BMC FootPrints vs. JAMS

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BMC FootPrints
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
BMC FootPrints is an IT service management (ITSM) solution featuring workload automation.N/A
JAMS
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
JAMS is a centralized workload automation and job scheduling solution that runs, monitors, and manages jobs and workflows. Reliably orchestrate the critical IT processes that run your business from a single pane of glass.N/A
Pricing
BMC FootPrintsJAMS
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BMC FootPrintsJAMS
Free Trial
NoYes
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 FootPrintsJAMS
Considered Both Products
BMC FootPrints
Chose BMC FootPrints
Both are developed from the same vendor but Footprints is so complete for all the configurations that we need (we are a medium business company). BMC Remedy has a little more friendly interface but it doesn't meet our needs. We prefer a product that fits better our needs to a …
Chose BMC FootPrints
I did not chose the program it was chosen and implemented by our IT team. Based on verified reviews from real users in the IT Service Management Tools market.
Chose BMC FootPrints
We have not evaluated any other software up against BMC FootPrints.
Chose BMC FootPrints
We haven't used any others besides this one, but we did evaluate BMC Remedyforce, SysAid, and ServiceNow. Remedyforce and ServiceNow seem much more advanced and difficult to use, though I'm sure they are probably much more feature-rich once you get used to them, but the …
Chose BMC FootPrints
I was not involved in the selection process but in my opinion either SQL or Access databases would have worked just as well without the same amount of cost. These two systems would have been much easier to manage and would have tracked the same information in a less convoluted …
Chose BMC FootPrints
I didn't select FootPrints. It is what the current company chose. I would much rather use JIRA and Confluence.
Chose BMC FootPrints
I did not select BMC footprints in my previous role and I am not sure what dictated that decision.
Chose BMC FootPrints
We already had Footprints deployed when I started, and we have not done any evaluation in the last seven years.
Chose BMC FootPrints
We only used an in house built system before and this blows everything the old software was capable of out of the water.
Chose BMC FootPrints
We have evaluated multiple including HEAT and ServiceNow. Their older versions gave us more to play with and able to use more, but since going to version 11, it has been very unfavorable. We have had to adapt and work with what was provided. We have understood that ServiceNow …
Chose BMC FootPrints
BMC offers vast functionality, that also can be overwhelming. If proper training and execution of its bolts and parts are completed properly, this tool can provide the efficiency and tracking that a Enterprise Business requires.
Chose BMC FootPrints
If you are looking for something for a large corporation, BMC Footprints may be the fit for any department that needs to communicate/resolve issues across other departments. It is great for a large amount of users, but because of its focus on issue logging, it is limited when …
Chose BMC FootPrints
I was not the one who selected Footprints.
Chose BMC FootPrints
We liked it because it has more features and a better price and its not cloud based.
JAMS
Chose JAMS
Our developers found it easier to get going with JAMS and there seemed to be better calendar and scheduling options available in JAMS. JAMS also supported legacy OS versions that were unsupported and did not work in Automic. This was a vital requirement in selecting a solution …
Chose JAMS
I have not researched other workload automation products.
Chose JAMS
Tidal is a very good scheduler but very expensive and customers can't budget for this. REvScheduler is a lot cheaper but the interface isn't very aesthetics and functionality is lacking compared to JAMS. Out of all of them I'd recommend JAMS.
Chose JAMS
In my opinion, while JAMS is useful for point and click like developers, Astro is more useful for software developers, whole like to see "scheduling as code". in the long run, I think Astro might overtake JAMS in terms of usage and use cases that it satisfies across the tech …
Chose JAMS
JAMS was much more cost-effective and easier to use. JAMS allowed us to centralize our job scheduling more fully. Converting from our previous, very limited scheduler to JAMS would be far more accessible than Automox.
Chose JAMS
N/A. I don't have any experience with different Job Management Software. Since JAMS is capable of doing most of our daily operations, we didn't look for other software. I can say that JAMS perfectly fits with us and with our clients. I've only heard about Direct M, which, based …
Chose JAMS
We switched from Automic Automation. JAMS is so much easier to implement, patch, upgrade, and push agents. It takes more steps to conduct activities in JAMS than in UC4.
Chose JAMS
I had evaluated 2 others in 2010/2011, but I do not remember their names. This was the easier one to work with and had a better looking, sometimes more professional looking UI than what I was evaluating. JAMS was more scaleable and had the ability to make custom interfaces to …
Chose JAMS
Mainly i've been using SQL Agent jobs in my career. JAMS takes scheduling a bit further. For instance, i would rather not have SQL Server run a job that is performing an SFTP step. Waste of resources and a job like that is well suited for JAMS
Chose JAMS
I might've used other scheduling mechanisms (such as in SQL Server), but JAMS, although with more 'moving pieces', is way more flexible.
