Over the past five years, I have architected ITSM solutions, inclusive of BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps, on several federal agencies type of solutions. As a solution architect, I conducted assessment of current conditions, wrote proposals and operational plans of how to utilize the solution across certain spectrums of supporting those agencies and reducing the MTTRs and finding additional guidance in encompassing ITSM, service desk, and also improving the overall operational posture.

We have different scenarios regarding how BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps is deployed in my organization. We do not have BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps at my personal own organization, but we deliver the solution based on client requirements at the federal space. As I mentioned, the feedback has been consistently very positive from project managers and program managers reporting back to the headquarters. We have seen good positive traction on features and metrics and overall performance, supporting directly and indirectly certain criteria in the federal space. So we have been very happy, but we do not have an existing need for BMC capabilities at that level, being a small business without the criteria of utilizing such capabilities. However, we deploy and manage and support large environments at the federal space in many different agencies.

The idea of going through modernization efforts across the federal agency has been the flagship of interest across the federal government since maybe 2018 until today, and this is a continuous focus at the federal space. Given the specific spectrum of modernizing a specific environment, it had us look into the current number of tickets, the quantitative analysis behind the rationale or the root cause of many different types of problems that created patterns or created performance bottlenecks, causing delays. Given the criteria of interest of applying or maturing through the journey of implementing Zero Trust Architecture, for example, it gave us the opportunity to utilize BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps as the fundamental foundation to come close to those modernization efforts, bringing more availability of data points, accessibility, reducing the 404 error messages across the network, identifying areas of continuous focus and continuous improvements. It really created a lot more agility and also in deployment of new applications that other development teams have been working on through the other spectrum or the other pillars of modernization efforts.

Reducing the MTTR has really been the focal point with BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps. Having to reach a point of recovery, improving the tier zero tickets where users are finding it easier utilizing MFA, not through just emails, but also through phone and mobile phones, and what have you. It became a somewhat easier way to bring accessibility into a faster turnaround. Tier zero tickets have been really an area where we utilized chatbots. That is where AIOps of BMC capabilities brought additional closure for those users to utilize the automated ticketing and finding a quick resolution, having to avoid running into a queue and then follow up and back and forth type of reactive work. It also brought us into a more proactive spectrum of really reducing the number of tickets across the environment, reducing the MTTR in general, identifying areas where we bring availability of resources faster, given the spectrum of integrated microservices architecture. Having moved many of those agencies to the cloud in the past several years, the integrative nature of capabilities across BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps solution had granted us the flexibility and the agility to do so.

As I mentioned, the ease of flexibility, the ease of accessibility for users in terms of the tier zero tickets, the agility of deployment granted across different resources, and the integrative nature of working in the cloud with BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps all these features really brought more business confidence to the operational spectrum that we were managing. It reflected a great image for us as a vendor working with the federal space. We have been commended by many task managers and enterprise stakeholders on how well the solution delivered quality output. The reporting reflected a lot of different improvements in many different areas where the capabilities reside. It also made the data residency and the restrictive nature of accessibility somewhat more of an addressed type of requirement, given the spectrum of Zero Trust Architecture being implemented gradually and reaching several maturity points or milestones, giving us another layer of continuous improvements that we got commended on.

Definitely, the integrative nature of easing and supporting the agility of deployment of new applications, given the spectrum of having the government work on many legacy systems over the past couple of decades, given the maturity of cybersecurity, are the best features BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps offers.

BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps helped us bring the attack surface to a minimal. Zero Trust Architecture has been a long common term that many people discussed and provided different aspects of how and why and mainly all the W's, such as why, how, and whom and all that. Overall, BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps had brought us into more agile dynamics that helped us improve the security posture as well.

Cost reduction has been the main business driver or area of interest, having us to be a vendor with the government residing in many different agencies for more than a decade with BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps. It did improve our image as a vendor that is focused on not only bringing excellence type of spectrum to the operations, but also working on automated solutions that did help in cost reduction. Spending always becomes into the dynamics of many question marks, and having to be driven by cost reduction as one of the highest level benefits and the interest on every stakeholder's radar at the federal space and our own environment as well. Cost reduction has been definitely the main key that everybody had recognized. Unfortunately, I do not have a specific type of metrics, but the percentages are quite obvious in terms of in parallel to claiming many different levels of cost reduction. The time frame taken to reduce the number of tickets, reducing the outages time frame, the recovery from initiating a ticket to time to recovery, all those metrics have been really within a similar range of being claimed by BMC or even more in some scenarios. That gave us a very positive image as an agile vendor that came in and brought a highly valuable solution that drove cost reduction, that drove better return on investment, that drove more business confidence and highly automated spectrum and also it did improve overall cybersecurity aspects of the operations as well.

