMC Helix
    The number of workflows, escalations, processes built in the out of the box Remedy is outstanding. Trying to mimic/customize an open source, or even Remedyforce would cost more than implementing a vanilla Remedy. We reviewed ServiceNow but we felt that in terms of an end-to-end implementation tool, Remedy is still first in class.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    We are too integrated with CA Service Desk Manager to disassociate anytime soon. We found the more we used the product the more we needed to customize it in order to better integrate with our business processes. There are other alternatives that have many built-in features that had we have foreseen our future requirements... would have chosen ServiceNow or Remedy as our "go-to" ticketing product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    BMC Helix
    • Highly adaptable.
    • Provides relevant insights for your business.
    • Offers quality and reliable data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Broadcom
    • Having CA Service Desk Manager within the company has increased the satisfaction of customer service from 68% to 95%. Teams are getting better customer survey scores and making better efforts to meet their SLAs.
    • CA Mobile app has provided agility and collaboration among IT Users and Customers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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