BMC Helix ITSM vs. Datto Autotask PSA

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BMC Helix ITSM
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
BMC Helix ITSM replaces Remedy. It is a broad suite of ITSM, tools with strong integrations to other BMC tools and in-built ITAM. The product is used mainly by global brands and is offered in on-premise and SaaS configurations.N/A
Autotask PSA
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Autotask PSA is designed as a complete IT Business Management Platform for MSPs, now from Datto (resulting from the Autotask merger with Datto in 2017).N/A
Pricing
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Editions & Modules
BMC Helix ITSM
Contact Sales
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BMC Helix ITSMAutotask PSA
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
Community Pulse
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Considered Both Products
BMC Helix ITSM
Chose BMC Helix ITSM
BMC Remedy is the whole package where all of your ITSM operations can be managed. It is a reliable product on which the whole organization can depend on as ITSM is highly critical for any organization. Nobody thinks of using any other tool if they are using this tool. Nowadays, …
Autotask PSA
Chose Datto Autotask PSA
Its definitely has a better layout. Easier to customize. Easier search.
Chose Datto Autotask PSA
Except for multi-tenancy and permissioning for external users, Autotask beats BMC Remedy in every category for an ITSM Incident/Request Management suite. From allowing legitimate multi-tasking to the streamlined and more-straightforward user experience, Autotask takes the focus …
Features
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.6
105 Ratings
4% above category average
Datto Autotask PSA
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.1103 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.773 Ratings00 Ratings
Service restoration8.685 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service tools8.692 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.274 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.489 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards8.592 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.4
91 Ratings
1% above category average
Datto Autotask PSA
-
Ratings
Configuration mangement8.787 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard8.583 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement8.067 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.7
94 Ratings
1% above category average
Datto Autotask PSA
-
Ratings
Change requests repository8.993 Ratings00 Ratings
Change calendar8.588 Ratings00 Ratings
Service-level management8.789 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
Planview AdaptiveWork
Planview AdaptiveWork
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(110 ratings)
10.0
(30 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.5
(9 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(61 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
3.0
(10 ratings)
8.4
(4 ratings)
Online Training
6.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BMC Helix ITSMDatto Autotask PSA
Likelihood to Recommend
BMC Helix
This is great for large-scale incident and problem management. It allows teams of individuals to quickly correlate, track, and resolve incidents and problems across different business units. It shines when used to automate repetitive tasks, manage complicated service transitions, and integrate with multiple IT systems. However, it might not be effective for small organizations that need simple processes, as the robust features could involve a long learning curve, increased costs, and implementation of resource-consuming processes. Customization could also require a strong technical knowledge.
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Kaseya
In my opinion, Datto Autotask is exceptionally complicated to set up, manage, and use on a daily basis. I would think the target market for this product would be someone managing a team of 20 - 50 people, possibly more. In my experience, for it to run properly you will need to dedicate at least half an FTE to running this product in an organization of that size per month. I would not recommend it for companies with less than 10 people or for companies that value quick communication with their clients. I would not recommend it for companies using Datto's RMM product. The integration exists, but it is clearly a bolt-on. They were not developed together and they are slow to talk to each other. Frequently you cannot add details from RMM sessions into the PSA without manually copying the ticket number, and if the ticket is more than a week old, then you can't even find it with the ticket number.
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Pros
BMC Helix
  • 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.
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Kaseya
  • The graphical calculations on time spent on requests, how long they were open for, who worked on a ticket last.
  • Grouping by priority so you can determine easier what needs to be addressed sooner rather then later. This also helps if Account Management has conversations a technician is not aware of so they can prioritize efficiently.
  • The email updates that are sent out to the technicians so they are aware of upcoming or stale tickets.
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Cons
BMC Helix
  • 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.
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Kaseya
  • The GUI is a little dated.
  • Some integrations are limited for not being a Datto product.
  • While not as complex to set up as Connectwise, it definitely requires some serious thought during the initial setup.
  • Email processing could offer more options for parsing keywords and allow for more automation.
  • The mobile app is just not worth using in my experience.
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Likelihood to Renew
BMC Helix
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.
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Kaseya
After using multiple products on the market, Autotask was intuitive and easy to manage.
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Usability
BMC Helix
At least Remedy is all contained in a single platform, so the interface is consistent. Also, the most heavily performed functions are generally usable. However, to use some of the more advanced modules can be a bit more cumbersome (such as Change Management and CMDB (Not Including ADDM)). So, overall BMC Remedy ITSM is better than some applications like CA SDM or HP SM, but not quite on par with ServiceNow.
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Kaseya
Datto Autotask PSA is a full featured product that can do almost anything you need. There is a significant learning curve to get started which requires several hours spent in product training. Additionally, several hours / days are needed to get clients imported, contracts configured, and integrations implemented. Once the setup and user training is complete, the product is very functional, but it's imperative to not get overwhelmed when starting out.
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Reliability and Availability
BMC Helix
for now we are satisfied. first two months 😉
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Performance
BMC Helix
could be faster. db is slower from introducing postgresql
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BMC Helix
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.
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Kaseya
They are fairly quick at returning a response to a problem and have been able to fix all issues for the most part.
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Online Training
BMC Helix
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
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BMC Helix
Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BMC Helix
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
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Kaseya
The portion of Autotask that we've used other companies for prior to using Autotask is the Endpoint Management. The Autotask Endpoint Management (AEM) portal integrates perfectly with their PSA/CRM tools. It's alerting features are much better than the above software as there aren't a bunch of superfluous and unneeded alerts. Instead, it only alerts for things that you specify that you want. Alerts aside, for the PSA/CRM, I don't have much to compare it to as Autotask was the first PSA we tried. It's hard to imagine a PSA having more features or doing a better job than Autotask.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BMC Helix
unclear. lot of for less
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Scalability
BMC Helix
Again, always room for improvement, but a very stable product none-the-less.
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Kaseya
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BMC Helix
  • 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.
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Kaseya
  • We were able to identify the profitability of our entire client base.
  • We identified a loss of over 1 million dollars for time unbilled consultancy fees using metrics derived from Autotask.
  • Autotask helped us serve our client base in a professional manner, it's like having an entire department at your finger tips.
  • Autotask is the heartbeat of our operation.
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ScreenShots

BMC Helix ITSM Screenshots

Screenshot of BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker. This is where users can deliver a secure service experience across multi-cloud environments.Screenshot of Knowledge Management, available with intelligent recommendations to help bring the right information to end-users and agents to quickly and accurately resolve issues.Screenshot of the incident and problem management interface, used to create and resolve incidents faster with intelligent, context-aware, and proactive incident matching.