MarketScope for the IT Asset Management Repository, 2008

Transcription

1 MarketScope for the IT Asset Management Repository, 2008 Gartner RAS Core Research Note G , Patricia Adams, William R. Snyder, 21 April 2008, R IT asset management tools are showing strong market growth and are on the cusp of mainstream adoption. Vendors are marketing their products as add-ons to IT service management initiatives. Here, we review the ITAM marketplace s vendor offerings. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW The enterprise-class IT asset management (ITAM) repository marketplace has undergone considerable consolidation by large players, reflecting the increased focus on financial management in a holistic IT management toolset. ITAM repositories are moving toward financially supporting integrated IT service management and portfolio management visions. The advent of the configuration management database (CMDB) has led to some confusion about the role and use of ITAM repositories in the marketplace. MARKETSCOPE Although ITAM as a discipline has been around for more than 15 years, its adoption hasn t been ubiquitous because the value proposition was often tied to soft dollar savings. However, with continued IT focus on visibility and the cost of services being delivered to the business, ITAM functionality specifically contract and financial management is becoming mainstream because its presence in organizations has increased to more than 35% market penetration. The autodiscovery/inventory component of ITAM is already widely deployed in many organizations. With this growth, we expect that ITAM tools will mature by enabling better cost control, service-level agreement (SLA) management, and by optimizing the IT organization s performance, which will support the IT organization s focus on operating as a business. From financial management to better integration with adjacent toolsets that is, CMDB, enterprise asset management (EAM), and project and portfolio management (PPM) customers are looking to ITAM vendors so they can get more information about their IT assets in an integrated, cross-organizational fashion. The role of ITAM has evolved significantly during the past five years due to several market pressures. Most of the major ITAM players were acquired by larger vendors, which were looking to complement their IT service desk solutions. These vendors determined that it was easier to acquire than build for example, CA, HP, IBM and Symantec all made ITAM acquisitions during the past five years.

2 2 Another trend that has influenced this market is that customers, which once considered ITAM and service/help desk to be the same, are revisiting that position with the increasing adoption of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes and, specifically, CMDB, which supports requirements that are distinctly different from, but have modest overlap with, ITAM. In addition, the concept of CMDB has driven vendors to acquire the larger ITAM players as part of a larger, suite-based service management offering. With this evolution of the marketplace, the consolidation of ITAM repository participants and the advent of CMDB as a focal point of IT operational information, the ITAM tool market has begun shifting toward a more-focused financial/compliance approach that s managed in concert with CMDB (where both products coexist). ITAM is a data source for the IT service view and supplies the CMDB with cost information on the assets that make up a service. We ve also seen a growing trend of service desk customers selecting ITAM tools based on their satisfaction with the service and support from the service desk vendor, and on the functionality of the service desk product, with an eye toward the potential benefits to be derived from a suite-based solution. The need for tight integration as well as a common graphical user interface (GUI) between the service desk and ITAM are the driving forces behind this trend. Customers without a service desk solution that offers an ITAM product, such as Oracle, Siebel or FrontRange Solutions, are likely to consider point ITAM solutions, or even the ITAM repository only from an alternate IT service desk vendor. As a company matures, it could redirect itself toward solutions that readily integrate with portfolio management and/or configuration management tools. Market/Market Segment Description The ITAM repository market is bound by the tools that manage and integrate financial, physical and contractual data throughout the IT asset life cycle (for example, requisitioning to retirement/disposal). Core attributes include the capability to capture and maintain asset costs, depreciation, chargeback, contract terms and conditions, vendor service levels, asset maintenance, ownership, and entitlements associated with inventory components and configuration items (such as PCs, network devices, servers, storage or software components) that are necessary for the effective management and optimization of IT asset performance. In addition, it s critical that these ITAM repositories integrate with adjacent toolsets (for example, service desk/request, inventory and ERP) to deliver a more-holistic view