We have experienced in many areas anywhere between 8 to 13% after implementing BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps. There are some other areas that we had experienced a lot more or in some cases the minimum amount of reduction in terms of time frame been 5 to 8%. At the highest end, we have experienced between 11 and 21% of the time taken to resolve tickets, given the spectrum that we run into some environments that have high peak seasonal aspects, given the spectrum of a specific agency where they have a marketplace utilizing a specific high traffic times of the year. Some other agencies have more consistent usability and accessibility issues, given the spectrum of the crowd or the user pool given into a specific division or a specific area of operations. Different agencies have utilized more and the overall percentages have been really admirable. Everybody was very happy with the results in terms of cost reduction, the agility, the flexibility, the ease of deployment of new applications. The sense of utilizing better ROI has been the overarching benefit at large.

I have worked in an R&D environment where we have continuous research and continuous development focus on how to improve specific aspects of a specific offering, whether it is a product or a service or a combination of product and service with BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps. I have seen over time, over the past maybe decade or maybe a couple of decades, different areas of improvements. There is always room for improvements. As of now, I think having that level of automation, the integrative nature where the solution parameters bring residency across protecting data, across bringing better functionality across the operational environments, really brings a great deal of admiration. I do not see any immediate area that could require a lot more advancements, but I am sure BMC will be looking to maybe improving certain criteria depending really on the given spectrum of a specific environment. Maybe looking into an ad hoc assessment for certain environments could be suitable to address what areas could be addressed differently.

Regarding needed improvements for BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps, people always love to see more criteria of functionality, but those are things that maybe could be addressed in different ways. The flexibility of dashboards is really fantastic. Maybe that is one area that everybody might have a different way of looking at a dashboard, but customizing dashboard capabilities has always been an area of discussion. Outside of that, the sustainability of the features available today, given the spectrum that each version brings different type of updates and what have you, could utilize a lot more than a single opinion. It could maybe take a group discussion, it could take cross-functional type of sessions to really brainstorm about what areas will be in need of improvements. The overall solution brings, in parallel to ITIL 4 continuous improvement strategies, a great traction on how we can focus on continuous improvements at large. Hopefully we can see more in the future.

Having the capabilities to integrate with microservices architecture really brought the cost reduction benefit right at the top of the scale for many agencies where they grant flexibility, realizing only needed resources at the cloud, and the deployments have been very agile, bringing everybody into a fast and unique agile sense of doing business. Improving the business confidence has been also another area that we had utilized a great amount of feedback in that regard.

Cost reduction has been the main business driver or area of interest, having us to be a vendor with the government residing in many different agencies for more than a decade with BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps. It did improve our image as a vendor that is focused on not only bringing excellence type of spectrum to the operations, but also working on automated solutions that did help in cost reduction. Spending always becomes into the dynamics of many question marks, and having to be driven by cost reduction as one of the highest level benefits and the interest on every stakeholder's radar at the federal space and our own environment as well. Cost reduction has been definitely the main key that everybody had recognized. Unfortunately, I do not have a specific type of metrics, but the percentages are quite obvious in terms of in parallel to claiming many different levels of cost reduction. The time frame taken to reduce the number of tickets, reducing the outages time frame, the recovery from initiating a ticket to time to recovery, all those metrics have been really within a similar range of being claimed by BMC or even more in some scenarios. That gave us a very positive image as an agile vendor that came in and brought a highly valuable solution that drove cost reduction, that drove better return on investment, that drove more business confidence and highly automated spectrum and also it did improve overall cybersecurity aspects of the operations as well.

A round number would be nine for BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps. To be very accurate, 9.5 if that is acceptable.

A perfect 10 is, again, as I mentioned earlier, really relevant to a specific environment. As an enterprise solution, you cannot really make one box that fits all or one frame that fits all. There are areas that we as a vendor could also utilize additional modification or specific development effort to really make a perfect fit. But in at large, looking at the big picture, nine is really a perfect number. I think that 10 out of 10 is a scenario that would bring the solution more into a total agreement coming out of the box, which is absolutely true in many cases, but not necessarily every one case out of 100 cases that you might consider looking at. This is why I choose the nine. But between you and I, it is a 10 out of 10, that is for sure. I would rather keep that 10% flexibility to maybe act as a motivator type of element for continuing development, continuous improvements, and more suitability to different environments.

I would definitely recommend utilizing BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps. It really brings agility, it improves business confidence, it reduces costs, it brings integrative nature in cloud environments regardless of the architecture if you have hybrid, if you have fully deployed cloud systems, or you even have private clouds. It really brings a great deal of functionality. It supports data security and daily compute capabilities in terms of availability. It gives a great dashboard capabilities for you to address your business needs. It supports planning for aspects of scalability and future planning. It is an overall highly valuable type of solution that does not leave anything behind. It has a full picture of your business needs. The customization capabilities could add another unique element of special needs or ad hoc requirements depending on your own environment. I gave BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps a review rating of 9 out of 10.

