Jira vs BMC Helix ITSM Compared 2023

Are you looking to improve marketing and sales opportunities? According to Salesforce, quality customer service would be the way to achieve this business goal.

If your organization finds delivering a positive user experience a challenge, there are customer service solutions like Jira and BMC Helix ITSM available.

By utilizing IT help desk outsource, you can implement ITSM practices, centralize your workspace, and enhance efficiency through collaboration tools and integrations.

Today, we will be focusing on Jira and BMC Helix ITSM, understanding their features, how they help, the services offered, and how well they fare against one another.

Jira Service Management is a product offered by Atlassian. It empowers the service desk teams to deliver positive user experiences. Following the ITSM processes, the product offers modules like incident, request, change, and problem management.

You can optimize service portals with smart forms. You can integrate with third-party tools or build custom add-ons. Some of the popular integrations are Google, Salesforce, AWS, and Microsoft.

You can make the most of the free trial offered to explore Jira’s capabilities and decide if the product works for your service desk needs.

BMC Helix ITSM is a service management product offered by BMC. The product leverages AI and automation to offer predictive ITSM.

It provides centralized management across multi-cloud environments. It provides service agents with the necessary tools to quickly identify and resolve issues.

BMC Helix ITSM offers automatic task bundling, proactive change and risk management, and personalized dashboards. The product is also available for a free trial.

Let us explore some consideration factors to understand which customer service solution would be best suited for your organization.

In terms of deployment, Jira is much easier to set up than BMC Helix ITSM.

On the Atlassian website, you can find several resources that can help you with deployment. For example, product documentation is available under the Support section. Jira offers role-specific guides to get started with the product.

Jira also offers Enterprise services for large teams. You can seek help from partners and dedicated managers for setup and scaling processes.

On the other hand, BMC Helix ITSM can be challenging to set up initially. However, they do provide extensive product documentation.

Further, BMC offers deployment services. You can connect with an expert to deploy solutions relevant to your use cases.

Jira is a fairly easy tool to use, but users will need training and hands-on experience to get comfortable. The functionality, customizations, and integrations can be overwhelming for new users. With experience, though, the tool gets easier to use.

BMC Helix ITSM also offers a similar user experience. The tool is highly customizable. So initially, setting up the tool and training employees on its functionalities will take time. Once the customizations are in place, using BMC Helix ITSM gets relatively easier.

Small and medium-sized companies can use Jira and BMC Helix ITSM. Large organizations can also employ them.

Jira has a better market reach in companies sized around the $50 million to $1 billion mark. BMC Helix ITSM, in comparison, has a better market reach in companies sized around the $1 billion to over $10 billion mark.

You can use Jira as a cloud offering. However, if you want to manage the infrastructure independently, opt for the data center plan. Jira can also be accessed using mobile apps.

BMC Helix ITSM is available as a cloud-based offering, on-premise deployment, or as a hybrid solution.

Jira has the upper hand when it comes to integrations. Jira supports over 100 integrations, whereas BMC Helix supports over 70 integrations.

Visit the Atlassian Marketplace to view the complete list of integrations offered. Some of the top apps for Jira Service Management are:

• Microsoft 365
• ScriptRunner
• Xray Test Management
• Zephyr Squad
• Time to SLA
• Power BI Connector

To access the list of integrations supported by BMC Helix ITSM, navigate to the Partners section on their website. You can get the list under the Integrations & Connectors section. Some of the noteworthy integrations are:

• PMG
• Kinetic Data
• Planview
• Fusion GBS
• Jira
• Azure DevOps

Jira offers different pricing plans depending on the service type and the number of users. For example, if you opt for the cloud, the four pricing plans offered are:

• Free
• Standard
• Premium
• Enterprise

If we consider ten users, the Standard plan can cost $7.75 per user, whereas the Premium plan can cost $15.25 per user. Enterprise plans are customized as per user requirements.

BMC Helix ITSM does not publish product prices on its website. Instead, you can request pricing by providing your name, company information, and requirement. Someone from BMC’s sales team will reach out. You can also directly call them and talk to sales.

With its Standard and Premium plans, you can explore the Jira software for free. They are available as a free trial for 7 days. If you opt for a data center plan, it is available as a free trial for 30 days.

On BMC’s homepage, you will find the ‘Free Trials and Demos’ section at the top. You can request for a free trial of the BMC Helix ITSM offering here. You will have to provide details like name, company, and country. The online trial license is valid for a 30-day time period.

Jira provides several learning materials that can help users understand their products and get certified. You can visit Atlassian University to get started. You can start with free training about Atlassian tools. Then you can explore on-demand courses offered for $39.

Jira offers learning paths that can help you get Atlassian certified. You can take certification bundle courses for $100.

You can access BMC Helix ITSM’s learning resources under the Education & Certification tab. You can find links to the education catalog, BMC Academy, learning paths, and certification courses.

The courses are delivered through web-based training, instructor-led, self-paced, and videos. You can explore courses on the basis of roles like User, Developer, Administrator, and Operator, among others.

Both Jira and BMC Helix ITSM offer well-structured and content-rich user learning materials.

Jira offers self-service and agent-assisted support. If you are looking for self-help options, you can find them under the Support section on Jira’s homepage. You can find product documentation, FAQs, bug reports, and feature suggestions on the Atlassian Support portal.

On the Atlassian Community, you can ask product-related questions, browse recent activity, or join groups of your interest.

Agent-assisted support depends on your pricing plan. For example, with a Standard plan, you get 9 hours of technical support from Monday to Friday. But in the case of the Enterprise plan, you get 24/7 tech support.

BMC Helix ITSM also provides self-help resources and support via service agents. Under the ‘Support & Services’ section, you can find links to documentation, knowledge base, videos, support blogs, and BMC Communities.

BMC Helix ITSM provides base and premier-level support. With a base level, you get comprehensive support 24/7. Web, email, and phone channels are open for severity one issues.

The premier level is further divided into gold and foundation. You get benefits like faster issue resolution, higher availability, and risk mitigation.

Jira Service Management is rated 4.4 out of 5, with 841 user ratings. According to Gartner, some of the highly rated product features are user experience, knowledge management, service reporting, and multichannel engagement. 82% of customers would recommend using Jira.

BMC Helix ITSM is also rated 4.4 out of 5, with 162 user ratings. According to Gartner, some of the top-rated product features are IT support enablement, development integration, adaptive change, and release and service configuration. 80% of customers would recommend using BMC Helix ITSM.

Customer service is a factor that can help differentiate your brand in the marketplace. Good customer service can help retain customers, build a community, and increase sales.

Whether you are in the process of setting up a help desk or optimizing or scaling the team, Jira and BMC Helix ITSM are solutions that can help.

We hope the comparison factors explored aid your decision-making process.