of asset performance. Target buyers range from IT operations managers solving asset management problems, to financial managers requiring cost and portfolio data to provide asset-related information to senior levels of IT organizations. The future of ITAM repositories will unfold in two directions: First, the market will continue evolving toward the alignment of costs, compliance and contractual information with IT service management. This market is most familiar to customers that have established asset management programs. The second area is the intersection of PPM toolsets. At the risk of oversimplifying, all projects become assets, and all assets ultimately leave as part of a project. The need for integration with governance tools to provide granular information to improve executive decisions can t be underestimated. Historically, these governance tools (for example, portfolio management) have leveraged general ledger and fixed asset ledger information as decision criteria, which provides highlevel cost data to enable a granular information decision process. In addition to what if scenario decision modeling, this symbiotic relationship will increasingly become a focus point for ITAM repository tool providers to differentiate their offerings. Two key trends in the ITAM repository market differentiate capabilities across vendors: First, vendor products are slowly evolving from focusing on reporting data to providing better analysis of that data, which will enable better, more-efficient decisions. This can be characterized as moving from What do I have? to What insight can ITAM provide to improve the IT business decision? Data analysis and scenario modeling increase the value of ITAM to the enterprise because this level of detail can t be found in any financial tools. Providing this information is critical to IT success in the future because most IT organizations have a poor understanding of the cost drivers that make IT too expensive. The second repository trend is improving integration within product suites (that is, ITAM-specific tools and adjacent tools, such as service desk) and third-party products, such as CMDB, PPM and facilities management applications. The combination of tighter integration and better financial information will provide the chance to identify opportunities for IT asset portfolio efficiencies and to more-directly align costs with customers that are driving down costs. Although the large enterprise-class vendors (that is, BMC Software, CA, HP and IBM) focus on delivering comprehensive suites around their CMDB or framework lock in strategies, smaller vendors offer viable alternatives to small and midsize businesses (SMBs) that can t afford the cost of replacing all pieces composing an IT service management (ITSM) strategy, or to companies that may have best-of-breed approach tools. Furthermore, SMBs don t want to be treated as just another customer with a complaint when it comes to support problems, which is the kind of reaction they may encounter from a larger vendor. Also, the problems SMBs face are more reactive (such as software license compliance, or technology refresh or leasing) and don t require extensive back-end integrations to other toolsets or purchasing modules. Accordingly, SMBs have turned to vendors that may not have all the flashy products, but their purchase prices and implementation services may be low. Vendors that are wellpositioned for this market segment are: Symantec/Altiris Axios Systems Provance Technologies PS Soft 2008 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although Gartner s research may discuss legal issues related to the information technology business, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

3 3 Several PC life cycle configuration management vendors, such as Avocent/LANDesk, ManageSoft and Novell, have extended their inventory capabilities to offer ITAM targeted at SMBs, but they may not offer as much ITAM functionality depth in areas such as financial management or decision modeling as other, morefocused vendors. When choosing an ITAM repository, one of the top priorities most IT operations customers look for is how tightly integrated the repositories are with adjacent toolsets. The three primary toolsets with which ITAM repositories will integrate in new implementations (outside other ITAM tools, such as inventory and software usage) are service desk, purchasing and configuration management. Service desk Level 1 support often requires access to inventory data, while Level 2 and Level 3 require access to contract and service-level information. Having a bidirectional integration among these toolsets is essential because changes to pertinent information can occur in either tool. On the other hand, purchasing tools typically are a one-way integration with the ITAM repository. As new hardware and software assets are purchased, data is populated into the ITAM repository and treated as individual items for asset tracking. As implementations mature, change and configuration management processes and tools become integral to successful inventory and license management. Technicians installing software on PCs must verify that a user is