Chose JAMS
JAMS is easier to use, provides more features and was easier to manage form a central location. simple features in JAMS were missing from VisualCron such as a projected daily schedule. The install setup with a client and agents was better suited for us too
Chose JAMS
It's just different. The views are different, how you set it up is different. It's not good or bad, just different. I think JAMS offers more options when it comes to how jobs run. Like you can use sequence, or setup a job to run based on a number of different dependencies.
Chose JAMS
While Redwood offers a modern UI, JAMS is much easier to use. For basic operations, it's simple to create a job and schedule it. For those with more experience, JAMS offers much more robust features to take advantage of.
Chose JAMS
We use Kace also because it has an agent on every machine, so tasks that push out installations tend to go there. I'm not sure if Jams can do that, but if it does it's not clear that it does.
Chose JAMS
While visualcron provided more guardrails and user centric GUI, JAMS had a better resiliency functions with their clustering and service polling and failovers. We tested this and were able to maintain a large library of jobs and data the seamlessly switches between data …
Features
BMC FootPrintsJAMS
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
BMC FootPrints
8.1
Ratings
0% below category average
JAMS
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Service restoration6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Self-service tools7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM reports and dashboards9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM asset management
Comparison of ITSM asset management features of Product A and Product B
BMC FootPrints
7.9
Ratings
4% below category average
JAMS
-
Ratings
Configuration mangement7.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Asset management dashboard8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy and contract enforcement8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Change management
Comparison of Change management features of Product A and Product B
BMC FootPrints
9.0
Ratings
7% above category average
JAMS
-
Ratings
Change requests repository9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Change calendar9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Service-level management9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Workload Automation
Comparison of Workload Automation features of Product A and Product B
BMC FootPrints
-
Ratings
JAMS
8.0
Ratings
3% below category average
Multi-platform scheduling00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Central monitoring00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Logging00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Alerts and notifications00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Analysis and visualization00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Application integration00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BMC FootPrintsJAMS
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Apache Airflow
Apache Airflow
Score 8.6 out of 10
Enterprises
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus
Score 9.2 out of 10
Redwood RunMyJobs
Redwood RunMyJobs
Score 9.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BMC FootPrintsJAMS
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.6
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.9
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BMC FootPrintsJAMS
Likelihood to Recommend
Tracing any maintenance requests, so you don't forget any requests, it also sends an email to the requestor once the project is completed. Keeping status of projects in progress and the current state they are in. Allowing anyone with access to know the current state of any project. Generating a useful report is a bit more difficult then I would like.
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It's currently one of the best of the lower entry cost options out there, as it currently is a set license cost, not based on the number of jobs executed. In the hands of a good script writer and users with workflow experience, it's a powerful tool to accomplish just about any process that you have a need to complete.
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Pros
  • Documentation. We try to reduce the amount of paperwork needed for staff to do their job, so by automating certain tasks, we are able to speed up the resolution process for trouble tickets.
  • Reporting. We'll use the reporting tool to get the number of tickets opened, response times and can go into granular reports.
  • Surveys. When tickets are closed, we automatically send out surveys to end users to get valuable feedback on how we did and what we can improve.
Read full review
  • The Activity Monitor clearly shows the Running Jobs, and Jobs that are to run soon. Successful Jobs can be viewed as well. The Refresh of this monitor is completely customizable to your liking.
  • Job Definitions are very well organized by use of Folders. This simplifies the structure of how to best Implement JAMS Jobs, including the ability to provide specific properties on each folder - whereby Jobs will inherit these properties.
  • Connectivity to servers is well thought out by having Shortcuts to include Credentials and Connection Store for server information.
  • JAMS Jobs can be controlled via System Resources. This is very powerful and is a very useful configuration found in JAMS.
Read full review
Cons
  • Purpose based configuration- It would be beneficial to see a more purposed based, out of the box, configuration option. For example, if you need PCI compliance, more intuitive reporting would make managing compliance much easier.
  • Initial design and implementation- Don't think that your experience as an IT professional will allow you to stand this system up on your own. To properly configure Footprints and set yourself up for success down the road, get Professional Services with this one.
  • Somewhat behind the times- Service Core is making a huge leap forward with the latest version, 12, but Asset Core is far behind. There are quite a few quirks to how the application works and how it is used.
