BMC Helix ITSM vs. KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)

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
KACE Systems Management Appliance
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Quest now offers the KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA) as an IT Asset tracking and management appliance (also available as a virtual deployment if hardware requirements are met). Beyond discovery, inventory tracking and license management, KACE emphasizes automating software upgrade distribution with minimal end-user disruption, featuring remote replication for multi-site upgrades and rollouts. KACE SMA may be bundled with KACE Cloud Mobile Device Management (MDM) to form a complete UEM…N/A
Pricing
BMC Helix ITSMKACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
Editions & Modules
BMC Helix ITSM
Contact Sales
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BMC Helix ITSMKACE Systems Management Appliance
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 ITSMKACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
BMC Helix ITSMKACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.6
92 Ratings
6% above category average
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.191 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.762 Ratings00 Ratings
Service restoration8.774 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service tools8.783 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.365 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.381 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards8.482 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.5
80 Ratings
4% above category average
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
Configuration mangement8.877 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard8.573 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement8.157 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
8.6
84 Ratings
3% above category average
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
-
Ratings
Change requests repository8.983 Ratings00 Ratings
Change calendar8.479 Ratings00 Ratings
Service-level management8.579 Ratings00 Ratings
IT Asset Management
Comparison of IT Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
BMC Helix ITSM
-
Ratings
KACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
8.6
12 Ratings
9% above category average
Software and hardware inventory tracking00 Ratings10.012 Ratings
License management00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Asset lifecycle monitoring00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Contract management00 Ratings6.06 Ratings
Asset relationship management00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
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BMC Helix ITSMKACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
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Score 9.4 out of 10
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User Ratings
BMC Helix ITSMKACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(99 ratings)
10.0
(12 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.5
(8 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.7
(50 ratings)
8.6
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
3.0
(10 ratings)
9.5
(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 ITSMKACE Systems Management Appliance (SMA)
Likelihood to Recommend
BMC Software Inc.
There are many ITSM platforms available - but only a very select few are true enterprise leaders. BMC Helix is one. When it comes to managing thousands of incidents daily, BMC Helix helps cut through the noise with incident correlation and predictive problem management.
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Quest
I think it has added value for any organization. It reduced our Tech Support cost by: -Supporting users anywhere -Reducing users downtime as well keep them informed with the status of their tickets -Managing software and hardware actively -Processing automation -deploy mass software installs, patching or updates - Provide approved software's to users to install without IT help
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Pros
BMC Software Inc.
  • The Service Asset and Configuration Management capabilities of Helix ITSM are awesome. It can be used as a central repository for all SACM information and seamlessly integrated with Helix Discovery.
  • It has the most certified ITIL process modules of any ITSM system. These modules work seamlessly with each other and give you the power to manage any situation effectively.
  • As an Administrator of Helix ITSM you have many tools at your disposal to create customizations, workflows. BMC makes it easy to manage the system, leaving time to develop customizations and workflows.
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Quest
  • Inventory: KACE provides a ton of hardware and software inventory information that is easy to search, filter, and export. This is critical when we need to find the answers to questions about how many of such and such we have in our fleet.
  • Patch Management: We were using WSUS before and it was altogether too cumbersome. KACE has given us the power, flexibility, and verification we need to feel comfortable our patches are up-to-date.
  • Service Queue: We made KACE our help desk system and it does everything we need it to do. Great improvement over our old system.
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Cons
BMC Software Inc.
  • Customization can be lengthy due to the numerous features included in the software.
  • New staff members require some sort of hands-on training to get to know all the use capabilities.
  • The analytics can be improved to include forecasts and trend analysis.
  • Expensive compared to competitors.
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Quest
  • The KACE SMA needs a better way to handle different roles in the software so certain users can access or administrate certain parts of the software, but not the entire software installation.
  • The KACE SMA could improve the ticketing process of projects. The aspects of the title and some information do not always flow down from the parent ticket to its child tickets.
  • The KACE SMA could improve the UI of the software with the addition of different CSS color schemes.
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Likelihood to Renew
BMC Software Inc.
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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Quest
No answers on this topic
Usability
BMC Software Inc.
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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Quest
Overall, the software is simple to understand and use. That said, most vendors have been slowly updating their user interfaces to HTML5 so that they have a clean updated look and feel. This is where KACE falls short in that the UI is great for a packaged software 10 years ago. This isn't a major limitation as the software is really meant primarily for technology users.
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Reliability and Availability
BMC Software Inc.
for now we are satisfied. first two months 😉
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Quest
No answers on this topic
Performance
BMC Software Inc.
could be faster. db is slower from introducing postgresql
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Quest
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
BMC Software Inc.
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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Quest
KACE does exactly what you need it to do, it maintains your computer environment. You can set patch schedules, inventory computers, setup software catalogs; basically everything you need to ensure the computers on your network are being actively managed. This is all with little need for constant configuration or updating the setup.
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Online Training
BMC Software Inc.
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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Quest
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
BMC Software Inc.
Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!
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Quest
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
BMC Software Inc.
I did not select Remedy myself, so I am coming in from someone who is apart of the story, from somewhere in the midway. That being said: Remedy has begun a journey of understanding the problems associated with the implementation of ITIL, and indeed ITIL itself (it is a top-down process for management of an IT department). there are many alternatives out there. One, in particular, I am keen to investigate: Redmine. But in doing so, It will be evaluated via my experience with Remedy.
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Quest
We have selected this software because it rolls several different systems into one. We have a helpdesk system with this and an asset and inventory management system as well. We pay one price for the whole system instead of paying multiple companies different amounts that would have totaled more than we pay for the single system.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
BMC Software Inc.
unclear. lot of for less
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Quest
No answers on this topic
Scalability
BMC Software Inc.
Again, always room for improvement, but a very stable product none-the-less.
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Quest
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
BMC Software Inc.
  • The ROI was fine initially as we got what we paid for and it served its purpose
  • Over time, we got behind on releases due to limitations with customizations we made to the application. The product then became out of support and completely out of date, and we had to replace
  • Overall ROI was minimal and once the product was out of date we found more value in other tools
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Quest
  • KACE has saved us from having to spend several days of employee hours in crafting DVDs and duplicating them (100+ DVDs)
  • KACE has saved us on the postage required to send out those DVDs for every update (monthly) to all of our customers electronically
Read full review
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.