BMC Helix ITSM vs. Rocket DevOps

BMC is the obvious choice for medium—to large companies. With all the functionality included, most of it will be used by more prominent companies. The cost vs. use makes sense for them. For smaller companies, the high cost of license implementation and running costs usually make BMC too expensive. Having a light version for them could increase BMC's market share.

Incentivized

Rocket Aldon is perfect for simple changes to traditional IBM i development using RPGLE, CL, and DDS. It is great for finding related objects that are referenced in many locations and helping recompile all of these objects. However, Aldon has a particularly hard time with SQL views. For some reason, it is determined to lock every table related to a view even though this is not required by the operating system. Whenever one view references another view, you are always in danger of losing a view permanently if you didn't check it out and promote it. To clarify, imagine you created a view CUSTOMER_INFO. Then you make another view called CUSTOMER_SHIPMENTS that joins the CUSTOMER_INFO to a shipping table. If you ever change CUSTOMER_INFO and then promote it, there is a good chance that Aldon will delete the CUSTOMER_SHIPMENTS view and you will not get a single warning. It doesn't happen every time but when it does you are going to have a real mess on your hands.

Incentivized

• Remedy is great for housing much of the ITIL process in one System: if you want a complete package with every bell and every whistle, Remedy is for you
• Remedy breaks down the functions of ITIL into "consoles": separate areas of the System, that allow one to focus on Changes, Incidents, Assets, etc
• The interface is VERY compatible with legacy web browser tech: The last surviving member of the browser wars is still the favorite for remedy users: IE 11

Incentivized

• Software Change Management
• IBM i development
• Object relationships

Incentivized

• Expandability is limited and once you make certain customizations the upgrade process can become difficult or impossible
• Relationships between Configuration Items and Changes is clunky and difficult to setup/maintain
• Service Desk functionality is not as robust as other tools and does not allow for easy configurations/customizations

Incentivized

• Check-in checkout process can be cumbersome
• UI is crowded and not intuitive
• Requires in house expertise maintain and manage

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.

Based on current integration with our release process, we will need to keep this for the future.

Incentivized

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.

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.

Support is hit and miss. Sometimes they give some great assistance and sometimes they are no help at all. It always seems like they can't replicate the problem but then they never try to get on our system to do deeper research. It's kind of frustrating dealing with them. Also, the website isn't that helpful.

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

I was not a part of the initial implementation

Incentivized

As I mentioned, as an MSP we are exposed to most ITSM products on the marketplace. On completeness of offering, we find BMC ahead of the rest. The only other comparable product is ServiceNow, and functionality is neck and neck with BMC ahead in ITOM, and with ServiceNow pricing is premium for the branding and marketing

Incentivized

There are not a lot of CMS solutions for the IBM i server. Midrange Dynamics MDCMS is definitely one to consider. It seems very similar to Aldon Rocket and has a lot more functionality. I haven't used it but I have been to a demo and it looks promising. It seems a lot more intuitive and the promotions seem easier. However, that was a demo environment and even then it crashed so there's that to consider....

Incentivized

the product is,probably, really scalable. however as it is in cloud,this theme isn't of our interest anymore

Incentivized

• With the KPIs exported and reviewed semi-annually or quarterly the management can spot and attend to root causes affecting operations.
• No more missed or forgotten tickets for work orders by the team - increased efficiency and performance.
• Approvals hierarchy enforces controlled change management and responsible actions.

Incentivized

• Software promotion is much easier and doesn't require custom coding.
• Developers can work collaboratively with less overlap.
• Developers can find objects faster and research code more thoroughly.

Incentivized