BMC Helix ITSM vs. Symantec IT Management Suite

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.

Incentivized

The Symantec IT Management Suite is used throughout the company (global). It is efficient and reports via email any type of problem found, from threats to attacks. The update on the clients is carried out without being noticed. When the system is doing some sort of scan, older computers are slow. Other than that, I believe it is an ideal software for monitoring the entire infrastructure.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• End to end workstation imaging with a 45 minute average for OS, drivers and base software with only 1 technician touch to name the workstation.
• Application usage reporting on what software is being used and how much - broken down by site, department and user.
• 5% of managed workstations were patched.
• IT lifecycle reports were automated with live inventory feeds to enable purchase reports.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Increased memory consumption
• Older machines can not support the program

Incentivized

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.

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.

I am bit biased after using Symantec ITSM for 10 plus years. However, I found its ability to wrap everything into one console for at a view enterprise health a powerful tool for my department and others. The ability to provide self healing of software packages to workstations was especially powerful. The ability to customize data connections to other tools and automate those inputs and outputs let us provide the business data to support enterprise decisions on Hardware and software usage.

Incentivized

for now we are satisfied. first two months 😉

Incentivized

could be faster. db is slower from introducing postgresql

Incentivized

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.

With the Blue Coat acquisition the question remains on how much support Symantec is going to give the ITSM suite. Its just not that sexy anymore to have to support a product that touches all the hardware anymore. A few of the really good support reps have gone the way of private which is very concerning.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

We evaluated Norton and Kaspersky, we chose Symantec to provide more options and more guarantees. In addition, we have used the tool for more than 10 years in the company (the time I am working). It has an interface with all monitoring data and statistics. A specific display of each piece of connected equipment in the network, making monitoring easy and, in case of a threat, it notifies us.

Incentivized

unclear. lot of for less

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• 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

Incentivized

• Reduction of virus infections
• Greater clarity in the reports
• Monitoring the network and infra

Incentivized