BMC Helix Continuous Optimization vs. PagerDuty vs. xMatters

Based on what we have experienced, BMC Helix Optimize is a good choice for businesses that already have other BMC tools, such as BMC Helix Operations Management or BMC Helix Cloud Cost, due to the integrated capabilities that can be leveraged. Besides, it is a great tool for visual analysis of costs associated with operations.

Incentivized

PagerDuty is well-suited for teams or companies that need immediate response, such as production outages, server downtime, failed deployments, API failures, or critical infrastructure alerts. For example, if any company is doing work that requires immediate attention to any problem that arises due to a delay, it means the company loses money; PagerDuty would be the best fit for that company.

We use xMatters for our alerting on critical matters. ServiceNow is our incident management system and it ties into xMatters. When a critical alert is generated it will notify the appropriate party. I'm trying to see if two other departments can use it. We are looking for a refrigeration system and for weather alerts when bad storms are coming

Incentivized

• Graphical Representations.
• Building of Data Views.
• Planning of operational budgets based on performance.

Incentivized

• PagerDuty feels like something you can absolutely rely on... because in the rarest case where an alert is not acknowledged by the relevant agent, the alert automatically is escalated to our TL, which saves any possible errors or misses.
• In terms of integration, I would rate it a 9.4 as it's absolutely seamless with Microsoft Teams or emails, ultimately resulting in a reduction of errors in work, which I greatly appreciate about PagerDuty.
• In some cases, when an account requires input from multiple agents, PagerDuty makes sure to notify each of the relevant ones.
• Other than this, sometimes when we have new joinings, it becomes easy for us to train them because every alert or response is recorded or logged. Because of this feature, we are able to check our past actions as well, so that a good feature about PagerDuty.

Incentivized

• Close to real-time alert notifications over preferable options, like phone call, text, email, or app notification.
• Automated incident communication about critical system outages based on alerts received in the system.
• Automated on-call roster and notification deliveries to SME.

Incentivized

• No mobile app is available.
• Only available in English.
• Not many data integrations available.

Incentivized

• When I open PagerDuty the page does look a little cluttered or busy.
• It would be nice to go to the page with clear and straightforward instructions on what I must address.
• Ability to change the color background.
• Add a timer and alarms for tasks that need completed.

Incentivized

• granular notification settings
• Allowing users to create custom integration templates would provide more flexibility and control over how xMatters integrates with their systems
• Additional built-in integrations with other applications would be an area of improvement.

They have been rock solid for us thus far and are not very expensive and to be honest no time to evaluate other software at this point.

Incentivized

The UI is more complex than I would like. Part of the challenge is that most users use PagerDuty infrequently; I don't remember how I changed a policy last time. Another part of the challenge is that some users expect alerting to be a trivial feature, and are reluctant to invest any time in reading the documentation.

Incentivized

xMatters has a pretty good UI. However, its versatility does get in the way a little as the number of options can be overwhelming, and it sometimes takes a while to find the place you want, or get the result you want. I don't have any suggestions on how to fix this, it's just a side effect of the complexity that xMatters offers.

Incentivized

PagerDuty is reliable and easy to set up. It gives an effective way to notify the team about critical incidents which results in a faster turnaround time on issues. users can customize their alerts rules based on their preferences. Overall it's effective and easy to use which adds great business value.

Incentivized

Working with xMatters support has been fantastic! Our support rep is very friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. We get quick response times when asking questions, and when we have more complex problems, it's easy to schedule a call and spend some time working through our issues together. Every time we've had a problem we've been able to get the info we need and get a resolution easily.

Incentivized

When I setup notifications to PD thru the Python API I was impressed with the ease with which I could set up the software/service.

Incentivized

In general, BMC Helix Optimize has a set of tools that are quite advanced compared to other technologies in the same field. Especially the visual representations and the flexibility when building rules to control the spend are some of the most useful functionalities that work quite well, usually better than in the rest of the tools.

Incentivized

I have not use the 2 technologies for as long as I have used PagerDuty but in my opinion PagerDuty makes things a lot easier. The other tools got the job done and got alerts out but PagerDuty just seemed to make the setup for on-call alert schedules and integrations easier than the others. This isn't to say the others are difficult, just that PagerDuty was slightly better. I also have noticed that more tools have options to integrate to PagerDuty over the other tools.

Incentivized

xMatters is a market leader among many new burgeoning products in the stakeholder notification space. They are historically one of two original enterprise products in this space. Great client base of large companies and good reputation. xMatters offers flexible licensing models, depending on functional needs. It's easy to learn and use but slightly more difficult to administer.

Incentivized

• Good ROI after optimizing redundant processes.
• Identification of issues when being able to represent data visually.
• Reduced costs due to limiting number of needed resources.

Incentivized

• Allow our service to be available 24/7 with minimal downtime, improving customer experience
• Monitor incidents and allow us to customize/schedule alert notifications, making engineers' jobs easier and preventing turnover
• Prevent SEVs that could deteriorate, bring down our service, and cost us millions of dollars from loss in bookings

Incentivized

• Quicker response times for on-call personnel.
• Managers are able to pull reports faster for any incidents escalated to their team.
• When needing to contact another on-call associate from another team, xMatters provides conference bridge lines. You don't have to set up meetings through Outlook or Skype.

Incentivized