ITSM Tools: BMC Helix vs. ServiceNow

The modern organization is dependent on its information technology (IT) infrastructure. If core IT systems and services are unavailable for just a few moments, chaos may ensue. 

Your IT team is responsible for the end-to-end management of any piece of technology you use at the workplace, be it a laptop, the applications installed on it or a printer. It is nearly impossible to provide these IT services manually, given the scale at which enterprise IT infrastructure is growing to meet growing consumer needs. 

Most organizations implement meticulous Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) tools to manage, support, deliver, create, and design the lifecycle of IT services and ensure these services remain online and fully functional. 

Several organizations use help desk software to perform some ITSM functions, in spite of the fact that the software is not particularly designed for ITSM; since modern IT services are generally quite complicated, today’s ITSM tools offer more than 600 unique functionality points to support them.

The features of ITSM tools include:

• License management
• Asset management
• IT service model ready
• Ticketing
• Problem and incident management

In this guide, we will survey all you need to know about BMC Helix and ServiceNow.

Also read: The Growing Relevance of Hyperautomation in ITOps

BMC Helix Overview

BMC Helix ITSM helps you act, predict, prioritize, and innovate with intelligent automation to be more productive, work smarter, and continually deliver high-performing, uninterrupted service and digital experiences. 

With the ITSM tool, you can propel innovation with agile service management, modernize user experience, lower business execution risk, and deliver desired business outcomes rapidly.  

BMC Helix Features

• Create and resolve incidents quickly with intelligent, proactive and context-aware incident matching. You can implement advanced service analytics to recognize where to drive efficiencies. A modern, persona-based user interface (UI) enables ease of use and helps maximize productivity. 
• Authorize natural language, formless data entry of tickets. 
• The ITSM solution leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to detect clusters of recurring incidents for streamlining problem management and intuitive analysis. This enables you to focus on high-value problematic areas and automate manual problem management processes that are tedious in nature while reducing costs. 
• Fully integrated, intelligent knowledge management capabilities help deliver accurate, prompt service and support. 
• BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker delivers a seamless, secure service experience across multi-cloud infrastructures.
• You can create custom dashboards and reports and visualize data about Capacity, Events, Metrics, Chatbox Conversations, Service Requests, Changes and Incidents. The ITSM tool includes more than one hundred out-of-the-box visualizations. 
• BMC Helix ITSM ensures governance and compliance and enables agile development and operations (DevOps) organizations to maximize the overall quality and delivery of service. 
• The BMC Helix Digital Workspace enables organizations to improve the customer experience, employee productivity and workforce agility by unifying and connecting systems through a flexible, consumer-like UI. 
• The ITSM solution provides complete lifecycle management of IT resources, from purchase to end-of-life. 
• BMC Helix ITSM also offers service request management (SRM) and service level management (SLM).  

ServiceNow Overview

ServiceNow ITSM is a modern, cloud-based, silo-busting ITSM tool that enables you to consolidate on-premises legacy tools to a solitary cloud platform in a cost-effective manner. You can leverage analytics and shared data with automated workflows on the Now Platform, platform-native AI and machine learning (ML) and natural language virtual agent chatbots. 

The ITSM tool’s features enable you to unburden and boost the productivity of IT staff. 

ServiceNow Features

• With Incident Management’s ML, you can automatically assign incidents to the right resolution group.
• You can automate common changes with DevOps capabilities and complex changes with Change Advisory Board (CAB) Workbench. 
• With Problem Management, you can prevent the happening of issues and rapidly restore services. 
• You can integrate IT data silos into a solitary system of record to let IT staff see the functioning of all systems and services.  
• Use data visualizations to prioritize resources, anticipate trends, and drive IT alignment with your business goals. 
• With Continual Improvement Management (CIM) structured framework and workflow, you can prioritize and collaborate business goals, people and data to manage strategic IT roadmap investments. 
• With Service Portfolio Workspace, you can analyze and track service performance using data from ServiceNow and third-party applications in a unified view. 
• With Vendor Manager Workspace, you can analyze and track vendor performance in a consolidated view.
• Natural language virtual agents and Agent Workspace help unburden IT staff and boost their productivity. 
• Predictive Intelligence’s AI-assisted recommendations enable you to identify, track and resolve high-impact incidents and improve efficiency. 
• With SLM, you can gain visibility into your IT team’s performance and set business expectations. 
• You can use, manage and share knowledge from across the organization and make it easily available for private or shared use by IT staff and employees. 
• Other features include mobile agent, Request Management, Now Mobile, embedded experiences, walk-up experience, process optimization, workforce optimization, Dynamic Translation, Asset Management, benchmarks, reports and dashboards. 

BMC Helix vs. ServiceNow

We compared both IT Service Management tools on a head-to-head basis: 

Comparing BMC Helix and ServiceNow

BMC Helix ITSM is an IT Service Management tool for the modern enterprise that implements intelligent automation to deliver predictive, intelligent, and innovative service management. 

The ITSM tool’s features include incident and problem management, proactive problem management, knowledge management, BMC Helix Multi-Cloud Broker, insights, change release management, digital workspace, asset management, CMDB, SRM and SLM. 

ServiceNow ITSM is a sophisticated, cloud-based, silo-busting service management tool that improves employee and customer experiences for successful digital transformation. The solution’s features include incident management, change management, problem management, CMDB, performance analytics, CIM, Service Portfolio Workspace, Vendor Manager Workspace, virtual agent, Agent Workspace, predictive intelligence, SLM, and knowledge management.  

Go through the features of both IT Service Management software in detail and purchase the solution that most closely meets the needs of your organization.

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