IBM Recognized as "A Leader" in Service Desk Management Tools by Independent Research Firm

Tivoli Service Request Manager Cited as a Leader for Both Large Complex Organizations and Smaller Firms

Yahoo Finance, Thursday April 10, 9:00 am ET 

ARMONK, NY--(MARKET WIRE)--Apr 10, 2008 -- IBM (NYSE:IBM - News) today announced that its Tivoli Service Request Manager has been named as a Leader in Forrester's March 2008 report entitled "The Forrester Wave(TM): Service Desk Management Tools, Q1 2008."

In this comprehensive assessment, Forrester analyst Chip Gliedman evaluated 13 large and small service desk vendors across 96 criteria, with IBM being named a leader for both large complex organizations and smaller firms. 

The results of the Forrester report reflect the resources and commitment IBM has made to the Service Desk market. Tivoli's Service Request Manager tool suite has been enhanced and expanded via acquired technology and dedicated development resources, resulting in a solution that can meet the varying requirements of both large and small organizations. 

"We're extremely pleased with Tivoli's most recent positioning in Forrester's Wave report on Service Desk Management Tools," said Al Zollar, general manager, Tivoli Software. "The ease of configuration, lower migrations costs, ability to upgrade without impacting investments in personalization, as well as the modern architecture gives this solution suite the unique ability to meet a wide variety of requirements based on the challenges our customers face. With the resources we've been able to add to our development and implementations teams, we are confident Tivoli will continue to be a leading solution for the Service Desk Management market." 

Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top service desk management tools. The evaluation focused on Product Capabilities, ITSM Road Map and Market Traction. The report summarized its evaluation of IBM Tivoli's Service Request Manager as "... an impressive ITIL-based service management solution, ... [it] is on its way to becoming a formidable competitor at the high end." 

The criteria for the Service Desk Management Tools for Large or Complex Organizations included: ability to handle large call volume; able to model large and complex workflows; integration with common systems and asset management tools; able to support the installation and support needs of large, global enterprises. 

IBM Tivoli's solution was cited in the report as being among those that offered "industrial-strength tool suites with proven track records in many global organizations of 10,000 plus employees. All have comprehensive suites of tools covering a full range of service management requirements tied to robust workflow engines and overlaying top-tier CMDB architectures." 

The criteria for Service Desk Management Tools for Smaller Firms with Less Complex Needs were different, but again IBM Tivoli's solution was named as a "leader" for this category. 

For smaller organizations, the service desk environment was characterized by: lower platform demands; greater emphasis on incident and problem management; lower requirements for training and expert resources; desk-top life cycle capabilities. IBM Tivoli's service desk tool solution scored in the report's top of the pack by its "shear breadth of functionality and capabilities."