IT Management Software Positioning Benchmark, Q3 2008

Forrester used its vendor positioning review (VPR) methodology to evaluate the positioning of five IT management software vendors challenging the Big Four in this sector; we evaluated them across 14 criteria to determine where they are currently positioning themselves on the continuum between information technology (IT) and business technology (BT). As with the leading four vendors in this category, we found that these vendors position themselves more or less as solution vendors, roughly halfway between IT and BT. They all, therefore, face the threat that an aggressive second-tier provider could effectively execute a BT marketing strategy and win share in this competitive and fast-growing technology category. Most of the vendors could develop into a BT vendor in the short term through improvements in their product positioning. We illustrate how vendor strategists and their partner marketing colleagues can use these insights to improve their own positioning. We explore Compuware and Symantec in detail as best practices.