ServiceNow and BMC Remedy are two of the biggest names in the managed IT services domain. If you were faced with making the decision to use either one for your business, which one would you choose?
ServiceNow
Since its inception, ServiceNow has morphed from an IT ticketing system into a full-fledged platform that can perform ITOM, ITSM, and has branched out into other business domains like HR, Customer Support, Legal, and many more. One of the first movers in terms of providing an “all-cloud” solution, ServiceNow gained popularity amongst early enterprise cloud adopters on the way to becoming the “fastest growing company with more than $1 billion in revenue.” To learn more about what ServiceNow is, check out our blog post: What is ServiceNow?
BMC Remedy
Another premiere service provider, and perhaps ServiceNow’s biggest challenger—BMC Remedy also provides similar services. Together, these two giants make up almost 50% of the market, according to Gartner. Remedy Corp. was acquired by BMC in 2002 and now has grown into a workflow automation platform. BMC's ITSM components are available as both on-premise and cloud-based solutions.
Here are some side-by-side comparisons to help you judge ServiceNow and BMC Remedy better. Both platforms provide robust offerings that take different approaches to optimizing IT.
1) Capabilities & Consolidation
ServiceNow platforms work entirely from the cloud and are owned and operated by ServiceNow itself. This allows you to have a single system of record when integrating any new application or tool. BMC Remedy, on the other hand, while comprehensive, is a bit rigid in terms of delivery options. They have partners such as Remedy OnDemand for customers to host on-premise applications, but as they are not a “cloud-first” platform, you might still require additional services, hardware, and software resources to adopt and maintain.
2) Delivery Model
BMC Remedy operates on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model that uses third-party cloud vendors to deliver services. ServiceNow operates mostly on a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model, allowing for a framework you can build on or customize applications from directly from the cloud.
3) Third-Party Integrations
BMC Remedy doesn't officially allow or list any third-party integrations on its portfolio. However, many vendors, including VMware and Cisco, have developed integrations for it, which can be added with additional cost. ServiceNow’s platform has been built specifically for easy integrations and actively encourages such within its communities.
4) Configuration & Accessibility
ServiceNow allows its customers to have the flexibility of adapting the platform to their specific needs with simple configuration tools on-demand. The changes can be implemented instantaneously. On the other hand, BMC Remedy needs prior approval from the BMC Change Advisory Board to perform most on-demand configuration requests for the changes to take effect.
5) User Experience & Upgrades
ServiceNow is an automation platform that requires a relatively small amount of configuration to get up and running which is central to their premise. ServiceNow’s platform is highly intuitive, but does require a learning curve for beginners who aren’t familiar with DevOps. Built as a single cloud platform, ServiceNow also delivers easy and automated upgrades. BMC also provides regular updates on its releases which can be found on its website, but requires its users to be responsible for finding and upgrading their software. Additional costs are also inquired by users since they need to pay for integrations and customizations with other systems for the newer versions.
6) Community Support
ServiceNow maintains and encourages a growing community of users and developers with various support resources at their disposal in their own community portal, ServiceNow Community, and all product related information on the ServiceNow Wiki page. BMC also has a support community online that provides various resources and support for all its offerings, called BMC Community.
So, that was our list of comparisons for two of the most popular IT management software options available. You can find a more detailed comparison by Gartner on the two, here.
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