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  • It would be very helpful if the application had the ability to display help text based on where the cursor is hovering on the screen. There are many times when a brief explanation of an on-screen prompt would be very handy. For example, when you attempt to Cancel a job from the Monitor, you are presented with the checkbox that says "Reprocess completion?" It would be very nice if you could hover over the prompt and see a pop-up help screen that explains what happens if you check this checkbox. The same applies to all the checkbox options presented when you attempt to "Release" a job from the Monitor.
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Likelihood to Renew
It has been the business decision to go with them and that is what we will do. Going back, this would have not been the choice, but nothing can be done about it now. We are stuck with this application for years to come. Wish there were other possibilities that could be done.
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We have built JAMS into our scheduling process. Its a great scheduling tool. I'm not 100% on the execution side as we have had issues with what i'll refer to as compatibility issues with ssis variables, but it executes sql agent jobs perfectly, so when i have an issue i create a sql agent job and have JAMS execute the sql agent job on the schedule from JAMS
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Usability
It's so simple to use and customize however you want. You can create new workspaces and workflows with ease, set up new users, incoming email rules, customize the layout of the forms, and even change the colors and logos. It's just very easily customizable overall. It's also really straightforward to figure out how to use, you really almost don't have to show somebody how to use it. If you just sit them down in front of it and let them look it over, they could figure it out themselves easily.
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9/10 as there are so many features I have not tried as of yet. It is easy to get started but as jobs become more complex you tend to employ more and more features - Some of which can be complicated at first. This all comes down to experience using the system. Out first setup and current setup are vastly different as we learn how to use the full power.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
We didnt really encounter any downtime, no issues encountered during 2 years of use of JAMs also our client barely raise an issue with JAMS, mostly the issues is on the batch jobs that jams executes. So I would gave it a perfect 10, very reliable hardly encounters any error and bug
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Performance
No answers on this topic
JAMS performance is very great, there are no issues raised with the performance, it just like nothing happens on the job after integration it gives you this monitoring capability, no reports and bugs raised on the performance, we didnt do integration with other software only database and with use of JAMS agent to different servers
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Support Rating
I've had no issues with the support for FootPrints. We haven't really had to use them all that much over the years, but when needed they have always been prompt and knowledgeable at dealing with any issue. I've worked with a lot of different support teams over the years, and they have been one of my favorites to work with.
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I am giving support an 11, the turn around time is insane. At times I get a reply in minutes. The directions to fix are precise and easy to follow. They are personable and friendly and never treat me less than they would a fortune 500 company (which I am not one of).
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
People that were involved in the POC found the training a lot easier to follow. I think most people would have preferred to just get the training material and run through themselves.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
I Was not part of the original Implementation, and the persons did that are no longer with the Organization. But I was part of the recent Upgrade process a year ago and I am the JAMS admin and was very pleased
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Alternatives Considered
Both are developed from the same vendor but Footprints is so complete for all the configurations that we need (we are a medium business company). BMC Remedy has a little more friendly interface but it doesn't meet our needs. We prefer a product that fits better our needs to a product that could have other features that we are not going to use.
Read full review
We chose JAMS because it was the best solution for our business needs, a major factor being the licensing model and the simplicity of the app. We needed to migrate things fast too and this was simply plug and play without too much headache
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
By installing Agents on servers throughout the organizations, you can run a DB Script on a DB Server, move files around the network and kick off jobs on servers in different parts of the organization: JAMS Runs on its own server, isolated from others. Through an agent on a Processing Server (work Server) files can be picked up, processed and moved to a destination server to be processed into another application on another server. You don't need an agent if you are just moving files around, you need an agent if you want to run a process or API Call on the destination server.
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Return on Investment
  • When properly implemented, "BMC Footprints" can lead to "employee efficiency and better customer service"
  • It is a large and overwhelming tool, if the users are not trained properly and use it throughout their daily tasks.
  • Help Desk module is definitely well built and easy to work with
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  • SOX auditing has been part automated saving days of work for the people involved.
  • The ability for jobs to react to different failure values has enabled us to do away with overnight human monitoring ultimately contributing to saving us in the 6 figures.
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ScreenShots

JAMS Screenshots

Screenshot of the Visual Job Editor - a drag and drop editor for tasks is used to build multistep workflows that include dependencies, user input, parallel processes, and triggers.Screenshot of the Centralized Job Repository - here users store job definitions, schedules, and parameters in one central database.Screenshot of the Job Monitor - this displays the status of jobs and workloads from one central monitoring console. Viewers can drill down on individual jobs to diagnose failures, dependencies, and expected completion times.Screenshot of a Dashboard - Here, users can create data-rich visuals to monitor critical batch jobs and workflows running on various agents and on different business applications.Screenshot of the Centralized Job Repository - Stores job definitions, schedules, and parameters in a central database.