BMC Helix ITSM (Remedy) vs. Freshservice

Large complex organisation, with complex technology that needs to manage Technology Services. It is very flexible and able to manage a large complex environment but the knowledge required to set this up correctly (foundation data and configuration) is the key factor for success. It can integrate with many other systems and tools and integrate data from many sources - whether that be AWS cloud, or an on premises bespoke system. I would not recommend for a Small Organisation without the resources to set up and maintain the underlying foundation data and configuration.

Freshservice is a complete ITSM solution. I have used some others over the years and moved away from them to Freshservice. I have implemented Freshservice in 2 new roles over the years, and everyone has loved it. The functionality that it incorporates, enabling IT teams to become ITIL compliant is truly useful. Compared to 5 other ITSM tools that I have used over the last 10 years, Freshservice is far better.

Incentivized

• Integration with monitoring software like SolarWinds. where Remedy can transform notifications to work orders and assign to respective teams.
• Detailed Customization capability to fit the exact needs of the organization.
• Change management calendar, which integrates change orders from all organization departments and facilitates the scheduling process of project managers.
• It can be offered as a cloud-based service, where you don't need to worry about server maintenance or database backup.

Incentivized

• Workflow automation
• Knowledge base articles for users and agents
• easy to add categories & sub category and make them compulsory so that ticket cannot be closed without filling the information
• it works with email address very simple to create different department and queues

Incentivized

• The interface (ironically). My company has made an attempt to replace the "classic" Remedy interface with some more functional, modern, but Remedy set to a particular look and feel (and consequently, functionality)
• The API is hidden from the user: There exists an API for Remedy, that would make my job TONS easier, as I like to perform actions on Remedy in bulk (and therefore - programmatically). Exposing a user API is very much mainstream these days, so Remedy relying on its interface to perform ITIL is very limiting
• By extension- the result of Remedy's interface is that it becomes very "click-happy": little buttons, and links stuffed into every corner of the screen, with options API logically together. API is old, but it still feels very rushed.
• The primary tool for most of my ITIL operations is: searching. API of searching goes into finding assets, checking in equipment, finding users, tickets, etc. What Remedy could very much benefit from a "Google" -like interface

Incentivized

• Change Management - Current system is geared towards full software or system change management. It would be great to have a simple Yes/No approval without having to utilize their workflow tools.
• Data selection filters - Overall, their data filters are very good, but it would be useful to have "Last Week" and "Last Month" in the date selectors.

Incentivized

We have been customers of BMC for well over 7 years now and our corporation is tightly integrated with BMC and multiple solutions they offer us.

It's overall value in our organization is extremely high and it has become an essential part of our business.

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.

On the I.T. side, the time to ramp up and understand how FreshService operates only took a few hours. After that, it was off to the races with configuration and customization. From the start, with minimal assistance, our end users found FreshService to be incredibly intuitive. At launch, we expected most to submit tickets via email, however, our analytics has shown that end-users actually prefer the portal for managing their I.T. tickets.

Incentivized

The support is good in overall resolving the issues and even in the deployment phase. We are able to use it in production without any trained in-house engineer as the support team gets the job done. We can say that experts completed the deployment for us, and now it is functional.

Incentivized

I contacted support once and the person handling the request was very helpful. The staff is very competent. In my opinion communication could be improved as the level of spoken English is very high. I was unable to understand some words, in fact two people participated in the second meeting.

Incentivized

Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!

Incentivized

think of what you want to do with FreshService : a clean start or a migration. Migration can be done with csv files, it's easy to do but you need to test it first.

Incentivized

The decision to select BMC Remedy was made prior to my employment. We did conduct an RFC process for a new ITSM platform and BMC was considered but not selected. We looked at several platforms and ended up choosing Ivanti Service Desk (previously LANDESK) due to the features, ease of customization and price.

Incentivized

I've used monday.com for ticketing, but Freshservice is made for it and the asset management feature adds value. NinjaOne's ticketing is not built out so we only use it for its RMM features. Atera has a nice ticketing platform and looks similar to Freshservice but they do not have an onboarding feature and other integrations that Freshservice has

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• When I was in Management discussion calls, and all the team is happy while using BMC Remedy so I don't find any specific negative impact on our organization.
• I really enjoy Smart IT as the tool of choice for our incident management team.
• Visibility of tickets is key. All support staff users can see tickets in consoles they have access to.

Incentivized

• Freshservice has allowed our organization to better track the amount of tickets that come in for a particular individual. This allows us to better support a user that is having multiple of the same issue over an extended period.
• The communication to the user has greatly increased due to the automated messages that Freshservice has built in.

Incentivized