Almost every day I get the question: “We want to replace our ITSM support tool; which vendor should I look at?” There are many alternatives today and each vendor has certainly done a great amount of work to position themselves as the best. The success I had in consulting with these clients, and the knowledge I carry with me now, is thanks in part to the clients with whom I have discussed the ITSM space. They have all confirmed that the functionality across these vendors is very similar. This, however, does not help in decision-making — so I’m especially excited to have authored a three-piece research document which might take some magic out of the decision process when selecting ITSM support tools in the future.

This Forrester report is called Eliminate Magic When Selecting The Right IT Service Management (ITSM) Support Tool.  It’s an overview of the process decision-makers need to follow and the important — but sometimes overlooked — other criteria to keep in mind as they work toward launching or engaging with the ITSM vendor community.

I identified four phases of the evaluation process that should be followed:

Plan: Lay the groundwork, set objectives, explore existing conversations, and make necessary early decisions.

Assemble an evaluation team: Putting the right people together to understand the use cases and requirements is critical before the next step.

Define your requirements: Use the ITSM Support Tools Product Comparison to define your requirements.

Customize and issue a RFP: Use Forrester's RFP Template For IT Service Management Support Tools And Implementation Services to determine what to include in your RFP to move to the next phase.

In the document, I discuss issues that decision-makers have told me they’ve struggled with, so I hope you’ll find that it gives you actionable advice to help you during your own decision-making process. If you have any thoughts or questions, let me know in the comments here. I appreciate comments and questions as it might lead to an additional research topic for me.