Tech Horizons: Sizing The Emerging Market For IT Process Automation Software

Innovation has become both more accessible and more global. Acquisitions, especially in software and IT technology, are fast becoming the preferred exit strategy of many innovators — as we can see from the speed with which large software vendors are gobbling up small ones. In this context, Forrester believes that we should evaluate emerging technologies through a rational and methodical approach that considers the technical and economic factors that a new solution will improve when it comes to market. Our first evaluation is of IT process automation: This is a relatively recent yet relatively mature example of such an emerging technology. It shows promise at both the low and high end of the IT management market, where it will reduce operational costs through automation of low- and high-level processes. Moreover, it is a logical continuation of the renewal of IT management technologies that the introduction of BSM and the CMDB has signaled. This is another step that brings IT closer to an industrial age.