My company's customers sometimes use BMC Helix Monitor to monitor applications and check for failures in one server or a specific service in an application. The monitoring tool sends signals or alerts to the operation team, and after some time, they escalate and are sent to management, the IT director, the CIO, or the CEO.

The solution's most valuable features are its ability to monitor the servers in the infrastructure, monitor the stability of the service, troubleshoot the root cause of the failure whenever or whatever happens, and send notifications to specific roles in an organization.

I feel that the tool's stability has some scope for improvement.

I have experience with BMC Helix Monitor.

It is a stable solution. I didn't use the tool by myself. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The tool is used by ten of our company's customers. The tool has around 100 users.

The solution's technical support is fast, responsive, and friendly.

The product's initial setup phase is easy.

The product is well integrated with other products, so I face no problems with the operational workflows.

I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We have clients like Yamaha, the motorcycle company. There's a project here in Brazil where they've adopted the full BMC ITSM suite, including operations management.

BMC Helix Operations Management with AIOps' predictive analytics positively impacted proactive problem-solving capabilities. It has been the most interesting part of the solution! It provides detailed analytics that gives you a deep understanding of your infrastructure and recurring issues/problems. It really predicts the problems.

The real power is in the predictive capabilities. The AI and machine learning components get smarter over time, helping you anticipate problems.

BMC Helix really excels in pinpointing the root cause of problems quickly. Think of it as the "manager of managers." You likely have various monitoring tools like Zabbix, Dynatrace, Azure, etc., alongside CMs. BMC Helix gathers data from all of these sources, processes it, and continuously gets smarter through its AI.

It learns your infrastructure's baseline behavior. When something deviates from that baseline, it gathers more data from logs and other sources, compares everything, and can even predict something like a server failing in five days. Imagine it analyzes a complex cluster issue and suggests, "There's a 33% chance the root of this problem originates from this specific server or cluster."

It's incredibly intelligent and offers support, unlike anything I've seen for IT and infrastructure management.

There are good features around the visibility from discovery, operations management, and the AIOps capabilities – learning your infrastructure, predicting problems, and even finding unseen vulnerabilities. The AI Operations portion is the most valuable part of the whole BMC ITSM platform.

The biggest challenge is ensuring the customer has sufficient ITSM maturity to get the most out of the solution. BMC Helix is very sophisticated, and some clients lack that internal process maturity. There's sometimes a gap between the solution's capabilities and the client's readiness.

We have to bridge that gap, bringing the customer up to the level where they can fully use all the features and benefits. Otherwise, they're investing in a powerful tool they don't fully utilize.

It's crucial for vendors like us to assess client maturity before the project starts. We need to do the consulting work to show them the solution's potential and help them evaluate if it truly makes sense. Sometimes, the client might not be ready for the way BMC does things, for that level of automation and AI.

BMC's automation is like nothing I've seen. You can even deflect 30% of IT service desk tickets with an intelligent chatbot – that's a number from BMC. Imagine the reduction in human agents! It's a robot doing the work, but in a way that feels human... that's the impressive part. You can integrate with WhatsApp, Teams, etc. It's game-changing.

ServiceNow doesn't have a free-scope module like BMC does. Also, their artificial intelligence isn't as good as BMC's.

A big differentiator is BMC Business Workflow. You don't need many IT analyst developers for applications and integrations because we have drag-and-drop. Many pre-built components are available on the platform, including integration components. You can create applications by drag-and-drop. You don't need to write a line of code because we have a low-code/no-code module called Business Workflow. This allows you to develop operations and deliver applications without many IT workers.

With ServiceNow, customizations require many analysts. They don't have a low-code/no-code module, so you would need a team of engineers. In BMC, a business analyst could create applications because of our low-code/no-code tools.

In Brazil, we mainly see competition from Avanti, which I'm less familiar with, and ServiceNow. There are other players in the market, like TopDesk from the Netherlands. These solutions are cheaper, but they don't offer the same level of functionality as BMC, so many enterprise buyers avoid them.

I have also seen people who use solutions like Jira being used for ITSM, which I don't quite understand. Jira is a project management tool. So, customers who don't have growth plans, maybe they don't have maturity on ITSM software and think to use cheaper options.

Deployment depends on whether you choose the SaaS (Software as a Service) model or an on-premises installation. SaaS is much easier – BMC takes care of infrastructure, and you get a tenant, login, and password. It's ready to configure for your business.

An on-premises installation is more complex. You'll need in-house expertise in containers like Kubernetes or Docker, plus there's infrastructure planning involved.

