Spotlight On: The IT Management Software Challengers

The 2009 IT management software (ITMS) market seems to favor smaller vendors to the detriment of larger ones, as preliminary results for the first three quarters of 2009 show that the megavendor share of the ITMS market has again declined from 2008. This confirms our hypothesis that, in this economic climate, IT infrastructure and operations professionals prefer to resolve immediate operational issues and select tactical rather than strategic solutions. Clients are also trying to reduce their capital expenses and therefore turning to smaller vendors with lower license prices than the megavendors. In this context, an analysis of the top 10 vendors by revenue is especially significant. The first anchor vendor assessment covered the four leading megavendors. This report addresses five of their seven challengers. Although not intended as a direct comparison of the companies, this Q3 2009 Forrester analysis can enable IT professionals to substantiate decisions about their ITMS vendors.