entitled to the software and that licenses are available for deployment. Integration with PC life cycle tools is a requirement, especially if they re the source of autodiscovery/inventory data. Another factor in the ITAM market is that the major infrastructure vendors (that is, BMC, CA, HP and IBM) evolution of ITSM strategies is causing many customers to review incumbent ITAM repository deployments to determine whether the solutions are still competitive. Implementing an ITAM program is a strategic initiative, and it s unusual to see vendors displaced. However, there are two common patterns: First, where there are significant costs/difficulties in upgrading to the most-recent releases, customers look to the marketplace to understand what products will serve best in the longer term. If the ITAM repository had previously been heavily customized, then this upgrade path may be complex. If the cost or complexity to upgrade is too high, then some customers may decide to revisit competitors offerings because the upgrade costs are roughly equivalent to a new implementation. Second, and often in conjunction with the first pattern, customers are trying to remain as aligned as possible with a single vendor s vision of ITSM, from a service and support perspective. Sometimes, this leads customers to change ITAM products to align with the vendor, rather than build and support an ITAM integration across vendor offerings. Several players in the ITAM market didn t qualify for this MarketScope based on limited repository capabilities. In many circumstances, the offerings in adjacent toolsets (for example, inventory/discovery) are strong and can provide good return on investment in those point markets. Customers looking to solve a specific problem (for example, software license compliance) will find that several additional players may have suitable tools. For customers fitting this description, we recommend augmenting the vendors listed in this MarketScope with Novell, Avocent/LANDesk and ManageSoft, which provide good functionality in adjacent markets. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria Vendors must have an ITAM repository offering to support enterprise environments of more than 5,000 employees, as demonstrated by customer references. The product must have the eight inclusion criteria: Software entitlement controls Asset catalog Software license and hardware asset management Integration capability Figure 1. MarketScope for the IT Asset Management Repository, 2008 Source: Gartner (April 2008)

4 4 Evaluation Criteria Table 1. Evaluation Criteria Evaluation Criteria Market Understanding Offering (Product) Strategy Business Model Innovation Product/Service Overall Viability (Business Unit, Financial, Strategy, Organization) Customer Experience Source: Gartner Comment Capability of the vendor to understand buyers wants and needs, and to translate them into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to and understand buyers wants and needs, and can shape or enhance these with their added vision. The vendor s approach to product development and delivery emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map to current and future requirements. The soundness and logic of the vendor s underlying business proposition. Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment, consolidation, defensive or preemptive purposes. The vendor offers core goods and services that compete in/serve the defined market. This includes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets and skills, whether offered natively or through OEM agreements/partnerships, as defined in the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria. Viability includes an assessment of the organization s overall financial health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual business unit will continue investing in the product, offering the product and advancing the state of the art in the organization s portfolio of products. Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to be successful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes how customers receive technical support or account support. This also can include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, SLAs and so on. Weighting high high standard high high standard low Financial management Workflow automation Decision modeling Relationship mapping Vendors customer references must have at least four of these criteria in production. The vendor must generate sufficient client interest and inquiry to be noticed by Gartner analysts. In turn, Gartner analysts also must receive sufficient interest and feedback from enterprise clients, indicating that they re using the product. ERP players (for example, SAP and Oracle) aren t included in this evaluation. Although these products can be modified and customized to perform ITAM, most customers find them to be cumbersome, and they aren t designed to manage the moregranular information (especially for software asset management [SAM] data) required to effectively manage IT assets. In addition, the integrations with autodiscovery/inventory and service desk aren t as evolved as in ITAM-specific repositories. We