SaaS deployment is straightforward, the hard work is done by BMC.

But, on-premises installation is far more complex. You need container expertise, and the risk is higher. Frankly, most clients are opting for SaaS deployments these days. Only those with strict legal compliance requirements still choose on-premises, and that's increasingly rare.

Since the product helps the user predict problems, they proactively avoid faults that would otherwise stop your services. When a service is down, the user doesn't lose money. By predicting infrastructure issues and preventing downtime, the end user saves money. This translates to higher productivity than if the user didn't have BMC Helix Operations Management installed. You'll sell more thanks to increased availability and avoid the damage caused by unavailability.

The users will always be ahead of problems because they're predicting potential issues. That's the strongest argument for using Operations Management.

It's important to note that for maximum efficiency with BMC Helix platform, consider a larger implementation. While BMC Helix Discovery can be valuable on its own by providing infrastructure visibility, you'll get the full benefits I'm describing by combining it with modules like Operations Management, IT Service Management (ITSM), and others. This allows for continuous operations and brings all the advantages.

BMC solution is cheaper than ServiceNow, our main competitor. So, I'd rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with ten being expensive.

The prices are lower than the competition because it's a BMC strategy to get a bigger market share. They're trying to regain some of the market they've lost to ServiceNow in the past.

Here in Brazil, BMC faces competition from ServiceNow and others. BMC is really evolving and differentiating itself from the others. BMC isn't focused on traditional ITSM processes like some competitors. They're focused on how BMC Operations Management can enable digital transformation for the entire enterprise.

This makes selling BMC a challenge here. IT management often doesn't want to hear about complex ITSM projects. They often see only the hard work of implementation, not the long-term benefits. BMC is trying to overcome that. They want to talk about digital transformation, not just granular ITSM features. I think they're making progress. I'm impressed with the direction of BMC Helix.

When you buy it for the whole enterprise, not just IT, the solution's cost scales very well. You can manage HR cases, legal cases, etc. This delivers integration and value beyond just IT issues. It helps the whole enterprise - that's the vision I see.

I'm excited about BMC's future. With AIOps and machine learning, It's going to change how work is done by automating many manual tasks. This automation will be key to helping companies achieve their digital transformation goals. You know, we've been talking about digital transformation for a decade, but few have truly achieved it.

BMC wants to deliver the ease of use seen in apps like Uber or iFood into the enterprise experience. Imagine requesting services within your company – vacation scheduling, WiFi access – with that same simplicity.

BMC wants to empower employees to provide an even better experience for external clients. So, the transformation begins internally and extends out. BMC isn't just an ITSM solution anymore – it's a solution for the whole enterprise. You can manage any case, automate any workflow – IT infrastructure monitoring or streamlining HR processes. You don't miss deadlines, you avoid fines. It's about providing a solution that scales across the business, not just within the IT department.

That's why it's a harder sell sometimes, but if you sell it with that broader vision, it's much more compelling.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

BMC Helix Monitor is useful for monitoring your assets. The solution just scans your entire network, giving you the system under the network as it can scan your servers, desktops, laptops, and anything connected to the network. BMC Helix Monitor is an agentless product, so you don't need to deploy agents on every PC in your IT environment. You can just deploy your monitoring servers and install BMC Helix Monitor, which will scan the entire asset to get detailed information about any particular asset.

The most valuable feature of the solution stems from the fact that BMC Helix Monitor is an agentless tool, because of which you don't need to deploy agents on each and every system in your IT environment. If you want to install an agent on each and every system, manpower is needed, while there is no such need when one uses BMC Helix Monitor. BMC Helix Monitor provides you with details on asset relationships. If a particular printer is connected to a core network printer or a particular desktop is connected to the servers, the product scans and gives you a free structure of relationship, which doesn't need any human intervention, making it an automated process. BMC Helix Monitor gives you the entire information about your assets, because of which you can sit in one place and keep track of whether a particular asset is online or offline.

The solution's GUI and some patching-related information are areas with shortcomings where enhancements are needed, though I believe they are areas that fall under BMC's roadmap for the future.

I have experience with BMC Helix Monitor. My company has a partnership with BMC Helix Monitor.

Scalability-wise, it is an absolutely wonderful and dependable product.

Under critical conditions when a ticket is raised under critical conditions, the solution's technical support team responds within 30 minutes. The solution's technical support team responds within a day when we face medium to high-intensity issues.

I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

The initial setup of BMC Helix Monitor is pretty straightforward and won't be complex. If it's in the SaaS environment, you don't need to worry because BMC takes care of everything, but you only have to take care of your admin credentials properly.

BMC Helix Monitor is a very basic level tool since monitoring is a part of TSOM.

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.