BMC Helix Remedyforce vs. Ivanti Neurons for ITSM

[BMC Helix Remedyforce] is probably best suited for an MSP who needs to keep multiple clients separated. If you were an internal IT department I think the additional features it has would be lost. When dealing with an MSP who needs to know what software and what issues have effected specific clients it is very well suited to do that.

Incentivized

We have been able to integrate our ISM system with Active Directory using API calls to automate user account creation and user Moves, Adds, and Changes. This has helped us make the employee onboarding and offboarding process much more efficient and less error prone. We cut down on mundane work for the account creation team and freed them to do more tier 2 and 3 tasks. Where the system has been less appropriate for us is trying to integrate non-IT service processes. We haven't gotten a lot of buy-in from groups that aren't used to using an IT related system to receive tasks. It will take some time for us to make a more user friendly, non-IT, Support role.

• An admin user is able to quickly create a request definition with all of its components from one screen. We use to have to go to the 7 or 8 different screens to create each piece of the request definition.
• Ability to update multiple Incidents/Service Requests at once with the update button. This allows essentially an inline edit functionality within Remedyforce.
• Change management schedule is a great feature as well to be able to see how changes align and what there expected start dates/times are.

• Very good at allowing a service line to configure the product to suit its needs. This is important so as to not have to craft operations around the technology, but the other way around!
• A high level of flexibility to implement a great deal of automation. The product gives end users access to pre-defined or custom business rules and workflows as well as the ability to implement other forms of time savers!
• There is a very comprehensive Help guide for end users and administrators alike. Quite often I have found the most obscure 'How To's' in this guide rather than needing to call into support or search out information on the Ivanti site.

Incentivized

• The ability to monitor/regulate the volume of tickets when you integrate with your monitoring software. We have so many items that trigger alerts, creating a ticket for each is somewhat overwhelming. Would like to be able to better control when an incident should be created.
• Being able to report on Service requests and tasks together would be nice. Right now I have to do it separately as they are in different buckets, so to speak.
• Remedy console is an improvement from where it started but can still be a cleaner interface for a tech to be able to work out of for their day to day work.

• Had a little trouble sending some files remotely a few times, but it could have been on our end.
• The system was a little different from what we were used to. We had to drill down into the program a bit more than expected.
• We couldn't tell if some of our older machines were having problems with it, or if it was the program itself.

Incentivized

The total amount of time spent from installation to configuration for a minimal ticketing system was 2 hours. Maintenance and customization for the application can be completed with a great amount of ease. In addition having a customer portal is an added benefit that pays for itself

Incentivized

We are fully committed to this system. After customizing it for the past 3 years we have no plans to change

Incentivized

There's two sides to answering this question. From an Agent/Admin perspective, it's great. You can do a lot of really cool things and have a lot of options and tools available to you. From a customer perspective, you're not quite as spoilt for choice. Ivanti has been working on and improving their new mobile-responsive customer interface but in doing so have really limited the features they allow admins to configure. We've found this limiting but not unworkable. I hope this continues to improve.

They care about your success.

Incentivized

Support has been amazing. They are knowledgeable, respectful, efficient, and friendly. When something doesn't go according to plan, they go above and beyond to make sure your issues are resolved. I have come to think of them as an extension of my team!

Incentivized

Learning industry best practices or gaining insight on them from either BMC or an implementation partner would have saved some headaches we faced after roll-out.

Incentivized

I previously worked with tools like Service Manager which were difficult to configure, administer and maintain. The support options were very limited. Remedyforce has local US support, dedicated reps, and a more developed infrastructure to work from to support an organization. This runs on the Salesforce platform so worrying about server failures and unscheduled outages was no longer going to be an issue for us. Self service, knowledge base, and change control were just a few highly utilized features that helped employees support themselves and automate very manual processes.

Ivanti is far more user friendly than ManageEngine, and has more features than Jira Service Management. It takes longer to get used to Ivanti because of the extra features, but once you're on board with how it works and how to make changes, the possibilities and configuration options are almost endless

Incentivized

On-premises vs being in Ivanti's Cloud is about 3-5 times the cost.

Incentivized

There are many companies for you to choose from. Many have expertise in specific areas. I highly recommend making sure you find one that can work for your specific project needs and then be willing to go in a different direction if needed. There are a few companies that have the personnel to cover everyone's basis but truthfully not many.

Incentivized

• Remedyforce has allowed us to eliminate other solutions that provided similar features. By now using one true ITSM we have been able to save money which in higher education is always a concern.
• The reports and dashboards allow for a birds-eye view of our daily operations and provide managers and executives the information they need to make important cost saving decisions.

• In the Classroom Support department, this has provided a quick access system available via tablet for technicians on the go and has improved response time.
• In the Helpdesk, this has assisted in the automation of repetitive tasks and assisted with providing better accountability for the completion of an assigned task.