Ovum finds disruptive technologies are driving ITSM vendors to differentiate beyond just ITIL process support

In its latest Ovum Decision Matrix, the global industry analysts highlight how the core processes of incident, problem, and change management remain a key focus for mid-to-large enterprises looking for solutions, while service catalog management is crucial in demonstrating the value these tools deliver to the business. Assessing the capabilities of 13 ITSM solutions, Ovum explains how vendors are increasingly recognizing the need to include mobile, automation, and social functionality to help enterprises improve service delivery and service support activities. The analysis into the features offered, market impact, and customer satisfaction, point to BMC’s Remedy ITSM suite and ServiceNow as ITSM solution market leaders.
“ITSM tools, refined and repeatable processes, and productive people are crucial to large enterprises needing to meet rapidly changing business demands. Yet, IT consumerization has presented vendors with the challenge of developing innovative offerings that empower end users, enable greater levels of self-service, and offer functionality and features that are common in consumer products,” says Adam Holtby, ITSM analyst at Ovum.
Aside from the more established vendors, Ovum finds emerging vendors such as ITinvolve, entering the space and innovating in interesting ways. The research also suggests that while ITIL is very much still the universal language of ITSM, both from an enterprise and vendor perspective, it should be used as guidance and should be tailored to fit a business’s individual needs.

Elsewhere, the flexible option of SaaS as an ITSM solution deployment method is one that is increasingly becoming a necessity.

“The demand for SaaS-based solutions has further increased since the publication of the last Ovum Decision Matrix for IT Service Management, and the support of this deployment method from vendors has also increased, “ comments Holtby. “ServiceNow continues to see good adoption rates of its SaaS-based solution. BMC also entered the SaaS arena with Remedyforce, where BMC’s partnership with Force.com along with the Remedy OnDemand offering has seen the vendor experience good growth rates from SaaS.”