Revive Your IT Management Software Portfolio

Operational management tools have been used for well over a decade, but assembling them is like assembling a jumble of jigsaw puzzle pieces, and the value of these tools remains ambiguous. Much of the multibillion-dollar investment in management tools is wasted because firms neither implement nor integrate them well. Few doubt that such tools are necessary in our hyper-complex world. They are integral to efficient operation of the business technology environment. This report advocates designing your IT management software portfolio as a developer would a shopping mall — you'll select large anchor vendors as the strategic base and then fill in the gaps with boutique vendors and what Forrester calls "anchorettes."