find that customers often integrate ITAM systems with ERP products to ensure that the information is consistent with corporate financials and is integrated with the purchase order process. In addition, the other tool categories that aren t directly evaluated in this MarketScope are autodiscovery/inventory products and software usage products, although it s recognized that these tools often are a data feed into an ITAM repository, and are essential to understanding what assets are deployed in the environment. However, because these products don t offer any capabilities in the area of financial or contractual management, they aren t included. Configuration management tools that are primarily focused on PC life cycle management also provide autodiscovery/inventory capabilities, but don t offer complete ITAM functionality as described in the eight functional inclusion criteria. Rating for Overall Market/Market Segment Overall Market Rating: Promising As more organizations implement ITIL and build service-based IT organizations, knowing the cost and financial data behind those services is making ITAM a must have so that organizations can understand the cost and maintenance issues related to the assets

5 supporting the IT business services. As a result, we expect market penetration for centralized ITAM repositories to increase significantly, from approximately 35% today to 70% during the next five years. Vendor Product/Service Analysis Altiris Altiris was acquired by Symantec in April Altiris Service & Asset Management Suite Level 2 contains the ITAM products (including Asset Management Solution, CMDB Solution, Connector Solution and Barcode Solution), which are built on a.net architecture. Altiris recently made changes to its product line by renaming the asset management suite to encompass a broader ITSM approach. In addition, Altiris incorporated the total cost of ownership manager product, which was once separate, into the Asset Control Solution product in the v.6.2 release. Altiris has two major strengths that help it compete in the ITAM repository space: First, the.net architecture provides Altiris with the capability to quickly and efficiently change the product to adapt to ITAM market demands. The second strength is the visualization maps of the relationships between assets and contracts in Altiris resource association diagram capability. This enables clicking on a user and quickly identifying all the assets, contracts and services associated with it. Although Altiris market share has grown quickly during the past two years, the lack of workflow native to the ITAM product has inhibited its adoption. Companies were using the service desk application or an external workflow application to bypass this limitation. Beginning with Release 6.5, to fill this gap, Asset Control Solution will offer functionality that Altiris is embedding from its recent acquisition of Transparent Logic Technologies. Finally, the role base/job function data access can provide security, but the roles are too broadly defined to prevent access to all data. Customers should continue reviewing and providing input into Symantec s road map for Altiris product set to ensure that ITAM capabilities continue to grow. Altiris strength in flexibility and ease of use are particularly appealing to midsize companies seeking an effective solution to complement their tools. We project that Altiris will continue to succeed in the SMB market, provided it continues its investment in the ITAM toolset. Axios Systems Axios offers ITAM capabilities as part of its core product, assyst 7.5. Axios has taken an integrated ITSM approach to product development, which differs from other vendors because ITAM can t be uncoupled from the service desk. This can benefit companies that want one-stop shopping, service and support from one vendor without any integration issues. The current release has a new GUI that makes assyst 7.5 significantly easier to navigate than older versions. Axios maintains an active development cycle with releases and updates on an annual basis, and this shows a continuous commitment to delivering value. Customers should expect additional development work to be aligned with ITSM principles. In addition, Axios has a partnership with Centennial Software to provide an autodiscovery/inventory tool called AssystDiscovery. Because both companies are U.K.-based, this has helped grow Centennial s installed base, and there s a high level of customer satisfaction with the joint offering. Axios markets the ITAM repository functionality only as part of a larger suite. The ITAM capabilities clearly aren t the core of the product, and this is evident in the area of financial management (specifically budgeting and forecasting). Another product limitation is in the areas of decision support and analytics. Axios doesn t have the capability to model technology or business decisions to determine changes to costs, assets or vendors. Axios can provide an effective solution for organizations seeking an integrated ITSM suite, but with limited ITAM capability. BMC Software (Remedy) BMC Remedy s current ITAM module is v.7.1. Remedy s architecture, with Action Request System (ARS) as the foundation layer, makes it unusual for a customer to have ITAM without having at least one of the other modules, such as problem, incident or change management. We also see cases where customers already have the asset management module from a previous purchase, but have yet to deploy the most-recent version. During the past three or more years, BMC has built out its ITSM suite by focusing on CMDB development and acquisitions, such as Marimba, Viadyne and Magic Solutions. Although BMC has made several enhancements in areas that support and enable ITAM, such as service request and analytics, the ITAM module has seen limited advancement in functionality. The major improvement to the product set is that BMC Analytics integrates with Business Objects to bidirectionally share data and provide a view of the data universe to address such areas as compliance, financial management and life cycle management. Life cycle management provides detail into asset aging and inventory profiles. BMC has made enough enhancements to the Remedy ITSM suite of products to place it on shortlists for enterprise-class implementations especially enterprises that already have BMC s service desk. There s a growing installed base for BMC s Atrium CMDB, and a large installed base for the ARS foundation layer, that provides ample opportunity to cross-sell into the ITAM market. In addition, the ITAM module has flashboards prebuilt into the product at no additional cost, providing a graphical display of data. This gives the module the feel of a native advanced reporting capability without having to link to another product in the suite, or to another non-bmc solution. Given the flexible ARS environment, many customers have found that they can extensively customize the solution. However, this product flexibility can be a double-edged sword. While providing customers with quick ways to solve problems, it leads to situations in which customers are reluctant to upgrade to the next version of the product because they risk losing their customization investment. BMC also is missing capabilities in the area of PPM. To fill this gap, BMC has integration and cross-selling relationships in place with Planview OpenSuite, but we believe there must be more investment in this area to keep up with the best-of-breed players during the 18-month-and-beyond time horizon. 5

6 6 Overall, however, with the new functionality and the strength of integration across its product line, BMC won t be hindered by these limitations in the near term. CA CA entered the ITAM repository space with the acquisition of Argis technology in The product was subsequently renamed Unicenter Asset Portfolio Management (UAPM), which has made market inroads since the acquisition. The current release is 11.1, which is based on CA s common integration platform across its ITSM solutions. CA s biggest strength and competitive advantage is in integration, using the portfolio management tool Clarity (acquired when CA bought Niku). CA has a one-way application programming interface integration with Clarity that enables Clarity to use actual ITAM information in portfolio management activities. This provides a level of visibility into IT project spending at a high level. In addition to portfolio management, UAPM continues to provide historical strengths in contract management and cost management. Also, the Unicenter Asset Intelligence product provides reports in an easy-to-use graphical format, based on data from CA s Unicenter TNG Asset Management Option (AMO) inventory tool. CA also has a reseller agreement with Asentinel to provide telecommunication asset management functionality, which can provide a more-complete asset management view. CA does have challenges, however. Due to the complexity of migrating to the Release 11 architecture, most CA customers have remained on Argis v.8; but a recently released migration tool should help ease these data migrations to the new version. In addition, Clarity, isn t yet on the Release 11 platform, which will continue posing some near-term integration challenges for CA. For example, the ITAM information that s manipulated in the Clarity product isn t repopulated back into the ITAM repository (to be used by line management). However, we believe that as soon as the Clarity product is on the Release 11 architecture, many of these issues will be moot. Finally, the lack of productized integration with third-party inventory tools can be a disadvantage for customers that wish to use non- CA inventory tools. CA has a strong enterprise offering in the ITAM repository space, but it must continue focusing on integration (in its own toolset and with third-party vendors) for it to maintain a leading position in this market. Eracent Eracent was formed in 2000, based on a tool developed in affiliation with Lucent Technologies. Eracent s primary installed base is with its Enterprise Asset Management (EnterpriseAM) autodiscovery/inventory tool; however, the Enterprise Entitlements Management (EnterpriseEM) tool added ITAM management functionality for software license entitlements, and the Enterprise Lifecycle Management (EnterpriseLM) tool added ITAM repository