BMC Helix ITSM (Remedy) vs. OpenText Service Manager

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.

HP Service Manager (HPSM) is well suited for a big company and it does the job that it's intended to do but it's not perfect. It has a fairly large learning curve for searching Knowledge Management (KMs) and it takes time to learn how to be fast at creating/resolving tickets while on calls. I have been using HPSM for about 2 years now and we recently moved from the desk client to the web client and we are seeing a lot more issues than we did with the desk client. They keep coming out with updates for it so eventually most of our issues will hopefully be resolved. Overall the web experience is better as it looks more modern than what we used in the past.

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

• Capacity management like maintaining CI's and their relations is good.
• Approvals with HPSM is a cake walk and quite logical.
• There is no wait for troubleshooting or help, HPSM tech help is always there.

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

• When you search Knowledge Articles, it is not like Google, and you need to learn how to search for what you need.
• It takes a very long time to close tickets in HPSM. Here are the steps to close a ticket. 1. Add notes. 2. Add KM 3. Click Resolve 4.Click Save 5.Click Close 6.Click Okay to Message (ticket has recently been modified) 7. Click Close.
• It's slow and sometimes crashes/freezes and you lose all the information you may have entered. I usually use notepad++ to gather all my notes and paste them into HPSM.
• When searching previous tickets the preview pane does not allow for sorting by date to have the most recent at the very top every time you pull up previous tickets. Sometimes there are pages and pages of previous tickets and you have to click and scroll to get what you need.
• I click on search KMs and it takes me to a blank page and I have to click the back button which then brings me to the search KM page.

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.

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.

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

Satisfied because I didn't have to do it!

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

[We selected HP Service Manager because] HPSM is reliable.

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

• We take anywhere from between 850-1400 calls a day and overall the whole opening tickets to close process goes pretty smoothly.

Incentivized