Market Overview: The Four Megavendors In IT Management Software, Q3 2013

For many years, Forrester saw the IT management software (ITMS) vendors as one of four major archetypes: the megavendors, with portfolios that cover the whole ITMS market; the challengers, who work to build increasingly complete solution portfolios; the innovators, who introduce new products; and the specialists, who take their innovation to the next step in brand and ability to distribute. The typical Forrester model was built on our analysis that megavendors did not innovate but actually created a portfolio through acquisitions of innovators and specialists. Today, Forrester sees a new model emerging. Current technology disruptions brought on by mobility and cloud are allowing the business to play an increasingly important role in IT, thereby shifting the ITMS perspective. ITMS solutions are changing at a rapid pace that is no longer compatible with the acquisition model, which is based essentially on code integration. Forrester believes that future ITMS solutions will be based on people and ideas and that the megavendors must reinvent themselves by changing their operating mode in order to survive. The following SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis focuses on how the four megavendors (BMC, CA, HP, and IBM) address and respond to this challenge.