The Megavendors In IT Management Software

Forrester's IT spending outlook for 2008 forecasts that software investments will fare better than average, with 19% growth in 2008 compared with12% growth in 2007. The four IT management software megavendors — BMC Software (BMC), CA, HP Software (HP), and IBM Tivoli — are continuously growing their market share by acquiring smaller companies; they represented 43% of the market in 2007. The potential — and hopefully temporary — weakness of the US domestic market will lead to increased competition between these megavendors in both the US market and abroad, where currency exchange rates make markets even more attractive. In this context, the SWOT analysis of these four megavendors is especially significant. Although not intended as a direct comparison of the four companies, Forrester's SWOT analysis for Q2 2008 regroups the market contenders by category for an easier evaluation of their respective strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.