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Statement of direction: End of life for BIRT

BMC Helix announces the end of life plan for Web Reports in AR System under Mid Tier (BIRT) for BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix Innovation Suite. We recommend that you transition to BMC Helix Dashboards for your reporting needs.

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Background

Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) is a module of BMC Helix ITSM, (earlier known as Remedy IT Service Management Suite) and delivers in-application ITSM reporting capabilities as a part of the standard ITSM user licenses. You might have used BIRT to develop reports and dashboards for BMC Helix ITSM applications or applications created by using BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

 

Statement of direction

Starting with version 25.4.00, BMC Helix plans the end of life of Web Reports in AR System under Mid Tier (BIRT) for BMC Helix ITSM applications and applications developed by using BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

To view and create reports, BMC Helix recommends that all customers use BMC Helix Dashboards or shared consoles in BMC Helix ITSM. BMC Helix Dashboards offers a unified reporting and dashboard experience across all BMC Helix service and operations management solutions.

Warning

Important

BMC Helix Dashboards does not deliver a one-to-one replacement for all BIRT features.

We plan to deliver technical enablement documentation and videos that explain the deployment and use of BMC Helix Dashboards to help you with a smooth transition to BMC Helix Dashboards. 

Transition period

BMC Helix will use the following timelines to complete the transition:

  • Starting with version 25.2.00, users can no longer create new web reports. However, they can continue to edit and access existing reports. To create new reports, they must use BMC Helix Dashboards.
  • Starting with version 25.4.00 (expected in November 2025), support for all BIRT reports will end.

You can continue using BIRT reports to view and edit existing reports until you upgrade to version 25.4.00; you cannot create new reports. However, support will no longer be available for BIRT reports.

FAQ for end-of-life of BIRT

By what date will BIRT reach end of life

We plan to stop distributing and supporting BIRT starting with version 25.4.00. This applies to using BIRT with BMC’s Service Management products such as BMC Helix ITSM and applications developed by using BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

Which licensed products and services are affected?

The BIRT capability is licensed by BMC Helix Custom Applications - Reporting User (SaaS), and the end of life of BIRT affects the following products:

  • BMC Helix ITSM (SaaS)
  • BMC Helix ITSM (On-premises)
My company is using BIRT as SaaS service with BMC Helix ITSM SaaS. What changes will we experience starting with version 25.4.00?

Starting with version 25.4.00, BMC will no longer provide BIRT as a service as a part of BMC Helix ITSM (SaaS).  You can use alternative, modern tools, such as BMC Helix Dashboards, PWA screens, or other BMC Helix ITSM consoles to view analytics for various artifacts and print the reports.  

My company is using BIRT with BMC Helix ITSM On-premises. What changes will we experience starting with version 25.4.00?

Starting with version 25.4.00, BMC Helix will no longer provide BIRT (including hotfixes or patches) as a part of BMC Helix ITSM and BMC Helix Innovation Suite, nor provide support for BIRT. You can use alternative, modern tools, such as BMC Helix Dashboards, PWA screens, or other BMC Helix ITSM consoles to view analytics for various artifacts and print the reports.  

Will existing BIRT On-premises installations stop working?

Existing on-premises deployments of BIRT will not continue to work after the end-of-life date. You can continue using BIRT reports to view, schedule, publish, run, export, and edit existing reports until you upgrade to version 25.4.00. 

  • Starting with version 25.2.00, users can no longer create new web reports. However, they can continue to edit and access existing reports. To create new reports, they must use BMC Helix Dashboards.
  • Starting with version 25.4.00, due to the end of life for BIRT reports, you cannot create, view, schedule, publish, run, and export web reports. Support for BIRT reports will no longer be available.
Should we keep our BMC Helix ITSM BIRT implementation going?

Even though BMC will continue to support BIRT until version 25.3.02, we strongly recommend that you start using BMC Helix Dashboards for any reporting needs.