functionality. EnterpriseEM is used to track entitlements purchased with a software contract to ensure license compliance. EnterpriseLM provides centralized tracking of an asset s life cycle, including procurement financials, contracts, asset leases and purchases, licensing information, vendor information, warranty and maintenance details, and disposal records. Eracent built a strong inventory solution for entering the ITAM repository market, and this tool has a larger installed base than the ITAM solutions. The SAM capabilities are well-integrated, but the repository penetration into more-comprehensive ITAM programs has been limited, compared with several competitors included in this MarketScope. Although we ve seen incidents of enterpriseclass deployments in the hundreds of ITAM inquiries we received during the past year, an Eracent customer will probably be a midsize business that will use the product straight out of the box and doesn t require customization or any high-end functionality, such as portfolio management. Eracent s product functionality includes basic support of portfolio management techniques, but doesn t include the holistic view that portfolio management tools provide (for example, risk and prioritization). In addition, Eracent has limited decision modeling compared with the leaders in this category. As a result, customers looking to manage across assets and projects will probably augment Eracent using an outside portfolio management tool. Customers seeking a SAM solution may find Eracent s offering worthy of investigation, but the lack of portfolio management and a wider array of ITSM tools will be the inhibiting factors for some organizations seeking a single vendor approach. HP HP acquired Peregrine Systems in 2005 to fill a void in ITAM functionality, and to acquire a large service desk installed base with Global Service Center. HP s current ITAM release is AssetCenter (AC) v The major release came out in October 2006, and the maintenance release in the first quarter of Today, AC is part of HP s ITSM group, which also includes Service Manager (formerly known as ServiceCenter and Service Desk), DecisionCenter, and Project and Portfolio Management. This grouping follows the ITIL model of ITSM, and adding the PPM product set to this grouping bodes well for customers. Initial integrations with these products have been achieved, and deeper integrations are on the road map. AC is composed of six modules: SAM Procurement Cable and circuitry Contract Financial Portfolio management The ancillary but relevant products are DecisionCenter, a firstgeneration analytics tool used to model ITAM scenarios and cost projects, and several autodiscovery/inventory options to populate AC. HP has strengths in several areas. AC has the largest installed base and global presence in the market. Most AC customers weathered Peregrine s financial troubles, and HP backing will help financially and technologically. HP also gained a PPM tool from its Mercury acquisition, which will position HP to compete in the

7 combined IT asset portfolio management market. The DecisionCenter product is the strongest ITAM analysis tool on the market and provides a competitive edge, giving customers insight into ITAM information that goes well-beyond simple reporting. HP also has challenges as it tries to maintain its strong presence in the ITAM market. With all the acquisitions HP is trying to absorb, there s a possibility that ITAM will be lost among different HP priorities, which include a strong legacy Peregrine focus on ServiceCenter. The many acquired discovery tools also could delay better integrations with AC until an inventory rationalization exercise is performed. Finally, because the ITAM product and the PPM tool are built on different platforms, it may create significant integration issues regarding keeping up with competitive ITAM solutions. We believe these issues eventually will be overcome, but they could pose a near-term challenge. Overall, HP s AC is a strong enterprise offering that provides good functionality and will continue its leading position as long as HP executes well. IBM IBM s formal entry into the ITAM space began in 2005 with the acquisition of Isogon, and filled the ITAM repository void with the Maximo product (renamed Tivoli Asset Management for IT), which was acquired with MRO Software in October In addition to ITAM capabilities, the Maximo technology also provides the platform foundation for EAM and service desk capabilities. In 2006, IBM purchased CIMS Lab, which provides resource use and cost allocation capabilities (now relabeled Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager) to serve the ITAM market. These products reside in IBM s Tivoli business unit and provide many of the pieces needed for Tivoli to compete in the ITAM and ITSM spaces. Tivoli s entry into the ITAM space has several strengths. The prior relationship between MRO and IBM Global Services gives Tivoli the potential for a great deal of cross-selling in organizations where the Maximo EAM product is already in use. The IBM sales force also will provide a boost in product sales. The flexible Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) architecture will enable Tivoli to adapt to changes in the marketplace, as soon as all products share the platform. In addition, Tivoli is the only tool on the market that provides mainframe discovery and use. With the combination of recent acquisitions and historical tools, IBM has the potential to move into a stronger financial management role in IT organizations. Tivoli must address several items that have a bearing on this MarketScope. The Maximo ITAM solution has a smaller installed base than competitors do, so there s less of a track record. Tivoli lacks strength in the adjacent markets of PC autodiscovery/inventory, which often causes customers to integrate other tools with ITAM. Tivoli also lacks a portfolio management tool to build on the ITAM information. However, we see potential for IBM s Rational tool to fill the PPM void, but because it isn t in the Tivoli division and isn t integrated, it will likely be several years before IBM productizes everything together. Overall, IBM has made significant strides in the ITAM market during the past two years. We expect that Tivoli s ITAM market penetration will increase significantly during the next several years, but Tivoli will be catching up with the market leaders. Provance Technologies Provance is based in Quebec and is primarily sold through outsourcers, such as Lockheed Martin and CSC; and although it has some direct sales, this isn t Provance s primary channel. As a result of this focus, the product is architected more toward an outsourcer view, with unique outsourcer requirements in mind. The 10-year-old Provance is primarily venture funded and privately held. The current release, 4.0, offers several modules, including: Software License Management Service Catalog and IT Request Management Asset Life Cycle Management Billing and Charge Back Management A service-desk-focused CMDB Contract and Lease Management Seat and Service Subscription Management These modules have a graphical workflow and reporting structure with CIO dashboard capabilities. Using the modules detailed cost data and chargeback data, companies can input these capabilities into activity-based costing tools to provide service visibility costing. In the past, the product was primarily targeted at outsourcers, but now customers can benefit from the experience Provance developed with outsourcers. In particular, strengths in billing and chargeback provide good support for organizations trying to get better control over costs and the customers driving those costs. Overall, Provance s strengths in financial management, and its familiarity with the demands of running an IT business, make it a good candidate for financially oriented ITAM programs. PS Soft In September 2007, PS Soft released v.8.6, which was one move away from its legacy product (Qualiparc) toward a more-generic and descriptive view of the solution set. The solution includes the new packaging aligned with five core solution stacks: Service Desk Change Management Request Management License Compliance Management (including modules for autodiscovery/inventor) QP: Asset Management (formerly QP: Asset Acquisition and QP: Charge Back); and optional modules called PS Soft foundation (formerly QP: Integration and QP: Decision Builder a reporting library that contains and tracks reports and queries and the Configuration database) and Request Management (including an IT Service Catalog as well as the business process engine for automating associated processes, escalations and notifications) PS Soft s installed based is primarily in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), although there are indications of a renewed push into the North American market. PS Soft recently moved its headquarters to the U.S. as an indication of its commitment, and recent executive hires indicate a stronger push into the financial 7

8 8 side of the ITAM repository market. In addition, we see opportunities for this product set in the SMB (that is, customers with fewer than 5,000 PCs under management) market, with the potential to upsell in some circumstances, if the channel is clearly defined and pursued. PS Soft has challenges in building its market presence. With only a small North American presence, it will take several years for PS Soft to build significant business to sustain its investment. In the longer term, missing capabilities in PPM and financial management must be built out to support SMBs, in the same fashion as enterprise-class players. We believe that PS Soft has the potential to make inroads into the SMB market, but it will take 18 to 24 months for PS Soft to establish credibility in the U.S. market. Staff&Line Founded in 1988, Staff&Line is a European IT asset and service management vendor that sells an ITAM repository at two levels: EasyVista Express and EasyVista Enterprise targeted at SMBs and enterprises, respectively. EasyVista 2007 includes modules for incident, problem and change management, configuration management (CMDB), EasyVista Discovery and software usage, and a self-service portal for users to check on requests and orders. In addition to standard ITAM features, such as contract management (including