 

FAQ for BMC Helix Dashboards

Where can we learn about BMC Helix Dashboards?

The following information is available about BMC Helix Dashboards:

Why is BMC Helix Dashboards a better solution for BMC customers?

BMC Helix Dashboards is a modern reporting and dashboard solution for BMC Helix customers based on the widely used Grafana visualization technology. Some of the key features of BMC Helix Dashboards are as follows:

  • A single reporting and dashboard solution for BMC Helix ITSM. BMC Helix Dashboards collect data from multiple BMC Service Management and IT Operations Management solutions and several external data sources through Grafana connectors and display them in cross-solution dashboards.
  • Delivers out-of-the-box dashboards and reports for BMC Helix solutions, which so far did not have any reporting capability or for which the previous reporting options were limited to a few canned reports in a proprietary technology (BMC Helix Digital Workplace).
  • Superior visualization capabilities and better performance than many currently available modules, leading to a much better overall customer experience.
  • Provides better support experience with BMC Helix Dashboards, because BMC Helix has more control over the solution design.
Is BMC Helix Dashboards available for our on-premises deployments?

The support for on-premises deployments of BMC Helix Dashboards is available from the 21.3 release.

For more information, see BMC Helix IT Operations Management deployment 21.3.

We are a licensed BMC Helix ITSM customer, but we only use the BMC Helix Innovation Suite platform to develop custom applications. Can we use the new BMC Helix Dashboards capabilities?

BMC Helix Dashboards are available to anyone who is a licensed user of BMC Helix ITSM or for BMC Helix Innovation Suite. Such customers can use BMC Helix Dashboards for reports and dashboard use cases for their custom applications developed by using Developer Studio or BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

Can we run BMC Helix Dashboards with previous versions of BMC Helix ITSM?

No. BMC Helix Dashboards was first introduced with BMC Helix ITSM version 21.02. Customers need to upgrade the entire BMC Helix ITSM stack to version 21.02 or later to use the BMC Helix Dashboards capabilities.

Can BMC Helix SaaS customers use the BMC Helix Dashboards functionality?

After you upgrade to BMC Helix Innovation Suite version 21.03 or later, BMC Helix Dashboards will be available to BMC Helix ITSM customers for both on-premises and SaaS.

Which BMC Helix solutions are integrated with BMC Helix Dashboards?
  • BMC Helix ITSM (including BMC Helix ITSM: Smart IT, BMC Helix ITSM Insights, and BMC Helix CMDB)
  • BMC Helix Business Workflows(BWF)
  • BMC Helix Digital Workplace(DWP)
  • BMC Helix Innovation Suite (including AR System and BMC Helix Innovation Studio) and custom applications built on BMC Helix Innovation Suite
  • BMC Helix Virtual Agent
  • BMC Live Chat
  • BMC Helix Operations Management
  • BMC Helix Continuous Optimization
  • BMC Helix Automation Console
  • BMC Helix Cloud Security
  • BMC Helix Remediate

 

FAQ for technical transition to BMC Helix Dashboards

Does BMC Helix offer a migration tool to migrate reports from BIRT to BMC Helix Dashboards?

No, there is no tool for migration. We recommend customers review their BIRT reports and use this change as an opportunity to clean up their reports.

Develop reports afresh in BMC Helix Dashboards only if they are routinely required. With recent features like Visual Query Builder and Reporting Metadata Studio, you can develop dashboards by using a drag-and-drop interface.

What transition services are available to help us transition from BIRT to BMC Helix Dashboards?

BMC Helix Global Services or BMC Helix Partners can provide services to assist you in transitioning from BIRT to BMC Helix Dashboards. These paid services are optional and aimed at accelerating customer adoption of BMC Helix Dashboards and the content migration from BIRT to BMC Helix Dashboards.

Contact your BMC Account Manager for more details on the available packages.

 

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BMC Helix Innovation Suite 25.4