telecom contracts and leasing), EasyVista can maintain and track the stockroom inventory levels of stored assets, it has a catalog of approved IT assets from which users can request assets, and it has an extensive array of wizards (that is, pop-up windows that enable fast setup) that can easily customize the product to customers workflows and processes. With its price point, EasyVista Express is primarily targeted at European SMBs seeking ITAM capabilities at a reasonable price. Some of EasyVista s good features are its capability to provide relationship mapping, visually depict the location of an asset on a floor plan, and illustrate users software and hardware relationships. EasyVista Enterprise lacks some of the features (such as decision modeling and analytics) that other enterprise vendors provide and, thus, has some challenges in the marketplace. In addition, when compared with rival products, EasyVista Enterprise s small presence and historical challenges in the North American market limit its appeal beyond the EMEA market. USU USU, a German company, has branded its ITAM product Valuemation. Several elements compose the ITAM solution: Enterprise Integrator Asset/CMDB Manager Costing/Charging Manager Planning/Calculation Manager SLA Manager Incident/Problem Manager Change Manager Service Request Manager Contract Manager License Manager Monitoring Manager Procurement Manager USU offers a complete suite of fully integrated solutions that closely follow the ITIL model of ITSM. Because all modules were designed by USU, they re on the same platform and are fully integrated. The adherence to ITIL is reflected in their workflows. USU has strong financial management capabilities that deliver to the needs of the ITAM market. To augment these capabilities, USU is moving in an ITSM direction, although it relies on external integrations for CMDB capabilities. USU has a strong EMEA presence, especially in Germany, and has shown dedication to continuously improving the product offering. USU supports three languages: German, English and Italian, but there are some inconsistencies in the translation from German to English. USU is pushing to increase its North American presence and has established a sales and marketing department dedicated to selling in the U.S. The biggest challenges USU will face are building a stronger U.S. presence while building out more ITSM functionality (for example, CMDB). In addition, the most-attractive market for its product midsize businesses in the 1,500 to 4,000 PC range is being pursued by several other ITAM market vendors that have broader capabilities. This means USU must continue to build out functionality as well as expand its sales force to successfully to expand its ITAM repository market share. We believe that USU s strong financial capabilities will appeal to many customers, but additional work in the ITSM tool suite area will improve USU s appeal to a larger audience. Vendors Added or Dropped We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or MarketScope may change over time. A vendor appearing in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. This may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or a change of focus by a vendor.

9 9 Gartner MarketScope Defined Gartner s MarketScope provides specific guidance for users who are deploying, or have deployed, products or services. A Gartner MarketScope rating does not imply that the vendor meets all, few or none of the evaluation criteria. The Gartner MarketScope evaluation is based on a weighted evaluation of a vendor s products in comparison with the evaluation criteria. Consider Gartner s criteria as they apply to your specific requirements. Contact Gartner to discuss how this evaluation may affect your specific needs. The various ratings are defined below: MarketScope Rating Framework Strong Positive Is viewed as a provider of strategic products, services or solutions: Customers: Continue with planned investments. Potential customers: Consider this vendor a strong choice for strategic investments. Positive Demonstrates strength in specific areas, but execution in one or more areas may still be developing or inconsistent with other areas of performance: Customers: Continue planned investments. Potential customers: Consider this vendor a viable choice for strategic or tactical investments, while planning for known limitations. Promising Shows potential in specific areas; however, execution is inconsistent: Customers: Consider the short- and long-term impact of possible changes in status. Potential customers: Plan for and be aware of issues and opportunities related to the evolution and maturity of this vendor. Caution Faces challenges in one or more areas. Customers: Understand challenges in relevant areas, and develop contingency plans based on risk tolerance and possible business impact. Potential customers: Account for the vendor s challenges as part of due diligence. Strong Negative Has difficulty responding to problems in multiple areas. Customers: Execute risk mitigation plans and contingency options. Potential customers: Consider this vendor only for tactical investment with short-term, rapid payback.